Subject:
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Re: Mac Brick CAD 2.2b1 New Release
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev.mac
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Date:
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Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:50:40 GMT
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Viewed:
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2012 times
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Great stuff Jim, where possible I’ll answer interspersed with your comments
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- This may be a part definition problem and not MBC, but the central tube in the double slope bricks extends through the slope plane. The same occurs with 2x2 cones---possibly with other elements, too.
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I’ve noticed this too on some bricks. It has to do with the fact that some parts
use negative scaling when drawing some primitives. Both OpenGL and LDRAW can
handle this concept, but as yet I haven’t got round to getting MBC to do the
same.
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- I’m understanding better the problem with the odd shift-multiple-select behavior. When parts overlap it is non-intuitive as to what is being selected. For example, selecting a brick near its bottom edge may actually select the brick below it, this is because the area clicked overlaps the bottom brick’s stud... and somehow it takes precedence.
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This has to do with the selection procedure. OpenGL has a neat function to allow
you to determine which objects are within a predefined zone on the screen (in
this case the mouse). It will even tell you thier screen relative z coordinates
(lazy me I use this code). The problem is that no allowance is made for the
relative size of the objects (ie the code would work best with regular shapes)
so while your eyes might determine one brick is infront of another, OpenGL might
on the other hand consider the order reversed due to the relative size of the
bricks (its complex to describe in writing). Further tests could be used (say
checking the colour of the screen and brick for a match) but this isn’t on my
current priority list.
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- In the DAT Drawer, after deleting an element or step, the DAT text doesn’t reflect the change (doesn’t refresh) until the drawer is closed and opened again.
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I’m aware of some syncronisation issues (and they are being repaired before the
next release) but closing and opening the drawer is drastic, normally scrolling
the list or performing another action will syncromise the screen and the drawer
again. However, loss of syncronisation won’t affect the data contained within.
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- Part Grouping and/or MPD support soon? :-)
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Yes... Not sure to what level, below I’ll desribe the current fixes and new
features on the boil. PS, while this is not for the faint hearted, an MPD file
can be manually edited and created from within text editor (however .mpd files
need to be determined at load time to work).
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- In the Finder, when MBC is not the active application, selecting the field (main application) window makes MBC active... however, the same is not true for the Part Selector Palette (PSP). An inactive PSP window may gain focus (become active) when selected but the MBC application will still remain inactive in the background.
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Sounds like a bug...
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- It would be excellent if the PSP list column headers (“Part” and “Description”) sorted the part names, as do clicking column headers in Finder windows.
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Laziness has prevented this from being included to date.
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- I miss being able to rotate an element in the PSP preview, and I’d rather double-click the list to insert the element, instead.
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Yeh, I noticed... it seems the normally reliable Andrew QA department has failed
and let this bug through (it’s now been quashed - and the double click to insert
is back). As punishment more stuff will need to be added to the instruction
manuals by Andrew.
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- Color palette: Need more colors represented! I type in a custom number and the element goes dim/gray. Also, and I don’t know if this is an LDraw convention, but the color map doesn’t match official Lego colors (ie., 4 should equal orange, not red, and 6 should equal green, not brown... etc., etc.). Also, is it possible to do a mini-paintbox of color swatches instead of a list? (us visual folk think faster this way). May could get more colors in smaller space as an extra bonus.
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All colours are as defined by LDRAW (www.ldraw.org). If you need more colours
Ldlite custom colours are also interpreted (but they need to be coded manually).
Where MBC doesn’t know the colour, it defaults to light grey for the display but
the value described is retained so if another renderer recognises it, it’s not
lost. A swatch pallette is a good idea.
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I hope my comments are helpful.
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You bet!
MBC 2.3 is on the development table at present.
So far the emphasis has been on user information
- missing files are reported
- fies that have been updated (renamed) are reported
- the view screen can be exported to a variety of graphic formats
- text can be in the viewing area (eg the axis is now marked x, y and z)
- some localisation of languages (Spanish, Russian)
still planned:
- export of peeron type brick count
- export of multiple images to make instructions
- ability to insert and delete .mpd sub-files (not sure about editing yet)
- ability to recognise where a part is described in a .mpd file has become
under consideration
- ability to search for missing files on the internet
- ability to substitute (use) LGEO primitives in POV export files.
- update to part rotations (its there in skeletal format needs finalising)
If there is more, let me know.
Andrew...
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Mac Brick CAD 2.2b1 New Release
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| (...) Two quick things spring to mind... One is adding on the Deletion of objects for Powerbook users, right now we need to keep the Fn-key pressed down in order to be able to delete a selected piece. Perhaps you could map the Backspace key as well (...) (20 years ago, 31-Mar-04, to lugnet.cad.dev.mac, FTX)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: Mac Brick CAD 2.2b1 New Release
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| Hi Andrew, I've been occupied lately but I was finally able to test drive 2.2b1 for many hours this past week. So, weighing in again... I'm absolutely enjoying MBC!... most especially now that I understand what you were saying about moving the field (...) (20 years ago, 30-Mar-04, to lugnet.cad.dev.mac, FTX)
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