Subject:
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Re: Announcing Bricksmith for Macintosh
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.dev.mac
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Date:
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Thu, 25 Aug 2005 02:04:01 GMT
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Viewed:
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3450 times
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Dear Joe,
I’m glad you like the program! Further comments are interspersed below:
In lugnet.cad.dev.mac, Joe Strout wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Allen Smith wrote:
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It is time to announce the completion of Bricksmith 1.0, my new LDraw editor for Mac OS X.
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First, let me say: Great work, Allen! We Mac-using ALEs really appreciate
efforts like this.
Initial impressions:
- Wow -- an LDraw editor that I can just download and use! I didn’t have to install anything extra or futz about with paths; I just downloaded the complete package and double-clicked the icon. Beautiful.
- You’re assuming a bigger screen than I have. With the default window size, and the part browser drawer open, the bottom of the drawer is cut off. (I’m using a 15” Apple LCD, 1024 x 768 IIRC.) But it’s easy to resize the window.
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Oi! So small! I just switched my computer to 1024 x 768, and I can promise you,
Mac OS X was not made for that resolution!
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- I dig the parts browser, especially the ability to rotate the part so I can get a better look before I plop it into the model. A search function would be nice, something like an editfield where I can type a key word or two, and you narrow the list to only the parts containing those key words.
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My thoughts exactly. But I wanted to get this program released, even if it
didn’t do everything I wanted it to yet. I hope you don’t mind.
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- Part drawing in the main view isn’t very pretty — it seems to be in wireframe mode. Solid might make a better default. Oops, now I see that’s how you show the selected piece. I wonder if just putting an aqua-blue bounding box around it might be better.
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Using wireframe is fairly standard. (Mac Brick CAD does it too.) the nice thing
about wireframe is that you can see through the part while doing tricky
positioning. That’s really handy.
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- In the toolbar, I can only see three rotation tools: +X, -X, and +Y. The other three are in the overflow menu. A better order would be to put +X, +Y, and +Z first, so you have all three axes available even when the window’s too small for all six. Also, the docs claim there are toolbar buttons for moving the selected part, but I don’t see any such (nor any way to customize the toolbar).
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Control-click in the toolbar. That is a standard OS X feature. But I’ll try to
remember to put in a “Customize Toolbar...” menu item too.
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- The inspector is cool, but is it the only way to change the color of a part? I’d rather a pop-up menu somewhere on the editor window itself -- perhaps a bevel button at the bottom, that shows the color of the selected part and when clicked, pops up a palette of available colors. (The inspector floater keeps getting in my way, so I’d like to leave it closed most of the time.)
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I answered this already in a reply. To repeat, just leave the color palette
open.
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- Inserting a submodel: you probably already have ideas for better ways to do this. But why not just have an “Insert Submodel” command in the Model menu? You could even make this a simple submenu that lists all the other models in the document, and when you pick one, it just plops it in. That’d be much better than having to insert a nonsense piece and change its name.
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Actually, I didn’t have better ideas. Yours is a good one. Thanks.
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- While in Step Display mode, I can’t find any indication of which step I’m displaying. That’s really needed -- either in the title bar, or somewhere in the window, or (at the very least) by selecting the corresponding step in the contents drawer. Also, while in Step Display mode, selecting steps in the contents drawer seems to add those parts to the display, while not removing parts from other steps... it’s rather confusing.
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I know, I know...sigh. About your step-selecting problems: if you select a step,
Bricksmith automatically advances the step display to what you selected. It’s a
convenience so you don’t accidentally start moving a part that isn’t even
visible.
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- The only missing feature I noticed was a parts inventory. The main reason I can imagine making a virtual model is so that I can know what to order on BrickLink, instead of having to go back three times for additional parts (as is my usual outcome). So a simple organized list of part type, color, and quantity would be very helpful.
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Again, you read my mind.
Incidentally, making a virtual model is also really good for making
instructions. (Hint, hint.)
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All said, it’s by far the best LDraw program I’ve tried, and if I ever do
find enough time to do any LEGO cadding, this is certainly what I’ll use!
Keep up the great work.
Best,
Joe
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Thanks again,
Allen Smith
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Announcing Bricksmith for Macintosh
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| (...) First, let me say: Great work, Allen! We Mac-using ALEs really appreciate efforts like this. Initial impressions: Wow -- an LDraw editor that I can just download and use! I didn't have to install anything extra or futz about with paths; I just (...) (19 years ago, 24-Aug-05, to lugnet.cad.dev.mac, FTX)
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