Subject:
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MLCad Suggestions
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.mlcad
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Date:
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Sun, 27 Feb 2000 15:49:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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1590 times
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Steve Demlow wrote:
> I've been using MLCad and having a lot of fun with it. It's a great program.
> I do have a number of suggestions that could (IMHO!) make it even better.
Hi all. I've been looking around for a while now for a decent CAD
program for modelling some of my work. I looked at MLCad some time
ago and it was pretty decent even then!
Back then, Michael was thinking about doing an RCX/Cybermaster programming
GUI and I suggested he stick with MLCad and develop it further. I'm sure
glad that he did!
Here are my comments for Steve Demlow's suggestions...
- Part selection: Put a text entry field between the available parts and the
preview area that accepts LCAD part numbers and then inserts the part,
similar to when you hit "OK" in the parts selection dialog. This would be
quicker than using the Find or Add Parts dialogs.
Good idea! This is a common problem in many other types of CAD systems. I use
a schematic capture program and it has another feature which keeps all of
the parts in the current drawing in a separate drop-down menu. The idea being that
the parts you are likely to use are already on the model!
- Add an option to display only the last "N" parts (or steps) in the model,
or the N previous parts/steps to the currently selected, or some variation
of that. This would give enough context to continue to add pieces to the
model, without the expense of redrawing the entire model. This is similar
to "draw to selected part only" but I think it would be even more useful for
creating instructions.
VERY good idea. This would make the model look similar to the old "greyed out"
shop manuals for fixing cars. I'd suggest maybe having a tick-box next to the
part which says if it's drawn or not. That way you get to choose which elements
are in your context. The default is all parts checked so that the entire model
is drawn. Just displaying the last N parts is not likely to work in many
cases, so being able to select your context gives the most flexibility.
- The "help" option results in "Online help is not available because MSIE4.0
or higher was not found". Just tying it to the default browser would benice.
I'd like to promote the idea of dumb, simple help systems. You should not
need to install a heavyweight browser to use a help system.
- A wish that applies to the LCAD community in general: make a DAT->PostScript
converter so that really high-quality printed output is possible.
Yes. I use a PDF writer for my word documents. It looks just like
another printer when I'm ready to send a document out. The nice thing is that
the resulting document is often SMALLER than the original Word document.
I think MLCad prints to a virtual bitmap. By making the canvas VERY large, the
resulting bitmap file would be very detailed. I'm not sure what's involved
or could be improved here.
- And finally, the ultimate wish: rewrite MLCad using OpenGL and Tk (or a
similar toolkit) so it is portable between Windows, Unix, and Macs. Then I
wouldn't have to boot into Windows to use it (it's the only thing I use
Windows for) and many other people would also be able to use it more easily.
Yes. Cross-platform is the key to success. Once MLCad has been stabilized,
it would be a very good idea to get some help and opinions from Mac and Linux
programmers to try and decide how to bludgeon your code into a cross-platform
tool. There are lots of examples of cross-platform GUI tools. TclTk is one
very common one.
You will probably get to a point where you need to rewrite a lot of stuff, or
at least think about reorganizing the code. This is when you need to look at the
cross-platform issues. In its current form, MLCad is a very good proof-of-concept.
Everyone seems to like it and you have gathered up a good following. By looking
at making it available to the rest of the platforms, you open up a very
broad market (especially education) where the tool would be useful.
I hope this is useful feedback....
Cheers,
Ralph Hempel - P.Eng
--------------------------------------------------------
Check out pbFORTH for LEGO Mindstorms at:
<http://www.hempeldesigngroup.com/lego/pbFORTH>
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Reply to: rhempel at bmts dot com
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Message has 2 Replies:
 | | RE: MLCad Suggestions
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| One thing I forgot to add was the ability to right-click the part preview (part select) window and have it float behind the actual MLCad window, or maximize until you select your part. The part preview should show as much info as possible. This (...) (25 years ago, 27-Feb-00, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
| | | Re: MLCad Suggestions
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| In lugnet.cad.mlcad, Ralph Hempel writes: <SNIP> (...) that (...) First there is a similar option existing already: Press 'I' and a dialog will pop-up, here you can enter the part number (with .dat) pressing ENTER or OK will insert the part. This (...) (25 years ago, 28-Feb-00, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
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