Subject:
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Re: MLCad Suggestions
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.mlcad
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Date:
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Mon, 28 Feb 2000 07:23:27 GMT
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Viewed:
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1563 times
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In lugnet.cad.mlcad, Ralph Hempel writes:
<SNIP>
> - 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!
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 methode is programmed in a way that you can directly type: I
<partnumber>.dat ENTER
> - 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.
I will implement this, in the mean-time you could use the hide function from
the part list which will hide the parts as you like.
>
> - 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.
I must say, the reason for not using the standard windows help was that I
didn't like the methode how you create them. It's using the rtf file format of
WORD, and if the compiler doesn't match the Office version, it will not work,
its horrible to enter the text and references ...
So I desided to use the html format which makes things more simple when typing
....
>
> - 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.
Guido Heunen will maybe write a plug-in for MLCad doing this conversion.
> 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.
True I write to a virtual bitmap, the reason for that is that I can use the
same drawing stub, which I use for on-screen display. Since I'm using z-
buffering this is that best joice.
For better printing quality I have to increase the virtual bitmap size and
this results in higher memory usage and drawing time.
<SNIP - CROSSPLATFORM>
I'm investigating in using Java for MLCad, this would mean I have to redesign
whole MLCad which will need time ...
As soon as I have something to talk about I will post an article here.
Michael
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | MLCad Suggestions
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| (...) 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 (...) (25 years ago, 27-Feb-00, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
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