Subject:
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Re: MLCad wishlist (was Re: Ice Cream
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.cad.mlcad
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Date:
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Sun, 28 Nov 1999 07:02:31 GMT
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Reply-To:
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LPIENIAZEK@NOVERAspamcake.COM
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Viewed:
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1600 times
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Mike Poindexter wrote:
>
> I felt this should be in the MLCAD group and wrote my comments to each item.
Thanks for the detailed commentary, and of course I have comments on
your comments. I have snipped a lot of stuff so readers who come in late
should re-read Mike's post, where I agreed with him I just cut it away
in a lot of cases.
> In lugnet.cad, Larry Pieniazek writes:
> [snip]
> > #1 a "flip the two selected parts" button as fiddling with the parts
> > ordering chews up a lot of time for me. I think my ordering speed is
> > improving but still...
>
> I would say instead allowing you to select a part and drag/drop it elsewhere
> in the list.
It already has that. And it works fine. But sometimes a bubble sort is
faster than an insertion sort, believe it or not. :-) My only beef with
the drag/drop is that I cannot be 100% certain whether I am going to get
the part before, or after the part I point it at. If anyone has seen the
way MS Project handles items being dragged (it highlights the spot
between items where it will go) that would be perfect.
>
> > #2 would be a "snap to grid in This Direction Only" as sometimes when I
> > am fiddling I move something a bit in the wrong axis. Either that or a
> > "linear constraint" so I can only fiddle in one dimension instead of
> > both the dimensions that the view provides.
>
> Perhaps using the control button while clicking allows is to move in either
> the X axis or the Y (or the Z, depending on the window you are in), but not
> more than one. 3D Home Architect works like this (not a very powerful
> program, but easy to use).
Doesn't paint work that way too? Excellent idea.
> >
> > #3 would be to specify other oblique views so I can look at the model
> > from other angles.
>
> Probably allow something like that in the program default settings that would
> allow you to change the angle of vie for each window.
>
> As a side wish, I would like to be able to close certain views, which would
> speed up the rendering and also allow you to have a long (left to right)
> window and two more squarish ones. Or a tall one on the side with the other
> side having two squarish ones.
Ya, that would be nice. Right now you can have 4, 2 or 1 window but not
3. Sometimes 3 is just right. Let me detach them and put them where I
wish instead of just using windowpane dividers. Heck, let me have
arbitrary windows with arbitrary views, I will pay the speed penalty if
I really need all those views...
> > #4 would be to allow copying parts and groups of parts across submodels.
> > It is very hard to copy, say, a coupler assembly (getting the magnet
> > seated in the holder correctly takes fiddling) from one submodel to
> > another. I had to do it from notepad.
>
> I think the trick to this is to make another submodel (couplerassembly.dat?)
> and using that to go into other submodels, which then basically nests several
> deep in submodel functions.
Right. but for doing instructions and inventories, I want to be able to
"unsubmodel" stuff, and I haven't yet figured out how to do it. Inlining
(which LDAO can do for you) isn't quite what I want. I want macro
expansion, so to speak, rather than just inlining... Basically take a
model with submodels and turn the whole thing into one big file. No
submodels, repeated parts, etc... the whole 9 yards.
<snip 5, 6>
> > #7 would be coalescing in the list. If I select a bunch of parts not
> > next to each other in the list, allow me to coalesce them around the
> > first one. This would be a way to get ordering right a LOT faster.
>
> I don't quite get this one. My gut tells me that it wouldn't be the way to
> go. Just drag and drop the order. Also, allow multiple selections via the
> control click, which allows you to select several items from random places
> instead of all parts from A to B like when you do a shift click. (But also
> allow a shift click select, too).
You can control click and that is great for copying or for changing the
color or moving... (you may want to move stuff to make a model longer,
but you are moving stuff in different layers so it's not adjacent in the
list, deliberately.) That works great.
But remember my #1 want, when I wrote this I was looking for better ways
to reorder things. In the last model I did, I did a little more thinking
about how stuff was going to be ordered and a little more care in making
sure I was already in the right place in the list before I started
adding more parts, and my ordering needs went down... but I still want
these items.
To clarify, this wish is that once I have stuff (non adjacent) control
clicked/selected, that I can say "move these in the list to be adjacent
to the first item, push everything down below the now adjacent group to
make room"
<snip 8,9>
> > #10 would be to let Modify Part do something different. When I select a
> > part I want to be able to bring up its properties and fiddle the
> > position, rotation, color. Modify Part seems to bring up a list of parts
> > that I dunno what to do with.
>
> Modify part should be named something like "Change part" or have the
> additional options like Larry says.
Wait, I can change which part I use here? I just got done editing all my
dat files by hand to fix up the obsoleted parts. Is THAT what "modify
part" does? Actually, how about some sort of automatic recognitiion of
the movedtos? Let me review a model and all submodels and for each
obsolete one, ask me if I want to change to the replacement part. If the
bounding rectangle is different, let me drop out, fix the
position/rotation, and resume the search...
And while we're whinging about this area, can we get the rotation entry
bug fixed? I want to not have to remember the rotation I last gave a
part when I get the dialog box with the angles in x,y,and z up... let me
just bump it a degree in one axis...
> >
> > #11 would be a "find in the parts list" so I could do a scan for all
> > parts that were of a certain type
>
> I also highly agree here. I have often not been able to find a part because I
> don't know what it is called, like the classic space laser. ("1x2 plate with
> handles" - not to be confused with "1x2 plate with handle," which is the town
> jr rollbar)
>
> > Also, a question, what is the story on part organization? The categories
> > seem different than what VEC uses. If I install new parts how do they go
> > where they need to go? Is it just driven by the first name of the part?
>
> What is VEC?
Visual Element Catalog. This is a very handy feature of LDAO, which I
keep running at the same time I have MLCad running. It has more fine
grained categories than MLCad which I have gotten used to.
I think I know the answer to my question, though. It IS driven by the
first name. MLCad recognises a few "known" categories like plate, brick
and train, and everything else goes in the "other" where it is
alphabetized.
The VEC lets you recategorize to your hearts content, you can refile
parts under whatever subcategories (and you can create new ones, too)
you like. That may or may not be a good thing, it means that if Mike
sits down in front of my MLCad with this categorization thing working,
he won't be able to find ANY parts because I will have filed them in
weird places.
> The docs need some work, but I think that at this point, most of the
> complexity that requires documentation is missing. That is why there are so
> many things people would like to see.
I actually don't think we have a huge list for a program at this point
in it's lifecycle. I would say that the fact that the list is so short
is a testament to how good it is (I have been on projects (as a peon,
certainly not projects I PMed or Architected :-) ) where the feature
wishlist was in the hundreds)...
> It is also why it is so easy to use. I
> think, however, that the power can be added without sacrificing much
> simplicity.
I agree. I hope. Many a program has been killed by creeping featurism,
though, so we have to watch out we don't ask for the kitchen sink.
One thing I would like to see documented better is rotation and bumping.
If I have a part that I have rotated from the original alignment, it is
not intuitively obvious which direction it will move when I hit the up
arrow or left arrow, and it is not intuitively obvious which direction
it will rotate when I hit the "a" key.
Either some examples in the docs, or perhaps a mode where in the 3 d
view, some sort of guide is shown when a part (or group) is selected...
heck, just change the plus sign/tracking cross cursor in the orthogonal
views to tell me with an arrow or something which way x is and which way
y is and I'd no doubt be all set.
>
> One other thing I would like to see is for the parts report to tally the parts
> inside the submodels instead of counting the submodels as a part. Perhaps
> there could be an option between total piece report, which would only list
> grand totals, or submodel piece report, which would have breakdowns by
> submodel.
>
> I would also like to see it be able to save in POV-RAY file format. That
> would be much nicer than having to hassle with L3P, L2P and/or whatever else
> you can use. I have been almost as lost in that as I was in LDraw.
Yes, that WOULD be nice. And inhale the checking that L3P can do too,
while you're at it.
> Mike Poindexter
>
> Does anybody else have anything else that should be in MLCAD? (I also think
> that part authoring could be in the MLCAD package, making it the one stop Lego
> CAD program.)
The biggest one I haven't mentioned yet is Cntl-Z. I want undo.
Multilevel if possible, and I know it's gonna cost me some speed, that's
OK.
Oh, another one.
When the colors pop up, tell me the LDraw color numbers. Also, let me
pick 16 as a special choice. I can't right now tell if it's one of the
grays, not there at all or what. (I may hack around and try to figure it
out but I haven't yet)
--
Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
- - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
NOTE: Soon to be lpieniazek@tsisoft.com :-)
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: MLCad wishlist (was Re: Ice Cream
|
| (...) Right now (MLCAD 1.5), you can right-click a view, and change *that window* to one of the standard views. But you can't add new view-definitions, like "upside down" or "right-front-below" (aka, pit-crew view angle). LDAO allows these types of (...) (25 years ago, 29-Nov-99, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
| | | Re: MLCad wishlist (was Re: Ice Cream
|
| (...) I've talked to Mike extensively about color selection... my advice was to have a "quick" color bar running vertically on one side of the screen, ala Corel Draw! with 32 or so color boxes... click the box and the currently selected object(s) (...) (25 years ago, 30-Nov-99, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
| | | Re: MLCad wishlist (was Re: Ice Cream
|
| "LP" == Larry Pieniazek <lar@voyager.net> writes: LP> When the colors pop up, tell me the LDraw color numbers. Also, let LP> me pick 16 as a special choice. I can't right now tell if it's one LP> of the grays, not there at all or what. (I may hack (...) (25 years ago, 1-Dec-99, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Re: MLCad wishlist (was Re: Ice Cream
|
| I felt this should be in the MLCAD group and wrote my comments to each item. In lugnet.cad, Larry Pieniazek writes: [snip] (...) I would say instead allowing you to select a part and drag/drop it elsewhere in the list. (...) Perhaps using the (...) (25 years ago, 27-Nov-99, to lugnet.cad.mlcad)
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