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LDraw Changelog

What's new in LDraw 4.2

Jan 20, 2017
  • Additions:
  • Added support for blue neutral faces for BFC.
  • Added "Right Side Up" feature, along with "Keep Right Side Up" setting while in fly-through mode.
  • Added support for menu item images in Windows on OSes prior to Windows Vista. (Menu item images already worked on Vista and later.)
  • Added scale selection to STL export. (Previously it was always cm.)
  • Updated Mac version to support pinch gesture for zooming and three-finger swipe gesture for panning.
  • Added support of openSUSE Build Service
  • Updates:
  • Updated "Random colors" setting to avoid BFC face highlight colors enabled under BFC (green front faces, red back faces, and blue neutral faces), but only if they are enabled.
  • Updated transparency sorting to use less memory during initialization.
  • Updated highlighting in the model tree to work better on sub-geometry of the selected line that has hard-coded colors (not color 16).
  • Updated HTML Parts List for improved printing.
  • Disable transparency when one or more of the red back faces, green front faces, or blue neutral faces options is enabled, and BFC is enabled.
  • Update POV export to improve generated file.
  • Updated code to be compatible with Qt 5.x
  • No longer require BASE install package on initial LDraw library install, since it is no longer present in ptreleases.cgi.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed crash when taking a snapshot using a video card without Frame Buffer Object support.
  • Fixed detection of LDConfig.ldr on case-sensitive file systems (Linux).
  • Fixed zoom to fit to ignore conditional control points when they aren't set to be drawn.
  • Fixed rare bug where a recent filename getting truncated to fit in the menu could cause memory corruption.
  • Fixed crash related to BFC INVERTNEXT.
  • Fixed menu item images when running in Vista and later with visual styles in LDView disabled.
  • Fixed crash in POV export when triangles or quads were in the file with points less than .001 LDraw Units apart (but greater than 0 units).
  • Fixed bug where sloped LGEO bricks would use the _slope version of the color even if it was a color not directly supported by LGEO, and therefore without a corresponding _slope color definition. This would result in a POV error.
  • Fixed 3DS export to properly handle BFC INVERTNEXT.
  • Fixed STL export problem where some colored geomtry would not be exported.
  • Fixed command line snapshot generation to pay attention to the Extra Search Directories set via the UI.
  • Fixed seams in POV export to not fail for parts that are as thin as or thinner than the seam width (like stickers).
  • Fixed autocrop to generate a 1x1 pixel image when all pixels in the image match the background color. Previousy, it didn't crop at all.
  • Fixed 3DS exporter to use object names that don't have too many characters.
  • Fixed position of pneumatic pistons on 8464.mpd to correct for their origin having changed before they became official parts.
  • Fixed uninitialized variable that sometimes prevented steps from working.
  • Fixed Show All/Show None buttons on Mac version to not skip the last error type, and to repopulate the error list based on the new selected errors.

New in LDraw 4.1 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • Added curve smoothing option for POV-Ray exports.
  • Added ability to highlight the geometry represented by currently selected line(s) in the model tree. (Note that multiple selection in the model tree is only supported on the Mac.)
  • Added status bar to model tree showing the filename and line number of the currently selected line.
  • Added ability to randomize colors (useful for part authoring).
  • Added view mode toggle to default toolbar (Windows and Mac only).
  • Added toolbar customization, along with the ability to put a lot of LDView functionality on the toolbar (Windows and Mac only).
  • Added OK and Cancel buttons to the MPD dialog. Hitting OK causes the selected sub-model to remain selection after the dialog is dismissed.
  • Added remote control support to Windows version, so other programs can make LDView perform certain functions.
  • Added "Overwrite existing snapshot" option to Parts List dialog when "Show model" is checked.
  • Added 3D-Studio export.
  • Added ability to specify step from the command line.
  • Added ability to specify MPD sub-model name from the command line.
  • Added "Automatic" aspect ratio setting for POV exports.
  • Added new !LDVIEW BBOX_IGNORE meta command, to allow you to specify parts of the model that LDView should ignore during bounding box calculations. That way, the default zoom and zoom to fit can be tighter.
  • Add support for "ri" and "r" ring primitives.
  • Add support for "r" torus primitives.
  • Added 64-bit version of the Windows Explorer thumbnail generator plugin, so thumbnail generation can now be performed on 64-bit versions of Windows.
  • Added 64-bit Ubuntu package.
  • Updates:
  • Updated Linux version to use Qt 4.4/4.5 instead of Qt 3.3.
  • Removed BFC and Show Axes from the default toolbar (Windows and Mac only).
  • Updated examine/fly-through status bar icons.
  • Changed the Model Bounding Box feature to be a toggle.
  • Updated full screen mode to not change the display settings if the requested display mode matches the current display mode.
  • Updated snapshot save to include MPD sub-model name as part of the default filename if an MPD sub-model is selected.
  • Updated LGEO POV export to use LGEO studs even on non-LGEO parts.
  • Updated automatic part downloading to improve its performance.
  • Updates library update check to scan all existing part files to determine the latest update already installed, instead of trying to figure this out based on the contents of files in the models directory.
  • Updated handling of quads with colinear points to split the quad into two triangles at the colinear point in order to avoid T-Junctions.
  • Improved detection of what version of the parts library is installed.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed problem that caused the view mode icon to show up in the wrong part of the status bar sometimes, and show the lat/lon when in fly-through mode.
  • Fixed crash when loading a part with "Part Bounding Boxes Only" enabled.
  • Fixed resize grip on Model Tree dialog to not disappear immediately after hiding the options.
  • Fixed bug that caused a crash any time you tried to bring up the screensaver settings.
  • Fixed full screen support when used on a second monitor.
  • Fixed POV export to not apply seams to sub-parts of parts.
  • Fixed bug that caused the step in the toolbar to not update if you changed steps while the model was rotating on its own.
  • Stop applying seams to parts that have been transformed non-uniformly. This was causing significant problems with flex tubes, which are stretched to arbitrary lengths. The excessive stretching messed up the seam calculation, causing them to be way too short.
  • Fixed primitive substitution with 48-segment torus primitives to extract the proper angle from the filename, instead of 3 times the proper angle.
  • Fixed steps on toolbar when number of steps is more than 100.
  • Fixed ring primitive substitution to support n-16rinx.dat files.
  • Fixed opaque dithered extended colors to not be transparent.
  • Fixed problem when a new preference set was selected via Apply (not OK) and the new pref set has a different FSAA state than the previous one.
  • Fixed it to give an error if the latest update currently installed doesn't show up on ldraw.org's ptreleases.cgi script.
  • Fixed Windows Explorer thumbnail generator plugin to not skip some LDraw files.
  • Fixed uninstall to perform a reboot if uninstalling the Windows Explorer thumbnail generator plugin, which often fails to properly uninstall without a reboot.
  • Fixed final conditional line in cyls2 primitive substitution to not be wrong when "Curve Quality" is set to anything other than its default value.
  • Fixed "Check for Library Updates" to properly deal with recent part libaries.

New in LDraw 4.0.1 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed official part detection for parts in 2008-1 LDraw library update.
  • Fixed generation of conditional lines on full tori to not produce invalid lines.
  • Fixed problem that caused invalid lighting with certain rare sub-model matrices.

New in LDraw 4.0 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • New Cocoa-based LDView for the Mac.
  • Added basic support for steps.
  • Added export feature to convert LDraw files into other file formats. Currently POV-Ray and Stereo Lithography file formats are supported.
  • Added Model Tree dialog (drawer in Cocoa version) to show a tree with all the data from the model.
  • Added MPD model selection to show sub-models inside MPD models.
  • Added new latitude/longitude rotation mode.
  • Added dialog to set the latitude/longitude. (This does not require you to be in the new latitude/longitude rotation mode.)
  • Added support for multiple processors, and multi-core processors. Transparency sorting and conditional line calculations now happen in background threads when LDView is run on a computer with more than one processor core.
  • Added option to show the coordinate axes for the model, originating at the model's origin.
  • Added support for JPEG snapshots. The default JPEG settings are set using rarely-used JPEG compression options that result in much better quality for computer-generated imagery than is typically achieved with image tools. (Specifically, LDView uses the 4:4:4 JPEG color sub-sampling by default.)
  • Added Bounding Box dialog that shows the minimum and maximum coordinates of the bounding box for the model, and draws that bounding box.
  • Added view mode that only shows part bounding boxes.
  • Added support for rotation in examine mode with the arrow keys on the keyboard.
  • Added steps to m6459.ldr sample model.
  • Added -SaveSnapshots command line option to allow multiple snapshots to be saved at once from the command line.
  • Added "Transparent background" and "Auto-crop" to the snapshot saving UI. (Previously, these options were only available via manual registry entries or command line parameters.)
  • Added ability to set the 3D portion of the LDView window to various sizes with standard aspect ratios.
  • Added ability to use the current LDView aspect ratio in the POV-Ray camera info command.
  • Added ability to control the default directory where snapshots and part lists get saved. Choices are in the model directory, the most recently used directory for the given file type, or a specified directory.
  • Added support for Black_Edge color definition. Add a color to your ldconfig.ldr with Black_Edge as its color name (case doesn't matter), and LDView will use the given color for its black edge lines (assuming that "Process ldconfig.ldr is checked in the general prefs.)
  • Added icons from toolbar to corresponding menu items when running in Windows Vista.
  • Updates:
  • Decreased the amount of time needed to make certain preference changes (for example, toggling edge lines).
  • Greatly improved the output quality of "Transparent background" snapshots when antialiased lines are enabled.
  • Changed snapshot rendering in Windows to do software rendering directly to an in-memory bitmap when the Pixel Buffer OpenGL extension is unavailable or disabled. Previously, it rendered into the window, which caused a window to appear for command line snapshot renders.
  • Changed the default setting for conditional lines from off to on. Note that since edge lines default to off, this won't be seen until the first time edge lines are enabled.
  • Changed the default setting for seams to on.
  • Rotated 8464.mpd sample model 180 degrees so that it faces forward in the default viewing angle.
  • Updated the toolbar to have smaller buttons in Windows XP and Windows Vista.
  • Changed "Always black" edges to be truly black, instead of whatever color was assigned to color code 0.
  • Updated "Always black" edges to use gray when used on dark colors, isntead of black.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed Windows version so that switching to full screen doesn't trigger a full model reload.
  • Fixed handling of shift key when moving via the keyboard in fly-through mode.
  • Fixed check boxes in group box titles in preferences to only show underlines under mnemonic characters when appropriate when running with themes enabled.
  • Fixed bug where mouse control got messed up badly if you used <Alt><Tab> to switch to another program while dragging with the mouse in LDView.
  • Don't show model load failure error message if the user cancels the model load.
  • Fixed bug that sometimes caused a vertical line to appear on the left edge of large snapshots.
  • Fixed handling of transparent and invisible LDLite color codes.
  • Fixed Errors & Warnings Dialog on Windows verison to show the proper error and warning counts when the dialog isn't shown automatically.
  • Fixed lock up when "Show View Info" was selected in Windows while themodel was spinning.
  • Diable Open Model toolbar button during load. Using it would result in a crash.
  • Fixed bug where hitting escape during load didn't work in Windows Vista (and maybe other versions of Windows also).
  • Fixed bug where changing to a new LDraw directory would still give you a message that the LDraw directory could not be found.
  • Fixed primitive substitution to work with primitives in the Unofficial/p directory.
  • Fixed primitive substitution for 3-8ndis primitive.
  • Fixed fly-through speed to be dependent of FPS, so that having a super high FPS doesn't produce super fast fly-through.
  • Fixed primitive substitution to work better with curve smoothing with cone, sphere, and torus primitives.
  • Fixed problem with condtional lines showing up when they weren't supposed to when their control points went outside of the view frustum.

New in LDraw 3.2 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • Added ability to generate an HTML parts list of your model.
  • Added ability to set the direction that the light source points, both with predefined light directions in the Preferences Dialog, and by holding down Shift and dragging with the mouse.
  • Added support for light.dat files in LDraw models. Unless disabled, these will generate point light sources in the scene, up to a total of 8 lights.
  • Added ability to use LDView to generate thumbnails of .ldr and .mpd files in Windows Explorer and Gnome Nautilus.
  • Made it so dragging with the middle mouse button pans (in addition to the existing dragging with the left mouse button while holding down Control).
  • Added support for anisotropic filtering on video cards that support it.
  • Added scroll wheel support to QT version.
  • Added BFC toolbar button to QT version.
  • Added support for the new !ldraw_org meta-statement to be used in the next official parts release.
  • Updates:
  • Made it so that settings specified on the command line don't get saved as if they had been specified in the UI. (For example, -WindowWidth=320 on the command line would result in LDView launching with a window width of 320 the next time it was run.)
  • Updated Zoom to Fit command so that the model remaines auto-centered after using it.
  • Moved Errors & Warnings, Show View Info, and Show POV-Ray Camera Info to a new Tools menu.
  • Made it so only the main row of an error entry is bold. Sub-rows are now non-bold.
  • Made it so that transparency values of 240 and above are considered opaque. This was done to get rid of ugly artifacts that show up on the glow-in-the-dark color, which has a transparency value of 250.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed bug in error reporting that would lead to a crash when the model file has a really long line.
  • Fixed command line processing of -SaveSnapshot so that it doesn't generate a blank snapshot.
  • Fixed bug that caused the LDView screensaver to crash when you tried to bring up its settings.
  • Fixed bug where some models would be clipped after a Zoom to Fit.
  • Fixed bug where the Errors & Warnings window would sporadically not draw correctly after being resized.
  • Fixed cutaway wireframe causing one entire eye image to be drawn in wireframe when stereo is enabled.
  • Fixed tiled snapshot saves to not ignore the SaveAlpha setting.
  • Fixed -cg option to support the optional radius portion.
  • Fixed tiled snapshot saves when PBuffer isn't available to make the image size an even multiple of the number of tiles used. It already did this with PBuffer snapshots. With non-PBuffer snapshots, you ended up with a border (usually black) on the top and right sides of the image.
  • Fixed display glitch in Windows versions when switching the viewing angle via the toolbar. Switching the viewing angle via the main menu still has the display glitch.
  • Fixed command line snapshot saves to pay attention to the file extension of the snapshot file specified on the command line, instead of using the SaveImageType setting.
  • Fixed crash when LDView encounters two LDraw files that refer to each other. It now generates an error and skips the child model's reference to its ancestor model.

New in LDraw 3.1 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • Added automatic download of the LDraw parts library.
  • Added automatic updating of the LDraw parts library.
  • Added automatic downloading of unofficial parts from the LDraw.org Parts Tracker.
  • Added ability to generate a POV-Ray camera section based on the current view in LDView.
  • Added warning for parts that have been renamed.
  • Added warning for usage of automatically downloaded unofficial parts.
  • Added full snapshot support to the Linux version.
  • Added printing support to Linux version.
  • Added option to the Windows installer to open .ldr and .mpd files with LDView.
  • Updates:
  • Updated m6459.ldr sample model to no longer contain renamed parts.
  • Updated generation of new triangles and lines from quads and triangles that contain identical or co-linear vertices to use the original text from the file to generate the new primitives, instead of using text generated based on rounding of the numbers.
  • Updated the warning messages generated in the above case to also use the text from the file, instead of rounding the numbers.
  • Renamed the Error window to Errors & Warnings.
  • Updated Windows version to disable more menu items when there's no model loaded.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed handling of 12-bit dithered transparent direct colors.
  • Fixed crash that occurred when one of the numeric parameters was missing from a line-type 1 line that referenced a filename that began with a number (such as a part).
  • Fixed LDView so that it gives you an error if you select a file from the recent files list, and the file no longer exists.

New in LDraw 3.0 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • Completely new rendering engine, written from scratch. This allows for the following enhancements that would have been very difficult before:
  • Significantly reduced memory usage on large models. Measured reduction on Orion Pobursky's Imperial Star Destroyer model with all settings set to default: 86%. The same, but with LDView 3's Memory usage setting set to Low: 90%. (Note that these are reductions of and 86% and 90%, respectively, meaning LDView 3 requires 16% the memory LDView 2.1.01 requires on that model with default settings.)
  • Significantly reduced load time on large models.
  • BFC (Back Face Culling) support.
  • BFC verification support (red back faces and/or green front faces).
  • Potentially faster rendering. (Actual speed differences vary significantly based on video hardware and what settings are set.)
  • Added a toolbar (which can of course be disabled if desired).
  • Added support for translation DLLs.
  • Added a distinction between errors and warnings.
  • Added detection of more problems and potential problems with model files, leading to more errors and warnings.
  • Added support for making the default color transparent. (Primarily useful for part authors.)
  • Added direct access to the help file to the Linux version.
  • Added primitive substitution support for full-circle versions of new torus primitives.
  • Added primitive substitution support for chord primitives.
  • Added context-sensitive help to the save snapshot dialog.
  • Added workaround for snapshot corruption that was happening on some video cards (Don't use Pixel Buffer option during snapshot save).
  • Added Memory usage option to allow LDView to conserve even more memory. (This comes at the possible expense of speed. However, if you're swapping when the Memory usage setting is set to High, and not swapping when it's set to Low, then Low will be faster.)
  • Added support for LDraw search directory list in ldraw.ini using Lars Hassing's LDrawIni code.
  • Added support for spaces in submodel filenames. (Generates a warning.)
  • Added extra command line parsing for use when using LDView as a renderer from LPub.
  • Added detection of primitive comment so that primitive detection can work on primitives outside the ldrawp directory.
  • Added support for automatic cropping of images (via the command line only; no UI at this time.
  • Added new sample model created by Peter Bartfai: 8464.mpd.
  • Updates:
  • Rearranged items in the File menu.
  • Revamped error dialog box.
  • Removed the recompile requirement for P-Buffer snapshots.
  • Updated primitive substitution support to also substitute primitives in the p/48 directory.
  • Updated text of check buttons in group box titles of preferences to match the color of other group box titles when run in Windows XP with themes enabled.
  • Improved sorting of transparent substituted primitives.
  • Updated color handling to match LDraw's behavior for unknown colors.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed transparent extended colors so they work.
  • Fixed snapshot saving to always redraw the model after the snapshot save.
  • Fixed maximum depth of cutaway mode.
  • Fixed default zoom for tall windows.
  • Fixed zoom-to-fit with wide edge lines and wide wireframe lines.
  • Fixed panning to be usable over the entire supported field-of-view range.
  • Fixed problem in OpenGL driver information dialog that would cause a crash on some video cards.
  • Fixed problem that caused the delete button not to be enabled after a single directory was added to the extra search directories list.
  • Fixed smoothing to not smooth across sharp angles.
  • Fixed auto-calculated extension for BMP snapshots when the save snapshot series option wasn't enabled.
  • Fixed zooming with the mouse wheel.
  • Fixed seams to not double-shrink parts that are referenced from other parts.
  • Fixed clipping problem that sometimes showed up in fly-through mode.
  • Fixed command line parsing problem that could cause LDView to crash.
  • Fixed command line parsing problem that could cause LDView to incorrectly miss an LDraw file specified on the command line.
  • Fixed problem that caused subfiles in an MPD file with a backslash () in their filename not to load.
  • Fixed problem that prevented screensaver settings from sticking when a preference set was selected in the screensaver.
  • Fixed problem that prevented status bar from being visible when LDView was started up maximized.

New in LDraw 2.1.0.1 (Jan 20, 2017)

  • Additions:
  • Re-introduced co-linear point detection in quads. I discovered that my previous belief that there was a legitimate use for them was flawed.
  • Added ability to the screen saver to have it randomly choose a preference set each time it runs. It should be noted that the preference set includes the screen saver file or directory selection, so you can have individual models display with particular settings if you want.
  • Added support for snapshots up to 9999x9999 on any video card by using tiling to construct images bigger than would otherwise be supported.
  • Updates:
  • Updated line drawing when antialiased lines are enabled to get rid of artifacts around some edge lines of transparent colors. This has the (somewhat undesirable) side-effect of making edge lines around transparent shapes less distinct.
  • Bug Fixes:
  • Fixed Zoom to Fit to work properly after panning the view.
  • Fixed hidden line removal when sorting of transparent shapes isn't enabled.
  • Fixed problem that caused LDView to lock up if the background color or default color was chosen without a model loaded.
  • Fixed preference set deletion. It had no permanent effect before.
  • Fixed zoom to fit so that it works when stereo viewing is enabled.