LeoCAD

Advanced WYSIWYG editor sports animation support and minifig wizard

By: Tim Courtney

January 21, 2002

Screenshot: LeoCAD featuring Tom McDonald's
VR-3A fighter (click the link for larger version).

What? There's another Windows LDraw editor? Absolutely. And what might surprise you is its been around for a few years.


Leonardo Zide has tirelessly worked on his LeoCAD, a Windows and Linux editor for LDraw models. He's incorporated his own really cool features too.


For those of you craving mouse support, this is the program for you. After some getting used to, you can use the mouse to place parts in all 3 axes, or you can select which axis you would like to lock right on the toolbar to make it easier. Click and hold the left (primary) mouse button on a part and move it in the Y-Z plane, hold the secondary (right) button on a part and move it vertically along the X-axis.


On the current version, 0.73, there is partial LEdit key command support. For those of you new to the community, a lot of the older LDraw users modeled with James Jessiman's original LEdit, which was all keyboard based. The arrow keys work as expected, and so does page up and page down for vertical movement.


However, unlike LEdit and the popular MLCad, LeoCAD doesn't have a linear-based part editing system. Each part is treated individually and not 'before' or 'after' another part. Just select it with the pointer and then choose the move tool and go. This is a big difference between MLCad/LEdit and LeoCAD. Its a different approach than what a lot of us are used to, but at least this way you don't scroll 'back' in your model and then start building out of sequence on accident, having to go back and move blocks of parts in the order of things.

LeoCAD's Minifig Wizard allows you to choose each
part of the body's color, decorations, and rotation.
It even places objects in the minifig's hands!

One of the two distinguishing features of LeoCAD is the Minifig Wizard. This is a tool no LDraw user should go without! No more time spent meticulously trying to line up minifig body parts to build a fig, and then placing
objects they interact with by hand. This does it all for you. Each part of the fig's body comes with a pull down menu to choose what part occupies that space. Throw a hat, hair, or a helmet on the fig and choose its color. Same with any part. Change the angle - make his head turn, make him wave, make him kick his feet forward, whatever, all with the easy menu system! Then click 'OK' and your minifig is placed in the model.


The second distinguishing feature of LeoCAD is its animation support. This is still really preliminary, but it gives a good start to animating your LDraw models. Switch modes by clicking the filmstrip icon on the animation toolbar, then your model becomes a slide to do keyframing. Scroll to the frame of your choice (indicated in the status bar on the right hand side), and move parts on the screen. Press play and watch the parts move from their original position to their new one! While its not Maya, its a lot of fun to play with!


While editing, sometimes its necessary to look behind parts. If moving the camera (easy with the mouse) doesn't work, LeoCAD allows you to hide groups of parts and then unhide them. Select the parts you want to hide, then go to the Part menu and click 'Hide Selected.' Restore the model with 'Unhide All.'


One big difference between LeoCAD and MLCad/LEdit, is that LeoCAD uses its own native file format. Don't panic though, it still fully supports LDraw files. However, it adds its own code for features like animation, and includes them in its native format. Freely view, create, and edit LDraw files in LeoCAD, and enjoy the novelty items like animation.


While these are just a few features which set LeoCAD apart, rest assured that more ideas for cool editing features are in the works. Leonardo has a passion for his program and for the LDraw parts libraries. He's full of fresh energy to put into his program which in turn gets passed to the users in the form of an excellent program. Leo has his own website at www.leocad.org. The site also sports shots of some amazing models by Selçuk Göre, all modeled in LeoCAD.


I've summarized a few of my personal pros and cons for the program.

Pros:
Minifig Wizard
Excellent mouse part placement
Basic animation, fun and easy to use
Easy camera positioning and changing of views via toolbar.
Fully compatible with LDraw - uses LDraw parts library and file format, plus similar LeoCAD native format.


Cons:
Incomplete support of original LEdit key commands.
Parts library organization somewhat confusing, but the search dialogue makes up for that.
Rendering could be better.
Slightly challenging learning curve and a bit heavy on the toolbar icons - keyboard shortcut alternatives and a reference guide would help.


LeoCAD promises some great features for users and a slightly new twist to LDrawing models for those inexperienced with it. Its a fun program to play with and use, and once the toolbar is grasped navigating and creatig in it is a breeze. I look forward to future versions of the program, and in the mean time, I encourage all of you to give it a try.


LeoCAD is available for Windows and Linux. This review was written using the Windows version.

Added:  Tuesday, September 09, 2003
Reviewer:  Tim Courtney
Score:
Related web link:  LeoCAD Official Website
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Language: eng