LEdit beta 0.4 documentation. The LEdit program is to create and edit your models. This program is interactive and uses keyboard commands. Sorry, no mouse support. * Note: Viewing the file ledit.htm in a browser is preferable * * over viewing this text file. The HTML version is enhanced. * Piece Movement Move the Current piece in 6 axis on the screen: Arrow Keys Move the piece onscreen in the direction indicated by the arrow. Except in the default Three-D view where the movement is toward the corners of the screen: Up Arrow moves the piece toward the upper-right corner. Down Arrow moves the piece toward the lower-left corner. Left Arrow moves the piece toward the upper-left corner. Right Arrow moves the piece toward the lower-right corner. Home Home generally moves the piece directly Away from you, but this is usually not apparent due to LEdit not having any perspective. An exception is when using the default Three-D view, where it moves the piece Up in a true vertical motion. End End generally moves the piece directly Toward you, but this is usually not apparent due to LEdit not having any perspective. An exception is when using the default Three-D view, where it moves the piece Down in a true vertical motion. Page up Selects the Previous piece to make it the Current piece. Scrolls up through the list of pieces in your model. Page down Selects the Next piece to make it the Current piece. Scrolls down through the list of pieces in your model. A Turns the Current piece 90 degrees clockwise (looking from above the piece). C Gets prompt to change Current piece Colour. Then enter a colour number: 0 = Black 1 = Blue 2 = Green 3 = Dark Cyan 4 = Red 5 = Magenta 6 = Brown 7 = Grey 8 = Dark Grey 9 = Light Blue 10 = Light Green 11 = Cyan 12 = Light Red 13 = Pink 14 = Yellow 15 = White 16 = Null-colour Pieces using null colour code use whatever colour code is entered on the command line when rendering with LDraw or, if no colour code is specified, they default to a #7 Grey colour. Clear Colours. Add 32 to get clear versions of the colours. For example, to get clear red use 36 (32 for clear + 4 for red) Note: After setting a pieces colour, each subsequent piece added to the model will be that same colour, until the colour is changed. E Erases the screen. Will cause the program to redraw the model. I Insert new piece. Inserts a new line for a piece directly below the current one. The current line and above are moved up to make room. The new piece inserted is the same as the previously used piece, but does not have the previous pieces orientation. M Move setting adjustment. This adjusts the distance a piece moves when using the Arrow, Home or End keys. The current setting is shown at the top of screen. Three settings are available: Fine The Fine setting moves a piece 1/20 of a stud sideways or 1/8 of a plate thickness up. Normal The Default setting. The Normal setting moves a piece 1/2 of a stud sideways or 1 plate thickness up. Coarse The Coarse setting moves a piece 5 studs sideways or 10 plate thicknesses up. P Gets prompt to enter a Piece number. Changes the Current piece to the one specified. 3001.dat = 2x4 Brick 3002.dat = 2x3 Brick 3003.dat = 2x2 Brick When entering part numbers, only the number need be entered - the .dat is not required Or press Enter at the Part no: prompt for a scrollable list of pieces. Placing the scroll highlight on the desired piece and pressing Enter will select that piece. W Swap the Current and the Next pieces. X Gets prompt to move the Current piece in the X direction. Enter the number of LDraw units you wish to move the piece. Y Gets prompt to move the Current piece in the Y direction. Enter the number of LDraw units you wish to move the piece. Z Gets prompt to move the Current piece in the Z direction. Enter the number of LDraw units you wish to move the piece. - Zooms out. Will cause a redraw of the entire screen. The current setting of the zoom factor is shown at the top of the screen. + Zooms in. Will cause a redraw of the entire screen. The current setting of the zoom factor is shown at the top of the screen. LEdit Menus Use the '/' or 'ESC' keys to activate the menus. Then use the arrow keys to navigate the menu. Or use the key shortcuts shown. File Menu [key shortcut = /F] Load [key shortcut = /FL] Loads an existing model file. WARNING: Current file will not be saved first! Save prior to loading! Save [key shortcut = /FS] Saves the file. Press enter to use the name suggested. Or type a new name. WARNING: Save often! LEdit can crash under some circumstances, so make it a habit to save after placing a few pieces. Exit [key shortcut = /FE] Exits the program. Prompts to save the current file if needed. Edit Menu [key shortcut = /E] Insert [key shortcut = /EI] Inserts a new piece. Same as 'I' above. Delete [key shortcut = /ED] Deletes the Current piece. Swap [key shortcut = /ES] Swaps the Current a Next pieces. Same as 'W' above. Line-Type [key shortcut = /EL] Changes the current line type to: Piece [key shortcut = /ELP] Set Line-Type to Piece. The default setting. Comment [key shortcut = /ELC] Set Line-Type to Comment. This line contains a text comment which you may type in. Note that there are three special comment types: PAUSE Typing PAUSE (must be in capital letters) in the comment field causes LDraw to pause when rendering the model file. Similar to the STEP command below, but without the graphic output capabilities. WRITE Typing WRITE (must be in capital letters) in the comment field causes LDraw to show whatever text is after the WRITE command onscreen in the upper-left corner. This has limited functionality due to LDraw not clearing the text before writing other text, resulting in a confusing mixture of text. CLEAR Typing CLEAR (must be in capital letters) in the comment field causes LDraw to erase all pieces displayed up to that point. LDraw then continues by displaying all pieces after the CLEAR command. Step [key shortcut = /ELS] Set Line-Type to Step. This line separates the steps in a model. Steps normally cause LDraw to pause when rendering and, when the LDraw command line switch -MS is specified, cause LDraw to output a bitmap picture of the model. Note that the STEP command is all capitals - useful to remember if adding STEP's to a model file in a text editor. View Menu [key shortcut = /V] Change the current view to the one selected. Will cause a redraw of the screen. For reference, in the default Three-D mode, 'Front' is considered to be a view from the lower-left corner of the screen. So a model of a car would point toward the lower-left corner of the screen. See the car.dat model file included with this program for an example of proper orientation. Front [key shortcut = /VF] Change to a Front view of the model. Right [key shortcut = /VR] Change to a Right side view of the model. Left [key shortcut = /VL] Change to a Left side view of the model. Back [key shortcut = /VB] Change to a Back (rear) view of the model. Over [key shortcut = /VO] Change to a Over (above) view of the model. Under [key shortcut = /VU] Change to a Under (beneath) view of the model. Three-D [key shortcut = /VT] Change to a Three-D view of the model. This is the default view. Out(Zoom) [key shortcut = none] Same as '-' above. In(Zoom) [key shortcut = /VI] Same as '+' above. Centre-Set [key shortcut = /VC] Sets the centre of the viewing window to be wherever the blinking cursor is located. Not to be confused with the Centre-Set used for turning pieces. (see below) Turn Menu [key shortcut = /T] WARNING: When turning a piece, be careful to only use NUMBERS where prompted. Using letters will cause LEdit to crash, losing all work done to a model since the last save. X-axis [key shortcut = /TX] Gets Prompt to turn the Current piece around the X-axis. Enter the number of degrees to turn the piece from 0 to 360. May also use negative numbers to turn in the opposite direction. Y-axis [key shortcut = /TY] Gets Prompt to turn the Current piece around the Y-axis. Enter the number of degrees to turn the piece from 0 to 360. May also use negative numbers to turn in the opposite direction. Z-axis [key shortcut = /TZ] Gets Prompt to turn the Current piece around the Z-axis. Enter the number of degrees to turn the piece from 0 to 360. May also use negative numbers to turn in the opposite direction. Centre-Set [key shortcut = /TC] Sets the centre of rotation to be wherever the cursor is currently located. 1. In most cases, you will probably want to place the Centre-Set on whatever piece you are about to turn. If you place Centre-Set on the piece you want to rotate, the piece will rotate around its own default center. (which is good) 2. If you do not place the Centre-Set on the piece you want to rotate, but place it or leave it on some other piece, the piece you are trying to turn may rotate around a wide arc centered on wherever the Centre-Set happens to be. This will most likely cause your piece to rotate right out of the viewing window. (which can be very annoying) 3. But there are some cases where, with a little planning, placing the Centre-Set somewhere other than on the piece you are about to turn can be advantageous. Doing this successfully takes some practice and patience. Piece Menu [key shortcut = /P] File [key shortcut = /PF] Gets prompt to change the Current piece number. Same as 'P' above. Or press enter for a scrollable list of pieces. Colour [key shortcut = /PC] Gets prompt to change the Current piece colour. Same as 'C' above. Goto-Line [key shortcut = /PG] Gets prompt to move to a different line number in the model. Enter the line number where you wish to go, or enter a very large number to jump to the end of the file. Useful in a large model where scrolling using the Page Up/Page Down keys is too slow. Options Menu [key shortcut = /O] Line-as-Stud [key shortcut = /OL] Causes LEdit to display studs on pieces as either simple lines or as full studs. The default setting is (on) which shows the studs as simple lines. This improves the drawing speed and makes alignment of parts easier. Each selection of this option switches the setting. Start-at-Line [key shortcut = /OS] Selecting this causes LEdit to start drawing from the Current piece when the screen is redrawn. The current line where drawing starts from is shown in parenthesis. The default is line (0) - the first piece. The program resets to (0) when started. This option is useful by allowing earlier pieces to not be drawn, thus speeding up redraws of the screen and reducing onscreen clutter. Stop-at-Cursor [key shortcut = none] By default, LEdit draws all pieces up to and including the Current piece. All pieces after the Current piece are not drawn. Selecting this option causes LEdit to draw all pieces in a file regardless of which piece is currently selected. Each selection of this option switches the setting. Quit Menu [key shortcut = /Q] Exits the program. If there have been no modifications to the model file, the program exits immediately. If the model file has been modified, you are asked if you want to save before exiting: Yes [key shortcut = /QY] Gets a prompt to Save the file. Press enter to use the name suggested. Or type a new name. No [key shortcut = /QN] Exits the program without saving. Cancel [key shortcut = /QC] Returns to the program. Typical LEdit Screen (see diagram below) The LEdit screen consists of four text lines, a separator bar, and a viewing window. The first text line is a informational status line. The following three lines show the Previous, Current, and Next pieces in the model file. What each pointer means in the diagram below: Current line This shows what line in your model your are working on. Orientation of viewing window Shows what view the window is currently displaying. Use key shortcut /V to change. Zoom factor Shows the current magnification level of the screen. Use the + or - keys to change. Move increment Shows the current Movement setting. Use M to cycle through Normal/Coarse/Fine settings. Piece filename Shows the actual filename for the Previous/Current/Next pieces. Previous piece The top line of the three parts lines is the Previous piece. Use the Page Up key to scroll it into the Current piece position to edit. Next piece The bottom line of the three parts lines is the Next piece. Use the Page Down key to scroll it into the Current piece position to edit. Current piece The center line of the three parts lines is the Current Piece. The piece in this position is the one on which all editing is done. Piece orientation This series of nine numbers describe a pieces orientation - what angle of rotation it has - among its three axis, X,Y, and Z. These numbers will change when the piece is turned using the key shortcuts /TX, /TY and /TZ Piece Z coordinate This number shows a pieces Z coordinate - where it is located - in three dimensional space. Depending on the current view, use the proper Arrow, Home, or End keys to change. Piece Y coordinate This number shows a pieces Y coordinate - where it is located - in three dimensional space. Depending on the current view, use the proper Arrow, Home, or End keys to change. Piece X coordinate This number shows a pieces X coordinate - where it is located - in three dimensional space. Depending on the current view, use the proper Arrow, Home, or End keys to change. Colour This number shows a pieces colour code. Use C or the /PC key shortcut to change. Line-Type This number will always be a 1 for pieces. For Comments added with the /ELC key shortcut, or STEPS added with the /ELS key shortcut, it will be a 0. Viewing Window This is where the visual display of the model is shown. This is also where the visual display of parts files available for use is shown when the P then Enter key is pressed. Current Line Orientation of viewing window Piece filename | | | | +-----+ Zoom factor Move increment | Previous piece | | | | | | v v v v | | Line: 2 View: Three-D Zoom: x1.000 Move: Normal v | 1 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 3001.dat <--+ 1 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 3002.dat <--------+ 1 0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 3003.dat <-----+ | ______________________________________________________________ | | | | ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | | | | | | | Next piece -+ | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +----------------+----------------+ Current piece -+ | | | | | | | | | | | +-------------------- Piece orientation | | | | | | | | | +---------------------------------------- Piece Z coordinate | | | | | | | +-------------------------------------------- Piece Y coordinate | | | | | +------------------------------------------------ Piece X coordinate | | | +--------------------------------------------------- Colour | +----------------------------------------------------- Line-Type 1 for Pieces 0 for Steps or Comments ^ | Viewing Window <-- Where Model is --> Displayed | v --end of file--