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R Haseltine
11-13-2006, 08:27 AM
Email from NewTek Europe just popped into my inbox with a link for LWCAD 2.1
cagey5
11-13-2006, 08:45 AM
Downloaded already :) Will play with this later..
Lito
11-13-2006, 09:36 AM
No email here yet for me here in the US.
colkai
11-13-2006, 10:41 AM
ooh, hopefully a link will pop up for me soon :)
DarkLight
11-13-2006, 11:23 AM
The link is to the LWCad site.
http://www.wtools3d.com/index.php?p=5&content=product_activation
UnCommonGrafx
11-13-2006, 11:25 AM
Get it as it's hot!!

Dimensioning tools have hit LW. As well, the polygon tool is BACK! A very robust update, to say the least.
hrgiger
11-13-2006, 01:20 PM
I won't have time to play with this until later. How do the dimensioning tools in LWCAD work?
UnCommonGrafx
11-13-2006, 01:41 PM
Like you would expect, I'm glad to say.

In point mode, one can select the points and move them to get instant updates on the dimensions.
In poly mode, you can click on any part of it to select and move.

It's a very good implementation of such a tool and LONG OVERDUE for LW. Fortunately, it's here and not a lacking to consider anymore. I think most will like it. Now, we just need a database built into lw to help figure out costs of building materials. chuckle...

Hrgiger, you will like it immensely, I believe, as you work on that city you have in process. It will make things lots easier and cleaner for you. Sizing things out at a glance will become second nature after the first day of using it. You should show some pics of your dimensioning with that city when/if you can. By-the-by, your city looks very nice.
Lito
11-13-2006, 01:53 PM
I played a little with the dimensioning tools but my measurements don't stay like it shows in the video. Not sure why though.
Lito
11-13-2006, 02:02 PM
Doh 2 minute edit rule. Figured out what was wrong. I just overwrote the .p file so for some reason LW didn't catch it till I added the plugin with the add plugin command and restarted LW. I figured it would work if I just restarted modeler but it didn't. Go figure....
Sensei
11-13-2006, 02:08 PM
In point mode, one can select the points and move them to get instant updates on the dimensions.
In poly mode, you can click on any part of it to select and move.

It works with any LightWave tools or just with LWCAD specific interactive tools? TrueArt wrote dimensioning previewer that works regardless of tool, and works with any existing and new including LWCAD.. It's ShowWeights successor, written on SW as base..
UnCommonGrafx
11-13-2006, 04:08 PM
Sensei,
Yes, works just like a regular lw entity.
Celshader
11-13-2006, 04:51 PM
Nice demo video of LWCAD 2.1 here:
http://www.wtools3d.com/swf/tutorials/lwcad_21/lwcad_21.html
Sensei
11-13-2006, 07:35 PM
Ahh, I see.. You must actually select what you want to see prior to seeing details? It's reverse to ShowDimension..
http://www2.trueart.pl/Products/Plug-Ins/ShowDimension/Graphics/Movies/ShowDimension_1.mov
Currently point positions, point weight, point texture, edge weight, edge length and angle can be seen, each turned on/off independently and visible in any view port separately.. f.e. in perspective view port weight map, and point positions in orthographic view ports..

In the example video, I use LightWave's Box tool then LW's Drag Tool and point positions are all the time visible. If you choose to display more info about element, they're visible one by one below previous. Prefixes can be turned on/off too.
UnCommonGrafx
11-13-2006, 08:11 PM
Sensei,
That's what he had initially. Without the lines to indicate dimensioning, it's just not adequate.
Your show weights is a godsend, to say the least; but your dimensioning tool suffers from the same things the few in the past suffered from: non-standard indication of what was included in the dimensioned space. That is to say, <---length---> indicators.
Sensei
11-13-2006, 08:23 PM
Pause video and watch Show Dimension panel, there are Edge Weight & Edge Length.. ;) They were just not showed in action in this video, but Edge Length is the easiest to make (easier than Weight Map, which needs calculating point normal to offset text to not be drawn inside of geometry).. Show Weights is one year old plug-in, and Show Dimension is build on top of this old code. The all ShowWeights customers will receive ShowDimension for free.
Snosrap
11-13-2006, 11:51 PM
Like you would expect, I'm glad to say.

In point mode, one can select the points and move them to get instant updates on the dimensions.
In poly mode, you can click on any part of it to select and move.

It's a very good implementation of such a tool and LONG OVERDUE for LW. Fortunately, it's here and not a lacking to consider anymore. I think most will like it. Now, we just need a database built into lw to help figure out costs of building materials. chuckle...

Hrgiger, you will like it immensely, I believe, as you work on that city you have in process. It will make things lots easier and cleaner for you. Sizing things out at a glance will become second nature after the first day of using it. You should show some pics of your dimensioning with that city when/if you can. By-the-by, your city looks very nice.

Any way to keep the dimensions on the geometry that gets built? Seems like there would be an option to leave it on. Overall though, 2.1 is a great upgrade and the dimension tool is sweet--works in the perspective viewport too!

Snos
Simon
11-14-2006, 07:23 AM
Glad to see the polygon tool is back, and it's even better, nice how it loops round the edge automatically. Works like a charm in the persp viewport.
UnCommonGrafx
11-14-2006, 08:17 AM
Snos,
Sure: put the points of the dimension tool on the points of your measure geometry. Remember they are nothing more than points and a poly type such that you can move them around in the same manner as you would your normal geometry. Nothing special, so to speak, to put an option of this kind upon.