v1.4.0

Announcing the release of LDR Importer v1.4.0!

Notice

Due to continuing plugin restructuring changes, all previous installations will need to be uninstalled before installing this and future releases. Further, the plugin must now be installed by selecting the zip archive rather than a single script. See the installation directions for details.

Notable Changes

• Unlike previous versions, this release contains no new user-facing features. Instead, a large amount of internal work was performed, helping to stabilize the plugin and improve development. That said, a few user-facing changes were made.
• Improve import option ordering and labels in the UI*

* Due to this change, the plugin will fail to load upon first use if you had a previous installation. You will need to delete the prefs/LDR-Importer.json file, located at the same place as the plugin installation, to fix this. Apologies for this annoyance.

If you are interested, full release notes are on the wiki.

v1.3.2

Announcing the release of LDR Importer v1.3.2!

Notice

Due to plugin restructuring changes, all previous installations will need to be uninstalled before installing this and future releases. Further, the plugin must now be installed by selecting the zip archive rather than a single script. See the installation directions for details.

Notable Changes

• Refactoring of LDraw color definition management, making internal workings a lot nicer
• Improved algorithm to generate more uniform gaps between bricks (contributed by @BertVanRaemdonck)
• New import option: Use Alternate Colors. When checked, uses the LDCfgalt.ldr color definitions. See http://www.ldraw.org/article/547 for details.
• Fixed a critical bug where a model or part that was too short to contain the !LDRAW_ORG META command would halt the import

v1.3.1

Announcing the release of LDR Importer v1.3.1! This is a small release to correct a plugin-breaking bug introduced in the last release. You are advised to upgrade immediately to keep everything working smoothly. :)

Notice

Due to plugin restructuring changes, all previous installations will need to be uninstalled before installing this and future releases. Further, the plugin must now be installed by selecting the zip archive rather than a single script. See the installation directions for details.

Notable Changes

• Fixed a critical bug where a model or part lacking the !LDRAW_ORG META command would halt the import

v1.3.0

Announcing the release of LDR Importer v1.3.0! Lots of across-the-board changes have been made since the last release in 2014. We hope you enjoy it!

We also congratulate @geertdaelemans for making his first ever open-source contribution and doing so with LDR Importer! :D

Notice

Due to plugin restructuring changes, all previous installations will need to be uninstalled before installing this and future releases. Further, the plugin must now be installed by selecting the zip archive rather than a single script. See the installation directions for details.

Notable Changes

Complete release notes can be found on the Wiki.

• Direct colors support (#63, #103)
• New Cycles Chrome, Pearlescent, and Rubber materials (#102)
• New preferences system to persist import options across Blender launches (#101)
• Experimental linked parts import option (off by default), contributed by @geertdaelemans (#100, #107)
• Scale factor in UI defaults to 1 instead of a two-place decimal number and aligns with LeoCAD scale (#93)
• Lots of bug fixes and improvements

LDR Importer v1.2.0 - Speedy

Announcing the release of LDR Importer v1.2.0! This smaller release brings an important fix for v1.1.5, namely a nasty bug where the import was 5 times slower than v1.1.0, but also manages to sneak in a feature or two.

Notable Changes

Complete release notes can be found on the Wiki.

• "LDR-Importer 1.1.5 is five times slower" (#61, #73)
• Use Operator Presets to preserve import options (#42, #65)
• Add beta support for LSynth bendable parts (#75, #79)

LDR Importer v1.1.5 - Standards

The entire development team is proud to announce the release of LDR Importer v1.1.5!
Thanks to the sharp eye of @MinnieTheMoocher, many errors pertaining to the LDraw Part Library structure and support have been corrected. While the change log seems to be short, it is only artificially short, because those changes were mainly comprised of large patches. It was these patches that brought LDR Importer in better compliance with the LDraw Parts Library that gained this release the codename Standards.

Notable Changes

• Read LDConfig.ldr and config.py using UTF-8 encoding
• Added support for reading models in UCS-2BE & UCS-2LE encoding (#37)
• Always save config.py in user's AppData on Windows (#38)
• Remove GameFix cleanup option
• Improve part path lookup (#40, #50)
• Give unofficial files precedence over official ones, support usage of p/8 primitives folder (#52)
• Add @MinnieTheMoocher to author list
• Reworked display of import options
• Initialize paths array at the beginning of the script
• Fix bug with high-/low-res primitives not being imported properly
• debugPrint() behavior was not as expected

LDR Importer v1.1.0 - The Working Quartet

Thanks to the continued contributions of @Banbury and the newest developer @tribex and new contributor @rioforce, LDR Importer v1.1.0 has been release! Because of the great work put in by everyone, this release has been nicknamed The Working Quartet.

Notable Changes

• Project rename to LDR Importer to comply with the LDraw System of Tools bylaws
• Minimum Blender version is now 2.67
• Support for Chrome, Pearlescent, Rubber, and Metal materials in Blender Internal
• Added experimental support for Cycles materials
• Fix crash when trying to import a non-existent brick (see #11)
• Detect render engine and use appropriate materials
• Set each brick's origin to geometry
• Improved display of materials
• Restricted files for importing to .ldr and .dat files, both internally and in file browser (see #14)
• Display non-programmer understandable error messages for the majority of all major error messages (see #14)
• "Make object color also be viewport color" (see #21)
• Automatically preserve LDraw Brick Library installation path using a configuration file, no more presets (initial patch submitted by Tribex)
• Attempt to detect LDraw Brick Library installation path in common locations (Windows only, initial patch by le717)
• Improvements to development documentation and release packing

Blender 2.6 LDraw Importer v1.0.0 - Banbury Edition

Thanks to the generosity of @Banbury, Blender 2.6 LDraw Importer has reached 1.0! In honor of his contributions, 1.0.0 is known as the Banbury Edition.

• Uploaded source code to GitHub. -Triangle717
• Switched to plain text version of GPL V2.
• Converted all whitespace to 4 spaces whitespace to conform to Python standards using Blender scripting scene.
• Added most of Marc Schmitt's Linux patch, with minor changes.
• Made LDraw folder paths case-insensitive
• Added ability to set LDraw System of Tools folder path from within Blender using code from Spencer Alves's Blender 2.6 LDraw Importer.
• Added ability to disable automatic model cleanup (remove doubles and recalculate normals). Doing so is not advised.
• Changed dict() to the proper {} syntax.
• Script cleanup.
• Updated Readme with new information.
• Added Mac OS X and Linux LDraw System of Tools default installation path.
• Updated script options messages
• Added ability to disable use of high-res bricks.
• Correctly construct quads in bricks
• Correctly apply brick materials
• Don't use high-quality bricks by default
• Improvements to model cleanup
• Fixed materials for multi-colored bricks
• Handle color value 16 correctly
• Added support for transparent colors
• Several bugfixes and optimization
• Fix for crash when importing a second time during the same session
• Moved all imports to separate lines
• Removed whitespace in blank lines
• Converted reading of LDCondig.ldr to use with statement
• Lots of PEP 8 fixes
• Added docstrings for various functions
• Do not display successful import message if an error occurred
• Fixed if cond is not None and if cond is None errors
• Name model being imported in successful import message
• Locate LDCondig.ldr directly, instead of using locate()
• Added Banbury to author list
• Updated version number
• Updated class name to follow convention
• Disable Blender tracker URL button in GUI
• Gracefully stop import if LDrawDir does not exist
• Swapped model cleanup switch from "Disable Cleanup" to "Enable Cleanup"
• Removed maxpath limit in folder path to LDraw System of Tools field
• 3D cursor is always reset to <0,0,0> before importing
• Preserve LDraw System of Tools installation path using presets
• Added import scale slider
• Fix for rounding errors in alpha value and split angle
• Converted brick readings to use with statement
• Continue import even if brick is missing
• Fixed minimum Blender version
• Various cleanup