#VJMEJOH 6TJOH .-$BE
Digital Building: A Primer in MLCad
Building models in computer programs has become a very easy way to share ideas and creations. Here Geoff Gray, BrickJournal’s Photo Editor, gives a lesson in using MLCad, one of the most common programs. Article and Art by Geoff Gray
M
LCad is one of the most widely used add-ons for LDraw today. It utilizes the LDraw system and offers a graphical interface that allows you to quickly and easily design and build a model. This short tutorial is intended to be a simple introduction. For more in-depth information, you can read one of the wonderful LDraw-based books listed at the LDraw website (http:// www.ldraw.org). For this example, we will use a model I created from the LEGO X-Pod kit #4347. It is the same model used for other tutorials and as a “You Can Build Itâ€? in this issue. To get started, we need to make sure that the proper tools are installed. You can follow the steps outlined at www.ldraw.org to get the LDraw suite of tools setup. The easiest way is to use the prepackaged installer they have on their site. Once you install that, be sure to get the latest parts updates as well. Once you have the tools installed, open MLCad. You should have a screen similar to Figure 1, except that your menus across the top will not be laid out the same. The ďŹ rst time you use MLCad, you can (and should) move the toolbars to suit your need. You can right click in the toolbar area to get a list of the toolbars that are visible, and turn off the ones you do not want to use. You can also drag the other toolbars around to lay them out differently. Figure 2 shows the default toolbar layout and the name of each toolbar in the area. The following is a very brief description of the main use of each bar: • The color bar allows you to quick-choose the color for a given element. • The main bar is the standard Windows bar for Open, Save, Print, etc. • The transformation bar is used to rotate or move the highlighted elements • The object bar is used to add steps, rotation steps, comments and etc. • The control bar allows you to step through the instructions. • The mode bar is used to set the mode of MLCad and the grid size • The expert bar is used to help build custom or new elements. • The zoom bar controls the zoom level of the viewing panes. • The visibility bar allows you to group elements and control their visibility. • The extras bar allows you to quickly access features like the miniďŹ g generator, Lsynth, and etc. You can choose what bar you want to use and where you want them. As you get better, you might decide to move them around to make certain tasks easier. For the moment, you can set up your bars to look similar to Figure 1. Once that is done, you are ready to start. We’ll start building the 4347 MOC.
#SJDL+PVSOBM t *TTVF 7PMVNF t 4QSJOH