Games

ImportLDraw 1.3.0

Requires Blender 4.0 or later (tested up to 5.1). For Blender 2.81 to 3.6, keep using version 1.2.3.

After installing, restart Blender.

Highlights

• Textures – printed and stickered parts now show their prints (#9).
  • All three !TEXMAP projections are supported: planar, cylindrical and spherical.
  • Texture images are found in the library's textures folders.
  • Images embedded in a model file (!DATA) are packed into the .blend, or saved next to the model.
  • New options: Import textures and Pack embedded images.
• Better bevels (#29)
  • Every edge line is now bevelled, including lines that span several mesh edges.
  • Gaps where faces met at T-junctions are joined.
  • Each edge gets its own safe bevel width. Before, a single tight spot could shrink the bevels on a whole part to almost nothing.
  • Bevels are much more even, with fewer seams, cracks and black triangles.
• Faster imports, less memory
  • Typical models import 2–7 times faster than in 1.2.3, with much less memory.
  • Very large models are much faster: a model with 58,000 bricks imports in about 20 seconds instead of more than 2 minutes.
  • New Bake bevels option (on by default): bevels are applied once per part shape instead of once per brick, so large models stay responsive in the viewport.
  • Parts with many studs make one stud and copy it. Baseplates with logo studs now import in a few seconds; a 32×32 baseplate used to run out of memory.
• Progress, and Esc to cancel – Blender stays responsive while a model imports (no more spinning beach ball on macOS). The status bar shows how far the import has got, and Esc cancels it.
• Building steps – each part records the building step it's added in (0 STEP and 0 ROTSTEP). The new Animate building steps option builds the model in the timeline:
  • Each step's parts appear in turn, starting from an empty scene, with a timeline marker for each step.
  • Submodels are built step by step in place, just before the step that uses them, or can appear all at once.
  • Pieces that LeoCAD hides at a later step (STEP_HIDE) disappear at that step.
  • You can choose the number of frames per step (1 by default).
• Transparent background – a new option renders the realistic look with a transparent background. The studio still lights the model, and its shadows are kept.
• Drag and drop – in Blender 4.1 and above, drop an LDraw file onto the 3D Viewport or the Outliner to import it. The import options appear in a pop-up.
• Read the parts library from a zip – point the add-on at complete.zip (and ldrawunf.zip for unofficial parts) without unzipping (#37).
• Submodels as collections – a new option puts each submodel in its own collection (#96).
• Fabric – the FABRIC finishes are supported: cape cloth, canvas, velvet, string and fur.
• Colours defined in models – !COLOUR lines inside a model or part file are used, following the LDraw rules: a colour applies from where it is defined to the end of that file, and in the submodels and parts it uses after that.

Other new features and improvements

• Import options are laid out in sections that fit the file browser's narrow sidebar, so the labels are no longer cut off. Settings that depend on another one are indented, and greyed out when it is off.
• LeoCAD: hidden pieces (0 !LEOCAD PIECE HIDDEN) are imported hidden (#8).
• Stud.io:
  • Colours missing from the library's LDConfig.ldr are read from Stud.io's own colour table, so Trans-Black and other newer colours import correctly (#111).
  • Unofficial Stud.io parts no longer break apart into one object per primitive (#113).
  • Unzipped .io folders can be imported, and the .io extension is recognised in any case.
• Minifigure rigging:
  • Headwear is recognised by its LDraw category, which covers about 200 more hats and helmets.
  • Hands attach to old-style arms.
  • Each part attaches to the nearest attach point.
  • Importing a second model no longer re-parents the first model's minifigures.
• Studio lighting:
  • background.exr is now 0.9 MB instead of 62 MB, with no visible difference.
  • If the file is missing, a similar built-in studio light is used instead of a purple background or an error.
• Textures follow Real Scale: rubber, glitter, speckle and pearlescent textures are now measured on the part. They look the same on small and large parts and at any scale; before, they were stretched on long parts.
• Bevels use 3 segments instead of 4: they look just as round, with less geometry.
• Single-part imports:
  • The camera now frames the part.
  • The part is placed on the ground.
  • The camera no longer clips through very small models.
• Gaps between bricks now default to 0.1 mm and follow Real Scale. Saved preferences keep their old value.
• Clearer messages:
  • Missing parts are summarised once per import.
  • A warning appears when a file contains nothing to import.
  • When run from a script, errors are shown in a popup instead of only in the system console.

Fixes

Instructions look

• Fixed a crash in Blender 4.x (introduced in 1.2.3).
• Blender 5:
  • crease lines were missing;
  • transparent bricks showed through solid ones;
  • a second import into the same scene crashed;
  • rendering after switching back to the realistic look failed with "No Group Output or File Output nodes in scene".
• Transparent bricks rendered opaque when importing into the Scene Collection.
• Transparent parts were too faint.
• A ground plane left over from a realistic-look import made renders extremely slow.

Realistic look

• Slope textures had no effect in Blender 5 (#117).
• Subsurface scattering settings are corrected for Blender 4 and later.
• Models imported at different scales into the same file each keep the right material settings.
• The light inside light bricks is now in the right place, at any scale.
• Importing into a scene with no World no longer fails.

Parts and geometry

• Parts with no edge lines (balls, rubber belts, strings and others) were shaded faceted.
• A model with its own geometry at the top level failed to import.
• Importing a single part could rotate other bricks that share its mesh.
• Vertices are now welded correctly at every Real Scale.
• Imports into a .blend that already holds parts from an older version no longer reuse the old meshes.
• LeoCAD groups were placed wrongly when a submodel was used twice, or a model was imported twice.

Files and settings

• Files with a byte-order mark, and UTF-16 files, now import.
• Direct colours in lowercase hex are accepted.
• Colour transparency (ALPHA) is now read correctly.
• Malformed lines are skipped with a warning instead of stopping the import.
• 0 NOFILE is recognised.
• LDConfig.ldr is found on Linux when it is named ldconfig.ldr (#116).
• On macOS and Linux, Stud.io's custom parts folder is now searched.
• The colour scheme preference is remembered.
• A read-only add-on folder no longer stops imports.
• The importer works when Blender runs in the background (blender -b).

Notes

• With Bake bevels on, the bevels can't be adjusted after import. Turn it off to keep the Bevel modifiers live.
• Parts made by earlier versions are rebuilt the first time they are imported again, so they pick up the fixes.