instruct

Instructions for BlockCAD

(Last updated: 2000-01-03)

As the program was made for my kids, there is not much text in it, you have to figure out the symbols instead.

You can build (small) constructions, using basic blocks, roof blocks, and some specialized pieces like windows and doors. You can choose the color of each piece (and change them later).

The primary method for building is with the mouse, selecting blocks from the block bar to the right, and placing them in the 3D view by left clicking. In the normal mode (Safe mode), every block is placed immediately on top of the location you are pointing at, and it is impossible to place blocks in the air, inside each other, and so on. The Safe Mode can be turned off from the 'gear' menu.

The top bar

Door	Exit the program
Empty doc	Clear the drawing, warning if unsaved work
Open folder	Open a saved model or a sub-assembly
Diskette	Save a complete model to a file on (hard)disk, or save selected blocks to a file (useful for sub-assemblies).
Camera	Select a part of the current view and save as a .BMP or .JPG file
Printer	Print a screen dump (simplistic)
Gear	Settings menu
Rounded arrows	Rotate the view
Stud	Studs on/off. Redraw is faster when studs are off.
Wire frame	Wire frame on/off. Naturally, redraw is faster with no surface rendering.
Eye	See through base plate (from bottom). You can look into a model from the bottom side.
Magnifying glasses	Zoom in/out
Brush	Redraw the screen. Might be necessary after playing with the Z-level cut off.
Pointer	Cancel insert mode
Eye	Transparent blocks
Stud	Studded/Flat blocks
Rainbow	Choose any color
Question mark	About BlockCAD - here You can find my address, and who has helped me make BlockCAD better

The bottom bar

Brick from above	View from top. Does not affect the other angle.
Thin arrows	Select predefined view
Brick from front	View from front. Does not affect the other angle.
R	Restore view. The current view is saved together with the model in a file, and can always be restored.
Combobox with Normal/Half/Fine	Select the positioning increment. Normal means full studs, Half means half a stud, and Fine means 1/24 stud.
Scroll bar	Z-level cut off. Using this you can 'build' the model, by showing (or hiding) one level at a time. Also useful when you need to fix something after the model is done.
Base plate dimensions	Enter zero to eliminate the base plate. Click in the 'Thick' checkbox to make effective.
Thick/thin brick	Choose thick or thin base plate

The side bar

Colored squares	Left click to choose color for new blocks (Or for repainting already inserted blocks), right click to select background color.
Arrows	Flip the pages with building blocks
Combo box with page names	Quick selection of piece selection page
Blocks	Left click to select, right click to bring up the page/block edit menu.

Mouse commands - note: Ver. 1.5 switched the meaning of the first two!

Shift Left click	Select a block in the model for moving it. Be careful - when Safe Mode is active (Default), the clicked block is immediately placed on top of every other block at the same XY coordinates. Normally you should only select blocks in the uppermost layer.
Left Click	Select a block (or the whole group a block belongs to) without moving it. Another Left Click deselects the block/group again. More than one block/group can be selected.
Ctrl Left Click	Select/unselect only the block pointed at, regardless of any groupings
Ctrl Shift Left Click	Cut loose all the selected blocks. You can now move them all and place somewhere else.
Alt Shift Left Click	Copy all the selected blocks. You can now place as many copies of them as you like.
Right click	If you are currently placing a block: Turn the block or sub-assembly. If you are not placing a block: Change the color of the block pointed at.
Control-Right click	Turn the indicated block 90 degrees.
Shift-Right drag	Rotate the model. Same as fat blue arrows on top.
Alt-Right click	Toggle the studs on the indicated block.

Keyboard commands

Delete	Delete all selected blocks (if any) if no current block, else delete the current block.
Backspace	Delete the current block (if any). Same as clicking the Pointer button
Escape	Deselect all selected blocks.
Arrow keys	Move the current block one block increment in X or Y.
Shift-Arrow keys	Move the current block one stud increment in X or Y.
Insert key	Turn the current block 90 degrees.
Page up/down	Move the current block one block increment in Z (only when Safe Mode is off).
Shift-Page up/down	Move the current block one stud increment in Z (only when Safe Mode is off).
Enter	Place a block. Same as Left click.
F1 - F10	Corresponds to the View buttons in the bottom bar.

Settings

Advanced Toolbox. Activates the Advanced ToolBox Window. In this window You can adjust all parameters for the currently selected blocks: color, direction, transparency, position - even Z, which building step it conforms to, etc.
Ldraw this view. If You have Ldraw installed, and have set up the path in blockcad.ini, this menu choice is enabled. You can launch Ldraw to render the current BlockCAD model, in the same viewing position. NOTE BlockCAD can have blocks which don't exist in Ldraw - those will be left out. There can also be some errors in the file bc2ld.lst, in which case the wrong block is rendered in Ldraw, or it is positioned wrong
POV (Via L2P). If You have Ldraw, L2P and POVRay installed, this can launch a rendering directly from BlockCAD. You need to edit the file L2PGO.BAT, and place a copy of that in the Ldraw directory.
POV (Via L3P). If You have Ldraw, L3P and POVRay installed, this can launch a rendering directly from BlockCAD. You need to edit the file L3PGO.BAT, and place a copy of that in the Ldraw directory.
Make group. Join all the selected pieces to a group. From now on all the blocks in the group are selected/unselected when You Left Click any block in the group. Ctrl Left Click always work on individual blocks. Groups are persistant, ie. they remain after saving/loading. When inserting a Sub-Assembly, it is automatically made into a group, so You can Left Click it, and move as a whole.
Break group. Only enabled if at least one group is selected. Makes all the blocks in the selected group(s) individual blocks again.
Fast Studs, Better Studs, Best Studs. Self explanatory. Also used for Ldraw rendering.
Safe positioning (default ON). With this option on, You can only put pieces on top of other pieces, never under or inside them
Don't render covered studs (default OFF). Activating this option may make the redraw a bit faster, but you'll need to redraw when playing with the Z-cutoff..
Slow rendering (default OFF). Redraw the whole picture for every piece rendered. Very slow on my old computer (486/50), and You can see how the model builds up. Much faster on my new computer (PII/266), but You still get a glimpse of the buildup.
Restore background color. Restores the background color to the default value (from Windows settings). Normally this color is not available in the color boxes in BlockCAD.
Background picture… Select a picture to show on the background. Pressing Cancel in the file dialog removes the background picture from the screen.
No details. (Still in experimental stage)
More detail (decorations). (Still in experimental stage)
Most detail (bitmap). (Still in experimental stage)
Hints. Turn on the small textual hints on buttons (hold the mouse pointer over a button to see it's description)
Shading. Turn on/off the simulated shading.
Adjust light. Adjust the position of the simulated light source. NOTE: the way shading works means that you always have two lights opposite of each other, so if the light shines mainly on the top side, the bottom side is also lighted.

Page/block Edit menu (right click in the block selector)

Before you try any of these commands, it's highly recommended that you make a backup copy of BLOCKCAD.INI and the PARTS subdirectory. If anything goes wrong, you can always restore the original.

Edit. Lets you change the indicated block.
Add. Lets you add a new block, starting with a copy of the indicated one.
Remove. Remove a block from the page.
Add page. Add a new, empty page.
Add page from file… Reads a .dat file with block definitions, and adds them all to a new page.
Remove page. Remove the whole page, can only be done when all blocks have been removed first.
Properties… Lets you adjust the height of the cells, and also the scale of rendering, on this page
Reorder pages… Lets you change the order of the pages.
Customize pages… Lets you move blocks between different pages.

Advanced toolbox window

The upper part of this window is concerned with selected parts in the model - if nothing is selected, nothing will happen (hopefully).

So, first you select one or more blocks, and then you can use the commands in this window.

Studs on/off - all selected pieces have their studs on or off.
Color this piece - all selected pieces are painted with the current color
Transparent - make all the selected pieces transparent/opaque
Turn - Turn all the selected blocks (individually, not as a larger part)
Set part id - For the Ldraw-ers. You can put a standard block with BlockCAD, and change it's part id to something else. This can be useful when starting a Ldraw project in BlockCAD
Set step number - Associate the selected pieces with a building step. When all pieces have a step number, you can go through the steps, and see the model be built.
X, Y, Z - Move the selected pieces in any direction. NOTE: this move is always 'unsafe', ie. it's possible to put blocks inside one another - something that BlockCAD is not good at rendering, but Ldraw can.

The lower part of the window acts on the model as a whole.

Replace this color - Assumes one selected block. All block with the same color as this one are painted with the current color instead.
Use this color - Assumes one selected block. The current color is set to the color of that block.
Step - When rendering the picture, show all steps upto, and including, the one shown here. With this control you can step through a model, and see it as a building instruction (assuming all the pieces are assigned a step number)

NOTE for Ldraw users: The step feature is in early beta right now, and has for the moment no connection with the '0 STEP' command in Ldraw. It will eventually.

If you click on the 'Edit Ldraw info' button, the window will be enlarged, and you have the possibility to edit the translation between BlockCAD and Ldraw. This is only useful for you if you have created a new block, and want to have it drawn correctly in Ldraw (In other words - 'keepa da handsa off', most of you).