jLug User Guide

These are fairly basic instructions intended to get you going.


Starting jLug - java -jar jLug.jar

Installing part files - you need to do this the first time you start jLug

The Install Location field is the directory into which you wish to install the part files. It defaults to the directory that jLug is run from. If you already have part files installed, just change this to the directory you installed them into and press the Reset jLug Part File Settings button. E.g. if you have C:\Program Files\Ldraw, enter C:\Program Files.

If the Rest jLug part file... checkbox has a tick, then every time part files are installed jLug's configuration settings are changed to pick up the files from the new Install Location directory. This is the same action performed by the Reset jLug Part File Settings button.

As mentioned above, the Reset jLug Part File Settings button updates jLug's config settings for the Install Location. To be exact, it defines which directories jLug searches when looking for parts, and where the parts list file is located. The part file directories and parts list file can be viewed and changed in the Preferences dialog, under the Files tag.

The Base Files section allows you to download and unzip the base files. These contain all the original part files from 1997. Note, the zip file also contains the LDraw software and other executables. These are not extracted or installed as they only work with Windows PCs.

The Full Install section allows you to download and unzip the latest full set of amended part files. Basically, this does exactly the same as the Base Files installation, but with different zip file. If you wish to download and install any of the upgrade files available from LDraw.org, you can simply change the URL to point to the relevant update zip file.

Adding parts - Find the part you want in the parts list in the left hand side. Then click-n-drag the part into the main editing canvas to the right. The first part should appear in the center. Further parts should appear on top of the previous part.

Changing the view - The view in the main editing canvas can be changed with either the middle mouse button or, if your mouse doesn't have one, Alt+any mouse button.

Key/Button	Alternative	Action
Middle	Alt+Any	Rotate view
Ctrl+Middle	Ctrl+Alt+Any	Zoom in/out
Shift+Middle	Shift+Alt+Any	Pan view

Editing parts - Click on a part to select it. It should be surrounded by a white box frame. This white frame will always shows the currently selected part. Clicking on the background of the editing canvas deselects all parts.

Key	Action
Ctrl+X	Cut selected part
Ctrl+C	Copy selected part
Ctrl+V	Paste part
Del	Remove selected part

Right-clicking on one of the faces of the white frame allows you to move the part about. The part will move along the plane of the clicked face. Movement will also be constrained by the 'grid snap', which can be set to fractions of a 1x1 brick in the Edit->Grid menu.

Left-clicking on one of the faces of the white frame allows you to rotate the part. The part will rotate around an axis perpendicular with the clicked face and through the part's center of rotation. The axis is actually drawn, but isn't very visible at the moment.

Ctrl+Right-clicking on a part allows you to select multiple parts. The whole lot can then be moved and rotated as described above.

Transparent Colours (v1.2) - Depending on your graphics card you may have to change the transparency mode (File->Preferences->Display). After changing the mode you will need to restart jLug before the new mode to takes affect. BLENDED is the preferred option. If transparent colours don't display correctly with that, try SCREEN_DOOR. The WinNT4 software rendered OpenGL version only seems to work with SCREEN_DOOR.


Ummm... thats it for now. Sorry.