On 06/22/2018 05:07 AM, Elwood wrote:
> Not sure where my other reply went. Yes I'm using LDD to POV and as I said it
> seems to be most of the parts from the LDD update in Feb, but also random older
> pieces.
> 
> However, it's now got worse. After another reinstall, I'm getting the message
> "cannot find file 'ldd_colors_declarations.bin' even after trying to append file
> type extension".
> 
> Under that in blue it says "\\.\LDDIncludes\ldd_default_colors.inc" line 20:
> Parse Error: Cannot open include file ldd_colors_declarations.bin.
> 
> Driving me mad.

From
http://ldd2povray.lddtools.com/index.php?p=3_2_Running-the-application

Why POV-Ray™ reports "Parse Error: Cannot open include file 
ldd_default_colors.inc', even after trying to append file type extension."
This error appears when the Library_Path in POVRAY.ini does not contain 
\\.\LDDIncludes, LDD to POV-Ray Converter is not running or POV-Ray is 
64bit and LDD to POV-Ray Converter is 32bit.


+++
Oy freakin' vey!  It installs a device driver??  That's a pretty obtuse 
way to convert from one format to another.
http://ldd2povray.lddtools.com/index.php?p=3_1_Installation
-- 
dik
Rendered 328976 of 330000 (99%)

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Am 22.06.2018 um 12:34 schrieb dick balaska:

> +++
> Oy freakin' vey!  It installs a device driver??  That's a pretty obtuse
> way to convert from one format to another.
> http://ldd2povray.lddtools.com/index.php?p=3_1_Installation

There's a reason behind this:

The LDD software is an original proprietary piece of software by the
LEGO company, and comes with pretty exact definitions of all the LEGO
pieces.

The LEGO company considers the part definitions proprietary information,
and would normally not tolerate any 3rd party to reverse-engineer them
and create a piece of software that would allow the information to be
exported in a different format.

The author of the LDD to POV-Ray Converter seems to have reached a
special agreement with the LEGO company (not sure whether express or
silent) that they tolerate (and maybe even support the creation of) this
particular piece of software. Apparently the LEGO company recognizes
POV-Ray as an established tool to render LEGO models.

However, /the/ major condition for this special agreement seems to be
that the converter must make converted piece definitions available only
to approved pieces of software, which most notably includes official
POV-Ray for Windows v3.7.0, but no unofficial builds, nor even most
development builds.

To meet this condition, the LDD to POV-Ray Converter cannot convert
piece definitions to actual include files for later rendering (because
that would make the data available to arbitrary software). Instead,
corresponding include "files" are provided via a special driver, which
listens to the path `\\.\LDDIncludes\` and produces the necessary files
"onl the fly" from the original LEGO data -- but only to whitelisted
applications. Other applications trying to access that path will get
nothing.


So while at first glance this approach might /seem/ obtuse, it is pretty
much the only way LEGO will allow LDD models to be rendered with POV-Ray.

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Thanks. Yeh, I've been reading all of these pages, and it tells me why something
has happened but not how to rectify it. I cannot understand why it now won't
render any of my LDD models - yesterday it was just the one model with the
problems now it's completely knacked.

It now keeps crashing or hanging when I try to use it. Think I'll use
Bluerender.

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Am 22.06.2018 um 13:30 schrieb clipka:

> So while at first glance this approach might /seem/ obtuse, it is pretty
> much the only way LEGO will allow LDD models to be rendered with POV-Ray.

As a side note, this also means that we need to be careful about adding
export functionality to POV-Ray, because if we're doing it wrong, such a
version of POV-Ray will not be eligible to work with the LDD to POV-Ray
Converter.

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Am 22.06.2018 um 13:32 schrieb Elwood:
> Thanks. Yeh, I've been reading all of these pages, and it tells me why something
> has happened but not how to rectify it. I cannot understand why it now won't
> render any of my LDD models - yesterday it was just the one model with the
> problems now it's completely knacked.

You'll have to start POV-Ray, from the `Tools` menu choose `Edit master
POVRAY.INI`, and in that file, add the line:

    Library_Path="\\.\LDDIncludes"

or

    Library_Path="//./LDDIncludes"

(either one should work)

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clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
> Am 22.06.2018 um 13:32 schrieb Elwood:
> > Thanks. Yeh, I've been reading all of these pages, and it tells me why something
> > has happened but not how to rectify it. I cannot understand why it now won't
> > render any of my LDD models - yesterday it was just the one model with the
> > problems now it's completely knacked.
>
> You'll have to start POV-Ray, from the `Tools` menu choose `Edit master
> POVRAY.INI`, and in that file, add the line:
>
>     Library_Path="\\.\LDDIncludes"
>
> or
>
>     Library_Path="//./LDDIncludes"
>
> (either one should work)

Right - now getting an error window saying "Unable to generate necessary
includes. Root element is missing".

If I check the 'don't generate includes' it goes back to the parsing error
"cannot find file 'ldd_colors_declarations.bin'"

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Am 22.06.2018 um 14:36 schrieb Elwood:
> clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> Am 22.06.2018 um 13:32 schrieb Elwood:
>>> Thanks. Yeh, I've been reading all of these pages, and it tells me why something
>>> has happened but not how to rectify it. I cannot understand why it now won't
>>> render any of my LDD models - yesterday it was just the one model with the
>>> problems now it's completely knacked.
>>
>> You'll have to start POV-Ray, from the `Tools` menu choose `Edit master
>> POVRAY.INI`, and in that file, add the line:
>>
>>     Library_Path="\\.\LDDIncludes"
>>
>> or
>>
>>     Library_Path="//./LDDIncludes"
>>
>> (either one should work)
> 
> Right - now getting an error window saying "Unable to generate necessary
> includes. Root element is missing".

That would be a message from the LDD to POV-Ray Converter. I'm not
familiar enough with the tool to help you out there.

My wild guess would be that the converter can't find the LDD installation.

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On 06/22/2018 08:36 AM, Elwood wrote:
> clipka <ano### [at] anonymousorg> wrote:
>> Am 22.06.2018 um 13:32 schrieb Elwood:
>>> Thanks. Yeh, I've been reading all of these pages, and it tells me why something
>>> has happened but not how to rectify it. I cannot understand why it now won't
>>> render any of my LDD models - yesterday it was just the one model with the
>>> problems now it's completely knacked.
>>
>> You'll have to start POV-Ray, from the `Tools` menu choose `Edit master
>> POVRAY.INI`, and in that file, add the line:
>>
>>      Library_Path="\\.\LDDIncludes"
>>
>> or
>>
>>      Library_Path="//./LDDIncludes"
>>
>> (either one should work)

The only time I ever use \\ is for Windows pseudo-devices or device drivers.
That's too deep for me to trust //.  I've not seen anyone else use // .
(Although it appears to be working because he got past the 
ldd_default_colors.inc problem)

> 
> Right - now getting an error window saying "Unable to generate necessary
> includes. Root element is missing".

That sounds like an upstream problem.  That message is not in POV-Ray.

> 
> If I check the 'don't generate includes' it goes back to the parsing error
> "cannot find file 'ldd_colors_declarations.bin'"

Are you mixing 32 bits driver with 64 bit POV-Ray?

-- 
dik
Rendered 328976 of 330000 (99%)

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Success!!!

After lots of reading and comparing it was a very simple thing to correct.

On the LDD to POV-RAY Converter, clicking on the 'settings' button brings up a
menu. I clicked on 'Setup paths' and this opens a window with two file path bars
(and a third one that can't be edited).

The second bar says 'Output path for includes:'

Mine said:

"C:\Users\Elwood\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\LDDInc"

I changed it to say:

"C:\Users\Elwood\AppData\Roaming\LEGO Company\LEGO Digital Designer\LDDIncludes"

Yep - just changed the last word from 'LDDInc' to 'LDDIncludes' and everything
is now working perfectly - in fact it's rendering faster than before.

Hopefully this will help anyone else in the same situation. Still don't know why
it just suddenly happened though.

Thanks to all for their thoughts.

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I have bad news: LEGO removed the download link to LDD from their 
website. So there's no official way for us to even diagnose the problem 
you're having.

Mike


On 6/21/2018 2:59 PM, Elwood wrote:
>   Hi all,
> 
> I've been doing renders for quite some time now, but a new model I'm trying to
> convert keeps running into problems. I keep getting the error message "cannot
> find file 'ldd-*****.bin' even after trying to append file type extension" (with
> the ***** replaced by the Lego part number.)
> 
> At first I thought it was limited to the newer parts, but it's even doing it
> with older parts. What am I doing wrong?
> 
>

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