LDraw viewers and editors in Ubuntu 16.04. Your favourite construction game, now virtual in your PC

The last Ubuntu LTS version has many new features, but some exotic programs have stopped working and you have to compile them or wait for versions to run them on this version.

Just follow this guide if you want make your own Tente(R), Lego(R), Exin Castillos(R), etc... 3D models with the open format LDraw.

LDraw editors: MLCad & LeoCAD

You can install both of them without any problem, MLCad is a Windows sofware than run very well with wine, so if you want to use in any GNU/Linux install first wine and them MLCad like any other Windows application.

To install LeoCAD follow the guide I make for previous versions of Ubuntu.

LDraw viewer: LDView

You can install the new special versions for Ubuntu 16.04 , 64 bits or 32 bits.

Then you can install it with commands like this:

sudo dpkg -i ldview-4.2-ubuntu-16.04.XXX.deb
sudo apt-get install -f

Professional screenshots: povray

You can get screenshots like a 3D professional:

• Export the model to povray form LDVIEW
• You can get a Full HD screenshot with a command like this:

povray my_model.pov -W1920 -H1080

The problem is that if we install the povray package in the Ubuntu 16.04 repositories it does not work because of a problem in a library, so we have to recompile it ... ugh! how difficult! That it is enough that you copy and paste in your console the following commands:

sudo apt-get install git build-essential libvips-dev libboost-system1.58-dev libboost-thread1.58-dev libc6-dev libgcc1 libilmbase12 libjpeg8-dev libopenexr22 libpng12-dev libsdl1.2-dev libstdc++6-4.7-dev libtiff5-dev zlib1g-dev
./configure COMPILED_BY="tu nombre y correo" --disable-io-restrictions
git clone https://github.com/POV-Ray/povray
cd unix
./prebuild.sh
cd ..
make check
sudo make install

And now you get it.

Set of pieces

You need the set of the pieces of the constuction game you want to use: TENTE(R), LEGO(R) or EXIN CASTILLOS(R).

Then unzip them in differents folders, for example:

• /home/your_user/ldraw/tente
• /home/your_user/ldraw/lego
• /home/your_user/ldraw/exincastillos

Then we can run LDView with this parameter:

LDView -LDrawDir=path_to_set_of_pieces

For more details see the Tente 3D wiki.

Note: The artwork is my construction in Tente 3D of the famous building of the comic 13, Rue del Percebe, the first tentexpress quiz I won :)