Installation – Preferences – Snapping – Submodels.
With LeoCAD there are 2 ways for building multiple buildings in one ‘workspace’.
The first option, is just create every building directly in the ‘workspace’. But creating a second building starts to be unhandy and a third even more.
A better option is using Submodels and drag those as a ‘single-piece’ models in the ‘workspace’.
After completing these standalone models, they only need to be positioned in the main workspace. Besides that, it’s also possible to add multiple instances of this same Submodel too. And if the submodel needs a change, all instances are changed right away. This way of modeling keeps you a better overview and more fun building.
File types: .ldr versus .mpd
The “LDR” file is intended for standalone models. When starting a new file, it’s automatically a “.LDR” file. When you add a submodel, the extension changes to “.MPD”. Although a “LDR” file could contain submodels, it’s nicer to keep the file extension, like intended.
Creating a submodel
Adding a submodel is quite straight forward. Press ‘Submode’ in the main menu and then press “New Submodel…”. Now a little popup window appears and the default model name (“Submodel #1.ldr”) could be changed.
Here you see, it’s basically a “LDR” submodel, inside the “MPD” main file.
Above a screendump, just after creating a submodel. It’s time to start building your new model. Couple of things to mention:
- The new submodel (Submodel #1.ldr) is automatically opened.
- The main file name is changed to “New Model.mpd“.
- The main workspace, is still called “New Model.ldr”, which is a bit strange, but that’s the place where to add these sumbodels.
- If you close both modelling windows, you could still select them via the ‘Submodel’ menu item.
Adding submodels to the workspace
When you are done creating one or more submodels, return to the main ‘workspace’ (which is still called “New Model.ldr”), see number #1 in picture below.
In the ‘Part’ list on the right topside, there is also a list item called ‘Submodels’ (#2). If you press this, you will see a list of all submodels, currently available in your “MPD” file.
Now you can simply drag a submodel from the list (#2), into the main workspace and orientate like you want. This submodel is acting like a single part in the workspace(!).
It’s also possible to open already created submodels, like (#5). But sometimes these submodel windows are closed, but it’s still possible to open these via the menu (#4).
Just give it a try, I think it’s a nice option.
Unfortunately, it’s not working like real CAD packages, where submodels could be different files. So always all needed submodels need to be placed in this single “MPD” file.