michaelgale / ldraw-vscode

LDraw language support extension for Visual Studio Code.

LDraw for Visual Studio Code

This repository contains a language support extension to Visual Studio Code for LDraw files.

LDraw is an open standard for LEGO® CAD software. It is based on a hierarchy of elements describing primitive shapes up to complex LEGO models and scenes.

Syntax Highlighting

This extension provides convenient syntax highlighting for working with LDraw files. It recognizes all LDraw keywords and some keywords/meta-commands from other tools such as LPub and LSynth. Lines that contain primitives (line types 1-5) have elements such as colour, coordinates, and matrix coefficients indiviually highlighted into groups for easy visual parsing.

Features

• special highlights for groups of 3D coordinate values, hex values, and quoted strings
• support for officially recognized // double slash comment lines
• different highlights for recognized keywords vs. !META commands
• FILE/NOFILE highlighted differently to help spot model boundaries in a file

Installation

Installing the language extension is easy using vsix package bundle included in this repository. To install the extension:

1. Select the Extensions icon in the VSCode side bar
2. Select the (...) menu at the top of the sidebar
3. Select Install from VSIX... from the menu
4. Select the ldraw-X.X.X.vsix file

References

• LDraw.org - Official maintainer of the LDraw file format specification and the LDraw official part library.

Lego CAD Tools

• Bricklink stud.io new and modern design tool designed and maintained by Bricklink
• LeoCAD cross platform tool
• MLCAD for Windows
• Bricksmith for macOS by Allen Smith (no longer maintained)
• LDView real-time 3D viewer for LDraw models

LPub Instructions Tools

• Original LPub publishing tool by Kevin Clague
• LPub3D successor to LPub by Trevor Sandy
• Manual for Legacy LPub 4 tool (last version by Kevin Clague)

Authors

ldraw-vscode was written by Michael Gale