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Color bin files

See the faq section for information on how to find the configuration location.

There are currently three kinds of files controlling the color bin content. These are:

  • colorBin.fav
  • colorBin.his
  • *.cbg

colorBin.fav

colorBin.fav located in the config folder holds your favorite colors in no particular order. Favorite colors can be made visible in the color bin by configuring color bin groups of the 'favorite' kind.

It's best not to edit this file out side LDCad. You can however just delete it, while LDCad is closed, if you want to clear your favorites. The file will be recreated on next program start up.

colorBin.his

colorBin.his located in the config folder holds your complete LDCad color usage history. Historic color use can be made visible in the color bin by configuring color bin groups of the 'history' kind.

It's best not to edit this file out side LDCad. You can however just delete it, while LDCad is closed, if you want to clear your history. The file will be recreated on next program start up.

Color bin group files (*.cbg)

Color bin group files are used to configure the contents of the color bin window inside LDCad. This is done by supplying a cbg for each menu or color wheel in the color bin tree.

All *.cbg files are located in the colorBin folder of your installation. At that location you will find a sysRoot.cbg and default subfolder. The default folder holds the official (default) color bin configuration. It is not recommended to edit the contents of that folder.

If you want to add / create custom color bin groups you should do so by adding second folder besides the default one. e.g. by coping and renaming it. Any such folder will be automatically processed / added to the bin if it has at least a root.cbg file inside it.

After you added a second folder with your modified cbg files to the colorBin folder it will become visible in the color bin window by navigating to the color bin root. This root will now list the color bin folders instead of the default color bin root. This behavior will only be applied if there are multiple folders in the colorBin folder. Other wise it will default to the single folders root group.

cbg files are plain text files which hold a collection of options and or items. The generic structure is like this:

[optionsSection]
option1=value
option2=value
option3=value

<itemsSection>
itemValue1
itemValue2
itemValue3

Menu group

Menu groups are used to choose from a multiple of subgroups. The cbg file has the following structure:

[options]
kind=menu
caption=group caption
description=some short description

<items>
someGroupFileWithoutTheCbgExtension1
someGroupFileWithoutTheCbgExtension2
someGroupFileWithoutTheCbgExtension3

The caption option is the text used at the top of the color bin indicating the current group. It is also displayed in the menus of any higher menu group referring to this group. The caption text should never be more then a couple of words as the color bin is usually not very wide.

The description value is the text displayed in the hint bar of LDCad when the mouse if over something representing this group.

The items section is used to list the groups you want this menu group to refer to. This is done by supplying the relative cbg file names without their extension. The filenames must be relative to the location of root.cbg. You can list any kind of cbg file.

Static group

The static cbg can be used to create a color wheel displaying a collection of hand picked LDraw colors. Its basic structure is like so:

[options]
kind=static
caption=group caption
description=some short description
sortOn=number
sortDesc=false

<items>
LDrawColorNumber1
LDrawColorNumber2
LDrawColorNumber3

caption and description have been discussed above and have the same goal inside this file.

The sortOn value is used to indicate how the listed items should be sorted before displaying them inside the color bin window. The value must be one of the following:

  • none Do not sort the items.
  • number Sort by the item's LDraw color number.
  • timestamp Sort by the item's timestamp (if any).

The sortDesc value must be ether true of false indicating if the item list must be sorted in descending order (if the sortOn value is set to true).

The items section lists the LDraw colors you want to display. Add one LDraw color number per line to make them show up in the color wheel of this group.

History group

History cbg files are used to display (part of) the content of the colorBin.his file inside the color bin window using a color wheel. This is done by defining a filer upon the master list in means of the timeFrame option. The cbg file has the following structure:

[options]
kind=history
caption=group caption
description=some short description
sortOn=number
sortDesc=false
timeFrame=7

caption, description, sortOn and sortDesc have been discussed above and have the same meaning inside this file.

The timeFrame option controls which colors will be displayed. This is done by indicating how far back in time (in days) you want to go while building this overview. A timeFrame of zero will cause all history items to be shown.

Favorite group

Favorite cbg files are used to display the content of the colorBin.fav file inside the color bin window using a color wheel. The cbg file has the following structure:

[options]
kind=favorite
caption=group caption
description=some short description
sortOn=number
sortDesc=false

caption, description, sortOn and sortDesc have been discussed above and have the same meaning inside this file.

Filter group

Probably the most important color bin group kind is the filter group. It is used to display (part of) the current LDCad LDraw palette using a color wheel. This is done by defining a set of filtering rules. The cbg file has the following structure:

[options]
kind=filter
caption=group caption
description=some short description
sortOn=number
sortDesc=false

<filter>
filterRule1
filterRule2
filterRule3

caption, description, sortOn and sortDesc have been discussed above and have the same meaning inside this file.

The filter section is used to ether include or exclude colors to display based on their characteristics. Each line in the filter must start with ether include or exclude followed by a single characteristic which can be one of the following:

  • all all colors currently in the palette.
  • transparent All transparent colors currently in the palette.
  • plastic All plastic colors currently in the palette.
  • chrome All chrome colors currently in the palette.
  • pearl All pearl colors currently in the palette.
  • rubber All rubber colors currently in the palette.
  • metal All metal colors currently in the palette.
  • matteMetal All matte metal colors currently in the palette.
  • system All special LDraw reserved (e.g. 16) color numbers.
  • decodedAll RGB decoded colors currently in the palette.
  • calcedDitherAll colors obtained by dithering two others currently in the palette.
  • calcedTransparentAll colors obtained by changing the opaque value of another color in the palette.

Optionally a ! can be put in front of the characteristic value to indicate you want it to NOT match the given characteristic.

Some examples to make things more clear:

<filter>
include all
exclude calcedDither
exclude decoded
exclude system

Above rule set will generate a color wheel for all 'normal' LDraw colors as it first includes everything followed by removing the 'special' colors.

<filter>
include !metal

This rule set will generate a color wheel for all LDraw colors in the palette except for the metal ones.

<filter>
include decoded
exclude transparent

This rule set will generate a color wheel for all RGB decoded colors except the transparent ones.

System root group

Now you somewhat more familiar with the cbg file configuration it might also be interesting to know the inner workings of the absolute top level sysRoot.cbg.

It is not recommended to edit this group file as it is part of the LDCad default installation and there fore overwritten during upgrades. If you need to edit it for any reason just make notes of your changes so you can reapply them after upgrades. The cbg file has the following structure:

[options]
kind=sysRoot
caption=group caption
description=some short description
sorted=true
sortInsens=true

<ignore>
someFolderName1
someFolderName2
someFolderName3

caption and description have been discussed above and have the same meaning inside this file.

The sorted value must be ether true or false indicating if the folder list should be sorted or not.

If sorted the sortInsens must be ether true or false indicating if the folder list should sort case insensitive or not.

The ignore section is use to list folders you don't want to be part of the color bin menu (even if they have a root.cbg). You can use this list to mask out e.g. old versions or prototypes etc.