Download L3P for Linux (i386) and Mac (OSX)

First some info about how to run L3P

L3P is a console program. You can NOT run it by double-clicking on its icon. You must run it in a terminal window (an xterm).
Windows/DOS users can go to this download page and download zipped versions for their platforms.

There are two (or three) requirements to run L3P:

The shell must know where to find the l3p executable.
L3P must know where LDraw is installed, i.e. in which directory L3P can find the P, PARTS and MODELS directories.
If you plan using the LGEO PovRay parts you must also do this.

1. The shell must know where to find the l3p executable.

Where have you put l3p?
Let's say it is in the /home/Lars/l3p directory, then you have to put /home/Lars/l3p in your path.
At the prompt type (suppose you use csh or tcsh):

   set path = ($path /home/Lars/l3p)

(path is set to the old path plus /home/Lars/l3p)
Now the shell will search for l3p in /home/Lars/l3p too. This means that you can stay in any directory, e.g. where your models are or where your POV files are, and start L3P. The shell can now find l3p because you have told it where to look.

If you want to see where else the shell looks for programs, simply type [1]:

   echo $path

The "set path = ($path /home/Lars/l3p)" command can be put into your ~/.cshrc (or whatever login script you have).
Now the "set" command will be executed each time you start a shell and the path is automatically updated, and you save typing the set command.

If you don't want to mess with the path environment variable, then you can simply place l3p in e.g. /usr/local/bin or /usr/bin or any other directory that is already in your path, see [1].

2. L3P must know where LDraw is installed

L3P needs to know where to look for the LDraw parts, i.e. where the P, PARTS and MODELS directories are located. You must set the environment variable LDRAWDIR to the directory containing the P, PARTS and MODELS:

If you have installed LDraw in /home/Lars/LDraw, then your computer has these directories:
/home/Lars/LDraw/P
/home/Lars/LDraw/PARTS
/home/Lars/LDraw/MODELS
and this file (among others):
/home/Lars/LDraw/parts.lst

So your LDraw directory (LDRAWDIR) is /home/Lars/LDraw.
You must call the set command before any calls to L3P

% set LDRAWDIR = /home/Lars/LDraw
% l3p car.dat
% l3p car.dat newview -cg30,45 -b -f

This should result in two POV-files car.pov and newview.pov

If you have POV-Ray installed then launch it and open e.g. car.pov
Voila!

It is convenient to put "set LDRAWDIR = /home/Lars/LDraw" in your ~/.cshrc (or whatever login script you have), then you don't have to type the "set" command everytime you want to run l3p.

The environment variable LDRAWDIR was originally suggested by Tore Eriksson.

Then download...

Included in the zip files is the documentation l3p.txt.
Note: Since the executable has been packed by zip it has lost its executable attributes. So, after unzip'ing remember to "chmod 777 l3p".

Linux i386 logo L3P (Linux i386) v1.3 20021201 l3plinux.zip (252 kB)

Mac OS X Universal Binary logo L3P (MacOSX ppc/i386) v1.3 20061021 l3pmacosx.zip (83 kB) Requires Mac OS X v. 10.1

Please enjoy and let me know what you think.

Windows and DOS users can go to this download page and download zipped versions for their platforms.

Lars C. Hassing's Homepage

Mac and the Mac logo are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

Last updated October 24, 2006