Subject

When the UNOFFICIAL library is present, loaded parts will ultimately point to this archive/directory if those parts are present in the OFFICIAL library. This is not usually an expected behaviour because the maturity of unofficial parts may be less than their official counterpart and the behaviour (e.g. orientation) may also be different.

Here we can see part 32532.dat when the unofficial library instance is loaded.

Environment

Version of LPub3D - 2.4.1
Operating system - All

Solution

Although this scenario (official and unofficial files with the same name and different behaviour) is an uncommon exception and should actually not be permitted by the LDraw administrators (in their released libraries), it is a valid use case, as we can see here. There is now a "Prefer Official Part" option in the 3DViewer preference dialogue allowing users to specify the official/unofficial search order.

The thinking behind adding a search order preference flag versus simply defaulting to the official part takes into account the scenario where the user may intentionally have modified official parts in his/her unofficial library.

In the following example, part 32532.dat exists in both the official and unofficial libraries. However, the official part appears to be the valid one. With this update, the user can choose which library part to load.

Cheers,