Hi Borhan, thanks for the feedback!

> IMO being able to know the current orientation of the construction plane is important.

Under normal circumstances just looking at the grid will tell you that already - the accented x and y axes of the grid form an "L" shape which from a simple viewing angle from above is distinct enough to determine x from y. Also when you're drawing something with straight snap engaged, any time straight snap locks on to one of the world axes, it will show "x", "y", or "z" at the base point, so watching for that will give you another indicator if you are uncertain which direction is which.

Too many bright colors all over the viewport are rather distracting and "in your face" - that's another reason why I didn't want to do that by default.

If you do want different colors for the x and y axis of the construction plane, there is an option available for that, go to "Grid snap" on the bottom bar and pop out the menu above it and choose "grid options", there are options there to set the colors for the X axis and Y axis of the construction plane there. Note - that these colors will be for the local x/y axes of the construction plane, not colored by world axis.


> ( BTW it would be cool to be able to maximize the "current" viewport with a keyboard
> shortcut....maybe its already possible I have not investigate that )

This is possible with a script macro in a keyboard shortcut:

[Shortcut Keys]
Space=script:if ( moi.ui.mainWindow.viewpanel.mode != 'split' ) { moi.ui.mainWindow.viewpanel.mode = 'split' } else { var viewport = moi.ui.getViewportUnderMouse(); if ( viewport ) { viewport.viewPanel.mode = viewport.name } }

That will set up the space bar to maximize the view currently under the mouse, or switch back to a split view if one is currently maximized.

There are some other useful scripts that Petr has collected here: http://kyticka.webzdarma.cz/3d/moi/


> Actually I cancel this rotation to go back to MoI space(->counterclockwise around the
> x axis to be in the same space )

In that case you may want to set the "SwapAxes=n" option in moi.ini, that will stop MoI from doing any manipulation to the coordinates.


> The fact is that your choice ( I prefer consistency instead.... if you cant provide
> a complete solution ) is not the expected result for most artists I think.

I'd be very surprised if the current system is not what artists expect - your message here is actually the very first complaint that I've heard about it!

Typically most people are more concerned about "up, down, left, and right" instead of "x,y,z".

The current system rotates objects to preserve what is considered the "up" direction.

For example if you draw a cone in MoI and have it centered on the world origin and pointing "up" along the z axis in MoI, when you import that cone into Modo most people would expect to see the cone pointing "up" in Modo as well, which means orienting it along the y axis in Modo.

I guess I don't really understand what you would prefer instead - you would rather map the "up" direction in MoI to some other direction than "up" in Modo?


> Drawing curves in the 3d view is very important IMO

If the curve you are drawing is rather detailed or has many points, it is better to draw it in one of the ortho views because it tends to be difficult to control proportion of fine details in the 3d view.

But certainly for simple curves it is useful to draw them in the 3d view - and MoI supports a couple of features to make it possible to do that.

The most basic is straight snap - this can be used to snap the second point of a line to the z axis in the 3D view, to draw a line that comes up in 3D off of the plane.

To get more detailed control of 3D point placement you can use a construction line combined with straight snap to set up guide lines that allow you to track off of the plane.

Here is an example - let's say you want to draw a hoop coming up in 3D above this line segment:



Start the Draw curve / Freeform / Control points command.

Snap the first point of the curve to the end of the line, and use straight snap to snap the second point above it in Z:




Now for the interesting part - we'll create a construction line as a snapping aid for the 3rd point. Before placing the 3rd point, go to the other end of the line, and drag out a construction line. This is done by doing a click, hold down and drag instead of a click and release. The construction line can be dragged out in z, giving a type of temporary "post" or "pillar" there for snapping:



Now that the construction line is placed, we can do a perpendicular snap on to it for the 3rd point:



And finally snap the 4th point to the other end, the result is a symmetrical hoop that comes vertically up off the plane:




So you can use construction lines in this manner as a way to get points up "off the plane" inside the 3d view.


> ( try amapi if you havn't -> Look at the constraint system and the "adaptive" features ).

I've tried it before, and it is interesting but there are also some things that I don't like. When I want to draw on a certain plane, I have to change my view to a certain angle to snap on to it. This causes my view to be restricted - I can't just operate with my view anywhere I want, I have to move around to certain angles for certain operations. In some ways I don't like the restricted feeling of this, I like to have more free control over that 3d view.

The view angles around 45 degrees are so become kind of weird, since there is a huge change in functionality if you take just one step from say 44 degree view elevation to 46 degree. This is kind of odd in general, to have a huge shift in functionality by a very small change in something else...

But I can see how it is useful for some situations. However, I think I prefer to be in more explicit control of switching the plane.

Does the Amapi constraint/adaptive system allow for drawing the hoop like I showed above?

- Michael