V2 beta Sep-21-2008 available now

 From:  Michael Gibson
1991.1 
A new v2 beta is available for download here: http://moi3d.com/beta.htm

You will need to enter your v1 license key to download the v2 beta.

The v2 beta installs into its own folder, it is not a problem to have v1 and any v2 beta installed on the same machine, in fact I recommend that so that you can fall back to v1 if you run into some temporary bad bug in v2.


New stuff for this version:

FBX format export - it looks like this will be the preferred format for moving data from MoI into 3DS Max.

SketchUP SKP format export.

CPlane tool (under the View palette) for setting the drawing plane. This allows you to align the drawing plane to more easily work on objects that are not aligned to the normal world axes. I'll try to post some more details about this later, it still is not quite completely finished yet.

Added Drag and Drop support - you can now drag and drop one or more files from Windows Explorer on to the MoI window. If a file is already open MoI will pop up a dialog asking if you want to Open the file or Merge the file with the existing data.
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1886.15

Updated the Text command to show a dynamic wireframe preview of the 3D text as you type or change options.
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1898.13

Updated Circle and Arc Tangent commands - it is now possible to get a circle or arc tangent to 3 curves and also tangent to 2 curves through an existing point, in addition to v1's method of tangent to 2 curves of a specified radius.
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1899.3

New Align tool for background images to make it easier to do image registration to line up a line in an image with a line in the model:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1982.9


New options for adjusting MoI's behavior:


New Rotation style option under Options / View / Rotate/Pan/Zoom options / Rotation style. Can be switched between Rotate around world z axis, or Free rotation. If you prefer a more "object focused" style of rotation then try switching this to "Free rotation" to see if that is more comfortable for you.

Options / View / Show view controls - can be unchecked to disable Zoom/Pan/Rotate controls at the bottom of viewports.

Options / View / 3D view projection - allows switching the 3D view between Perspective or Parallel projection modes.

Link ortho views option under Options / View / Rotate/Pan/Zoom options - when enabled the ortho views will be synchronized with each other when you zoom or pan so that they all stay focused on the same spot.

Axis labels option - under Options / View / Axis labels - allows you to change which axis is labled as x, y, and z. If you are more comfortable working in a y-up and z-forward type system, you can set it up like that as described here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1887.13

Option for controlling wither IGES file import will try to join surfaces into solids -
Options / Import/Export / IGES options / Join surfaces on import.



Fixed a bug with face extrusion where seam edges were being extruded as well when they shouldn't be. http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1934.7

Updated face extrusion - if extruding a single surface then the surface is consumed instead of keeping it around as a separate object in addition to the generated solid.



Network surface construction - updated to use a relative tolerance so it can work better
with larger sized input curves.

AI import tuneup - unit system scale should now be preserved when importing an AI file if you have set your unit system to be either inches, cm, or mm before you import
the file. Otherwise it is scaled by 1/20 from the native AI units to make it just a reasonable size.


moi.ini stuff:

[Commands]
DoNotRepeatShortcutKeys=n

Can be switched to =y to make commands that were triggered by keyboard shortcuts to be ignored by the right-click repeat.

[View]
AxisIconPixelSize=30
Controls the size of the spokes of the optional axis icon that can be displayed in the lower-left corner of a viewport.



New scripting stuff


New methods on a brep getJoinedEdges(), getNakedEdges() and getSeamEdges() which can be
used to retrieve an object list of those particular kinds of edges of an object. This now enables using this keyboard shortcut to highlight all edges that are not joined:
script:var gd = moi.geometryDatabase; gd.deselectAll(); var breps = gd.getObjects().getBreps(); for ( var i = 0; i < breps.length; ++i ) breps.item(i).getNakedEdges().setProperty( 'selected', true );


Fixed some bugs with tab key handling.

Made the CLine menu launcher tag be activated by a right-click in addition to the click-and-hold method.

Some other various minor bug fixes.


Please let me know if you run into any problems!

- Michael