Sorry DDP but MoI interface = 30 icons with words to get ya started plus self explanatory texts on tabs to delve deeper into the toolset where a similar layout of clearly labeled buttons await with icons. The screen you show there is over 50 icons with no visible clue of where to start. As Michael has said, the idea behind MoI3d is speed, ease of use, less clutter, logical fluid modelling sequences that just flow from one function to the next.

I came from a long and arduous root ... My history was Pen & Paper - AutoCAD - 3DS Max - Rhino & VRay - MoI3D - Cheetah and Shade, over the years I have spent thousands of pounds looking for software that functions in my little niche as a garden designer for the disabled and for wildlife, I thought I had met that with Rhino 3, but then better plugins meant i need to go to version 4 and that move introduced me yet again to whole heap load of bloated menues and hidden functions that were a nightmare to remember and still cost me hundreds of pounds to update and upgrade to just give me a financial loss and a major headache.

I have just spent money again on Shade and on Cheetah purely for render engines in OSX but they are sadly lacking from what i have grown used to. Trust me when I say this, I took to MoI like a duck to water, and it was so refreshing to be able to just sit and model things without having to rummage through a 1000+ page book to find a tool i needed, there really is nothing like MoI .... I can design my 2D curves for garden design work quicker then i could in any other package purely because of the power of MoI and its intuitive workflow that just works.

You are used to your CATIA and you are missing some of the functions that it possess, but please remember that MoI is a "designers" tool, it's there for those moments where you need to get something down quick before you loose that thought, Catia is a project development tool where things can go at a sedately rate where parts are manufactured to strict tolerances with lists of materials etc costs et al .... MoI and Catia are as different as a citroen 2CV and a Mclaren M1, they will both get you from point A to point B, but one will do so quicker than the other. MoI has the speed and ease like the Mclaren, but does it with the features and the cost comparison of the 2CV, purely because it's not Bloatware.

MoI is fast and fun and easy to work with, if that ever changes, then me and my cash will go elsewhere as soon as something else comes along that can replace MoI, and I for one hope that I reach retirement age before that happens.

Enjoy your MoI and your CATIA, it's nice to have input that offers potential insights to the future path of MoI, but accept that they are both tools designed to suit a particular audience ... You dont need to spend 20,000 on software to design a thimble when there is MoI3D available for almost 1/70 the cost and can probably model it far quicker and easier. Now if i was designing the latest 300 foot yacht that has people queuing to purchase at over a million pounds per sale, then I dare say I would then plumb for CATIA, but until that happens i am staying put :)

Martin Spencer-Ford