New Jul-17-2007 beta available now

 From:  3dvisuals dude (ODWYERVISUALS)
762.14 In reply to 762.1 
>This pretty much wraps up the feature set for MoI version 1.0, this will likely be the last beta for this
>version. Thanks very much to everyone who has participated in the beta! Your feedback has helped
>shape MoI over the course of the past year.
>

Thank you Michael, discovering Moment Of Inspiration and it's genuinely unprecedented ease of use has been one of the primary highlights of this last year for me as a 3D Modeler, my 3D Modeling workflow speed has truly quadrupled thanks to M.O.I. and after several months of Beta usage now I simply couldn't live without it at this point, nor would I want to!

This last Beta is truly awesome too. What you have done with the multi-face simultaneous normal extrusion issue I was dealing with earlier is great, now I can do symmetrical extrusions at near light speed!

I also discovered right away with this new Beta a fantastic development you just included in M.O.I. which I hadn't previously considered adding to my workflow but now I will be using constantly... the way you just altered Mirror to automatically utilize History updating. This is an incredibly handy thing for me now, since I can use it in realtime within M.O.I. to rapidly visualize mirrored object placement in alternative ways to whatever I originally have in mind when mirroring given objects in a scene.

Given that when I work in M.O.I., I almost always start out with no particular modeling objective in mind (allowing my creativity to flow freeform right from whatever I do first or from some subsequent point as I explore tangential options in altering a scene as I go), now with this New Mirror-Auto-History-Update Feature (I'm not sure what to call it yet!) I can "swing" mirrored objects around the scene in realtime prior to selecting a particular final resting spot for them and then similarly easily "swing" the positions of placed objects which have already been mirrored in an extremely intuitive manner, which for me deeply enhances my imaginative recognition of entirely new and often better alternatives to my original placement thoughts.

This new feature has already led me to create numerous "spinoff" models from my workflow which I export as 3DM files for later exploration in greater depth while I continue to pursue the completion of whetever model I am currently developing within M.O.I.. In a similar fashion I have been exporting unfinished 3DM files for months now from M.O.I. and have developed a library of them in the process which I often revisit on those days where I sometimes don't know where to start with a new modeling idea. Now though, this "unfinished 3DM model library" of mine is already growing exponentially with the introduction of this new Mirroring feature you have just introduced! I love it already!

There remains now only one feature I would genuinely like to see for M.O.I. version 1, and that is OBJ polygonal model import capability. Although I will certainly be investing in M.O.I. with or without it's inclusion, it's inclusion would provide me with the one thing I have always needed within M.O.I.... the ability to import polygonal models strictly for use as solids around which I can then model additional NURBS-based accessories or tangential designs of various kinds which would then be exported from M.O.I. as OBJ models for subsequent inclusion in polygonal scenes containing the original M.O.I.-imported polygonal OBJ model.

I realize there are issues inherent to importing polygonal models within M.O.I. when it comes to any subsequent alterations performed on those models within M.O.I., but I am referring here strictly to imported OBJ format polygonal models which would not be subsequently altered in any way within M.O.I., which would rather serve only as "3D Polygonal Reference Models" if you will, just as images serve now as modeling references within M.O.I..

Given that a vast number of Rhino purchasers over the years have been Poser users who turned to Rhino for the creation of accessories for their Poser human models, it follows that the introduction of this particular feature (M.O.I. import of OBJ format "3D Polygonal Reference Models") could indeed attract a considerably large number of existing Poser and Rhino users to M.O.I. Version 1 which might otherwise find less incentive to switch from using Rhino exclusively in their Poser-related pipeline.

Not that Poser users alone would find this feature highly attractive, no doubt all of us would find many uses for it for sure, it's just that having once been a part of the extremely active "alt.binaries.3d.poser" Usenet Newsgroup myself, I know with a certainty that if M.O.I. were to offer this specific feature a huge number of active "ab3dp" Usenet users would instantly migrate to M.O.I. without any hesitation at all. As it is now, and has been for many years, thousands of these particular people have turned to Rhino specifically for this particular capability (bringing their favorite Poser OBJ models into a NURBS modeler), since viable alternatives to Rhino in this regard have been few and far between all along. M.O.I. could harvest that vast market overnight with nothing else required apart from this specific capability, and a sudden meteoric rise in the success of M.O.I. is certainly something each of us Beta Testers would be very happy to see you achieve with M.O.I. Version 1.

- End of New Feature Pitch Mode - ;^)

I love M.O.I., and when Version 1 is out I'll be among the first purchasers for sure. Thanks for all your hard work these many months Michael, and thank you for providing us all with these many months of opportunity as M.O.I. Beta Testers, the experience has been an absolute delight for all of us.

- 3dvisuals dude