Full Version: V5 Wish List

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My bad. the System File Dialog works great in Moi V4 (on windows 10).

tbh, I still use MoI v3 mostly since I encounter performance problems with v4. It's most likely because of my system though. I believe it's something that has to do with Javascript crashing. I also have a very old CPU that I bought for around 15 bucks (i7 3770).

I should be more careful before posting on the forum. I don't want to waste anybody's time, so my apologies.

PS: I keep on noticing these seemingly "Under the hood" improvements between v3 and v4, like support for 7100 FBX, the improvement in File Dialog, and so on. This makes me more excited for v5, as I'm starting to rely more and more on MoI in my workflow. Best of Luck with it!

- Flowgun

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Hi Flowgun, no problem. Yes MoI v3 used an older interface for the file open dialog on Windows. MoI v4 was updated to use the latest.

re:
> tbh, I still use MoI v3 mostly since I encounter performance problems with v4.

Do you still see the performance problems with v5?

There is also a setting in v5 to make it use the same Direct3D9 system graphics library that v3 did, you can set that in moi.ini under:
[View]
GraphicsAPI=Direct3D9

If you have a pretty old flaky video driver that worked better with MoI v3 that could make v5 behave more like v3 on your system possibly.

- Michael

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Hi Michael,

When saving as a PDF, I wonder how hard it would be to offer the option to append a new page if the PDF already exists? For me the use case would be the many times that I'm appending the PDFs of different views of something to produce a document to share. If it is not too difficult, I would find this quite handy!

I realize that PDFs are complex, so if it would make such a feature simpler to implement, maybe the option is only offered if the existing PDF is "easy" to work with, for example created by MOI?

--Larry

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Hi Larry,

re:
> For me the use case would be the many times that I'm appending the PDFs of different
> views of something to produce a document to share.

For this use it seems like it might work better if you could generate the multi-page PDF all in one go from some kind of list of saved views.

I think it might be possible to make a script that would do a "save to PDF append page" if I can set up a helper utility program for it to call to do the merge. The PoDoFo library that MoI uses for PDF handling has a utility like that in it so I'll give it a try.

- Michael

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Hi Michael,

> I think it might be possible to make a script that would do a "save to PDF append page" if I
> can set up a helper utility program for it to call to do the merge. The PoDoFo library that MoI
> uses for PDF handling has a utility like that in it so I'll give it a try.

Assembling the individual PDFs into a multi-page document isn't a problem for me (just a small hassle),
but the thought occurred that if it was relatively easy to append to an existing PDF it would be quite
handy. I'll look forward to whatever you come up with & appreciate as always your willingness to help!

--Larry

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"Wish" list....

Continuity controls added to sweep curves and rails.

Sortof the same work as 4 sided continuity added to network and nsided.

:)

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Michael

I know it is very early days yet with development of V5, and I'm unaware the your plans for GUI improvements. Although the view window buttons on the bottom nav bar function well, I wonder if there is a more elegant solution that doesn't hog so much screen realestate.
Although the colours are a bit garish, I think the navigation cube in this online SD modeller could serve as an example:
https://stephaneginier.com/archive/nomad_demo/

The navCube is immediately comprehensible on initial encounter with the interface and the labelling of faces greatly assists with orientation.
It also includes screen reset facility: clicking a second time on the cube face selection zooms to selected object extents.

Now, I know that there is no option for split screen, but perhaps a small adjacent 4 pane window icon could solve this requirement.
Please disregard this suggestion if it does not meld with your vision of Moi3d

James
https://www.instagram.com/nodeology/

Image Attachments:
navCube.jpg 

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Hi James,

re:
> Although the view window buttons on the bottom nav bar function well, I wonder if there is a more
> elegant solution that doesn't hog so much screen realestate. Although the colours are a bit garish,
> I think the navigation cube in this online SD modeller could serve as an example:
> https://stephaneginier.com/archive/nomad_demo/

It looks like it performs a somewhat different function than the Split / 3D / Top / Front / Right view tabs in MoI.

When you click on Top on that view cube, it's navigating a perspective view camera position. When you click on
the Top view tab in MoI it switches the orthographic 2D Top viewport to be maximized.

The 2D ortho views in MoI help to give more of a 2D drawing workflow when you're working in them, it would
be a problem to eliminate them and only navigate the 3D perspective view like the view cube navigation
is doing.

- Michael

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Michael



Of course, I wasn't advocating abandoning 2D orthographic projections, but rather suggesting the possibility of adapting this type of navigational device to operate within MoI3d similarly to how the button row works now (perhaps with animated transitions).
And as for the 4up split view, this could be handled by additional adjacent icon.

Anyway it was only a thought, not even a request.
Have a great weekend,
James
https://www.instagram.com/nodeology/

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Hi James, I think it might be difficult to animate a transition between perspective and orthographic. I'm not sure though.

The way that particular view cube navigation works it isn't an issue because it stays in a perspective view the whole time. That's why it's a somewhat different type of function than MoI's view tabs.

Another issue is that in MoI when you switch to a 2D ortho view you don't do any view orbiting. With the view cube you need to be able to orbit the camera to expose different views that you might want to switch to. All the different views are not always exposed and ready to click on immediately, like if you go to Top it's kind of problematic that the view cube now just shows Top where you're already at and you have to do some camera orbiting movement to be able to go somewhere else.

It doesn't really fit in with MoI's 2D viewports being separate from the 3D view. That's why I mentioned getting rid of the 2D ortho views, because it seems like that would probably be a precondition for making it work.

- Michael

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@Larry,

re :
> Assembling the individual PDFs into a multi-page document isn't a problem for me (just a small hassle),
> but the thought occurred that if it was relatively easy to append to an existing PDF it would be quite
> handy. I'll look forward to whatever you come up with & appreciate as always your willingness to help!

I put a plug-in for doing this over here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=10679.1

- Michael

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Am I am not even sure why one would need the cube. Got all of it already in the tabs ...

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Message 10114.383 was deleted

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A circular selection mode would be helpful

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Hi Michael,

AddPageToPDF.js with podofomerge works great with V5 beta, thanks!!

A little odd though as it appears to work with V4 (script functions as it does in V5, with no errors), but the output file is not changed.

I'm on a MacBook Pro with M1.

--Larry

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Hi Larry,

re:
> A little odd though as it appears to work with V4 (script functions as it does in V5, with no errors),
> but the output file is not changed.

I've updated AddPageToPDF.js so it should work ok now on v4 Mac now as well.

It was an issue with spaces in filenames that v5 automatically compensates for.

- Michael

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> I've updated AddPageToPDF.js so it should work ok now on v4 Mac now as well.

Confirmed working, thanks again!

--Larry

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Feature request for V5... add dimension field to POLYGON data entry fields

I would to be able to:
1. select POLYGON
2. select the desired option (Center, Edge, Star)
3. enter the desired number of SIDES (sidebar question... can the default number of sides by set in the .ini file?)
4. tab to a new 'dimension' field (below the SIDES field?) to enter the desired polygon dimension (eg, the CIRCUMSCRIBED dimension if selected). I'd also prefer to have the entered dimension match my USER PREFERENCES for DIAMETER vs RADIUS or vice versa, eg, use DIAMETER if CIRCLES is set to use DIAMETER (or provide an .ini option to set the preferred default).

For example, if I'm using the current implementation correctly(?) for a CENTER drawn polygon, the TAB button cycles between SIDES and CIRCUMSCRIBED. To enter the desired CIRCUMSCRIBED dimension, I have to move the cursor to the XYZ data entry box to enter the desired dimension. Or create the polygon and then edit the dimensions.

Obviously not a significant change functionally but would potentially improve my workflow when creating polygons.

Thanks as always for this great CAD program!

Scott

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Hi Scott,

re:
> (sidebar question... can the default number of sides by set in the .ini file?)

The default comes from this line in the Polygon.htm file inside the commands install folder:

<td><moi:UnsignedIntegerInput id="numsidesinput" default="5"/></td>

You could change that to default="8" for example.

Another thing you can do is set up a shortcut key which will set it to a particular value. For
that you would put in this for the shortcut key:

Polygon numsidesinput=9


re:
> For example, if I'm using the current implementation correctly(?) for a CENTER drawn polygon,
> the TAB button cycles between SIDES and CIRCUMSCRIBED. To enter the desired CIRCUMSCRIBED
> dimension, I have to move the cursor to the XYZ data entry box to enter the desired dimension.

Yes you need to set distance constraint to control it currently, by entering the distance value in
the XYZ (or "d") input control like you describe.

The main reason why the polygon command doesn't have a radius input field is that it's not fully
defined by a radius value alone, it still needs a point to be placed to control the orientation of
the polygon.

I guess it could be possible to have a radius/diameter field there which would do the same thing
as setting distance constraint. One thing that's potentially problematic with that though would
be that there would effectively be 2 different spots where you would be setting distance
constraint and what should I do if you enter in a different value in one control vs another.

Another thing I've been meaning to set up for some time is a shortcut that would put focus in the
XYZ control always and not in the command option fields like Tab does. Like maybe Ctrl+Tab.

- Michael

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Hi Michael,
So with regards to modifying the polygon.htm file....

MoI's structure is that the htm and js files have the same name to address each other.

I just wanted to be sure. Or possibky suggest a pointer in an htm file to a js file.

So why i ask, is "i" would make a polygon3-polygon5 and polygon8 htm file etc. As many as i like, though they all only really need polygon.js

Not more js files just for the name match.

But really, its not overly intrusive. Just wanted to ask about if it worked that way now, and i didn't know it

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