Full Version: Not the true solids in MoI?

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Hi Marek, yup that's intentional - in MoI the Trim command is focused just on working on surfaces, including just the surface skin of a solid.

It can sometimes be convenient to work at the surface level like this on individual portions of your object, and then use the Join command to seal all those surface fragments back together into a solid at the end of tweaking the surfaces.

If you instead want to cut a solid and maintain it as a solid volume, then like Steve mentions use the Boolean Difference command to cut your object instead of the Trim command.

The Booleans are focused on processing solid volumes, and they will perform the operation that you were looking for there.


You might want to check out the MoI video tutorials here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/tutorials.htm
the Crown of clubs tutorial covers using booleans between a solid and a curve in a few different steps in it.

There are also some examples in the help file here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference7.htm#booleandifference


> MoI alike results are in Rhino so the author of both is the
> best person to ask about it :)

Rhino is similar but some of the specifics are different - in Rhino you can't use curves in the regular Boolean commands, instead you would first extrude the curve into a surface and use the surface in the Boolean, or use a separate command called "WireCut".

One of the nice things about MoI's Boolean commands is how you can just use curve objects as input into the Booleans and they become extrusions automatically for you.

- Michael

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Hi Michael,

Awesome!

I'm becoming more and more enthusiastic about MoI's spectacular modeling capabilities.

What I miss a little is lack of some CAD like features for instance snap to parallel or perpendicular to the previous segment for Polyline or x, y or z coordinates.
There is for now perpendicular to the Line guideline showing which is really helpful but this is a little not enough for precise and efficient shape drawing.

And of course, say *.obj export to Kerkythea renderer.

Anyway it's a great software!

Thanks,
Marek

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Hi Marek,

Sound like you need to read the manual.


Have a look at "Construction lines" http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference11.htm#constructionlines

Moi will export:- 3dm, iges, sat, step, obj, stl, 3ds, lwo, fbx, skp and ai

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Hi Steve,

Well, that software is nothing short of amazing. What else you can say.

Now I have to read the manual, though.

Thanks a lot,
Marek

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Hi Marek,

> What I miss a little is lack of some CAD like features for
> instance snap to parallel or perpendicular to the previous
> segment for Polyline

Actually all these features are in there - for this one you use construction lines, the link that Steve posted has a lot of information about them and they are also covered in those video tutorials as well.

I highly recommend watching the video tutorials as they will give you a good overall introduction to how MoI works, they are available here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/tutorials.htm

But basically the way construction lines work is that anytime you are in a drawing command instead of just clicking the mouse to set a point you can instead hold down the mouse button and drag which then creates a construction line.

Here's a demo where I am drawing a polyline and then I create a construction line at the midpoint of the first polyline segment:



You can create a parallel line by creating a line and then relocating it to where you want the parallel line to go through, see the link Steve posted for the menu that has the relocate option on it.


> or x, y or z coordinates.

When you are drawing, if you want a point to go to a specific x,y,z coordinate, just type in your coordinate and push Enter and it will go there.

You will see your keystrokes go into the XYZ coordinate entry box in the bottom toolbar here:



You can also enter things like relative coordinates from the last point or polar coordinates, for more information see the help file here:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference1.htm#__XYZ%20/%20Distance%20/%20Angle


> And of course, say *.obj export to Kerkythea renderer.

Yup, OBJ files are supported, they will show up as one of the file types listed in the standard file save dialog.

Just do a Save As or Export - Export will write only the selected objects to the file, while "Save As" writes the whole model regardless of selection.

- Michael

Image Attachments:
cline_polyline.gif  xyz_coordinate_entry.jpg 

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Thank you Michael for exhaustible explanation.

Now I have something to consider! :)

Regards,
Marek

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I found construction lines only after watching Michael's videos as mentioned earlier in the thread. They are massively useful and well worth the time it takes to go through the three videos.

Dan

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Hi Marek!

I can assure you that MoI will do almost anything you want :)

The interface is very nice (not cluttered), and there are many hidden features that will make your life a lot easier!

Also, Michael is always nice enough to provide very helpful posts on any topic you require, as are many other members of this great little community.

If you choose to purchase MoI, I'm sure you won't regret it.

I use it every day (I'm a game developer) and love it.

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