Full Version: V4 beta Oct-17-2018 available now - SubD to NURBS conversion

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Game changer. Thanks for this. I was hoping for something like this in V4!!

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re:
>I just got a computer with an Nvidia card on it over here but I am not able to reproduce that selection behavior at all, it's working normally for me.

thx for looking into it Michael! Appreciate it.
Looking at your specs - are you sure you've been running it on an Nvidia GPU?
I've noticed that you have GTX750M which suggests a discrete GPU on an Optimus enabled laptop - which would default on Linux to intel card without a bit of trickery. And even if it was running proprietary driver it would require primus / bumblebee which sadly adds a bit of variables to the mix.

I've did a test on a friends laptop which has a discrete GPU as well (GTX 660M). With nouveau driver it worked. Haven't had a chance to try proprietary driver on this machine though - I was a tad afraid to mess it up (my friend wouldn't be happy about it :D ). Also I forgot to check whether it was X11 or Wayland session (as it was Fedora 28 it is quite huge chance it was Wayland) - which would add another variable :/ .

I did a test on both of my workstations though and with proprietary driver I'm seeing the same problem. There's one more thing I'll check - both are dual Xeon machines. While unlikely it adds to the mix I'd like to test it too. I think I've tested it in the past and ruled it out, but as it has been 2 or 3 years I might be wrong.

I've launched MoI in Wine with Xephyr (thx to Lutris) and in such setting all those highlights / selection windows / etc update correctly. But it is not usable - under Xephyr it is super slow.

Part of the reason I look forward to V4 with the API selection option in cfg - I have a bit of hopes that maybe with proper forced API and DXVK the issue will be gone without extra hassle.

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Hi Przemas,

> Looking at your specs - are you sure you've been running it on an Nvidia GPU?

Pretty sure - the information I posted came directly from the "System Information" OS dialog and there were options to switch between Nouveau or the proprietary driver.


> I've noticed that you have GTX750M which suggests a discrete GPU on an Optimus
> enabled laptop - which would default on Linux to intel card without a bit of trickery.

It's a slightly older iMac. I was hoping it might reproduce your problem as well as a Mac specific problem.

- Michael

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ok, so it is not a laptop with Optimus. No clue how it has been implemented on iMac.
if I manage to do some more thorough tests during the weekend I'll get back with my findings. I've also resurrected a thread over at WINE forums.

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Wow!! Amazing feature!

Marc

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Message 9100.85 was deleted

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This is a much needed tool in the industry when it comes to helping the VFX world communicate with the CAD world. There are a few tools on the market but most are at the higher end of the $$ so it's nice to see that MoI is bringing this out.

Two questions

First - The option to "predetermine" edges from the quad mesh to the NURBS geometry. So this wouldn't be edges weighting as much as it is selecting a quad patch and designating it for the boundaries edge. This would make for the downstream CAD application to have a "better" edge to start from (HA see what I did there). The general quilted patch, while very much a huge step over working with a mesh, is not giving the topology flow that say if you're looking to create a parting line from. Having the ability to basically set that up with the quad mesh just gives that next level of push towards the down stream CAD application. See image below. Shown on the left is the CAD model converted without the quads in the SubD model being selected, the middle shows the selected quads that then become hard edges in the NURBS model shown in the CAD software on the right.




Second - Along the possible workflow of the above being able to have the ability to paint the quads in such a way in areas that during the conversion process it will use smaller patches and say larger patches where it's not painted. There are times when an very evenly spaced NURBS quilt is needed but the possible option to select where a more dense level of detail is needed would be great to have.

Image Attachments:
SubD to NURBS.JPG 

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Hi Arthur, for v4 the focus is just on getting the overall shape converted over reliably. It could be possible in the future to add what you are describing though, maybe having the surface combining part pay attention to material assignments could be a practical way to do that. Like large patches would only be combined with faces belonging to the same material assignment.

Would that cover the type of thing you're asking about or is it more detailed than that?

- Michael

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Is edge weighting support planned? Right now I use Fusion 360 almost exclusively for converting Sub-d to nurbs. My subscription ends soon and I would much rather put that money towards MOI than another year of Fusion or the Modo Sub-D to Nurbs plugin.

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Hi Chris, sorry edge weighting support is not planned for the MoI v4 time frame. There is no mechanism in .obj files to control edge weighting as far as I know.

It may be possible in a future release when there are more functions exposed.

- Michael

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Okay, I didnt realize you were using obj as the format for importing polygons. Maybe selecting edges inside of moi and defining them as sharp before conversion could be a solution? Right now in fusion I need to redo any edge weights after import as the fbx implementation in it doesnt seem to support edge weights.

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Hi Michael and Chris,

interesting thought about .fbx! I just checked with Silo and it's .fbx exporter saves the creases too,
when reloading the model into Silo and applying a subdivision. Could not check which .fbx version
is used, because Silo saves in binary mode. Maybe the .fbx route, when parsing the file for creases,
could be easier to implement instead of implementing additional modeling tools in MoI. And i think
an inexpensive combo like MoI and Silo would be pretty awesome, when it comes to subd to NURBS
workflows, compared to way more expensive modeling tools.

Regards
Stefan

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Hi Michael...yes this is exactly what I think would help in terms of bridging the file conversion process even closer. I think where things are for what MoI brings to the table is great. I'm going to email a PDF that I did a while back as part of a presentation that I used MoI as part of the side by side of several 3D software comparison of converting a mesh to a SubD or NURBS geometry but now want to run this new aspect to see where things land.

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I just tried to insert/import a pdf file into MoI 4 and had no luck. Nothing happened. (In Rhino it said there was no information)
I convert the file from pdf to jpg and had no trouble bringing it into MoI as an image.
Can anyone tell me why the pdf import did not work?
thanks,
eric

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To determine the creased edges you could use the information of sharp edges on OBJ to create surfaces with sharp edges, or do it in two steps, ie import and choose edges that need to be sharpened, if you can implement this possibility I think it will be a thing much appreciated by many and as you can see the interest is increasing. I am available to provide some test object if necessary.

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Hi pafurijaz,

> To determine the creased edges you could use the information of sharp edges on OBJ to create surfaces with sharp edges

I must admit that i have never seen an app supporting edges in .obj files, if i understand you correctly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavefront_.obj_file

Regards
Stefan

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<< Can anyone tell me why the pdf import did not work?

this PDF was an "image" file or a file "2D / 3D" ?

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Hi eric,

re:
> I just tried to insert/import a pdf file into MoI 4 and had no luck. Nothing happened. (In Rhino it said there was no information)
> I convert the file from pdf to jpg and had no trouble bringing it into MoI as an image.
> Can anyone tell me why the pdf import did not work?

It's likely to be that the pdf file only contains bitmap image data in it and not vector drawing data.

When you open the pdf in Adobe viewer, if you zoom into areas does the display stay crisp like a vector drawing does, or do you see it getting blocky because it's made of pixels?

MoI and Rhino both only try to read vector drawing data out of a PDF file.

If there is no vector data in the file then converting it to a PNG or JPG image and bringing that in as a background image would be the way to go.

- Michael

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Hi pafurijaz, yes if you could post an example .obj file that gives you sharp edges when smoothed in a polygon modeling program that would be helpful.

- Michael

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Hi Chris,

> Okay, I didnt realize you were using obj as the format for importing polygons. Maybe
> selecting edges inside of moi and defining them as sharp before conversion could be a solution?

There is not currently any mechanism in MoI for working with polygon data in that way. That could be a possible solution in the future but I don't expect to have that for the MoI v4 timeframe, sorry.


> Right now in fusion I need to redo any edge weights after import as the fbx implementation in it doesnt seem to support edge weights.

Do you have any example fbx files that contain edge weight information? That could be a possibility in the future.

- Michael

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