Hi Frederick, release notes for this version are at the first message of this thread, here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=10706.1

Also the release notes for all v5 beta releases are collected here:
http://moi3d.com/wiki/V5Beta

- Michael

If possible I would like to see a way of exporting a group as individual STLs, for each object, with the file name composed of the group name and the object name concatenated, perhaps using some sort of user defined pattern. The pattern would allow a tag for the group name and the object name plus other literal characters.

This would really benefit my workflow.

As I develop a product I usually progress through various versions. If by placing the objects of a given version in a group, named after the version, I could export all the STLs needed for a selected version with the version information in the file name.

In V4 I have to include the version information in the name of each object. Moving to the next version of a product involves editing the name of each and every object, since I want the version info in the STL file name. As you can imagine that is tedious and error prone.

Thanks.

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> If possible I would like to see a way of exporting a group as individual STLs, for each
> object, with the file name composed of the group name and the object name
> concatenated, perhaps using some sort of user defined pattern. The pattern would
> allow a tag for the group name and the object name plus other literal characters.

The group structure is accessible to script so It should be possible to make a script that would do that.

I would need to see an example file with groups set up and the corresponding desired output to make sure I understand what it's supposed to do and you would need to specify in more detail how the user defined pattern would function.

Also if the file names were generated in this way how would you want to specify the directory for where to place the files, would that be expected to be in the group name?

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Attached is a simple file with ONE group and THREE objects.

I envision selecting the GROUP and then executing a EXPORT STL command.

Each OBJECT in the GROUP would be exported as a separate STL file.

The destination folder would be determined by a option within the 3DM file itself (as opposed to a option within MOI) . This option would be specified by the user and it would be saved with the file.

The name of each file would be determined by another "file option" which would determine how the file name would be constructed from the GROUP name and the OBJECT name.

I can see having some sort of tokens representing things like the GROUP name, the OBJECT name and anything else you think would be good.

So lets say the tokens for the two above were $G for GROUP name and $O for OBJECT name.

They would be used, along with literals, to create a template used to construct the file name.

With a template of $G_$O and using the attached 3DM file the file names would become:

Group A_Sphere 1.stl
Group A_Sphere 2.stl
Group A_Sphere 3.stl

Hope that makes it clear what I am thinking of.

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> The destination folder would be determined by a option within the 3DM file itself (as opposed to
> a option within MOI) . This option would be specified by the user and it would be saved with the file.
>
> The name of each file would be determined by another "file option" which would determine how
> the file name would be constructed from the GROUP name and the OBJECT name.

Unfortunately there is not a mechanism in place currently to have this custom "file option" type data.

So those parts are not feasible in the current version.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

OK so how about, for now, using the existing app level option file?

Or even hard-coding into the script?

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> OK so how about, for now, using the existing app level option file?
>
> Or even hard-coding into the script?

Here's a version that has the directory name hard coded in the top of the script.

It will go through selected groups and generate .stl files into the directory.

There are instructions for how to install a plug-in here:
https://moi3d.com/faq#Q:_How_do_I_install_a_plug-in_script.3F

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks much.

The install instructions mention two files, a .js file and a .htm file.

Do I need a .htm file?

Frederick

Hi Frederick, in this case you don't need the .htm file. The .htm file usually contains the UI for the command but since this one doesn't display any UI it doesn't have an .htm file.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Actually I like that very much.

The previous script asks what type of export and, for STL files, it shows a dialog with a number of options.

This is quick and easy. I am happy as a clam at high tide.

A quick related question. Is the concept of a 3DM file having user entered meta-data, such as would be required for my export idea, or things like author, project, etc within the realm of the reasonable for V5?

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> A quick related question. Is the concept of a 3DM file having user entered
> meta-data, such as would be required for my export idea, or things like
> author, project, etc within the realm of the reasonable for V5?

Yes it should not be difficult to add those for v5.

- Michael

Michael

You are the best. You deserve some kind of award. Maybe a Nobel?

Frederick

Thanks Frederick! Also in case you haven't seen there is a method in v5 currently for storing general project notes inside a .3dm file. You can access it using File > Notes.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

So what is missing is a way for a script to access a particular piece of that meta-data?

Frederick

Hi Frederick, yeah the problem is that the notes is just one big glob of text so it's not very easy for a script to work with.

The part that I would like to add is a mechanism to put in "Document user data" that would be stored with a key name/value pairs so a script could have its own separate data channel that won't get stomped on by other scripts too easily.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

OK since I really need that you can work on it next.

Drat, this forum doesn't have emojis - so imagine a couple of dozen "grins" follow the sentence above.

Frederick

My MoI4 background and gridline colors seem to have been altered (by MoI5 beta ???), to dark grey colors.
I do not think that I did anything to cause this. (?)

- Brian

(And MoI3 as well.)

Hi Brian, it seems to be some side effect from the new theme support in v5, I'll see if I can figure out what settings in moi.ini are getting re-used that maybe should be separate settings in v5 or something.

- Michael

Thank you Michael.
In MoI4, I manually reset the View Background color to R210, G 223, B 225,
and Locked Objects color to 171, 171, 171,
which are the values used in MoI5 beta default color. Presumably the same as the old MoI 4 colors.
All is well.
I think that the MoI4 gridline colors were not altered. (?)

- Brian

Thanks Michael.

The new UI and Group capabilities are going to be a big help when teaching!

It just keeps getting better and better! :)

Tom Meeks