Thanks for this. I've only watched a handful of the videos, but already I've learned several things and really appreciate the style including "nouns and verbs." I've often looked for specific function videos ( something a little more interactive than included MoI help file ) and this courseware seems to fit that bill very well.

Appreciatively, Sven

That's fascinating! Thank you!

Thank you Sven!

I appreciate the comments.

Let me know how it goes and please feel free to ask for specific coverage of a topic if I have not gotten to it yet. It's a long-term project and I do plan some live sessions in the future.

Thanks,

Tom

Subscribed and Bell turned on!

Thank you.

HI Tom !

I started to view your channel and it's a very big and awesome work !

I seached how to explain MOI3D in future formations for fablabs.
Great job...


Thanks !

Frenchy, can you move this out of this thread? I see you posted it in the "Funny things outside" thread as well and that is really where it should be, not hijacking this thread on MOI training content....

No problem it was just for alert TMeeks about this prog who is very adapted for the persons with some difficulties!
("one Click" family)
As he has seen it now i can hide it! ;)

I welcome criticism aimed at improving the course for new users. The great thing about posting on YouTube is that I can easily replace and/or insert sessions as needed to make it more effective.

I will be shortening the repetitive openings to move things quicker.

I welcome your help. I am moving the long Noun and Verb intro out of the playlist and into the regular Youtube page and replacing it with a shorter version that moves more quickly.

Tom

Thanks for this. I’ve been trying to decide on a secondary CAD program but still learning my way around MOI3D to see if it can work for me. I can’t believe the amount of work you did for this and I think it will help those who are new to this world of Nurbs CAD stuff. I wish I had courses like this in other software I still am learning.

Thank you Tom for sharing the training. It helps greatly to newbie like myself

Thanks, Matt.

I appreciate your encouragement.

I think you may like what I am working on right now to add to the front end of the course. I'm calling it the "Noun-Verb Quickstep" which will be a quick walk through some noun + Verb combinations that demonstrate just how quickly things can be created in MOI3D.

Thanks,

Tom

Thank you, MamNon. I am happy to hear it.

I just plain enjoy working in Moment of Inspiration and I also appreciate what it has done in the lives of some kids who learned how to become more resilient by working with MOI3D. I hope teachers will be able to learn from this course and pass on the benefits to their students.

Tom

Hello Tom. This is my first post on the forum and I'm looking to find a cad with more features than the simple Autodesk 123D which I mostly use at the moment. I've tried Fusion 360 which is easy to learn, but the cloud business model and cost for commercial use really turns me off. I've been looking at Plasticity but it's not intuitive and also Selfcad which really has a great looking, easy to use workspace much like 123D, but I can't get it to work so far. Their support says it should work, but no luck so far.

So the only other software I can find (and I've searched a lot) which isn't loads of money, looks possibly easy to learn with great features is MOI. Having said that, seeing words like "boolean", "nouns" and "verbs" (why programming and language grammar?) I start to think this isn't for me as I need an intuitive, easy to understand workflow software with basic descriptive words like "merge", "subtract", "snap to" etc... Ok, I'm not a complete beginner and have designed many items which I currently sell around the world, but I find words like "boolean" difficult to understand and it's an indication the workflow might be focused on engineers and uni grads, far beyond me. This isn't a complaint, just saying I'm not very smart and have learning difficulties.

Anyway having said that, I really do need/want a new cad, one that I'll be using for many years. I think this YouTube course you made will be exactly what I need to help determine if MOI is for me. I'm sure there will be a steep learning curve, but I'll give it a go for my trial period. I haven't started the trial yet as was thinking maybe to wait for V5 to get the best experience without the current bugs, filleting for example. The trial and your videos will be the deciding factors to determine if I go with MOI, do you think I should wait to try V5?

Thank you for your consideration.

Cheers, Rob

SKillplex,

What a great post. It is exactly what I need to understand how to communicate the ease and power of MOI3D in terms that aren't masked in jargon that we only learn after-the-fact.

It's important to point out that the people I have been engaged in teaching for the past decade were either teenage high school dropouts or those with challenges related to being on the autism-spectrum. This experience tells me that MOI3D has a unique learning path that I believe has to do with the visual menu system as apposed to the standard Windows dropdown system.

Interestingly, I was working with Tinkercad last night because I am teaching first and second graders one day a week right now. It hit me as I was reviewing their work just how much faster and easier it actually is to use MOI3D once you get beyond just dragging pre-made objects into the working area. MOI3D is a LOT more fun than Tinkercad when it comes to actually trying to design something.

I was initially disappointed that Udemy rejected my course because I was forced to use AI voices; but, the more I think about it, the more I realize that relying on a YouTube Playlist gives me greater flexibility to add or change sessions to better respond to great suggestions like you have described.

After all, who DOES use Booleon DIFF to mean subtract in their everyday life??? Not many, that's for sure.

Thank you so much for your contribution to this thread.

As for whether or not to wait for V5, my own prejudice would be to go for V4 because while their are definitely some added capabilities in V5, you will be in a much better place to take advantage of them having worked with MOI3D for a while. V5 will not radically change the way you use MOI3D.

However, you can always just watch the videos, if you intend to wait, to get a feel for what to expect. And, get a feel for what to ask for in future sessions. I am in this for the long haul... at least as long a haul as any 79 year old has! LOL!

Thank you, Rob.

Tom

Thinking that the YouTube Tutorial playlist might want to get added to the resources page on the wiki since there are some other great tutorials there as well, would fit right in.

Hi,

The Tom's channel is now in the tutorial part in the wiki.

Great! Thanks!

Hi Tom

Thank you very much for the reply and understanding. To be honest, replies like that are the type that give me hope living in my world as I have learn't to live in the one society expects. As you have spent time around autistic people I know you'll understand what I mean.

You make some great points about the learning process. Tinkercad is a great learning tool. 123D has been the only program I could somewhat master over the years, but like Tinkercad it has limited features. I was very upset when 123D was shelved as I saw a huge opportunity for many people thrown out the window and replaced with the much steeper learning curve of Fusion 360, plus forcing people to use a cloud-based interaction.


You mention visual menus vs drop drown menus, that sounds a lot like the difference between the coding methods of line editors vs visual scripting. Both can be good depending on the user. There's an emerging field of creating code using spoken or text prompts and then "AI" interpreting that to offer answers. This is more than adding something like voice recognition to Chat GPT, this new tech will be the "how to do it" like using Chat GPT and also a streamlined workflow interaction for the development of conceptual virtual or physical models and many other things like movies, games, various types of scientific research etc... Scary maybe, but it's already here and will evolve and change many things in the near future. This also presents incredible business opportunities for those who can see this future. Of course that is just a side note, money is only a tool imo.


My take on the immediate (although limited) number of future years for fully manual cad is there's a huge demand for an easy to use program that doesn't overwhelm you all at once. Many people have a need or desire to make things with 3D printing or even modeling for virtual uses, but don't have the time to spend learning technical language or deep menu-driven complex relational programs. I think the virtual modeling side has so far better options towards this than engineering cad does. Out of anger from shelving the development of 123D I thought of creating such a program in partnership with others, but life seems to have other plans for me with other projects. I'm really an advocate of using high tech software with "non-tech" user friendly UI and workflows.

May I tell you a short story please of how I got into game dev... I was trying for a few weeks to learn a version of the Unreal engine editor UI. My eyes just glazed over trying to figure it out, even with the tutorials. A day came and I was truly about to finish with trying to understand even basic things when I met a young lad on a game dev discord server who said he would explain the UI to me. A couple of hours later I understood enough to continue. After some time I was accepted into a two week game development bootcamp and finished that. Then some months later I went on to win my first game jam and $200 prize. Not a big prize, but it shows one can succeed even when all seems hopeless.

You wrote: "As for whether or not to wait for V5, my own prejudice would be to go for V4 because while their are definitely some added capabilities in V5, you will be in a much better place to take advantage of them having worked with MOI3D for a while. V5 will not radically change the way you use MOI3D." I agree, this sounds reasonable.

You Wrote: "I am in this for the long haul... at least as long a haul as any 79 year old has! LOL!" That is very impressive and I wish yo many more years of health, happiness and creating to come. I'm 59 and I really hope I'm as cognitive as you when/if your age.

Maybe this find you well,

Cheers, Rob

Thanks, Rob.

I also was bummed out when the 123D series was abandoned. I experimented a lot with 123DCatch. I also worked with Sculpt and Meshmixer.

I still have a copy of Meshmixer on this computer; but, rarely use it now.

There have been so many great starts in the 3D world; but, I think many of them came before the actual computer processors were up to the task which made them frustrating to use.

Your experience with learning the Unreal Engine is interesting to me. Because I was in the video game industry way back in 1980 (Bally Professional Arcade - Astrocade), I've always had an interest in animation. But, in those days the process was a lot more limited graphically. And, programming for our system was done in assembly language for the Z-80.

My first video animations were created on the Z-Grass UV-1, using the Z-Grass language from Tom DiFanti. And, later on a Mindset PC-Clone using GW-Basic. It was less an art project than a programming effort.

Be sure to turn down the sound on your computer a bit; but, here is the only animation that still exists on YouTube that I did back in the 1980's.

WAY TOO LOUD... SO REDUCE SOUND BEFORE CLICKING ON THE LINK.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kilIyXfHg0

Tom