Am I correct in stating you create our base mesh in MOI3D then retopo and add details in Blender?

This seems the opposite of Michael suggesting to create the base mesh in Blender then import into MOI to add details.

Your workflow seems to be more inline with the folks who model model cars and car parts for 3D printing.

Again, many thanks...

That's correct KENMO. I guess it works both ways but I prefer the MoI->Blender path for a couple of reasons:
- I like having the final mesh in Blender where I can experiment with materials and get it ready for rendering.
- It's easier to construct large curvy surfaces in MoI following the blueprints with reasonable accuracy. In Blender you have to account for the movement and "shrinkage" of vertices when you turn on the subdivision modifier.
- The lack of materials and complex lighting in MoI, sometimes makes it difficult to judge if you're correctly modelling a shape. In Blender you can do a quick render and compare with reference photos, and then make adjustments.
- Since I model only half of the model, Blender helps with that by having better mirroring functionality which you can turn on/off anytime.
- Some final tweaks are simpler to do with polygonal modelling where you can just drag some vertices around.

Hope that helps. I also just finished another car with the same workflow. It didn't turn out that great (and I forgot to model the mirrors

I was also told Blender is great for concepting but when it comes to actual manufacturing or making a physical product it lacks accuracy for realism which is required in scale model building in 1/32, 1/24, 1/25, 1/16. 1/18, ... scale. I am told apps like Rhino, Form-Z, have the required accuracy.

I was quite despondent by Michael's reply and instance that I should be using Blender which was contrary to what many who create aftermarket parts for scale model cars and quite confused.

I am pleased by your original post and agreement with what others who create parts for scale model cars have told me.

Again many thanks for your reply.

Here is a fender I modeled in MOI3D as per a tutorial here by Ed Ferguson.




I then import the fender into Blender where I retopo it.




Exported from MOI3D as an obj and imported into Blender. Not the quad/tri count is 14,312. A bit too high for my liking.






I use the commercial plugin Quad Remesher for auto retopo after setting the target quad count. Below is the result with 2531 quads/tris






The only issue I have is with the actual car bodies. I still can not get the hang of it. But for car parts like fenders, wheel rims, I beam or tubular front axles like those used in classic pickup trucks, model As, hot rods and gassers, MOI3D is much better than Blender. I also find MOI3D is much easier and faster to create these parts. I am considering on attempting to model a detailed engine block like a small block Chevy V8, classic Hemi or Flat Head Ford (already created one started in Hexagon3D and finished with Blender but I lacks true scale and dimensions.

I did attempt several times to voxel sculpt a car body in 3D Coat but I find 3D Coat hard to get good dimensions and scale. And 3D Coats auto retopo is hit or miss for me. Blender's Quad Remesher is much easier and I find I get much better results then 3DC auto retopo. I have manually retopo'd in 3DC but find the manual retopo process is much longer and more tedious then modelling the original source object.

Sorry for the late reply KENMO, I don't get notifications on subscribed threads so it's easy to miss replies!
Thanks for sharing your process, yeah quad remesher looks like magic!

And worth the money. I find it much simpler to use and most times, achieves better results then 3DCoat's auto retopo.