French Version ! ;)
https://moiscript.weebly.com/sectionmoi.html

Hi,

When editing the name of an object an edit dialog appears on the screen.

Can you make the dialog re-size as needed to show the entire name - I use long names.

Thanks.

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> Can you make the dialog re-size as needed to show the entire name - I use long names.

The "Edit name" dialog is resizeable in width, if you drag the window on the left or right sides you can stretch it out to as wide as you want.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

I have never fully adapted to what I call a "whack a mole" interface.

If you recall back in early Windows, if an thing on the screen was raised you could click it, if it was recessed you could edit it, if it was flat you could just read it.

Current interfaces love to require the user to move the mouse around to see what might (or might not) respond. And hidden buttons and edit boxes are so much fun!

I was trained as a GUI designer - modern designs don't get my vote.

The point of that rant is that dialogs/windows used to have a little thing in the lower right corner telling you the dialog/window was re-sizeable.

Not so common these days.

Glad to see the dialog box in question remembers my setting.

I like that.

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> The point of that rant is that dialogs/windows used to have a little thing in the lower right
> corner telling you the dialog/window was re-sizeable.

That persisted on Mac for quite a while.

They managed to break window resizing pretty spectacularly in the current macOS version:
https://noheger.at/blog/2026/01/11/the-struggle-of-resizing-windows-on-macos-tahoe/

- Michael

Posts for the Section command moved into their own thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=12071.1

Hi Michael,

A wonderful example of the silliness that passes today as good GUI design.

I wonder why designers moved away from having simple, obvious visual clues as to what you could click and what it might actually do.

Maybe they now hire artists rather than engineers to design the GUI.

In any case doesn't take anything I said as a knock on MoI - to me it has one of the most intuitive systems of user interaction I have ever had the pleasure to use.

I have for quite some time owned Alibre Design Expert. It is loaded with features but I find the interface anything but intuitive.

I rarely use it.

At the rate MoI is improving I may never usei Alibre again.

MoI is fun to work with, Alibre is not.

Thanks for everything.

Frederick

Hi Michael,

How about an automatic or manual file backup feature?

My favorite editor allows specifying a directory where backups are saved.

And then backups can be created in one of several ways.

One is the option to create a backup every time you save. A suffix such as 001, 002, etc. is added to the filename. The file with the current name is also updated just as normal.

Another option is to have a alternate save command that creates the incremental backup.

Another option is to create a incremental backup at specified intervals.

Just more noise coming from my mind.

Thanks.

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> One is the option to create a backup every time you save. A suffix such as 001, 002, etc. is
> added to the filename.

There is an IncrementalSave command that works like this.

To try it go to Options > Shortcut Keys and put in something like Alt+S and IncrementalSave for the command name.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Your not ruling out more than one kind of backup scheme, are you?

In any case, what the rules used to add that number?

I already end my file names with the current version, which is not the same as the various "snap shots" of that version.

So the name "MyFileName v03" became v04, then v05, etc.

I don't want it incrementing my version, just add a suffix.

Something like v03.001, v03.002 would be fine.

Or something like v03 Snap 001, v03 Snap 002, etc.

Anyway to control what it does?

Thanks.

Frederick

Hi Frederick,

re:
> Your not ruling out more than one kind of backup scheme, are you?

No, but automatic saving can become disruptive when large files are involved.


> In any case, what the rules used to add that number?

It takes off the file extension, then gathers characters from the end downward until it hits a non numeric character. Then it takes those gathered numeric characters and parses it as a number value, and bumps up the number value by 1.

It checks if there is any already existing file with the number it wants to use and if so keeps bumping it up so that it will not overwrite any existing files.


> So the name "MyFileName v03" became v04, then v05, etc.

Yes it will do that.


> Something like v03.001, v03.002 would be fine

It will do that if you start it off with the suffix.

If you have a current file name of v03.3dm , it will do v04.3dm but if you get it started with your suffix with v03.001 then you should get v03.002, v03.003, v03.004, etc... as you want.


> Or something like v03 Snap 001, v03 Snap 002, etc.

It should do that too if you get it started with v03 Snap 001.3dm instead of giving it just v03.3dm


> Anyway to control what it does?

If you put any character other than a number immediately after your version it should leave your version number alone.


- Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for the feedback.

Sounds like a simple but good system for generating the incrementing suffix.

Frederick

Hi Frederick, you could also do this to automate putting on the suffix.

If you use this attached version when you want to start making snapshots, it will look if the current filename has the suffix 'Snap xxx' (where each x is a numeric digit) and if it does it lets regular IncrementalSave handle it, if it doesn't have it it will add in 'Snap 000' to start it off.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

You are the best! When v5 comes up I may have to buy 20 licenses!

I have it working but I would like a somewhat different way but it may not be possible.

I found myself doing incremental saves often, so I could backtrack as needed.

But this makes entry after entry into the list of recent files and pushing files I would like to have remained off the list.

Is there now (or in the future) a way to:

- Save the current file again, the file was created initially with just an version number at the end - no change to the name when saving - just like a "normal" save.

- Also save a backup with suffix in a directory, specified somewhere in the options, so I have my "snapshots" for backtracking as needed.

- Also not add the backup files to the recent file list.

This is what I am used to with my favorite programming editor and I find it works well and it wouldn't fill up the recent file list.

For now the IncrementalSave and the improved version is a big help.

Thanks much.

Frederick