A circular selection

Hi Mike, yeah right now the main way to do the circular array by 2 points would be to set your construction plane (View > Cplane) to have its z axis running along the axis you want to use. Then when you're done it's easier to reset the cplane (right click on View > Cplane) than it is to relocate objects around.

It could still be a possible feature to add in an axis to the circular array command, but do you need some tips for working with the construction plane right now? Would you like to start up a new topic with an example file that has an axis line in it and an object you want to array so I could show you some steps for setting up the cplane?

But basically if you draw in a line where you want the array axis to go, if you then place the cplane onto the start point of the line, it will automatically orient its z axis to point along the line's direction (unless you turned off "Align to objects") so you don't have to do any other fancy repositioning after the initial placement, you would just right-click to accept the default orientation and then your drawing plane will be set to the plane you need. Then when you're done with the array right click on View > Cplane to reset it back to the default world axes.

- Michael

> Would you like to start up a new topic with an example file that has an axis line in it and an object you want to array so I could show you some steps for setting up the cplane?

Thanks Michael! Yes, I'll do that...

Oh! I can Blend and Loft a cat and dog together, but these "orienteering" tools to me, are like that last can of food in a famine that just happens to be sardines! (you're so hungry... but yuk? :-/ )


I wouldn't mind a two-point (3D-space) axis option in the future for Circular Array, does works great for Revolve. :-)

>>A circular selection <<

2nd that. :-)

Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)

64 Bit support! Sure there are ways to reduce (for example) exporting of heavy models, but using the full 16 Gigs on my system would surely help to avoid the ever-occuring "Insufficient memory" error, or not? Not really sure of all the actual pros/cons of a 64-Bit compared to a 32-Bit. But is that really a question these days.? 64-Bit is eventually the way it will have to go anyway. Or is there a reason to hold out?

Hi Tree,

> Or is there a reason to hold out?

The main reason is just the amount of work required on my part - producing a 64-bit version would be a major undertaking, I would need to switch to a different compiler, update all libraries that MoI uses and deal with changes and incompatibilities from that, and then also manage more versions of MoI since I don't think I can drop the 32-bit version right now since there are still a lot of users on somewhat older 32-bit machines.

The amount of work involved is enough that it's unlikely to happen anytime too soon - if I were to dig into it, it would require a lot of time focused only on that which would displace quite a large number of other features.

- Michael

@ Magic, yup that is a lattice deformer - Ideally it should work on Solid too (if that's possible)

Yes it should, considering that the cage control points only represent a matrix of spatial relationships.

All of the control points, and other surface-related coordinated would simple conform to the manipulation of the cage space. (??)

The cage would be made of a X by Y by Z lattice of control points, meaning that you could manipulate the cage points lying within the interior arrangement of the cage and allow for warping of your objects throughout.

Understandable. Although that seems to be just postponing the inevitable doesn't it? As the versions of Moi get "heavier" it will become more difficult I suppose. Just something that I've been seeing often lately with the newest v3 Beta Build while trying to export some heavy models with the "Insufficient memory" error coming up often. Or maybe this is related to the Beta itself? I don't recall having problems with exporting in the past, but maybe I just hadn't been working with heavier models. Moi is still my go to app for converting surface models to polys, but I also don't imagine that the models will get any "lighter" in the future.

Cage editing = "Soft selection" for MoI's points.

Hi Tree,

> Understandable. Although that seems to be just postponing
> the inevitable doesn't it?

Yes, but it's not like that's unusual at all - postponing things that require a lot of work is a normal part of the software development process, particularly when working with very limited resources.


> Or maybe this is related to the Beta itself?

Not as far as I am aware of.


> I don't recall having problems with exporting in the past, but maybe I just hadn't
> been working with heavier models.

Yeah it's probably that.


> Moi is still my go to app for converting surface models to polys, but I also
> don't imagine that the models will get any "lighter" in the future.

You should be able to avoid the problem by selecting just some portion of your objects (just half of them is a good thing to try at first), and then using File > Export to write those out. Export is short for "Export selected" and it writes only the selected objects out rather than everything all at once. Then after you've exported one half invert the selection and export the other half to a different file, then in your rendering program import both of those files and then you should have it all transferred over.

MoI is really more primarily focused on being a modeling tool where you create stuff in, it's somewhat more of a side effect that it happens to be good at converting existing CAD assemblies to polygons as well.


I think it will be possible in v3 for me to tune a couple of things up in some of the intermediate processing stages that will help to reduce memory consumption somewhat though. There are also other feature areas like instancing that can actually help out a lot more which I would probably be working on before trying to tackle 64-bit.

- Michael

Does it possible to have the generator's curves in a different color than default color?

Hi Pilou,

> Does it possible to have the generator's curves in a different
> color than default color?

By default colors of objects are controlled by what style they are assigned to, so if you want curves to be a particular color assign them the style you want.

- Michael

I can make that :)

I have remarked than using the Blend function this last want not works, because curve generators were again present and were selected against the real edges of surface!
So a different color should warn the user that 2 curves are overlaped!

Hi Pilou,

> So a differnet color should warn the user that 2 curves are overlaped!

But it is a feature of MoI that you are free to choose the colors of objects as you desire so that you can use style colors for your own organization scheme.

This kind of "use automatic color for certain objects" type of system like you are describing would be in conflict with the "you are able to set object colors as you wish" system that is currently used.

- Michael

So I must think at each time to draw alone curves in a different colors! :)

Hi Michael,

What Pilou is discribing is handy but not a necessity, in some CAD systems you can define a default style/colour to certain entities, it helps during modelling where just at a glance you can tell what the entity is for example; true lines=green, true arcs=blue, solids=magenta, surfaces=cyan, splines=olive etc. the user would have to set up the style/colour and then you would save that file as a template.

-

Hi Danny, it's more oriented in MoI that you might use the style colors for different kinds of structural grouping, not really as a type of diagnostic code like you're kind of describing. I don't really like to use colors in that type of a way (at least as a default) because like I described earlier I try to keep the colors available for you to use as your own labels and each color that is reserved for some kind of special meaning detracts some from the set that you can use for your own purposes without confusion.

Also if such a system is set in advance with some myriad of colors being displayed by default each having some special meaning, the special meaning for each one is totally lost on new users who just see a bunch of different colors with no idea what they all actually mean.

But in the future I do want to add some different kinds of view modes that you would be able to switch between, and each view mode will likely override the default display and then use colors for some specific diagnostic purpose at that time. Some different preset ones will probably be showing back faces and showing zebra stripes, and I guess a sort of "visually show object type" mode like you're describing could also fit into that kind of category. Those won't have anything to do with "styles" exactly since those view modes will override the regular display mechanism that by default shows objects in their style color.

But if you happen to like the way a particular diagnostic view mode functions it would probably be something that you'd be able to just leave on if you wanted your regular working display to work like that.

The idea for the view modes is that they'll also probably each be able to have their own lighting/shading settings that will override the default ones so that you'll be able to flip a view mode to easily see everything as gray matte or blue or red shiny/reflective and then back to standard mode by flipping just one view mode setting instead of having to manipulate a bunch of different settings and then reset them all.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> it's more oriented in MoI that you might use the style colors
> for different kinds of structural grouping, not really as a type
> of diagnostic code like you're kind of describing.

It's not really a diagnostic code it's more of a pre-labling system, it's a setting where you either set a style colour to any entity being, arcs, sheet bodies, points etc. or leave everything as the default style colour or a mixture of both and still be able to manually assign any style colour you want, for beginners MoI will behave exactly as it is now, as you get more experienced and start delving deeper the option is there.

As I said, it's not a necessity but it's a nice feature.

Cheers

Hi Danny, I can see some complications from trying to intertwine style assignment based on object type - for one it's possible for a single object to change from an arc to a line for example if you turn on control points and delete all interior control points leaving only the end ones. Would you then expect for that control point deletion to also automatically change the style of the curve object from the "arc" style to the "line" style? And then on top of that it would not change if you had directly assigned a specific style to it? That seems like quite a mess of potentially confusing behavior and special cases...

If it's pre-labeling you want, you can make any object that you are about to draw to go on the particular style that you want by setting the "active style" by right-clicking on the style color swatch in the scene browser. So for example if you want to create some arcs on one particular style, set that one as the active style and then when you draw your arcs that's where they will go... Basically you set up pre-labeling by setting the active style by that right click on a color swatch.

I guess it could also be possible for you to use a custom modified arc command that had some additional script code placed in it that would put arcs onto a specific hard coded style initially instead of the active style, would that help for the kind of thing you're asking about? That will probably get pretty unmaintainable quickly though if you would want a dozen modified basic commands like that because then it's difficult to merge together any other updates or changes in new releases down the road. In the future I'd like to make a sort of hook mechanism where it will be possible to have a separate piece of script that can be set to attach itself to a particular command to just process its output or some specific piece of it without it having to actually modify the command script itself, it should help for some more kinds of customization with better resilency to updates and changes in the main command itself.

- Michael