1) Some kind of grouping function, so groups of disjoint figures can be aligned with each other. Say centering chunks of 3D text relative to other items. As it stands now, trying to blocks of figures relative to other blocks causes some of them to be moved to the alignment point, instead of preserving their relative offsets.

2) A way to align or distribute a group of objects along a curve ( like 3d text ).

As a side not, it seems to be impossible to project text outlines onto a cylinder using "Closest Point". Direction works fine

What about "patch" ?

Dear Michael,
is V1 going to have the feature that by clicking the corner of each viewport, it will maximize that viewport,
without going down the screen to the menu and clicking the individual viewport button?
It will save time...
Thank you for MOI,
Best,
Rudy

Hi Pilou, I tried to do Patch, but the one currently in the geometry library that I'm using did not work very well. I was originally going to have a "Patch" item under construct, with Network, Coons, and N-Sided patch under there.

However, Patch wasn't working well, and then I figured out how to combine Network and Coons into one single command.

Hopefully with a geometry library update I will be able to do an ok Patch command for V2.

- Michael

Thx for precision because someone ask me that :)

Hi Rudy,

> is V1 going to have the feature that by clicking the corner of each viewport,
> it will maximize that viewport, without going down the screen to the menu and
> clicking the individual viewport button?
> It will save time...

Hi Rudy, I wasn't planning on doing this for the 1.0 version, maybe for a future version though.

I didn't want to initially rely on that type of method for maximizing viewports, because it is bothersome when you want to switch between 2 maximized views, like for instance switching from top maximized to front maximized. If I relied on clicking in the corners for maximizing or returning to split views, going between those 2 maximized views involves an extra step since you have to return to the split view first. With the view buttons on the bottom you can always go to any maximized view with just one click.

If you want to really quickly switch between different viewports, you may find it useful to set up a keyboard shortcut for that, it is possible to set up a keystroke to maximize the view that is currently under the mouse pointer, see this message for some details: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=568.21, let me know if you need any help setting that up.

- Michael

Thank you as usual...
Rudy

Hello Michael,

I discovered Moi recently and would like to contribute some workflow suggestions to what looks like a really nice modeler in the making. Here goes:

- Curve Physics. This assigns dynamics properties like elasticity and rigidity to curves, allowing the designer to interactively twist and bend curves much like you can bend a car antenna, a sheet of soft polymer or a rubber hose. With some collision detection and a tolerance parameter this could also allow a curve to be bent and coiled around another curve or solid interactively.

- Repeating Structure Tool. This would help create structures like honeycomb patterns or more organic patterns where one design element is repeated again and again but the arrangement isn't as simple as an X by Z grid. A lot of possibilities here in my opinion.

- Drill and Stamp tools. A shortcut for drilling holes of a given diameter or shape through an object, or using a boolean object as an additive/subtractive stamp.

- Flow Erode. A function that has an effect on objects similar to rocks becoming eroded and rounded by flowing water. Could be useful for giving designs a more rounded, streamlined or aerodynamic look.Could be coupled to curve physics to make it more than a simple "round my object" feature.

- Fit Analyzer. A function that helps to spot problems with interlocking objects. Particularly useful would be the ability to define joints like hinge or ball socket between two objects and have the fit analyzer display the degree of freedom each has before parts of the objects lock or grind against each other.

Hope some of this proves useful. Looking forward to the next beta.

- d

Hi Dryriver, thanks for the feedback!

Some of those items will be quite difficult to achieve, so it will probably be difficult to find enough time to devote to those anytime soon, those will have to be longer range type ideas.

One exception:

> - Drill and Stamp tools. A shortcut for drilling holes of a given diameter or
> shape through an object, or using a boolean object as an additive/subtractive
> stamp.

There is some support for this in the current version - it is possible to do a boolean operation on a solid using just a curve as the cutting object.

So for instance if you have a solid object and you want to cut a circular hole in it, draw a circle curve of the desired radius and placement of your hole, and then select the solid, run Construct / Boolean / Difference, and select the circle as the cutting object. This will bore a hole with the profile of your circle through the solid object.

You can do some other similar interactions as well, like draw a line that divides the object in 2 parts from one particular view, then do Boolean Difference and use the line as a cutter - this will slice the solid into 2 solids using the line as a cutting tool.

This type of curve/solid interaction also works with Boolean Intersection and also Boolean Merge.

Boolean Merge is kind of like a stamping tool in that it cuts objects up but leaves all the pieces behind.

So for instance if you have a sphere and then a circle in front of it, if you select them both and run Boolean Merge, the circle will become imprinted on the sphere and leave all the parts behind, unlike Boolean Difference that removes material inside closed regions.

Thanks for the feedback and ideas!

- Michael

Michael,

I've found in the past that thinking about how to implement complex 'advanced' features sometimes spits out elegant little methods for solving totally different things. =) So take those suggestions with a grain of salt.

The Repeating Structure Tool idea isn't as frivolous as it sounds by the way. Repeating triangle, diamond, hex or other shaped structures can be very handy for making parts lightweight yet structurally strong, or achieving the desired balance between rigidity and flexibility in parts made of materials like soft plastic or rubber.

I've attached a quick and dirty visualization of what such a tool might do. The pattern shown is simple but the skeletal view gives a clue as to how more complex 'live' structures could be constructed and manipulated by the user.

best,

-d

Sure pattern are some crazzy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_tiling

Easy Selection (edge loop selection(?)

Patterns don't have to be as irregular as that Penrose pattern. Some more mundane patters:

car tire profile

http://john1701a.com/prius/photos/PriusTire_Potenza_19759miles_DriverFront.jpg

shoe sole

http://www.rubberimpex.com/images/Partners/CNCEngravingMachines/ShoeSoleMouldSampleFromCNCEngravingMachines.jpg

honeycomb car mat

http://www.roadworksauto.com/images/Frnt1pctan.jpg

shower head nozzles

http://www.made-in-china.com/image/6f3j00rvMEaQTdTtkgM/company-andyyuanhz.jpg

Hi dryriver,

I'm not sure if this is exactly the same effect that you're looking for,
but Array Dir can produce some interesting patterns very quickly.

In this example the original pair of 6 sided curves was arrayed 5X then the result was
arrayed 5X and then that result was arrayed 5X. If you gave it some thought you could
probably create some patterns that aren't the same as what you'd get from a Grid array
because you can array at an angle rather than just along the XYZ axes
And if you combined Array Dir with Array along a curve and Circular Array, the possibilities are endless!
-Jesse

> The Repeating Structure Tool idea isn't as frivolous as it sounds by the way.

Yeah I didn't think it was frivolous, it's just difficult to think of how to go about making a UI to do something like that in one step which is general purpose enough, yet not too terribly complex and hard to use...

Jesse's got a great idea there on using Transform / Array / Dir to do some of these types of tilings. If you can identify one sort of slanted column in your desired output, then you can probably use that tool to produce it in 2 passes, with different angled directions for each pass.

- Michael

Here are some beautiful patterns made by an artist
who uses Rhino.

www.rinusroelofs.nl/


-Jesse

Hi Pilou,

> Easy Selection (edge loop selection(?)

I definitely want to add that, but I'm planning on it for version 2.0.

For now you can do an area selection - after you select one edge, switch to the front view and then drag a selection window around those edges. You'll want to drag starting from the left and going towards the right - when you do it in that direction, only objects strictly inside the window will be selected. If you go from right towards the left, the window will show a dotted outline and anything that intersects it in any way will be selected.

Also for fillet you can select a face as a shortcut for grabbing a bunch of edges - if you select a face and then run fillet, all the edges that belong to that face will be rounded. Sometimes that can be easier than selecting all the edges themselves.

- Michael

> Sometimes that can be easier than selecting all the edges themselves.
yes but that round the external sides in the same times :)

A little problem (?)
When the fillet is too big, top surface dispears and auto intersect!
is that normal, I suppose yes, but there is not an alarm system for block the fillet before?

Hi Pilou, what type of alarm bell would you expect?

I guess the geometry library does not understand that an error has occured, something inside of it just gets confused about "inside" versus "outside" for that top face. This is often something that gets easily messed up when trim curve pieces end up in intersecting loops.

I guess I could detect that the original object was a fully closed solid, but the new one is not fully closed, and then not create that object.

But it is probably more useful to create the object even if it is broken in some areas, because you can then break it into separate parts and trim some of those fillets, and maybe be able to salvage a good final result by using some of those pieces...

Doing nothing isn't quite as useful. I guess what would be ideal would be to allow the object to be created, but to report that there was a possible error in it. But I haven't yet found a good location in the UI to communicate this type of feedback from MoI back to you. Do you have any ideas?

- Michael