Here's one for you also... If you look at the resources-petr's MoI page, find the "LineWeb" Script...



Nice modeling once again!

He's fast like lightning... Foiled again by Michael and his Rabbit... :o

bwahahaha you got slowed down by making a screenshot! But that means your post looks nicer than mine too though... ;)

Nah... Your posts are always way more informative and correct...

Actually, I was using loft to get my seam point of my curves to line up... I followed Majics model method, then when i went to use the Lineweb, Of course I had to use the flip command with the objects that were mirrored, but the seam point of my curves were slightly in rotation to each other, and my lineweb was scewing...

I lofted the curves and used the seam alignment of the loft command to get a straight seam, then extracted those curves from the loft to use for LineWeb.....

Maybe some kind of means to look at and align a "curves" seam position?? (I think we discussed this before?)

Heres a sample file with the twist from the curves seam point I was talking about... If you lineweb these, you will see it.. I used loft-Straight to create a surface where I used the lofts seem point aligner... Then extracted the edges from that surface to use Lineweb.

Hi Burr yeah there needs to be a way to adjust the seam manually to help out for cases like this. Probably some stuff like an "Edit seam" button can go on a detailed object properties dialog where I can jam in a whole bunch of special edit tools.

For the more regularly used tools like Loft I've tried to set it up so that you don't have to worry about seams since it will relocate them automatically but other tools especially kind of "quick and dirty" plugins will probably need them adjusted manually.

- Michael

Rememeber I'm great with this type of UI design.. Just ask me....

(Wasnt sure weather to laugh, or if you really planned on a detailed properties option...)

I'm now having "ask for more buttons remorse!!!"

I havnt run into this too often....

Hi Burr - actually that wasn't a joke - I really do plan on a detailed properties option that will have a whole bunch of stuff on it. It should be a good place for me to add a lot of additional functions but without adding any clutter to the main regular UI since it will be on a dialog box that you can pop up. Kind of like how Options works now.

- Michael

WOW!!

Thanks guys! LineWeb has potential. I saw mention of LineWeb before, but thought it was some kind of exclusive feature, overlooked it on that page. I use one or two other script plugins including SullScreen.

I took LineWeb and Pipe for a test drive here:


Had problems with Pipe. It didn't produce the inside dimension. (Does Pipe2 fix that?)


Michael, if it's possible for more plugins to be created, have you thought of some kind of pop-up screen, menu or single button activated window that comes up with an icon list of non-ui scripts (plugins). Reason I ask, ise plugins are real easy to forget about or "out of sight, out of mind", especially when a seldom used key or command line entry has to be used.
I really like your proposal to add a dialog for extra controls!

...some kind of pop-up screen, menu or single button activated window that comes up with an icon list of non-ui scripts (plugins)

I agree. There are some great scripts available and it would be neat to have them all in one place where they can be browsed and easily accessible via clicks from within MoI.

Ed

Maybe an icon and pop-up list down there where "options" and "help" are.

Hi Mike, yeah the current idea is to have a "Plug-ins" button on the bottom toolbar next to options, and it would pop up a menu with all your installed plugins on it.

Then the other part is a plug-in browser that would let you look through a centralized repository of plug-ins so you could find ones you wanted to install.

Probably the pop up menu will just be a text list of plug-ins though and not an icon for each one, because making good icons is difficult and if I had to make an icon for every plugin it would probably mean that not as many of them would be made.

Not sure exactly when this will happen - generally some other kinds of stuff like making new modeling or editing tools is at a higher priority.

- Michael

Michael, Cool Deal. It may inspire more programming inclined users to make more useful plugins.
A list would be just as efficient.

For the time being, the "plugin Gallery" from Petr's MoI page will do what you want.... I use it when i cant rememeber shortcuts I set for stuff.

Before I mess up my MoI installation, are the instructions for installing PlugInGallery3
the same as for MoI version 1?

bemfarmer,
It installs just like any other one and doesnt change your MoI installation.. You edit those files the same... Then make a shortcut to launch it.

To put the icon/button in your MoI UI like I have, you make the addition to the sidepane.htm file. Same as before.. (This is the file you may want to backup to be able to revert to a default install if you mess it up somehow.

Burr, that easy huh? :-)

Hi Magic,
Yeah, fairly simple stuff. I was just addressing that nothing has changed from V1... If you would like an explanation of what to do, I could do that....

But this is not prefered to Michael making his implementation... His will be much better. The plugin requires you to design it with notepad or something, but it's pretty basic stuff.

If you want to list the commands you want in one, and where you want it, I can set that up for you.

Burr,

Couldn't resist...
Spent a little time tonight getting familiar with the UI style html's.
I figured out how to colorize the remaining icons, and how to sneak in icons for added scripts.
So far, I have one for ArrayGem in the Arrays pop-up. Oooh yeah.
I moved the view chooser to the command bar right, same side as my side pane - as it makes logical sense to me, cutting down on a lot of cross-screen mouse travel.

Also, changed my diskette icon to a USB flash drive. MoI is product of the future and diskettes are sooooo 1980's. lol!
Actually the "Cloud" is the future, and everything, including your favorite software and precious family photos will exist on Cisco servers!
Speaking of which, God forbid if MoI should ever drink that Kool Aid!
How bad would that be to get the "moment of inspiration" and be CAD-blocked by a message reading "DNS failure, line down, no MoI for you!"

Very good!

I'm well pleased -
MoI is like the easy chair of modeling apps (and one that can be worked from the easy chair - I have): You can plush the head rest, adjust the incline, kick up your feet on the foot rest and add a drink holder if you wish.

Hi Mike,

> Speaking of which, God forbid if MoI should ever drink that Kool Aid!
> How bad would that be to get the "moment of inspiration" and be
> CAD-blocked by a message reading "DNS failure, line down, no
> MoI for you!"

I don't have any plans to make MoI totally dependent on cloud services.

A couple of specific features may benefit from it, like the plug-in browser that I was mentioned previously would probably connect to a web server to get the list of all current available plugins and let you download the ones that you want. But a browser/download mechanism like that is a lot different than requiring a connection just to run the program.

Actually the worst thing that can happen with a fully cloud dependent service is not just that your line is currently down, it's that if they decide at some point that you've violated the service agreement and that your entire account is suspended - maybe all due to someone else hacking accounts or something like that. We seem to be on the verge of seeing that kind of thing happening more frequently now.

- Michael