Blender has an object called an icosphere. The icosphere has 80 faces. Is there any way to create this using MoI?

Hi YHWH_777, see here for some info on polyhedra:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5037.9

There's a link there to a web site with some various premade ones in 3DM format (I don't know if the particular one you need is there, possibly not), and also some links to some tutorials on construction techniques for making stuff like that from scratch.

Also if you already have what you need in Blender, the easiest way is probably to export to OBJ format and then use the OBJ to 3DM wireframe converter from here:
http://moi3d.com/wiki/Resources#Obj23dmWireframe_converter

That will take the OBJ file as input and then as output generate a 3DM file that has a line segment for each polygon edge. Then that 3DM file can be loaded into MoI and you can create surfaces by selecting 3 lines that make up a face and using Construct > Planar.

- Michael

Hi Michael

With this obj to 3DM converter. Once the converted file is loaded in MoI, is the a way to script the creation on the planes?

I'm happy to try and write the script my self if I can be pointed into the right direction

Cheers steve

Hi Steve, it's probably possible to script it, but the script would need to sort through all the curves to find sets of 3 that formed a closed loop and then send those as inputs into the PlanarSrf command.

You can see what inputs the PlanarSrf command expects to receive by looking at the PlanarSrf.js file inside of the \commands sub-folder.

- Michael

I've updated the OBJ to 3DM converter (same download location which is here: http://moi3d.com/download/Obj23dmWireframe.zip) so that it now has 2 different modes that you can choose from - you can choose to either create one single line for every edge with no duplicates as it did before, or you can now also choose to create one closed polyline curve for every face.

With this second mode, if the faces are all planar than you can just select them all and run Construct > Planar to build planar faces from those closed polyline curves, then use Edit > Join to join them together.

- Michael

Works very well.

Very cool new plugin!
Because make all planar faces by hand one by one was a little tiedous :)

Does the OBJ2DM works for MAC ?

Hi Pilou, no the Obj to 3DM converter program is for Windows only right now.

It's probably possible though to copy the converter program inside of the MoI OSX version wrapper and then run it under the same Wine system that MoI uses to run. To do that, right-click on the MoI app and choose "Show package contents", and unzip the converter program under the "drive_c" directory that is inside there.

Then to launch it, do the same "Show package contents" again and then double-click the Wineskin.app that shows there, go to "Advanced" > "Tools" > and push "Command line shell" - a command prompt window will pop up that accepts DOS commands, and the converter program can probably be launched ok from that command prompt. I did not test it myself yet though.

- Michael

OK!

And seems you must add in your little tut
After make planar, select curves for kill them because there stay "hidden" dupplicated above the "planar facets"! ;)

Hi Michael,

just downloaded your new converter and tested it with "WinOnX" for the Mac.
Works great so far. Since WinOnX is very cheap in price i thought i should
mention it here.

http://www.winonx.com/

Best regards
Stefan

Hi Michael

Running obj23dmwireframe from the command line in wineskin.app worked has a test I used a 6MB obj file I had of a spaceship with serious amount of detail both outside in inside, it produced a 23MB 3dm file. 1000s of closed cures, hit select all, -> construct-> planar, run for about 5 minutes then crashed out. Well planar crashed out but MoI was still working it :) it created 27911 surfaces. I was really impressed, the 3dm file grew to 1.8GB :)

Hi Steve, I'm glad that it worked as well as it did!

But that's actually a good example of the kind of thing that you should not really expect to convert well.

The main problem there is that your file there has a tremendous number of little facets in it that are essentially trying to replicate curved surface pieces.

This type of conversion is meant for objects that are actually intended to be faceted, stuff like the polyhedron mentioned earlier, or things like diamonds which are supposed to have all flat faces in them.

For areas that are supposed to be smooth surfaces, in a NURBS type object those areas are intended to be created out of large smooth spline patches with one big surface for a broad smooth area, not a whole ton of little flat facets.

When you have such a large number of little facets you're basically replicating a polygon mesh type object structure in NURBS, but there is more overhead for the trim boundaries in a NURBS object structure than there is in a polygon mesh structure - for example the trim boundaries of every NURBS surface are constructed of curve objects, not just a single implicit line between vertices and so they're much more generalized in structure (with additional overhead), and on top of that there's both a UV parameter space curve in the 2D space of the surface as well as a 3D edge curve.

The NURBS structure works well when it's used as intended with larger areas of the model being made up of just a single broad curved spline surface.

You probably know all this already, but I thought I'd better explain this in some more detail since someone looking at your post may think that's the kind of conversion that is supposed to work - I just want to make it clear that it's not - I don't expect for a high poly count object like that to convert well into a NURBS object using a separate little trimmed planar surface for every single polygon.

It does make for a great torture test though! :)

- Michael

Similar test here. I pulled in the closed triangles of an OBJ file exported from Sculptris. I am about 1.4GB. I'll post some pics when I can get back to it.

Michael T.

P.S. Great script Michael G.!

I am SO happy to have this new feature. A million thanks!

Did some more work. Since I used symmetry in Sculptris, I decided to delete half of the closed curves. Still adding planer surfaces, but is much quicker using half the model. When completed I will mirror it and see what happens. This is not a character I am interested in doing, but I thought for a test, he'd do okay. Current status pics below.






Michael T.