Hi Jesper, it's looking great! Currently there is nothing set up in MoI to do volume calculations, but that is something I want to add for v3.

At the moment though you would have to export your model to some other CAD program and do the volume calculation over there. One pretty inexpensive CAD program that can work well to help out with various things is ViaCAD: http://www.punchcad.com/p-9-viacad-2d3d-v8.aspx

- Michael

Great start Jesper!

The volume of this part is 8368.18cm³ (510.66in³) also I noticed that your part isn't a 'Solid' so I had to trim it in half, mirror then join to become a solid volume, one side was good :)

-

Hey Michael & Danny,

Thank you for your kind words about my close to first creation ... And not least also for helping with my questions ;-)

@Danny: A bit surprising that it has this volume :-( It's supposed to be about 111 millimeters high, about 73 mms wide and 3 mms thick at the thickest point. That shouldn't give 8368 cm3 - I hope as it's likely to be cast in silver .... ;-) Hmmm... I just noticed that the scale wasn't set to millimeters so guess that does it ...? My guess is that the volume is 8.363 cm3 meaning that the weight will be about 85 grams. Could that be right?

It's interesting also that you found that one half of the model was not a solid. When modeling it I first "unioned" the upper part of the model and the rods and frame appeared to join completely, whereas when I did exactly the same to the bottom half then some ellipses remained on the outside of the frame. I reckon this is why one half (bottom?) was not a solid. How do you see this, by the way?

@Michael: Thanks for the link to ViaCad. I don't know if this is the place to ask for this - but since I'm currently evaluating some CAD softwares (& somewhat "steaming" beyond what the summer brings about from so doing) do you then have some comments about the difference between ViaCad & MoI3D? Maybe a thread somewhere?

Thanks for reading & maybe replying ;-)

Jesper

Hi again ...

@Danny: about the frame & rods being a solid I clicked the "types" & solids and - after mirroring it like I suppose you did - it now becomes selected when I click the solid option. Might that in general be an indication of whether or not an item is a solid?

Best regards,

Jesper

>> about the difference between ViaCad & MoI3D

Apples and oranges. One is a CAD program (with all the implications and complications), the other is a modelling program.

Make your choice what you want to do, then pick your weapon. Some use Rhino or MoI for modelling and sketching out ideas. And then Solidworks or Autocad or whatever when it comes to actually making things. Not that that can't be done in MoI, but it quickly becomes a pain in the neck because there aren't (real) solutions for standard parts libraries, assemblies, collaborative engineering, parametric design, constraints and dependencies. The list goes on ...

Hi Jesper,

> @Michael: Thanks for the link to ViaCad. I don't know if this is the place to ask for this - but since
> I'm currently evaluating some CAD softwares (& somewhat "steaming" beyond what the summer
> brings about from so doing) do you then have some comments about the difference between
> ViaCad & MoI3D? Maybe a thread somewhere?

I don't think there's any previous thread specifically for that, but some of the main differences are just the general user interface approach. Really the best way to see the differences is to try both versions yourself, some things like workflow and user interface can mean different things to different people.

Also it's not unusual for some particular program to be better than another in some particular area, and so it can be helpful to have more than one program in your toolbox.

For MoI the main focus in on ease of use and a kind of fluid workflow and so it's particularly handy for building and drawing things quickly.

- Michael

"""""""""Apples and oranges. One is a CAD program (with all the implications and complications), the other is a modelling program."""""""""""

Errrr. NOT.

>>"""""""""Apples and oranges. One is a CAD program (with all the implications and complications), the other is a modelling program."""""""""""

> Errrr. NOT.

You can elaborate ?

You called an apple an orange, or was it an orange an apple?

MoI is a CAD package.

Solidworks is a CAD package.

ViaCad is a CAD package.

CAD= Computer aided design. We model in all of these.

It appears you were refering to a toolset that any one CAD package contains as a difference?

> you were refering to a toolset ..

Yes, you could drive a nail into a wall using a screw-driver. Would you call the screw-driver a hammer ?

""""""""""
Yes, you could drive a nail into a wall using a screw-driver. Would you call the screw-driver a hammer ?""""""""""

No, I would call it a tool. Then I would point out that you are using the wrong tool for the job.

But that is a ridiculous analogy to try to make the point of the misleading statement you made.

Ok guys, let's please not hijack Jesper's thread with an argument.

Thanks,
- Michael

Hi Jesper,

> My guess is that the volume is 8.363 cm3
> meaning that the weight will be about 85 grams.
> Could that be right?

Yep that's correct with the sizes you mentioned, because you didn't set the units, which I should of noticed also, the part exported out ten times bigger.

> I reckon this is why one half (bottom?) was not a solid.
> How do you see this, by the way?

When I first open a model from someone else the first thing I do is select it and in the information panel as shown below MoI tells me what the model is, in your case it was a joined surface.



Then to find out where surfaces/faces are not joined I use the script SelectNakedEdges http://kyticka.webzdarma.cz/3d/moi/#SelectNaked that's where I found that something wasn't right with the bottom half of your model, fixed it as mentioned above then exported it.

-

Hi Jesper

have a look here


http://www.rapidprototype.com.au/
http://quotes.rapidprototype.com.au/

they have a online quote system, upload your STL, they will work out the volume and you can even work out rough prices in variuos metals, i.e silver, gold.... 111x73x3 should be well under 85 grams :)

this is the sort of result they give you.... has you can see my pendant with was 37.18 x 31.50 x 3.59 mm volume of just under 1cm3

Getting the volume of an STL is a good idea! Especially if you were planning on 3D printing anyway.

There are also some other STL viewers/checkers that could be used for that, one is MiniMagics:
http://software.materialise.com/minimagics

- Michael

Hi all & good morning ;-)

& thanks again for your suggestions & comments...

@Steve: This is very interesting indeed - both the calculator and the investment casting opportunity. Just a bit far away it is (I live in Denmark) & the Australian dollar has gone up a lot lately relative to the Euro, and I'll have to pay about 27% taxes on the finished product + shipment price so ... Yet I'll try it out and see what the prices are ..

@Michael: Thanks again! I've actually just completed the first trial version of the design I've shown here previously so would be interesting to see what it looks like in a viewer.

@DannyT: Thank you also for your follow-up & link.

I'm thinking that I might end up having a full toolbox surrounding MoI3D even in the trial period - thank you so much!

In time I may also be interested in doing architectural design & wonder if you have tried to use MoI for this? I watched a tutorial the other day on how Doric Pillars could be modelled and the kind of architecture I'm interested in is something that may resemble Gaudi's:

http://www.google.dk/imgres?hl=da&safe=active&biw=1600&bih=1099&tbs=isz:lt,islt:2mp&tbm=isch&tbnid=NW1bjveXD3KXBM:&imgrefurl=http://kejohnstone.wordpress.com/page/2/&docid=OrjpZJWsXXwaDM&imgurl=http://kejohnstone.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/img_0805.jpg&w=4320&h=2850&ei=5kUSUMTTJsWKhQfN7ICgBg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=876&vpy=379&dur=428&hovh=163&hovw=228&tx=160&ty=78&sig=114046012301637364865&page=1&tbnh=155&tbnw=207&start=0&ndsp=37&ved=1t:429,r:12,s:0,i:107

I reckon MoI3D can be used for the modelling part but for rendering the final output so that it is photorealistic are there any facilities in MoI that allows for this? Or should I export it to another program (e.g. Blender or Modo or?)

Greetings,

Jesper

Hi Jesper - MoI does not itself have any rendering mechanisms built into it, it's focused just on modeling.

In order to render you do need to export to a different rendering program. Blender can work but it's fairly painful to use with CAD data because it's not able to import vertex normals for controlling the shading as pretty much all other renderers will do.

There are quite a few people that use MoI in combination with Modo for rendering, and also Cinema4D, Simlab Composer, KeyShot, or Carrara are some other pretty frequently used renderers as well.

- Michael

Hey Michael,

Thanks again for replying & suggesting.

'Best for your day ;-)

Jesper

Hi again,

... just would like to say that as I use this program more I am increasingly impressed with its "simplicity" combined with its ability to do what I'd like to do ...

Thanks ;-)

Jesper

Thanks Jesper, I'm glad that you're liking it!

- Michael