Hi agonyii,

> I have a question in terms of 'Obj library', would that 3d party addon still reside
> in the different folder even if my moi.ini is inside apps main folder?

There is no automatic connection between where your moi.ini file is located and how the Obj library addon works. If I remember right the newest version of Max's CustomUI is designed to go in the app data folder so it won't need to be reinstalled on every new beta release. But older versions went into the main app program files folder so you might try using an older version. It's probably possible to edit it so it goes wherever you want.

But it's likely that in the future more and more stuff will go into the appdata folder like script downloads and stuff like that, both to support the default Windows configuration with UAC enabled where Program Files is read only and also so that added resources are stored in a central location so that it isn't necessary to copy things around for every new release.

I guess I should make it so you can customize the appdata folder location though. Then you could set that so everything is under one single folder.

- Michael

> I guess I should make it so you can customize the appdata folder location though. Then you could set that so everything is under one single folder.

That sounds awesome! I think that would be the best solution so far. Thanks for filtering that out!

Please allow me to add one more comment on the subject:

Alongside OBJ library, I also have customized UI. I prefer dark theme, it's easy on my eyes so while having something neutral I can fully concentrate just on design. I just hate the idea, I had to overwrite quite a lot of original MOI app files to have it this way. Would be possible, if we set a custom folder for all our preferences, scripts and adddons that this folder is also monitored from Moi for it's own app's modified files, icons? If Moi sees any of its own files there then these files would get loaded first - instead of ones from the apps folder. In that case way we would be able to keep the original files intact and still able to keep all the addons we use.
Right now with every new Moi update we have to reinstall everything and I all design colleges I know are utilizing Moi in a such way.

Thank you in any case!

Hi agonyii,

> If Moi sees any of its own files there then these files would get loaded first - instead of ones
> from the apps folder. In that case way we would be able to keep the original files intact and
> still able to keep all the addons we use.

I have some ideas along these lines for theme packages where a theme could override the default resources but there are some tricky areas for stuff other than images where stuff should be combined together for when new things are added to moi.css for example that the theme doens't implement.

It's something that I want to work on in the future but it probably won't happen in the V4 time frame though.

- Michael

Hi agonyii,

> > I guess I should make it so you can customize the appdata folder location though. Then you could set that so everything is under one single folder.
>
> That sounds awesome! I think that would be the best solution so far. Thanks for filtering that out!

I wasn't able to get to this for this very next beta coming out soon but it's still on my list.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Just a thought with working with bigger assemblies and more parts with upcoming V4 release would it be possible to somehow have a deep lock mode for layers or objects as when you hide and unhide it reveals all layers and would be good to keep reference layers or other transitional items in a buried state within the file.

regards
Alex.

Hi Alex, I think it would be difficult to express an additional hide state in the UI without it getting complicated.

You can avoid unhiding everythying currently if you use the scene browser to do your unhiding instead of the Edit > Hide command.

Also if you use Ctrl+click on Edit > Hide that will do a "show subset" operation where you can show just some of the hidden objects instead of all of them.

Maybe if you want something totally out of your way for an extended time you could export it out to a separate file and then delete it from your current one.

- Michael

Hello Michael!

How are you ? I hope fine :)

Inspired by the last post of James, I want to ask you something related to "2d workflows".

I don't know what you're currently working on, but I want to remind you a very important area that need to be improved: tools for curves.

Especially:

1) A new and improved "rebuild" command
2) New API methods that can give us at least the access to the inner structure of the curves (knot points, control points)
3) An improved "offset" command
4) The chance to easily pick one or more control points of a curve and easily change their "type": from "sharp" to "not sharp"

...other things that now I can't remember :)

As you can see I didn't specify details for the points from 1 to 3 but I know that you know what I'm talking about ;)

Thanks a lot and have a nice day!

Hi Marco, #1 and #3 are pretty difficult areas to implement well, I'd need more information about how you'd expect an improved version of those to behave.

#4 is something I've been meaning to do for some time, I'll see if I could address that in v4.

- Michael

Hi Michael.

@You : "...Hi Marco, #1 and #3 are pretty difficult areas to implement well, I'd need more information about how you'd expect an improved version of those to behave..."

Hmmm...pretty difficult now to remember all the things said during last two years about these things...
I can assure you that many times we have talked about them...they are scattered over many forum threads...

@You : "...#4 is something I've been meaning to do for some time, I'll see if I could address that in v4..."

Ok. Got it.
I hope not to be "pushy" but...what are the new things you're working on for the next beta?

Thanks a lot and have a nice day.

Marco (mkdm)

Hi Marco,

> Hmmm...pretty difficult now to remember all the things said during last two years
> about these things...
> I can assure you that many times we have talked about them...they are scattered over
> many forum threads...

Ok, but probably in those same scattered threads I've also previously explained why they work as they currently do. An offset curve of a NURBS curve cannot be represented exactly in NURBS form itself except in special cases. So the offset mechanism has to go through a fitting/refinement process and will not have the same control point structure as the original curve.


> I hope not to be "pushy" but...what are the new things you're working on for the next beta?

At the moment I've been working on some bugs that have been reported through e-mail and doing some experiments.

- Michael

Hi Michael.
Thanks for replying me.

@You "...At the moment I've been working on some bugs that have been reported through e-mail and doing some experiments..."

Good to know :)

And regarding the previous point (from 1 to 3)...ok I remember the discoussions about "offset" and, ok. No problem, all is clear.

But I also remember that I talked to you some times in the recent past, about the improvement of the "rebuild" command, along with the opportunity to improve also the "merge" command, that actually works only on "edges" and not on "curves".

This second behavior could be a great improvement for "2D workflow" related stuff.

What do you say about that?

I stay tuned :)

Hi Marco, you're probably remembering that I mentioned that at some point I'd like to figure out how to combine Join and Merge together into a single Join command possibly with the option to do rebuilding at the same time as well.

I'm not sure when that will happen though, there is a lot of workflow and UI design that will go into that.

- Michael

Your rock Michael!

That's exactly what I wanted to remind you :)

This is a very important improvement for 2d stuff.
I hope that you want to rate It pretty high in your todo list.

Ciao!

Hi Marco, it's not really something that can go high on the todo list because it probably needs a new UI method for it that has to evolve a bit first.

- Michael

Hello Michael.

@You : "...it's not really something that can go high on the todo list because it probably needs a new UI method for it that has to evolve a bit first..."

Thanks for the reply.

I'm not lucky with my requests.... :)

Have a nice day.

Hi Marco, if you happen to have a more detailed idea for how it would work like what the UI and workflow would specifically be like that could certainly increase the priority!

Those things can often be the most difficult though.

- Michael

Hi Michael...I have some idea but actually no time to write to explain...

But I suppose that, at least regarding the unification of Merge/Join/Rebuild, you should have some use-case scenario in your mind.

Anyway...I stay tuned.

Have a nice day and best wishes for all.

Marco (mkdm)

Hello Michael.

How are you? I hope all is ok :)

Just a quick reminder of one of the things I asked some times ago for this V4...

Please, give us a way to easily edit a control point (or edit in one shot the bunch of selected control points) of an existing curve to toggle it (or they) from corner to smooth and vice versa.

Thanks.

Hi Marco, yes that's still on my list. I'm not sure if it will be in the next beta or the one after though.

- Michael

Ok Michael, good to know.

I hope to see it soon :)

As you may already know I'm a big fun of all is related to "2D workflow" and I think that with only a little bit of extra effort you could improve the already very good 2d arsenal of Moi, because with just two or three improvements in the right place Moi can be a serious "all-rounder" 2D vector tool, combining the precision of a Cad with its easy of use.

Many times I leveraged on Moi to create my 2D works/experiments (vector art but also graphic elements for addictional digital painting).