Ok, I'm using the newest v4 beta and it looks quite fine, but Michael, are there still no improvements to the rendering of edges? Edges from shallow or thins parts still "shine through", which can be very irritating. Actually, this one of the downsides of MoI that bugs me for years now. :-(

Hi 3image, sorry no, no improvements yet for the "bleed through" display artifacts. It's a sensitive area and it would be easy to get the opposite problem of edges partially not displayed.

There is some more information here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4987.2

- Michael

Hi,
did anyone try to edit a STL by importing it to Blender > Export as OBJ > open that OBJ in SubD in MoI v4?

I do try, but on quite complex model (many triangles - but STL have only 7MB).
MoI open that for a loooooong time 2H+ and sometimes crashes near end.

Or any proven method/workaround for editing downloaded STL file???

Thanks

Hi Mr. Yuri, STL files contain only triangles. The MoI v4 SubD importer is only designed to import sub-d control cages from OBJ files, not dense non-subd structured triangle meshes.

So that's why the import is not working, it's not the right kind of data that the importer is meant to handle.

In general MoI is not designed to edit dense polygon mesh geometry, you would need to use a polygon editing program to do that kind of work not MoI.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
I already understand that MoI is not made to edit triangle meshes.
I thought that STL can be converted to SubD-friendly file that can be opened in MoI.
So the complex triangle mesh will be translated to something else that MoI can handle.

Hi Mr. Yuri, a SubD-friendly file is structured very differently than what you will have in an STL file. The STL file contains only triangles while a SubD file should have all or nearly all quads and be sparser.

It's not a matter of just packaging the data in a different file format, the actual structure of the polygons needs to be redone.

There is a process called "retopology" which can be used for that kind of process, usually it's a manual process where you sketch out a quad only structure over top of a denser triangle mesh. There are some tools like TopoGun that can be used for that and also ZBrush has an automatic process called ZRemesher that does that kind of thing as well.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Her are some notes on v4.

PDF export crash report
Mac Beta version crashes on my side when exporting a rectangle to pdf.
I tried on OSX 10.9.5 and on another machine on 10.12.6 and both crash.
On win 8.1, with Parallels, it exports fine.
On Mac version 3, it also exports ok.

Artefacts subject
On another side, I would like to add to the recurring display artefacts subject.
While I appreciate the display speed when working and can live with its side effects,
I often use MoI with a projector to quickly demonstrate geometry and moldmaking concepts
and it would be nice to be able to temporarily toggle to display or snapshot without artefacts.

3D view rotation speed observations
Also, I find that in 3D view space rotation and zoom in/out seem slower in v4 ("bumpy"?) when the grid is visible.
Much smoother when grid is masked or when using Parallel (isometric) view.
However, in Parallel view, display artefacts are more apparent.

Globally, I really enjoy working with the new version and am looking forward to use dimensions and annotations.
Thanks for all the attention you are giving to the user experience!

Michel

Hi Michel, thanks for the v4 feedback!

re:
> PDF export crash report
> Mac Beta version crashes on my side when exporting a rectangle to pdf.
> I tried on OSX 10.9.5 and on another machine on 10.12.6 and both crash.

Was a crash report file generated? That would be under ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/

If one was generated could you please send it to me at moi@moi3d.com or post here?

One thing that you might check though is your setting for "Canvas megapixel resolution" in the PDF export options dialog when generating a hidden-line drawing. If that is set to a particularly large value but you do not have a corresponding very large amount of system memory then that could result in a crash currently. Since MoI v4 is 64-bit now the limit of how much memory it will try to consume has also been increased, that could be why you see a difference in behavior here between v3 and v4.

It takes up about 34 MB per megapixel and putting it at something like 1000 will consume about 34 GB.



re:
> 3D view rotation speed observations
> Also, I find that in 3D view space rotation and zoom in/out seem slower in v4 ("bumpy"?) when the grid is visible.
> Much smoother when grid is masked or when using Parallel (isometric) view.
> However, in Parallel view, display artefacts are more apparent.

What is your setting under Options > Grid > "Grid sections" ? The default is 150 but if you have changed that to put in a high value there that might cause these kinds of problems.


- Michael

Hi Michael,

re:
> 3D view rotation speed observations
>What is your setting under Options > Grid > "Grid sections" ? The default is 150 but if you have changed that to put in a high value there that might cause these kinds of problems.

My setting in Options > Grid > "Grid sections" was way too high !
I turned it down to 1000 and now it's working fluidly.
Thanks !

re:
> PDF export crash report
I just sent you a crash dump.
This one still a mystery to me.
The MacBookPro has 16gb of memory and the other machine I tried was an 8gb iMac.
When exporting lines (no solids or surfaces), the "Canvas megapixel resolution" option is not there.
However, when I select export a Solid, the "Canvas megapixel resolution" option is set to "30.0".

Michel

Hi Michel, thanks for sending the crash dump file. It appears to be a bug in converting a style name into a layer name for the PDF file.

Can you please send a .3dm file that will trigger the crash? That will help me to track down the bug.

- Michael

Everything (basic functionality that I use) seems to be working great. New version install process is so smooth with it picking up CustomUI automatically, sweet!

Hi Tover, thanks for testing it!

- Michael

I like this theme, but I now have two issues with me install. Once I installed this theme I noticed my buttons on the command bar are round and it created two rows. I will prefer ever thing to be one row. How do I fix this?

Hi Ron, I answered you on this other thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9242.25

- Michael

A very minor observation:
Circle TanCopy.js and Flow.js both use the "shorthand" "var ui = moi.ui;"
Circle TanCopy.js continues to use the "shorthand."
Flow.js uses the "shorthand" once, and then reverts to moi.ui.........

- Brian

@Michael- Is there any way that we can adjust blend parameters after it has been created? Currently the blend updates if the blend references surfaces move or update. It would be cool if you could double click on a blend and adjust blend parameters- ie the initial surface creation parameters appear again so that you can adjust the bulge. It would be cool to do this on other features like revolve- double click on a surface to re-tweak parameters- cap or not, revolve angle etc:

Hi parel, sorry no there is not currently any way to adjust those kinds of parameters later on. It is something that I want to explore in the future though.

- Michael

Love the interface as is- look forward to where you take it.

Hi Michael,


I was just wondering, will there be any other improvemenst or new features for V4 beside the measurements?

Don't get me wrong. Measurements is a big addition to MoI by itself. Was just wondering.



Thank you!

Hi Stargazer, there will be an assortment of various bug fixes and a few smaller things but it's primarily annotations.

The back end for the annotations is pretty much done now, the main things left are UI for controlling them and seeing if I can get some export functionality.

Then it's time to wrap up v4 and move on to v5, I would like to work on a wider variety of new things for v5.

- Michael