I like the Quad Remesher plugin by Exoside

I purchased a 3 month license and loved it. It's now expired and I may opt for a lifetime license.

https://exoside.com/quadremesher/

Fluent 1.5 Power Trip , a unique addon for hard surface modeling and much more (thanks to Rudy an amazing french developer).

Fluent does not offer a compilation of tools but a global workflow to help you in your hard surface modeling and realizations.

This global vision allows the creation of smart tools. Make cuts, add plates, cables, pipes, grids and fabric panels (Quad Remesher or Instant Remesh needed for the cloth panel).

But above all, finalize your model with tools to fix errors generated by Boolean operations.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WupcIQRK-uA

A challenger to SpeedFlow Compagnon, ProFlow by Pitiwazou ;)

For Blender lovers :)
A cool tut article how to modeling from a sketch of a French talentuous guy!

https://www.aendom.com/tuts/space-cadet-workflow-en/

Chipp Walters publishes 15 new videos...







etc...

Amazing!
Chipp, u'r a cornucopia of wonderful things related to Blender.
Just like a "Blender Ambassador" :)

Hi MoI3d people,
am new here, MoI is a great program! My main usecase is currently to get STEP files from subd models built in Blender. But I also want to use it for adding round features in mesh models (like fillets) - all cases where mesh representation isn't optimal.
Found this nice plugin that allows to get models from Blender into MoI and the other way around with one (well, two) click(s): https://github.com/TitusLVR/BMOI_Connector
Both directions work well for for me on first sight. But for some reason I cannot edit the imported mesh in MoI, clicking on "Show pts" does nothing. If I use the function on geometry that I have built inside MoI from scratch then it works without problems. Which preconditions does a mesh have to fulfill that I can edit it ('s points) in MoI?

Hi Nan, re: transfer models from blender to MoI - if you have a sub-d model in Blender then that plugin you found won't be the best way to transfer. It was written before there was a sub-d conversion mechanism built into MoI which is new in MoI version 4.

Instead what you should do is export your base level sub-d control cage in Blender out to an .obj file and then in MoI use the SubD > Create > From File command to import the sub-d cage which will generate a smooth NURBS surface result from the limit surface.

re: Show points - in MoI you can only use "Show pts" on joined surfaces on certain cases - where the control points of the "underlying surfaces" for each face align with each other.

If surfaces are joined at an edge that is an arbitrary trim edge rather than a natural edge of the underlying surface then you can't turn on points because it would be too easy to open up a hole in the object.

You can always turn on control points on an individual surface though, so you can use Edit > Separate on an object to break it into individual separate surfaces and then use show points on those.

There is some more information and description of this particular issue with illustrations to try and explain how "underlying surfaces" and trim boundaries work in NURBS modeling in the FAQ here:
http://moi3d.com/wiki/FAQ#Q:_Why_does_show_points_work_for_some_objects_but_not_others.3F

In general surface control point editing is not a focus area for MoI. MoI is more focused on construction of shapes from 2D profile curves. If you want to form pieces by editing surface control points like you would do in Blender, it's better do that work inside Blender on a sub-d model and then bring the sub-d model into MoI and not try to do surface control point sculpting type work inside MoI where it's a limited area.

- Michael

Hi Michael, thanks for the explanation and the link. It's a lot clearer now! :)
My initial intent to use MoI instead of Blender for changing stuff in cases where precise dimensions are relevant was because the measurement and precision redimensioning/movement tools in MoI are quite nice. But Blender also has some stuff in that direction now (particularly with plugins), so it should be possible.

Hi Nan, you can do things like drill precise holes in MoI, it's just that the way you do it is not by moving surface control points around. You would do things like draw 2D profile curves and do booleans with them.

- Michael

Ok, makes sense to use MoI for such cuts. In the example below I did the intersection in Blender - which looks either edgy or needs gazillions of polygons.


Hm, on second thought I don't completely understand the explanation from the faq when looking at this concrete demo shape. For this example I cannot select any points at all.
My assumption would have been that I cannot select the vertices e.g. at the place where the boolean subtraction happened. But e.g. at all the blocky corners there should be natural delimiters of the faces?
Also tried with the Blender default cube - there point selection worked, so this thing seems to be an odd boundary case.
But if points can be edited in some cases and in others not - and editing of points is the goal - then it is probably better to do this in Blender in any case.

Hi NaN,

re:
> Hm, on second thought I don't completely understand the explanation from the faq when looking at
> this concrete demo shape. For this example I cannot select any points at all.

Can you please post the .3dm file of your demo shape? Then i can point out the areas to you that are preventing it from having surface control points turned on.

But yes for a case like that it would probably be better to cut the circular hole inside MoI by drawing a circle and using Boolean difference, rather than doing the boolean in polygons in Blender.

- Michael

Sure:

Edit: Did a fast test: just removed the boolean intersection thing, now I can select all the points. So this part seemed to somehow inherit to everything?
Edit2: Readded the boolean intersection - this time via a clean extruded circle from within MoI as you suggested. (Works great!) The result is the same though - as soon as this cut is in, I cannot show any points anymore. Also added that one (oddshape3-3dm). might be easier to analyze from within MoI.

It's a solid at the end : if you want see Points you must all separate!



But why do you want see points ?

Hi, wanted to see the points in order to rescale stuff (e.g. making the blocky end thing shorter etc.) This was just an example, the usual usecase would be direct editing of stuff with precise dimensions.
Thanks for the animation, I still don't completely get what's going on :)
But I also don't want to waste your time as this is hypothetical at this point. Michael already gave me the advise I needed.

Edit: Ah, now I got what you did, you selected everything and then clicked on separate, so all faces are separate objects now. On first glimpse this occured a little bit radical, but with box-selection (selecting all the overlapping points) one can indeed change the geometry of the shape that way. And then rejoin stuff once done. Thanks, this could come handy in some cases!

Hi Nan, thanks for posting the .3dm file. So yes the thing preventing that from having surface points turned on is the hole area here:



If you select that face and use Edit > Separate to break it apart from the main object so it is an individual surface not joined to any other surface, you can then turn on the control points for the face's "underlying surface", which is a larger plane surface:



The "natural edges" of the underlying surface are these:



An edge like this is a "trim edge" - an edge that belongs to the trimming boundary of the face that marks different areas of the face as being active or being trimmed away:


When faces are joined at a trim edge like this internal to the face then you won't be able to turn on surface control points. You can only do that when faces are joined at natural underlying surface edges.

Turning on and editing surface control points is not a major focus area for how modeling in MoI functions. Instead of trying to edit surface points the strategy in MoI is more focused on working with 2D profile curves and doing boolean operations, not on squishing 3D surface points around as it is in sub-d modeling.

There are some tips here for people coming from a poly modeling background which may help some:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4865.2

The strategy that NURBS modeling is focused on is very different from how you do things in poly modeling.

- Michael

Hi Nan:

re:
> Edit2: Readded the boolean intersection - this time via a clean extruded circle from within
> MoI as you suggested. (Works great!) The result is the same though - as soon as this cut is
> in, I cannot show any points anymore. Also added that one (oddshape3-3dm). might be
> easier to analyze from within MoI.

Yes, that's correct and normal - you end up with the same situation where you have 2 faces that are joined at an internal trim edge rather than at edges of the underlying surfaces.

That's why you generally don't work in a CAD program by turning on surface control points like you do in a poly modeling program.

The way objects are structured in a CAD program using "underlying surfaces" with trim boundaries on them marking active and inactive areas of the surface means that you cannot move 3D points around like you do in a poly modeling program. Poly modeling programs do not have this concept of "underlying surface" and "trim boundary".

Although these structures take away the ability to squish around 3D points like you do in poly modeling, the thing that they give is much better boolean operations because when 2 objects are booleaned in a CAD program it does not have to fragment things into little pieces, the surfaces stay the same and only new trim curves are created on the surfaces. it's fundamentally why booleans work better in CAD programs than in poly modeling programs.

- Michael

Ok, so the face dimensions are much larger, so it doesn't only affect the local area but the entire object? (Different from the example in the faq, where unaffected points of the same object were editible?).
Thanks for the illustration! Think the current level of understanding is ok for me - I can work with this! :)

Hi Nan,

re:
> Hi, wanted to see the points in order to rescale stuff (e.g. making the blocky end thing shorter
> etc.) This was just an example, the usual usecase would be direct editing of stuff with
> precise dimensions.

MoI is actually not very good at direct editing of stuff after you have constructed it.

It has a lot of functionality for making things with precise dimensions while you are drawing it, like you can enter in lengths, widths, radius values, etc... while you are drawing curves to get a precise shape right when you initially create things.

But editing of things that have already been constructed is a different area and it's not something that MoI handles very well right now.

There are some other CAD programs that can do that better, SpaceClaim is a pretty good one for what is called "direct editing" in CAD, or also check out Fusion360.

- Michael