I also noticed (accidentally)
F1 = context sensitive help.

thanks very kind, I started without documenting or tutorials, is too intuitive to me and is my fault, I also have many PDF.

Hi pafurijaz, yes after you've been using MoI for a while that may actually be the best time to go over the help file documentation to find out various smaller details. Those are kind of hard to absorb all at once when you're just starting.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Just like to know if this feature exists or if it could be viable in V4 "final".

Text tool centre alignment.

Ability to centrally align as default option.
User would put the text point on origin.
If one letter typed say an "I" its centred on origin.
If 3 letters typed say "moi" the "o" would be the letter
closest to origin.

Nb. If the origin of the text is placed somewhere else asides the "origin"
then the text is still centrally aligned horizontally to where the point was placed.

Hi Stefano, currently I'm trying to wrap up v4 and not add in any new features but that one might be easy enough to put in, I'll take a look.

Right now you can get the centered result you want by using the Transform > Align command after creating the text.

- Michael

Hi Michael, thanks for the response and recognising the suggestion! - Stefano

MoI v4 Beta September 10,2020

Adding a new style and changing color. Select 'Pick Screen Color' then move the mouse around the dialog box and the dialog box jumps horizontal back and forth as the numbers update.

Has this event been reported yet?

My screen capture software limited in colors...

Wayne

Hi Wayne, thanks for reporting that, this is the first report of that problem. That dialog is implemented by the Qt framework so that's a Qt bug, I'll see if they have a fix for it that I could apply.

There is a setting in moi.ini which if set will make MoI use the Windows system color picker same as MoI v3 did instead of the Qt one. It does not have a pick screen color option at all though. But if you want to try it, that is set in moi.ini under:

[Color Dialog]
UseV3ColorDialog=y

Thanks,
- Michael

Hi Wayne, I found a Qt open bug on that:
https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-43506

But it's still open and hasn't been fixed.

I'll take a look at fixing it up myself. Having the mouse coordinates is not really useful so if I just remove that text from being displayed that should fix it.

Thanks, - Michael

Dear Michael,

I recognized a strange thing where I am not sure what software is causing the issue.

When exporting in V4 beta Sep-10-2020 a closed curve that was joined from 2 or more single curves in IGES format and importing it to my CAM software, the CAM is importing the curve twice. So I get two times the same object. I tried the same with MoI3D v3 and here just one object is visible after importing to the CAM. Could there be a loop counter issue (the classical n instead of n-1 counter-end issue) in v4? Or is it an IGES format issue between CAD and CAM?

This does not happen with curves that just have one element like a line or a circle, whereas a rectangle is causing the issue as well.

Best regards

Joerg

Hi Joerg, could you please post an example file that has the problem? If you could post both the .3dm file as well as the IGES file generated from it I'll take a look to see if anything is wrong with them.

What is the CAM software you are importing into?

Thanks, - Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your super fast response!!!

I attached two 3dm files each with a simple square inside stored with v3 and the other with v4 beta 2020-09-10 and the two IGES files that were created with the two different MoI3d versions.

I use Condacam as CAM software.


Greetings, Joerg

Hi Joerg, so in MoI v4 I have updated the library used for IGES, STEP, and SAT formats to a new version, and the new version by default outputs the curve contained in a "subfigure", a type of component instance. That's the difference from the V3 output, the V3 output just has a composite curve entity without any other hierarchy.

It should only be in there once but it seems that Condacam is inserting it multiple times maybe as it traverses the assembly tree when it visits the parent container element as well as the "leaf" tree node.

I think that's a quirk that may be unique to Condacam, I'm not seeing it come in as duplicated in other software.

It looks like I can set an option on the export to generate output as in V3 without it being contained inside an assembly hierarchy. Can you please test the attached file which was generated using that? It seems to be the same output as V3 so I think that should work ok with Condacam.

In the next v4 beta this will be a flag you can set in moi.ini under:

[IGES]
ExportFlattenAssemblies=y

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Thanks for your feedback!

I tested the file and it can be imported as single square as it works in V3.

PERFECT!!!

BR
Joerg

Hi Michael,

it will be very usefull to have such settings, but it will be very challanging in future to remember, that such settings exist at all :-)

Would it be possible to place this setting under Options_Import/Export_IGES options?

Mik

Hi Mik, are you also using Condacam?

Usually settings like this will first go into moi.ini and then if more people ask about it, I'll then promote it up to the Options dialog.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

understand. No, I don't use Condacam, I thought only, that it is better to have any Option settings in one place, because issue with export/import files across CAD/CAM sw appeard usually in tough project time and then it's very stressfull to find the cause of issue, especially if file is quite big.

I have nice example: I'v obtained 340 MB IGES file from ArchiCAD, when I tried to import it to MoI, the import time was close to infinity, but some IGES viewer displaied the file correctly. I thougt that MoI is inssuficient sw for importing this file, but I didn't beleive it, therefore I logicaly opened Option-Import/Export - IGES options and unchecked Join surfaces on import. The file was imported in Moi in several seconds.

Other example: Some CAM programs reads DXF including splines without problem, some old sw can read DXF containig lines only, therefore it takes some time to adjust right export settings for CNC machines. Some laser cut machines reads correctly only AI format.

I know that Moi.ini offers huge amount of custom setting, but I'm not sure if dividing the Import/export options setting in "two" places is handy, but I understand that it means more programming on UI.

Anyway thank you very much for the piece of sw like MoI is.

Mik

Hi Mik, if you're not using Condacam I don't think it is very likely this setting will do anything useful for you.

It's not so much the programming for the UI that bothers me, it's more about having a gigantic amount of UI being harder to use.

Some options may only be useful to just one person. For something like that it's not good for all users to pay the price of having a more difficult UI to navigate through.

If I were to require that every single setting must have some UI for it in the Options dialog, it would probably mean that I would have to avoid putting in settings that only helped out one single person.

If I see a pattern start to develop with the setting being needed by more people, then that's when I would want to set up UI for it in Options.

This is one of the ways to help avoid the problem of "bloat" with a program getting more and more difficult to use over time simply by having more stuff jammed into the UI all over.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

yes, I absolutely agree with you, and I understand of course, that too many UI settings isn't right way for MoI, especially for one person only, and this is good for MoI.

I reported only my experineces with CAD/CAM communication.

Peace of mind.
Mik

Hi Michael.
This behavior was noticed...
https://yadi.sk/i/6WKiyOxEVmBEHw
https://yadi.sk/d/VHq70ZJcQruL_A