Hi,

How do you match MoI3d grid settings to Maya 1 to 1 using mm as a base unit? I want to setup my grid in Maya the exact same as it is in MoI3d.

Thank you.

Hi RD, I don't have Maya over here so it's a little difficult to help with that. I found some description of Maya's grid options here though:
Maya grid options documentation page

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Is there some documentation/tutorials about the Grid settings in MoI3d that explains each parameters in details (Grid Size, Snap Size, Grid Sections, Accented Lines Every) and ideally with some examples?

Thank you.

Hi RD,

re:
> Is there some documentation/tutorials about the Grid settings in MoI3d
> that explains each parameters in details

Sorry no there isn't really anything for that because it's pretty simple.

Grid size controls the size of one grid block.

Snap size controls the size of one grid block for snapping. You can set it separately from the visual grid size so you can do stuff like snap at 0.5 intervals but have the grid showing at 1 unit blocks.

Grid sections - controls the extent of the grid along one axis direction. Grid sections = 10 for example will make a grid with 10 blocks in it from the origin to the end of the x axis.

Accented lines every X - this controls how frequently the heavier accented lines will be.

- Michael

I think that I get it now. The issue is that I was setting the grid to 1mm and the snap size to 1mm and then the grid was disappearing (hidden by my model in top view). So this is where the confusion came from. Setting the Grid Sections to 5000 or bigger, solved the issue as the grid is now expanding beyond my model. Also, I thought that Grid Size was the equivalent of Length and Width in Maya (total grid size). I think that I'll be able to figure it out with this information.

Thank you!

Hi RD, setting grid sections to 5000 will mean that MoI is going to try and draw 20,000 lines for the grid before it can even work on drawing your objects on the screen.

It may actually work but it's not generally good to have it set that high.

- Michael

What would be the best Grid settings when working with mm units for a model?

What is the overall size of your model?

- Michael

1.5 meter x 1.2 meter.

I'm also using MoI3d to model environmental props (walls, structures, etc). So the scale is sometimes much bigger than that. I've been eye balling things for a while, but recently, precision had become an issue when dealing with the grid settings and exporting models to other 3d packages. This is why I am curious about all this and want to find a way to reliably match the grid and scale setting from MoI3d and other packages.

Hi RD, in that 1.5 meter x 1.2 meter overall size are there going to be any details in it that are at the 1mm size?

Because that's a pretty tiny distance in proportion to the full object.

Maybe having one grid block as 1 centimeter would be a good setup.

You could do that by having these settings:

Grid size = 10mm
Snap size = 10mm
Grid sections = 150

- Michael

Hi RD,

re:
> I'm also using MoI3d to model environmental props (walls, structures, etc). So the
> scale is sometimes much bigger than that.

It's generally not a good idea to have objects with very large coordinate values in them.

It tends to degrade the precision of arithmetic done with floating point numeric values.

So don't set up things like an object 100,000 units across with units = mm, it would be better to use meters for the units or have the model at some scale factor instead of having very large or very small numeric values.

- Michael

When dealing with real life hard surface objects, such as mechanical components, I often have to use mm. So switching to cm wouldn't be a good option. And with my current workflow when I create larger pieces of an environment set, such as walls and structures, I often have many different pieces inside the same file. So, having the grid extend to these pieces, is very important since I don't only focus on one piece at a time in the same scene. In most other packages, extending the grid so that it is available when focusing on other elements in the scene, has never been an issue. I understand of course that this is probably not the way that MoI3d was intended to be used. Just sharing my personal experience with it, for your consideration.

Thank you.

Using your current example, what would be the best settings for the Grid and the Snap options to be able to see the grid and to be able to snap on mm while setting the base unit to meter in MoI3d?

Thank you.

Hi RD, you can keep your units in mm instead of cm for this case but what is it that you're trying to gain by having the grid displayed in 1mm blocks? it's just too tiny in relation to your full model size.

If you want the grid to be spread out over a larger area then the simplest way to do it is to make the grid size to be larger, like set grid size to 10mm. You can leave everything else including the actual grid snap to 1mm .

That way you'll have a few hundred grid lines being displayed instead of a few thousand lines being displayed.

- Michael

Hi RD,

re:
> Using your current example, what would be the best settings for the Grid and the Snap options to be
> able to see the grid and to be able to snap on mm while setting the base unit to meter in MoI3d?

If this is for your case with the object being approx 1.5 meters across, you don't need to set base units to meters, you can have units = mm and set the grid to:

Grid size: 10mm
Snap size: 1mm
Grid sections: 150

If you want to make the grid spread out over an even wider area then it's best to just increase grid size alone and maybe grid sections a little but not by some enormous amount.

- Michael

"what is it that you're trying to gain by having the grid displayed in 1mm blocks? it's just too tiny in relation to your full model size."

I would like to see the grid at that scale and be able to snap to it.

Well, I can snap to it, but the grid is not visible at that scale. I guess this is what I am trying to say.

Anything below Grid Size 6, and the grid disappears.

Hi RD,

re:
> I would like to see the grid at that scale and be able to snap to it.

I just don't recommend doing it, it's not very practical to have an enormous number of lines.

You can set the actual snap to whatever you want though. That's why grid size and snap size are separate settings.

- Michael