My current thinking is that better units and some kind of viewport image background will be pretty much next up.

By the way, I keep on forgetting to mention that the latest beta version (Jul-28) has some new features for numeric input, such as entering relative coordinates by typing in either r or @ before a point (example r1,2 will place the point 1 unit in x and 2 units in y away from the previous point), also polar coordinates in the form dist<angle are supported, such as 5<45 will put a point 5 units and 45 degrees away from the previous point that you picked. When I get back from Siggraph in a few days, I'll put together a change log and try to keep it updated about what stuff is in new versions.

Probably texture support and built-in rendering support will be a little ways out, probably not for V1. I have to be pretty ruthless about slicing out some things until later on just to be able to wrap up a V1. Dimensioning also fits in this category. I definitely want to add it in the future, but it probably won't be focused on total drafting functionality, it will be more oriented towards description and annotation. The primary design goal for MoI is to be able to create the geometry of a design quickly and easily. That's what V1 will be very focused on. But a secondary future goal for MoI is to have functionality that helps you communicate your design to other people. It's a fairly broad aspect - this is where dimensioning and also rendering will fit in.

By the way, when I say that I'm not going to get something done for this version, that doesn't mean that I don't want to hear about it, I still very much want your feedback on it. I just want to describe what my current plan is. Unfortunately it will just not always align 100% to what any one particular person wants. :) But hopefully it will align to a reasonably ok percentage.


Re: dxf, 3ds, obj, stl, pov

I just kind of dread working on all this stuff... I know it's important, though. At least some of this will happen before V1.

If you happen to have Rhino, it will save to all of those, so that can be used as an interim solution.> If I was a programer I would help but I could not code my way out of a paper bag.

Just your feedback is very helpful.

Thanks for linking at CADTutor forums!

- Michael