Hi rhodesy, offset happens relative to a single "up" direction of a plane - it won't be the right thing for a path that is moving around in all sorts of 3D directions.

There is a method you can use to get this type of offset that you want - start with the segmented result of your 1-rail sweep:



Select one common set of outside edges, shown highlighted above. Then hit Ctrl+C to copy those edges, use Undo to remove the sweep, and then hit Ctrl+V to paste in those edges:



Now select just 2 of those edges, and run Edit / Extend. At the Extend prompt it will say "Select boundary objects or push Done for mutual extend" - you want to do the mutual extend operation here, so just push Done or right-click in the viewport. That will extend these 2 pieces so that they touch. Repeat in sets of 2 until everything is touching:



I think that is the kind of offset that you wanted to generate.

However, this will probably not help you for doing the 2-rail sweep workaround, using 2-rail sweep for mitered corners only works well when the rails are on a single plane - when performing it on rails that are moving around in 3D, the sweep happens on each pair of segments separately and there won't be any guarantee that the pieces meet up properly (unless I guess the segments were of equal length).

But you may find that offset method useful for something anyway.


For now to get the kind of mitered corners you want you have to do it manually by creating an extension and trimming the pieces.

When you do the one-rail sweep, turn off end caps so the ends are open. Then you will have this situation:



Select one set of edges along one open end:



Then run Extrude, and set the Cap ends option to off:



Repeat with the other end:



Now select the 2 original pieces:



Then run Edit / Trim, at the "select cutting objects" prompt, press "Done" or right-click to do a mutual trim operation (that is, cutting each object with the other). Switch the trim mode to "Keep", and select the 2 long pieces as the pieces to keep (or alternatively you can keep the trim mode to "Remove" and do a careful window select using a left-to-right window to capture the inside pieces to discard).

Then select the 2 extension pieces:



And run Trim again with the mutual trim method, and this time set trim mode to "Remove" and click on the extra outside pieces.

The result will be this corner:



You can select those pieces and use Edit/Join to glue them together.


I do expect to improve 1-rail sweep to do all this automatically for you in v2.


A variant which you may find interesting is selecting 2 of the open edges at the corner:



And then running Construct / Blend to put in a smooth bit in there:




- Michael

> Can't wait for version 2 already!! I take it there is not kind of time frame on the v2 release yet?

:) I don't have a time frame planned out for it, but I do hope to get started working on v2 pretty soon, maybe within another month or so.

Once I have some new stuff for v2 I will release beta versions of it which will be available to v1 owners during the beta period.

- Michael

> With regard to snapping and construction - is there an option to get
> more construction lines appearing so a point can be referanced with
> anothers x and y co-ords more easily?

Yup - to create a construction line through a point, when you are in a drawing command move your mouse to that point and then click and hold down on the point and drag away - that "hold and drag" type method will pull out a construction line from any spot.

Construction lines are covered in part of the tutorials here: http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/tutorials.htm

and there is also a lot of information here: http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/moi_command_reference10.htm#constructionlines

Hope this helps!

- Michael

Thank you so much for your extensive input guys.

Yes Frenchy i see now what you mean about sweeping it first then using the generated profiles to form the loft sections.

Thank you Michael for your explanations. I have to say the more i am testing moi the more i like it and it is on my list for purchasing in the near future.

I am having a little trouble creating some planar surfaces which are a bit twisted but im perhaps asking the impossible! Also, whilst your here, is it possible to multiply a spline between two rails like a 2 rail sweep - instead of just the one rail? Or some way of equally dividing up a surface creating edges that can then be used to sweep objects along? Maybe that's a version 2 tool as well!

Thanks again,
Rob

Hi Rob,

> I am having a little trouble creating some planar surfaces which are a
> bit twisted but im perhaps asking the impossible!

MoI will eventually have a tool for creating a kind of non-planar fill like this, but I wasn't able to get it in for version 1.0 .

If you can post a .3dm model file of your outline curves, I can try to give some construction ideas.


> Also, whilst your here, is it possible to multiply a spline between two rails
> like a 2 rail sweep - instead of just the one rail?

You mean a 2-rail version of Transform / Array / Curve ? No, there isn't an option for that. If you can get what you want with 2-rail sweep, you can copy some of the generated edge curves by selecting the edges and using Copy / Paste, I'm not sure if that will help you.


> Or some way of equally dividing up a surface creating edges that can
> then be used to sweep objects along? Maybe that's a version 2 tool as well!

There is something planned for v2 which is called "extract isocurve", which I think will do what you are asking for here.

You may be able to get an equivalent now by placing a line across the surface and then using Construct / Curve / Project, with the "closest pt" option to project the line on to the surface.

If you can post a .3dm model file with some of the curves and/or surfaces that you are trying to work with it would help me to give you more specific tips.

- Michael

Thanks michael,

No need to worry, im not trying to create anything specific - i just like to test software to distrctution and ask myself "what if i needed to do this....." Moi is deffinately a great tool for architectural construction elements (what i would be using it for) and im sure it will only get better.

Cheers