Hello !!

If I project a curve onto a plane a get a curve with mauch more lines than the original.
It is much more to difficult to chnage the shape of this projected curve due to the high
number of points.


My question here is :

- Does MOI have an inbuilt function for point reduction or
projection with as less points as possible ?


Regards TOM

Hi Tom, MoI does not currently have a function for automatic point reduction.

That would be a "rebuild" function which is planned to be added in the future though.

If your plane is aligned with a world axis direction, then one different method you can use now is to turn on control points, select all the control points (easiest way is to select just one and then do ctrl+A), and then use the Transform/Align tool instead to position all those points along the same vertical or horizontal line.

Otherwise you will have to manually reconstruct the curve by drawing a new one and using the complex one as a guide to snap on to.

I should be able to improve the project function when projecting on to a plane - it is possible to do an exact transformation of the curve and keep the same control point structure in this case instead of calculating an intersection. I have made a note to tune this up for v2.

- Michael

Thank you, Michael.


Referring to a post by Shroomer about "editing geometry" :

["Hi shroomer, it is not especially easy to make those kinds of edits, you can't just drag edges around like in a poly modeler. See this FAQ post for some explanation on how the structure of MoI's models is different from a poly model. - Michael
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
thanks for your honest reply - i thought this would be the case. i do, however, look forward to seeing easier editabilty in future releases of MoI. unfortunately, i don't have the patience or skill to plan my modelling in its entirety, so for me full editing tools are a must. - Shroomer "]


As Shroomer, I would like to be able to edit the object easily, with as less control points as possible, as I use the modelling software as a tool to try out different variations in shape and proportion of the original concept drawn with splines / curves.

Wouldn´t the integration of T-splines greatly expand the modelling-potential of MoI ?

["A typical T-Splines surface will have up to 70% less control points than the identical equivalent set of NURBS patches.
* organic models with high detail in some areas and low detail in others
* editable seamless models instead of models comprised of multiple NURBS patches
* greater fine-grained control of their modeling

By incorporating the T-Tools software development kit (SDK) into your own application, you can take advantage of T-Splines' superior properties for reverse engineering, modeling, and pre- and post-processing surface repair before analysis and CAM"].

It looks like there are a lot of Cinema / poly-modellers interested in an easy-to.-use nurbs-modeller like MoI but find it difficult to access. A plugin like T-Splines would give them the best of both sides and even moer - the method of modeeling they are used to but better and the conversion to nurbs.

What is your opinion about this plugin ?

Regards TOM

Hi Tom,

> As Shroomer, I would like to be able to edit the object easily, with as less control
> points as possible, as I use the modelling software as a tool to try out different
> variations in shape and proportion of the original concept drawn with splines / curves.

The updates that I want to do in the future to the history mechanism should provide for a lot more experimentation with variations.


> Wouldn´t the integration of T-splines greatly expand the modelling-potential of MoI ?

Certainly! There are also a lot of other things that I want to add to MoI as well to expand its modeling ability.

MoI is just in version 1.0, it would definitely be unusual if it hit its full potential in the first version!

There is quite a bit more stuff to come in future versions.


> What is your opinion about this plugin ?

It's definitely cool and adds a lot of possibilities for sub-d type modeling with NURBS output.

But maybe there is some confusion here - it wouldn't suddenly make all your models in MoI squishable like a polygon mesh, you would only squish around models that you built using polygon type techniques from the first place (like box modeling, etc..) . If you construct your model using solids and booleans type techniques, then those would have trimmed surfaces in them and would not have the T-spline squishability to them.

One bad side is that it would mean adding quite a lot of tools to MoI since MoI is currently focused on a much different workflow of drawing profiles + construction instead of polygon mesh style sculpting and squishing type methods. So it isn't like T-splines just drops into place with the push of a button and adds a ton of capabilities, it requires a significantly different toolset.


> It looks like there are a lot of Cinema / poly-modellers interested in an
> easy-to.-use nurbs-modeller like MoI but find it difficult to access. A
> plugin like T-Splines would give them the best of both sides and even
> moer - the method of modeeling they are used to but better and the
> conversion to nurbs.

Well, here's the thing - if you could build things in MoI using the exact same toolset as your polygon modeler, that would certainly be more comfortable, but in a lot of cases what would be the point? I mean if MoI did the same thing as a poly modeler, you could just use your poly modeler to do that project instead.

That's why the different workflow of MoI is a good thing - it gives different capabilities than a polygon modeler instead of just the same capabilities.


Don't get me wrong, it would definitely be cool to have the option to utilize different styles of modeling (drawing/constructive and sculpting/subd) in a single environment. Eventually that may be possible, but I have planned to focus more on the drawing/constructive side for a while yet.

- Michael

>But maybe there is some confusion here - it wouldn't suddenly make all your models in MoI squishable like a polygon >mesh, you would only squish around models that you built using polygon type techniques from the first place (like >box modeling, etc..) . If you construct your model using solids and booleans type techniques, then those would have >trimmed surfaces in them and would not have the T-spline squishability to them.


Certainly ! I am just searching for a toolset which is tailored to my modelling tasks.
A combination of the two worlds poly-and nurbs seems to come very close to the ideal.
Unfortunatley I would have to buy Rhino if I want to use t-splines. I would prefer MoI
due to its genious simplicity and ease of use . . .