A new Sep-26-2006 beta is now available on the download page.

New stuff:

Additional file format support - export to .obj and .stl polygon files, and export/import to IGES NURBS file format. The polygon export is still a work in progress, there will be some more tuning happening there.

Right-click to repeat last command. A right click in a viewport will repeat the last command. You can also assign a keyboard shortcut for it by editing the moi.ini file like this:
[Shortcut Keys]
Space=script:moi.command.repeatLastCommand();

Option to fillet corners of a single curve - you can now select a single curve made up of multiple segments with corners (for example a polyline), then do Fillet. You can then select which corner points to fillet, or push done without selecting any to fillet all corners.

New edge fillet/chamfer option: straight corners. Checking this will cause the fillet pieces to intersect each other directly instead of having a corner piece connecting in between them.

Copy/Paste support between MoI and Rhino. You can now transfer geometry back and forth between Rhino and MoI just by ctrl+C in one, and then ctrl+V in the other. Note: MoI must remain running for the transfer from MoI to Rhino to work.

New "Set path" option for extrude. You can now push the new "Set path" button in extrude and pick a curve that will guide the extrusion. This is a little different than sweep, the shape is guided by the extrusion path but will not move perpendicular to it (use sweep for that). The resulting extrusion surface will have the same control point structure as the path curve, so you can use this to control how many control points will be created along the extrusion. For example, if you want an extrusion with 5 points along it, draw a 5 point curve and use it as the path.

Vertical option for circles - check "Vertical" when inside Circle/Center or Diameter, to have the circle rotated so that it comes up vertically from the plane instead of being within the drawing plane.

Incremental save option - you can set a keyboard shortcut to do an incremental save, where a number in the filename will be bumped up on each save (like file01.3dm, file02.3dm). To do this, use a shortcut like this:
[Shortcut Keys]
S=IncrementalSave

Added Alt+left drag as another way to rotate the 3D view (in addition to right-drag or the view tools), for those that are used to this from other programs. It will also pan the top/front/right view, and you can use Alt+shift+left drag to pan the 3D view.

Bumped up expiration date to Feb 11, 2007

Fixed a bug where MoI would crash when reading certain 3DM files that had very tiny edges in them.

Fixed a bug where curves would not join together unless their endpoints were very close to one another. Now they are allowed to join if they are within the modeling tolerance of each other (default 0.01 units).

Fixed a bug where shortcut keys would get accidentally triggered when using the numeric keypad on the keyboard.

A bunch of other small bug fixes.

Please let me know if anything seems broken!

- Michael

great!!download first!!hehe~~~

Michael,
Is there an install method recomended?
ie Uninstall previous version first or just run the installer to over-write the pre-existing version?

New tools, new toys ! Yeah !!! ;-)))
Thanks Michael !

And first problem to report. I already noticed it earlier but did not really paid attention because it was not blocking, but with the new export features, it's more annoying...

One one of my computers I've no slider on the bar (fewer or more polygons). It was already present in the UI options, but there was a possibility for manual input so I didn't really bother.
Thanks to the God of Computer Graphics it works on the other (older) computer ! ;-)
I'm running XP home on both machines...

- Schbeurd

I'd recommend to install to the default directory. Each beta version will default to its own individual directory, such as "C:\Program Files\MoI beta Sep-26-2006".

So by default there is no overwriting happening and you can have multiple beta versions installed at once with no problem.

It is probably a good idea to keep the old version around for a little while, just in case something that you needed to use got broken in the new beta (hopefully this won't happen, but it is a possibility). After you've used the new one enough that you feel you don't need the old one anymore, you can uninstall it. There is a shortcut for uninstalling off the Start menu / All programs entry for the beta.

- Michael

Great work on the beta. It's impressive how much and how often you're updating. Thanks!

Michael,

Thanks for the .stl save option (export button does not work, save as .stl does)
You just made Moi usable for me.
STL allows me to use Freemill to make NC code for my model trains.
I will now clean my pc of all the other cad programs that suck and stick with Moi.
Need also to clean my desk to make room for my tablet as it is by far the best way to do 3D modeling.

Not only do you have a great program that gets better every release but you just saved me lots of money.
And lots of time too, most cad/3d modeling programs take ages to learn.
This is still a hobby for me but now I can start to do stuff that serious modelers/machinists spend a life time learning and doing.

Regards Gavin

Hi Gavin, very cool, I'm glad that it has enough stuff to work for you now!

> (export button does not work, save as .stl does)

The export is for saving only the selected objects to a file. This can be confusing, because if you don't have anything selected, it will prompt you to select objects, but the prompt is all the way on the other corner of the application so it is sort of hard to see what is going on.

I'm sure that you'll have questions as you start to use it more, please post them here.

- Michael