Well from a thread and a question to Michael
I know that a component system like the one
in Sketchup is something that does not have high priority
so I am now making my own tests on how moi 3d models can
be used as components in Sketchup !
Note that there is a free version of Sketchup and that Kerkythea can
render from it using an exporter !
Much like that Vue can import SKP Sketchup files directly !
Here is a render that uses panels that were made in Moi 3d with rail revolve
blend smoothly into a surface on Sketchup !
This can be usefull for spaceshipsrenders etc !
Peter

Looks cool Peter!

There will be some tools coming for MoI v2 that should help doing that kind of a thing without it actually being a full blown component system.

For example the new on-surface snapping should help move things along a surface. Also I will be adding in some orientation type stuff as well. The on-surface snap will be part of the first v2 beta, probably the orientation tools will be in a further release though.

I would think those along with booleans should enable you to get this kind of stuff working pretty easily.

- Michael

Thats great news Michael !
You can see this kind of thing is very usefull !
I´m thinking about array on surface etc.
Peter

you can make obj file with the free GoogleSketchup with a little trick;)
export it as KMZ file now reload it in the free Blender for example with this script inside the folder Scripts
and now save it as Obj file ;)
http://jmsoler.free.fr/didacticiel/blender/tutor/py_import_kml-kmz_en.htm

Hi Peter, that will kind of work in the first v2 beta with planar surfaces, because a whole bunch of commands including array are able to use a plane surface's orientation if you snap picked points on to them.

For example here is a circle that I drew on an angled (non-world axis aligned) box, then used Array:



Because I snapped the array unit cell rectangle on to the plane there, it used that plane's orientation for the array command instead of the viewport's construction plane like it normally would.

This kicks in with a whole bunch of commands that get planes as part of their input, like circle drawing, rectangle drawing, .... that happens to include array as well.

I still need to do a few tune-ups to this, it is a pretty wide ranging change that affects a lot of stuff.


In the future I do want to have a specialized "Array on surface" command as well, but it will be focused more on arraying along curved surfaces, for planar surfaces doing the above or setting a custom cplane and using the regular array grid would be the way to do it.

- Michael

And sorry if I gave the wrong impression about components earlier - I definitely want to have all the snapping type capabilities for that in v2.

It's just the whole kind of organized system with a browser and stuff like parts keeping their identity as a component so that they can all be changed by editing the base definition, stuff like that will take longer.

The basic function of applying an object snapped on to a planar surface will happen before that.

- Michael

thats perfect !
thats the most important part of it !
That helps a lot for doing things I want to do !
Thanks
peter