Hi OSTexo,

The AI export from MoI is pretty basic right now, it is really mostly focused at the current time just on curve export and not full solids.

It will do all the bounding edges of the surfaces in a solid, but that will generally not be sufficient to get you a proper line art representation of the solid.

A cylinder solid has a surface in it which kind of acts like a rolled up sheet of paper - that line edge that you are seeing is the "seam" edge where the edges of the "paper" are coming together to touch one another - that is one of those bounding edges of the surfaces in the solid.

To get a proper line art you will want a lot more things like silhouette edges and hidden line removal.

MoI is not currently capable of doing that, but it is definitely something that I do want to add in the future. It is going to take a little while before that can happen though, for the moment my focus is still on kind of more the modeling toolset and not so much the 2D output type aspects yet.

For now probably your best bet for that purpose would be to use Rhino and its Make2D command.

- Michael

Hello Michael,

Thanks for such a quick reply. After having demoed Rhino a few months ago I find it to be somewhat overwhelming in terms of my needs. I'm more at modo, ViaCAD, level at this point, so I wont use 90% of the function in Rhino. I did find a workaround in ViaCAD that will get me some decent output but still needs cleanup. I will definitely stay around here and be ready when the improved 2D happens, because quite frankly even with the missing lines it makes an exceptional outline for what it outputs. Any product that does that in a version 1 product will get me to buy when the feature makes it into the appropriate release. Also, different export views such as isometric with and without perspective would be helpful. Thanks.

Hi OSTexo,

> Also, different export views such as isometric with and
> without perspective would be helpful.

That particular part is pretty simple, it should end up as an option that you can set for whether the 3D view is perspective or not.

I am actually really looking forward to the future of getting to work on more 2D related stuff in general, there will be a lot of cool things that I would like to make happen there. The idea is to kind of have just basic 2D stuff but with a nice integration between 3D and 2D, that will be the cool part.

Actually the first v2 beta which I just put out recently has one major element of this added already, which is a kind of 2D style editing frame that makes it easy to scale, rotate, and mirror objects similar to working in an illustration program, there is an overview of that here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1571.1

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> I am actually really looking forward to the future of getting to work on more 2D related stuff in general, there will be a lot of cool things that I would like to make happen there.

Do you mean 2D related stuff in general = 2D annotation, 2D detailing & 2D drawing ?

> The idea is to kind of have just basic 2D stuff but with a nice integration between 3D and 2D, that will be the cool part.

So, this will be like a parametric software ?

Probably more along the lines of Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator.

Hi Anis,

> Do you mean 2D related stuff in general = 2D annotation,
> 2D detailing & 2D drawing ?

Here I was talking about 2D illustration type stuff like Adobe Illustrator type stuff. Like being able to set line styles, set fills, things that you would expect to see in a 2D drawing program.

But yes I would like to have a variety of aspects of 2D integrated, at just a pretty basic level but that still should be quite useful.


> So, this will be like a parametric software ?

That's one idea. I mean without the kind of bi-directional type editing but it could be a good setup to have a "print" view as another tab next to Split / 3D / Top / Front / Right, which was a kind of "print preview" 2D editing view where you would see the outline of the printed page, and have some way to populate it with hidden lines generated from the 3D view. Probably not a whole automatic updating type thing, just a way to take a snapshot and fill in the 2D stuff and then let you edit it.

That was an idea that I had early on when setting up those view tabs originally, but it's one of those things that I have not had enough time to be able to get to yet.

It's not all completely planned out yet, just one of many different ideas for stuff in the future.

- Michael

Hi Michael....

And dont forget about dimensioning ;)

Keep spirit Michael, Manage your time :)

Hello Michael,

Thanks for the follow-up. I took a look at the v2 stuff and it looks promising. I think Moi has the potential to become a essential illustrators tool if it keeps its ease of use and intuitive nature. It's not intimidating in its operation, and thats where many packages fall down IMO, they throw up a barrier at square one to the novice with the interface. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, even for a 30 day user. With that kind of service it makes me look harder for reasons to cost justify the purchase.

Hi OSTexo,

You wrote:
> <...> if it keeps its ease of use and intuitive nature.

Don't worry, that's definitely a major goal for MoI!

- Michael