Hi Michael,

> Is there anything else that you had in mind?

Well, I don't know how involved it would be, but I have mentioned this before.
With the more complicated models where I have to create features using more of a surface modeling approach and then joining those surfaces to create a solid, sometimes it doesn't become solid, a simple test I do is when joining the network of surfaces after I finished I create a cylinder through that model and do a boolean diff, this shows me if it is a solid or a sheet body. If it is a sheet body then I have a hard time trying to find the offending surface which has a gap at the boundaries somewhere, at the moment it's trial and error and if I get fed up I'm forced to bring it into another cad package and do a boundary analysis and most of the time it is a tiny gap just out of tolerance, that's why you can't pick it up visually in MoI.
So a basic tool that would show where or which is the offending surface or gap between surfaces so it can be corrected and move on.

.

Hi Michael,

> I'm curious, do you have another program that does physical material properties?

In NX you can set density and material properties, you can also have a database of materials and assign those to your model, so when you do a mass properties analysis it spits out the info, as attached below.

Is this what you mean ?

.

Hi Michael,

I think the Angle (by picking 4 points which define two line) was aked many times.

Also the geometric center of the object (centroid) is quite useful for example for positioning a set of closed planar curves or as "centre of mass" for solid.


Petr

Hi Danny - I think what you want there is a "show naked (unattached) edges" type thing.

I haven't quite decided whether that would go under "Analyze", or as a "View" type thing to show naked edges in a different style somehow.

But one thing that is really easy for me to do is to add some scripting properties so that those edges can be identified to a script, then it will be possible to make a keyboard shortcut script that selected all naked edges and that would be a quick way to get this function enabled in a basic but useful way for the next beta.

re: solid versus sheet determination - that is something that I want to show in the object properties panel, so that one is part of the batch of object organization tool work.

- Michael

Hi Danny,

> Is this what you mean ?

Yeah, that's the kind of thing that I probably won't have for quite a while. I was curious if it was very common nowadays for programs to do that, it is sort of a classic approach for CAD programs to focus just on the slightly more abstract geometric properties rather than stuff for a specific physical material.

- Michael

>> finding a gap

There are two nifty commands in Rhino to find a gaps & cracks: _ShowEdges with naked-edges option and especially _ZoomNaked :)

Hi Petr, I guess I could add angle in there... I was kind of thinking of leaving that out since I also at some point want to have some dimensions too, which are then kind of starting to replicate many of these things.

Like is it really necessary to have both an Angle dimension as well as a 4 point angle command?

- Michael

Also just as note from me so you dont have to do such an involved test to see if you've acheived solid. This script with a shortcut tells if it's solid.

"script:moi.geometryDatabase.getObjects().getSolids().setProperty( 'selected', true );"

Ignore if not pertinent.
Burr

Hi Petr - re: center of gravity point - I think this will probably be included within the area/volume commands.

- Michael

Hi Burr, yes that is actually a good tip - that is the way you can currently tell if an object is a completely closed solid or not.

But I do want to make that information more easily accessible so that you can tell just by selecting an object and looking a display panel.

The other thing is that once you determine that an object is not a solid, you don't really have any way of seeing which edges on it are responsible for it not being closed off - that's the other part that Danny is talking about.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

From my point of view, the Point, Distance, Angle analysis tools are unnecessary. I can replace it by using different regular commands and construction line together and reading feedback in the input boxes on toolbar at the bottom.

It might be better to have a basic dimensioning capabilities as soon as possible to make such data like point coordinates, distance or angle more persistent/permanent....(?)


Petr

Hi Michael

Your last point there is a good one. I would say that one could use dimension tools to permanently measure things, or just to check things as you go.

angles, length, area, volume etc:
Could there be a kind of situation detection; like clicking on a line will give a horizontal dimension if the line is horzontal, clicking two angled lines would automaticly make a angle dimension, etc?

A solution to the "redundancy problem" is also to have a "make permanent" checkbox, so if you just want to check things as you model but don't want dimension objects you can just leave it unchecked...?

Do you have plans for some type of draft angle analysis tool?

Cheers
-Fredrik

Thanks Michael,

To the tune of Homer Simpson, mmmmm....naked edges....uhrrrr :D

Thanks for the tip Burr !

Cheers

Michael,
The properties is something I'm really looking forward to. Seems one of the first things I look for that blows me out of the water when I open rhino and other such packages is, if I make a 5 inch sphere here, then want to adjust it to there in relation to this that and the other, I cant see how outright. The properties panel will handle this for the "Visual" type people.

Here's a grab from an art package called Carrara that has the kind of properties I mention in particular.



At any point i can select an object and SEE where it is and how it relates to others. To move it i just select the x value, type a new one and it moves there.

I know the same thing can be acheived in MoI now, though the point is this is a way many people think and this feature, even if it is a selective feature so some can disable it, would be most desirable in MoI!

Thanks for the effort.

Burr

Hello everyone,

Just a little input from a non technical user, would it be possible for example, to automatically show this naked edges when a boolean operation failed.
Just to have some user friendly feedback.

This kind of smart tools would be welcome for artists (like me) that don't have a clue about tolerance and all this math nurbs stuffs :)

Generally I think there are many tools that sometimes don't work, not because of MoI, but because of the user. For example asking a to large fillet size ... instead of just failed, having some feedback would be helpfull, like showing edges or area where the fillet exactly fail.

Cheers

Hi Michael,

>>which are then kind of starting to replicate many of these things.

Also I guess it wouldn't be a huge problem for users let you discard some commands as time goes by...(for example I remember asking you to merge Revolve / Rail revolve commands into one :)

Petr

Hi Danny, I have added some scripting stuff for the next beta now so that it will be possible to make naked edges (edges that are not attached to another edge) selected so that can help to show you what parts of an object are the ones stopping it from being a closed solid.

The script for this will be:

script:var gd = moi.geometryDatabase; gd.deselectAll(); var breps = gd.getObjects().getBreps(); for ( var i = 0; i < breps.length; ++i ) breps.item(i).getNakedEdges().setProperty( 'selected', true );

Again - that won't work in the current beta but will in the next v2 beta.

- Michael

Thanks Michael, that script will be a great time saver, where you don't have to stop the work flow to get the model analysed.
So quick ! too.

Cheers

Hi Michael..

Below is solidworks mass properties calculation :

Thanks Anis! I don't really expect to have anything close to that amount of complexity in MoI's mass properties calculations, I think in MoI it will just display a volume and possibly a center of gravity.

If you need an extensively detailed mass properties report, then probably exporting to something like SolidWorks will be the way to go.

- Michael