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

Hi Michael...

How about :

In the object organization, we can add density manually for each layer / object.
Then MoI will calculate volume multiply by the density value that we have added before.

If we not enter density value, then MoI will only calculate volume.

Not fully automatic, but it will very helpfull rather than only calculate volume.

Thanks !!!

Hi Anis, that's certainly possible, but one big thing that people have requested for MoI over and over again is to keep the UI light and easy to use....

Adding in many different kinds of parameters tends to clutter up the UI and over time will make it harder to find the primary functions of MoI in the middle of a bunch of stuff.

So this tends to make me hesitate before adding in things that require additional UI.


That's why at first I plan to just have a simple volume calculation, since that will produce the smallest amount of UI. Then later I can look into adding in additional functions once the basic stuff is in place.

- Michael

Maybe, rather than upset the simplicity and ease of use of MoI, there could be a LOT of the requests for things in MoI being put into a NEW, special ,App/Plugin (or whatever)that would do a lot of these things.

It could include things like Obj23dm,MergeOB,GroupHelp,Separate------ etc?

Like a Shortcuts on (Drugs/Coopers Stout) sort of thing!

Brian

Hi Brian, yup that is actually what I try to do when possible....

That's why there are a variety of custom plugins on Petr's page here: http://kyticka.webzdarma.cz/3d/moi/ - those were added as plugins to provide some useful functions to MoI for specific things, but without having an impact on the regular UI.

Probably a weight calculation could be added in a similar way, like a plugin that does a volume calculation but also has a list of different materials so you can get the weight easily.

But really it is not a very difficult thing to get the weight once you have the volume - it just takes one multiply to get it.

- Michael

Hi Michael...

In my opinion, Just go a head with your original idea on "object organization", post some preview of the result then we will give you some feedback.

Cheers !