Congrats on the release Michael - I'm loving the cplane function!


Actually one thing I miss from back my Rhino days - would it be easy for you to add a right-click function to the Save icon to open the >export dialog<??

Typically I click the icon to save the .3dm version of a model.

To export, I have to go into the file menu to get to the Save As item.

Being able to right-click the Save icon and get the export dialog would bring that nice shortcut back. :-)

-Will

Michael,

Just a word to say i had export problems to sketchup : i work on a model this afternoon ( wood deck + wood fence around) : After the export i have lost the position of the fence compared to the initial deck position (around 30cm translation of the general fence) + i have lost the general scale of the model : 4cm in the MOI file was 9,3 cm in Skp.file.

I hope it is minor problems ...

Bye,

Pierre.

Maybe you must also post the original 3dm?

Hello Michael,

Just wanted to confirm that I also have the same problem with Sketchup export.

It seems that, even if MoI's Preferences are set in metric, it exports in relation to imperial and also relate to the wrong multiplier
(ex. : set MoI to Meters and draw a 10 meters high box,
and set Sketchup to Meters -3D
on export/import, 10 meters translate into 0,254 meters (one inch is 2,54 cm)

Also, I noticed that:
- if I draw a box from an extruded rectangle and
- only the rectangle is selected and
- then try to export (without selecting the box) ,
- the Save dialog asks the user to enter the file name but there is no prompt to ask the user to select the objects to export
(because the rectangle is selected).
- Consequently, the file is not created.

And if nothing is selected when the user chooses export, the prompt to select objects to export appears but, if I select the rectangle (and not the box), the file won't be created.

Have a good day,

Michel

In SKetchup regulated in unities that you want: say (cm 3D)
Import the Moi object (created in any unites)
Select All
Make group
Take the Tape Measure
Measure (with 2 clicks) one edge of anything that you know the size must be (say 5 cm if SKetchup is regulated in cm):
12.7000 cm is realy measured on the edge
Enter 5
"Do you want resize the model?" Yes
Explode the group
That all!
You will have all thing you want even something is not yet resolved in Moi :)

Bonjour Pierre et Michel,

Thanks for reporting the units problems - it looks like internally SketchUp stores all values as inches which I didn't expect.

It should be easy for me to fix this for the next beta release.


For the moment the easiest workaround is probably this - when you want to export from MoI, go to Options / Units / Units options, and turn on "Scale on unit system change".

Then under Options / Units, switch the current unit system to inches. This will scale your model.

Then go back and turn off (uncheck) "Scale on unit system change" and switch back to your actual desired units. This time it will switch the unit system without changing or scaling any numeric values. Now when you export it should be correct in SketchUp.


This won't be necessary in the next beta, I will fix that up to be automatically in the scale that SketchUp is expecting.

- Michael

Great relase Michael! My compliments! :)

Hi Will, I think that sounds like a good idea to do a right-click on Save to do "Save As".

I will see if I can set that up for the next beta release.

- Michael

Michael

Thanks to Burr I really have V2 set up for me beautifully.

In going through some of the alternative settings in your list of the updates there are several where I can not seem to see a difference between some of the alternatives---not that I needed them I think. (Example Perspective/Parallell 3D View Projection) Anyway thats by the way.

There is a whole lot of "scripting" stuff in MoI that is outside of my experiences with other apps. A huge amount on the Wiiki that I am lost with----maybe others also? Is there a need for a refinement of understanding/access for these things for us of less ability?

This from your list has me completely stumped!

New scripting stuff New methods on a brep getJoinedEdges(), getNakedEdges() and getSeamEdges() which can be used to retrieve an object list of those particular kinds of edges of an object. This now enables using this keyboard shortcut to highlight all edges that are not joined: 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 );

I probably don't need to know but others, unspoken, may have similar questions.

Brian

Hi Brian,

> In going through some of the alternative settings in your
> list of the updates there are several where I can not seem
> to see a difference between some of the alternatives---not
> that I needed them I think.

Yup, I suppose that means that it was not an important feature or option for your particular use of MoI.

Different people use MoI to do a lot of different types of things. It's not very surprising that every single feature added will not apply directly to one person's work or preferences. So I think that's just what you're seeing in this case.

It's a pretty normal thing, I would expect for you to run across similar situations for every beta release, probably...


> (Example Perspective/Parallell 3D View Projection)

A perspective view will be what you are most likely used to, where objects that are further away form the eye point get smaller in size on the screen:



A parallel view will look like this instead (this is a parallel view of the exact same objects as above):



Unlike a perspective view, objects in a parallel view are the same size no matter how far they are in depth away from the eye point.


Some people may want to use a paralllel view to get a particular special effect, like for example saving out a different style view to a 2D Illustrator .ai file to get a certain kind of isometric line drawing look. Also a few people may be used to working with other CAD programs that use a parallel view so this will let them set up MoI to behave the same as they are used to.

Probably you do not need to produce 2D isometric drawing in Illustrator and you probably haven't spent a lot of time using a different CAD program with that type of a view, so this won't really be of any particular use to you.


> There is a whole lot of "scripting" stuff in MoI that is outside of
> my experiences with other apps.

A lot of the scripting stuff is for solving very particular problems or automating certain specific tasks, which again probably don't apply to your particular work.


> Is there a need for a refinement of understanding/access for
> these things for us of less ability?

No, probably not - like I mentioned before many of those things apply to particular kinds of work and it is not generally expected that every single script or feature will be equally useful to every single user - many of them are for helping out particular cases.


> This from your list has me completely stumped!

That one is for selecting edges that are "naked" - that is not joined to another edge. If you are trying to create models that will be manufactured or constructed on a rapid prototyping machine, you generally need to have a fully closed solid for those to work properly. If you don't have a fully closed solid it means that there are some edges in your model that are not sealed to other edges, this will let you see where those edges are since when they are selected they are highlighted in yellow.

Again, if you are not having your model built on a rapid prototyping machine then this is probably not as much of a helper for you.


This will just be a very normal occurrence for new features and particularly stuff like scripting notes. Those are new features that someone had requested, so I like to have them in the list so that the people waiting for them know that they are now available.

- Michael

Michael, as usual, thanks so much.

Sorry that it again took up your time but it again suggests, maybe, some categerisation of things into pigeon holes applicable to an end user?---well, just a thought.

See, you are completely to blame!------you are just far to good in helping people!

This customer closeness really is a wonderful breath of fresh air.

Brian

Hi Brian,

> Sorry that it again took up your time but it again suggests,
> maybe, some categerisation of things into pigeon holes
> applicable to an end user?---well, just a thought.

I guess it would solve that problem!

But also at the same time add additional work and processes and things for me to worry about for each beta release... That part I'm not so sold on! :)

If I have to worry about too many things for each beta it will tend to make me release fewer of them to cut down on the additional work.

It's a lot easier for me to just list all the changes and not really dig into much extensive detail about which categories of users each particular one can be helpful for... Probably the best policy is if something sounds like it is not useful for you then it is best to just assume that it is not something that applies to your particular work.

That's not to say that I don't mind explaining a few particular things that you might be curious about! But in general it just is not practical for me to go into great detail on every single thing, especially when for many of the things it would just be an elaborate explanation on why it is not useful to you in particular...

- Michael

"especially when for many of the things it would just be an elaborate explanation on why it is not useful to you in particular..."

We both need a fairy-godmother!

Thanks mate.

Brian

Ok - both of these reported SketchUp bugs (missing faces when a polygon's points are too close together, and unit system scaling wrong) are now fixed up for the next beta release, thanks for reporting them!

- Michael

Hi Michael,

In regards to the 3D view projection and Rotation Style, I set them to Parallel and Free rotation respectively but when I launch MoI again they default back to Perspective and Rotate around Z axis, is there something I'm missing, I thought these setting were meant to stick in the moi.ini ?


Thanks
~Danny~

Michael G.

I downloaded the new beta last night.

Fantastic as usual!

Hi Danny - re: 3D view rotation and Projection style settings.

I can't seem to repeat the problem over here with the view the Rotation style setting, it seems to stick for me as expected when setting it to Free rotation.

Did you possibly have more than one instance of MoI.exe running when you changed the settings? MoI will write out its settings when the program is closed, so if you have more than one instance it is possible to get settings overwritten with the last closed instance winning. Maybe that's what happened to you.

Can you try again with making sure just one instance of MoI is running?


That's all for the rotation style though, the projection style is different since that is actually a property of the viewport which then gets saved and read back from a .3dm file that you write out.

Currently when you change that projection it changes it for that viewport for that current file, not for the start-up default.

It's sort of similar to the 3d view angle - when you rotate the 3D view to a particular angle and close MoI it does not then set that angle as the default view for the next time you start up, but it does get saved and restored when you save or open a .3dm file...

I'll see about adding some kind of mechanism to allow this to be set at startup though.

- Michael

Thanks Michael, I'll give it another go and see what happens.

Thanks

Hi Michael, congrats for the new update, I finally have some time to work with MoI again.

Just a little question about the free rotation mode, I really love it. Just wondering if, for you, it will make sence to lower the aroud X rotation sensitivity a little bit compare to the around Z axis. Maybe I don't have good understanding about how it actually work 'internally', but I feel the navigation a little bit harder compared to modo for example, I personnaly have some difficulty to do an 'around Z' rotation and maintain the pitch angle horizontally.

So basically it will take more mouse/tablet distance to rotate around x (pitch) than rotate around the z (heading).

Maybe I have this feeling because Moi navigation sensitivity is much more higher than my poly modeler. It would be nice also to have a global navigation sensitivity option, like the one we have for 3D connection device maybe.

Again thanks for the update :)

Hi PaQ, you're welcome, and I'm glad that the new rotation mode is helpful to you.

Currently the way that the rotation works is that it converts a certain amount of pixels traveled into an angular rotation value. And it treats vertical and horizontal pixel traveling to be the same.

For the next beta I will add in a moi.ini setting that will allow you to apply a scale factor to this conversion so you can experiment with turning down the sensitivity to see if that will make it feel more comfortable for you.

- Michael