It looks like I will be able to get some custom readouts for spheres, cylinders, and cones.

Like when you select a sphere (either a whole sphere on its own or a sphere face sub-object out of a larger solid) instead of showing the Size: label, it will show Radius:

The way the readout works, is that for a general object or multi-object selection, it shows Size: which is the bounding box size.

If you have a single object selected, it can show information about these types:

Line - the length of the line.
Circle or Arc - the radius
Sphere - radius
Cylinder or cone - radius + height

- Michael

Hi Michael,

> I'm not really sure that using object names would be sort of the best fit for that though,
> it seems like a kind of "variable manager" type UI would be the thing -
> like you would go somewhere and push a button for "define variable",
> and you could pick from different functions like get the distance between 2 picked points,
> take the length of a selected edge, radius value, etc... and then you enter a name and
> then that variable would be defined for use in expressions.

Yeah that would work, but I was thinking even with the idea I gave there are too many steps and typing involved, something with less steps, like if you had that 'define variable' or 'reference' button beside each input box (x, y, z) as a small button and once pressed you can pick that edge mentioned previously and the length value would be placed in the input box.
But then as you implied, how many times would we use it, just thinking out loud.

Keep up the good work

Hi Danny, yeah another related idea is having that pop-out number pad panel thing work more like a full calculator and than having several different "memory slots" available on it for holding values that you may want to use repetitively.

But since you can just type in expressions now that really covers the calculator functions already, so possibly it could just get the memory slots added to that number pad panel and not worry about making it a full calculator thing.

- Michael

Ok, the size editor part is very nearly done:



So a new beta is getting pretty close, just a bit more work on this part tomorrow and then a few bug fixes that I've got stacked up and it will be ready.

- Michael

Insufferable suspense :)

hi, Michael

Very very interesting.

out new beta ????

Marco (marcorhino)

Hi Michael....

Make our live easier.... :)
Then how about :

Hi Marco,

> out new beta ????

It's not out yet, but very soon. I think probably tomorrow.

- Michael

Hi Anis,

> Then how about :

Right now it will do the second (scale arc around its own center point).

But I think that makes sense to do the other behavior instead and stay attached to a touching curve, I think it should not be difficult for me to set that up, I will give that a try.

If you have other curves touching on both sides of the arc, I guess I will just arbitrarily pick one of them to be the scaling origin.

- Michael

Hi Michael...

>> But I think that makes sense to do the other behavior instead and stay attached to a touching curve, I think it should not be difficult for me to set that up, I will give that a try.

Interesting, to see the next progress....

>> If you have other curves touching on both sides of the arc, I guess I will just arbitrarily pick one of them to be the scaling origin.

Correct, this will work like constraint base software.
This will make edit 2D sketch in moi more easy and precise...

Thanks Michael..... :)

Hi Anis -


> Correct, this will work like constraint base software.

Probably not quite all the way though... Just to clarify, it will do this type of thing:




It won't move any unselected other curves when you change the arc...

But keeping it connected to at least one piece will help reduce at least one step of cleanup to do after that.

- Michael

Hi Anis - I also set it up so that you can have some control over which end will remain fixed when the arc or line is touching other curves at both sides.

In that situation if you selected the arc with a click, it will anchor the resized arc towards the end closest to which you picked when selecting it.

- Michael

Hi Michael....

>>> It won't move any unselected other curves when you change the arc...
But keeping it connected to at least one piece will help reduce at least one step of cleanup to do after that.

Yeah, reduce one step.
I hope in the future, MoI will have 2D editing like this :


Again, this just for your inspiration.... ;)

Michael....

Looks like we are post at the same time...

>>>>I also set it up so that you can have some control over which end will remain fixed when the arc or line is touching other curves at both sides.

In that situation if you selected the arc with a click, it will anchor the resized arc towards the end closest to which you picked when selecting it.

It will more clear if you can post a gif file...

Thanks

Hi Anis -

>It will more clear if you can post a gif file...

You'll get a chance to test it yourself pretty soon, it should get more clear then! :)

But it is not a very big feature - just when an arc has other curves touching it at 2 possible endpoints, it will maintain the endpoint that was closest to your mouse cursor location when you clicked on the arc to select it.

So you can control which side will stay connected by clicking closer to one side or the other when you select the arc.

- Michael

Hi Anis,

> I hope in the future, MoI will have 2D editing like this :

Unfortunately I don't expect to have that for quite a long time... That is again another instance of a constraint-based editing mechanism as was discussed previously in this thread here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2150.41
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2150.55

Just positioning a single extra line like that would not be a big problem.

But you are going to want to add additional connected pieces instead of only a single line, and as you get more pieces connected it becomes more difficult to make modifications (for the algorithms I mean). Pretty quickly you get into situations where different pieces need to be extended or trimmed, etc... - not just simply moved in location like your simple example there.

> Again, this just for your inspiration.... ;)

It's very inspiring! If it only took inspiration to make it happen in MoI then I would be all set right now! :)

But I need a constraint based solving mechanism to make that happen, that requires a lot of work to code one, or a lot of money for licensing one, just inspiration alone doesn't cover it unfortunately! ;)


So you should generally not plan on that happening in MoI anytime in the foreseeable future. You will need to rely on other tools such as SolidWorks, etc... that are focused on constraint management, if that is an important thing for what you need to do.

I just want to make sure you know that MoI is not the right tool for doing that type of thing in that particular way, and that is not likely to change anytime soon...

Of course there are other ways to get the same final result, like in MoI to get the same result that you show, you will be able to just drag the bottom line to move it into place after changing the arc's radius.

- Michael

Michael....

> You'll get a chance to test it yourself pretty soon, it should get more clear then! :)

I will be the first moi user that download the new beta :)
( Because I love to use MoI )

Thanks Michael....

No Anis--the SECOND!

Brian

No way, I will be the first !

Maybe Michael can post an announcement of who the first actually was and it can be our new "beta testers only" friendly contest.

The winner gets a prize!!!!