Presently I import MoI projects into Alibre and use the 2D drawing facility to make annotated, dimensioned drawings.

It does a good job, but I would prefer a smaller, simpler application.

Just wondering what other people are using??

Steve

Hi Steve, re: make 2D drawings

I know that some people use Rhino for that, there is a command in Rhino called "Make2D" that produces 2D curves from a model.

But it is not a particularly small or simple application though...

However data transfer between MoI and Rhino works really well since they use the same file format and you can even Copy/Paste objects back and forth.

I'm not really sure that there is a small simple app for doing that, it tends to be a function that is part of a larger CAD system and not really something that is handled by a stand-alone program.

I do expect to add functions for that directly into MoI in the future, but I'm not quite sure when I don't think it will happen in v2.

- Michael

Theres that "Punch software" tool that I think loves to do that, though I havnt tried it yet.

Thanks for that Burr. Here's the link

http://www.punchcad.com/products/viacad2d.htm

And only $49. Time will tell if it can interpret MoI data properly.

Michael, that would be a great add-on feature for MoI. Maybe I will just limp along until you get around to developing that (not wanting to put pressure!)

Hi Steve & Burr -

> Here's the link <....>

Yeah, it looks like that will probably do the job. I had previously thought that 2D version was for 2D drawing only, but it looks like it handles conversion of 3D models to 2D in that one as well.

That's probably the closest thing out there to what you were talking about.

The 3D version http://www.punchcad.com/products/viacad2d3dV6.htm is still really inexpensive and has 3D solid modeling functions in it as well, and also the 2D drawing generation...

- Michael

Hi Michael...

> I do expect to add functions for that directly into MoI in the future, but I'm not quite sure when I don't think it will happen in v2.
I wish you put 2D drawing creation on top of priority. Even very basic is ok. We need this feature to do presentation or show to our customer the main dimension.

Thank You !

A quick fix while we wait may be to just open your favorite illustrator program and do your dimensioning text with line, then import into MoI as ai and place where you want.

Just a note.

Hi Anis,

> I wish you put 2D drawing creation on top of priority.
> Even very basic is ok. We need this feature to do
> presentation or show to our customer the main dimension.

Probably in V3 I will be trying to focus some time on communication type tasks.

Currently though the focus for MoI is still much more on modeling and being able to build the objects initially rather than on functions to communicate the design.

In the earlier versions of MoI you will need to use other software in combination with MoI to do tasks related to design communication.

I wish I could make all features be completed in MoI all at the same time with all the highest priority! But I have not found a way to do that with only 24 hours in the day, sorry! :)

I did originally want to get some very basic dimensioning in for v2 but that is looking somewhat doubtful at this point.

- Michael

Hi Michael...

> Probably in V3 I will be trying to focus some time on communication type tasks.
Good :)

>I wish I could make all features be completed in MoI all at the same time with all the highest priority!
>But I have not found a way to do that with only 24 hours in the day, sorry! :)

How about combination of easy task and priority.
If you think basic 2D dimension is easy task, you will do for it first.

Take care ;)

Hi Anis, unfortunately it is not what I would categorize as a very easy task. Even getting a very basic method in place will take some work.

Anything that requires new user interface work tends to take a while to do a good job of it.

As a general rule, I prefer to wait to do a good job on the UI rather than just sticking together something with a bad UI.

- Michael

That method is ok for small projects, slow for complex objects with high poly count but is a solution...you could go for Pro version witch adds Export for DXF, DWG, 3DS, OBJ, PDF, EPS + LayOut 2. But for $500 you better of with Shark LT.(IMO) they say that is Based on Dassault’s ACIS™ modeling kernel (cool) that could give good compatibility with apps like (Autocad Revit etc. which are based on the same Kernel)... http://www.punchcad.com/products/shark_lt.htm

This is beginning to sound expensive...where I live $500 really means $1000!!

But I agree those Viacad products look good. But when you have MoI...

It could be done in SketchUp, but I have become used to a program that automatically generates the 2d views I want, at the right scale, all set up nicely on the page, with easy dimensioning and annotation. I guess it's like Michael says...most of those are part of a bigger suite.