>>If I make a cube in MoI and import it into Carrara, I apply a shader to the cube.
>>It doesnt allow me to apply a different shader or material to six different sides.

Hi Burr,

As Brian mentioned, you can make planer mapping for a cube. You also have the option of creating shader domains, which could also be used for a cube,but, shader domains can be used for any object with any number of sides and each side (or face) can be given a different color.

Thanks for all the replies people.

Hi, BurrMan
>>
2347.12 In reply to 2347.9
Hello Ash. Awsome. Just for my info, if its all one piece your software can recognize the original individual pieces to shade seperatley? I hadnt triedf to experiment but was under the impression that one peice, one object, one material overall.
>>

I used modo for this. No, it doesn't recognise the individual pieces, it's all one mesh. I select the polygons and assign them to a different polygon tag for use with a different material, in this case glass. Note that only the housing is all one piece. The rest of the parts in the renders are still seperate.

It's all just experimentation at the moment, trying to find the best way from MoI to modo. I'm learning modo's texture system as I go along too, and getting into a few pickles along the way :-)

Still, it seems to be coming along okay. I am also experimenting with reducing the polygon count (which was over 1.2 million) by the use of instances and re-meshing using the new beta.

I created the thing as mostly seperate parts, which to my mind, it is more realistic. But if it is all one mesh then you can use things like modo's weight maps to put dirt and grime into corners. If you don't do this then you have to paint them on, which means UV stuff - and that's a whole new skill I haven't got to grips with yet ;-)

I'll keep you posted with my progress

Hi Tony,

As you are modo user....
Is Modo can work like ( rhino + t-spline ) ? I mean to bidirectional read between polygon and nurbs ?

>> Thanks Brian. Been dying to get into rendering! Jealous of stuff like Danny and Grendels work!

BurrMan,

It's not so hard - but very time consuming. You tweak and render and tweak and render and....yes, more tweak and render. But I find it very satisfying to see the end result.

Carrara has a great procedural shading system, especially if you add some of the Digital Carvers plugins. That's why I don't know anything about UV mapping :-)

Hi Anis,

>> As you are modo user....
>> Is Modo can work like ( rhino + t-spline ) ? I mean to bidirectional read between polygon and nurbs ?


I'm not sure about this - there's no nurbs support in modo but there is a Rhino import/export plugin. I don't have Rhino so don't know how much this can do. Unfortunately it doesn't work with MoI..

Probably better to ask this on the Luxology forums. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

Hi Tony,

> Probably better to ask this on the Luxology forums. Sorry I couldn't be more help.
Would you like ask about this there for us :) ?

Thank You !!!

Okay a quick search on the Lux forums comes up with the following:

"The importer can handle only mesh, camera and light. So, you need to translate nurbs in rhino to mesh, which can lead to huge amount of polygons, as well as patches with gaps (rhino is not really good in translating nurbs). Meshs from Nurbs are triangulated, so it get's hard to work on the geometries later in Modo."

So, it looks like the answer is no. One way mesh only.

Hello Tony,

So, the only "affordable" polygon & nurbs software is ( rhino + tspline ) :(

Thanks for your quick answer friend !!! :)

Yes, looks like it, though I'm not an expert. MoI is my first nurbs modeller.

Do any of the other apps have nurbs support? What about C4D?

I am not C4D user, but I think C4D not support nurbs.
Many software for mechanical engineer usually base on nurbs. There are many software like solidworks, Pro-e, catia etc....

Even I have use nurbs base software before, I still like how MoI works. Very easy to use and work in moi like play a game :)
I am aware, there are also some areas like "dimensioning" that very important for me that MoI cant cover this now. MoI still in V1 and I wish Michael will provide dimensioning and advance surface in the future....

any way, I like MoI :)

C4D has something named '"Hyper nurbs", but that not nurbs ;)

"...you need to translate nurbs in rhino to mesh, which can lead to huge amount of polygons, as well as patches with gaps (rhino is not really good in translating nurbs). Meshs from Nurbs are triangulated, so it get's hard to work on the geometries later in Modo..."

I have exported several hundred parts from Rhino to Modo (via LWO, OBJ, and using Modo's importer) and I've never had a problem with the translation. If Rhino produced gaps in a mesh, the user probably created a bad object or was working outside of the join tolerance of the file... The only disadvantage of Rhino to Modo is that sometimes you need to export a bit heavy mesh in order to avoid funky triangulation. It's output is not as clean and orderly as Moi's n-gon output. But there is also one advantage to Rhino is that it can export nested UVs with proper size relationships of each island. Or did Michael add that to the export yet? I know he was planning to, but I once downloaded IE8 beta and now I can't use MoI for the last few months. BEWARE OF THIS, PURE EVIL!!! The only way I can roll back to IE7 is by reinstalling XP... :(

MoI to Modo or Rhino to Modo is not really much different for setting up UVs because you can easily create a good layout using Modo's "UV Pack" function. And you could always resize the UV islands by hand... Anyway, who really needs to further "work on the geometries later in Modo"? What's the point? Even if you can hack some bevels onto it, it's still not properly arranged mesh for subd smoothing...

About Nurbs in Modo, supporting OpenNurbs (3DM) would be fantastic! But i won't hold my breath for it...

jonah

Hi Jonah,

> but I once downloaded IE8 beta and now I can't use
> MoI for the last few months.

I tweaked v2 a couple of betas ago so that it will avoid the problem area in the IE8 beta, so the current v2 beta should work for you now.

For v1 I'm waiting to see if they will fix the problem first, if they don't then I will put out a patch for it.

- Michael

Thanks! I had no idea that V2 would be OK... :)

jonah

>>>It's not so hard - but very time consuming. You tweak and render and tweak and render and....yes, more tweak and render. But I find it very satisfying to see the end result.


Thanks Ash!

This has been probably the biggest part of the problem for me. Very old computer= anything from the default settings would crush the times. Adding GI would cause a Give up" on my part. No room to experiment!

I have a new computer that should help avoid this and I can finally learn! Just have to get the time to set it up.

Burr

I think there are some problems with exporting a single plain Cube from MoI.
In Carrara, for it, using Vertex shading domains seems the quickest..
Quite odd! (Will study some more)

However, I am reading that Modo is only importing anything as a solid---- not in parts--from MoI?
In Carrara, all the file type imports seem to arrive in parts. Especially the LWO file type which Modo should accept ok.

With OBJ file, this little dropdown in Carrara has to be selected as shown to get the parts separated. I would be surprised if Modo did not have similar.

Note. I just don't use UVs.

Brian

There is no doubt that learning never ends!

Anyway, in short, in Carrara--the Parametric/Flat Mapping road seems fine for , shall we call them, Primitive objects.

Brian

>> However, I am reading that Modo is only importing anything as a solid---- not in parts--from MoI?

Brian,

No, modo sees all the parts no problem. I was deliberately making a single part in MoI just to keep the number of separate objects down.

Thanks Tony, ----I was unbelieving!

It's long hard slog to group the parts into the various separate shading groups on a big, complex, modelling file from MoI

Brian