Hi Michael,

I bought the software month ago after reading some great reviews but didn't have time till now to play with it, and I am really impressed. Superb!!!

I have some beginner Q about the software if you can help me with:

* Is there any fast way to calculate length of curve?

* Where can I find more information on a specific object like distance between two points on a surface etc..?

* There is any fast way to flatten curved object like I did on the attached picture?

Thanks,
Daniel

Hi Daniel thanks, I'm glad that you like MoI!

> * Is there any fast way to calculate length of curve?

It is possible to do this in v2 by setting up a keyboard shortcut with this as the command:

script:/* Calculate length of selected curves and copy to the clipboard as text */ var crvs = moi.geometryDatabase.getSelectedObjects().getCurves(); var len = 0.0; for ( var i = 0; i < crvs.length; ++i ) len += crvs.item(i).getLength(); moi.copyTextToClipboard( len );

Then when you push that shortcut key it will calculate the length of the selected curves and copy it to the clipboard as text, and you can paste it into a text editor to see it.

I do plan on having a better readout for these kinds of calculated properties in the future.


> * Where can I find more information on a specific object like distance
> between two points on a surface etc..?

In v2 there is a properties panel in the upper-right area of the window, that shows some information on the selected objects, here:



If you have 2 points selected, it will tell you the dimensions of the bounding box around them.

When a line is selected, it will give the length of the line in that same spot so you can draw a line between the 2 points and select it to get the distance. Or there is also a plug-in you can use to get the distance between 2 points here:
http://kyticka.webzdarma.cz/3d/moi/#MeasureDistance


> * There is any fast way to flatten curved object like I did on the attached picture?

No, there isn't any mechanism available in MoI to do that.

- Michael

Hi Michael, Thanks for the fast response. I will check it now.

I wasn't aware to these script options. where can I find refernce to this API? (I google it and just found some samples, but no full refernce.)

Is it posible to add the "flatten" mechanisim using the script API?

hi
Seems you can make something ;)
Draw a rectangle
Draw a curve line
Make a Sweep Rectangle on the curve
= you have your curvated volume

Now Show points
Select points of the curve or the curve itself
and you can modify as you want the volume by the curve's points as long as you don't make any other operations on the volume or drow another thing!;)

It's not yet paradise :) So export it and import it if you want to transform it inside a big project after other drawings ;)

PS you must export "Rectangle" + curve (inside) + volume !
As you know the measure of the curve, you have just to align points on a straight line of this measure and your problem is resolved ;)

Hi Pilou,

Thanks for your answer, I actually tried this method, but the problem is when more complex objects are involved.

Thanks!

Hi Daniel,

> I wasn't aware to these script options. where can I
> find refernce to this API? (I google it and just found
> some samples, but no full refernce.)

I don't really have any full reference available yet.

The closest thing is the moi.idl file which basically lists all the properties and methods that are available to a script, you can grab that here: http://moi3d.com/wiki/Scripting


> Is it posible to add the "flatten" mechanisim using
> the script API?

I don't think so... it's not really a matter of just calling into a few basic functions, a flattening function needs to do quite a lot of calculations and analysis on a surface.

Also it's not even possible to flatten just any generic surface without stretching. In order to be flattened properly a surface has to be straight in one direction. Something like a sphere for example can't be flattened as a single cut piece without stretching of the material.

Rhino has a flattening function and you can transfer objects built in MoI into Rhino easily by Copy/Pasting between them, so that may be your best option currently to produce the flattened pattern.

Also if you convert your object into a mesh, that is made up of flat facets and tends to be easier to flatten.

Lamina Design (http://laminadesign.com/) or Pepakura Designer (http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) are a couple of programs that are able to calculate a flattened result from mesh data.

I don't really have any experience in this area of flattening things, so it isn't too likely that I'll be able to add it directly in to MoI anytime soon. You'll need to use one of these other programs to handle that part, it's kind of a specialized function.

- Michael

If you want to find the surface distance on a complex, curved surface, you can project a line onto that surface and then run the length script to get it's flat equivelent. :O

Hi,

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for, I will deep into it and learn it more.

Daniel