Hi Nariman, I am very happy that MoI is working for you as a way to start using CAD! That is very motivating for me to hear!

> I do not feel comfortable having to go back to picking the tool each
> time I make a new stroke, especially when freehand sketching.

Here is what you can do - after you start the Sketch tool, look at the option area in the upper-right corner. There is a "Repeat" checkbox at the bottom of it - if you check this box, then the freehand sketch tool will automatically repeat after each stroke, so that will allow you to make many strokes without having to pick the tool over and over again. This works for any of the other drawing tools too.




Another way is if you right-click (which is kind of annoying with the pen though, there is usually a side-button for that) inside a viewport after a command is finished, you will repeat the last used command.


> An ability to remove that detritus with an eraser (rather than going backward and
> forwards to the trimming process), would be SO nice!

This is a very interesting idea... Typically CAD and vector graphics programs (for instance Adobe Illustrator) don't work like this, usually only bitmap-based programs work in this manner.

There are a few technical difficulties with doing it, handling a real "scribbling" eraser type would involve some new concepts that are not currently in MoI, such as a kind of brush size.

I think it will be difficult enough that I won't be able to do it right away, but I will try to think about it. I have some other ideas on sketching tools that I would like to explore in the future also.


In the meantime, this kind of scribbling and erasing type drawing really works better in a Bitmap-based application than in a structured-object-generating CAD application.

Have you experimented with some other bitmap-based graphics tools?

Here is a really interesting one that works well with a tablet: http://artrage.com/ , there is a free version that is quite useful, and the full version is ridiculously cheap. It is really quite friendly for tablet use. Another similar one is "Autodesk SketchBook Pro": http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?id=6848332&siteID=123112 (used to be called Alias Sketchbook).

Both of these are very pencil-like sketching tools, they are far closer to real pencil drawing than MoI, and they are both pretty easy to use. But they are bitmap-based programs, so their output is a bunch of dots ("pixels") in a bitmap file like a .jpg , it doesn't produce structured objects like MoI.

I'm working on making the next beta to have the ability to bring in bitmaps so you can use them as a guide when drawing curves inside of MoI. So at that point what you could do is use ArtRage to do some free pencil sketching, and then when you have your sketch done, bring that into MoI as a background guide and draw some curves to use for the actual model construction.


Of course it would be cool if MoI had more sketch/scribble like mechanisms in it, and I would like to add that in over time. But there is a bit of a clash between CAD-accuracy type flavor and sketching/scribbling type flavor to a certain extent.

Anyway, it is really great to hear that MoI is working for you!

- Michael

Oh by the way, the repeat box was broken in the 4-Dec beta, so make sure you have the latest beta to get the repeat box to work.

Dear Michael,

That's a great feature (ie. repeat), I wish I had noticed it myself. Works great.

As to bit mapped drawing, yes, I have been using MS Paint forever! You can do some amazing things using only Paint.

I recently used a scanned bmp of a large diamond pendant, and cut it up into many fragments. Then manipulating the fragments, I put some together to make a matching pair of earstuds, and the top of a ring.

NO RENDERING REQUIRED; the original scan had all the real metal colours, highlights etc. and of course real photographs of the diamonds and rubies. I was amazed at what such a simple program could do for me.

As to using some other pencil-like programs, thanks, but no thanks for the moment. I had a trial version of Painter that came with the tablet and did try it, but Michael, your programme is so simple, so intuitive... I am in love with it.

...and I am strictly monogamous. No other programme for me, but many thanks for your honest suggestion.

Warm regards,
Nariman.

Hi Michael. Many tablet stylii are double-ended. the other end having the function of an eraser in bitmap programs. So i think it could be possible to use the "eraser" end of a stylus to draw a closed curve that could auto-trim (or auto-split) any curves that fall within it's area. Of course, it would be necessary that the eraser curve is closed automatically, and will delete itself immeditaely after performing it's function. Maybe this could be set up to work within the sketch tool. So it's not required to exit the sketch tool?... For mouse users like myself (and those with a single-ended stylus), perhaps ALT+LMB would handle the eraser function... I see a few basic checkbox options for this eraser method:

**auto-split or to auto-trim?
**trim/split curves which are inside or outside of the trim curve?
**use apparent intersections (view-based), or act perpendicular to Cplane?
**act on pre-existing curves? If curves were pre-selected, it should be limited to those curves only

jonah

> Hi Michael. Many tablet stylii are double-ended. the other end having the
> function of an eraser in bitmap programs. So i think it could be possible to
> use the "eraser" end of a stylus to draw a closed curve that could auto-trim
> (or auto-split) any curves that fall within it's area.

Yes, this would certainly be an easy way to trigger it.


> Of course, it would be necessary that the eraser curve is closed automatically

This is the part that I would worry about - forcing a closed curve is not really how a typical eraser works. Like in Photoshop for instance if you want to erase something you can just scribble the eraser over inked areas, you don't have to form a closed region with it or anything, instead there is a zone around your cursor that is always being erased.

But doing a sort of structured-closed-curve erase like you are describing would be a lot easier to implement though.

However there could be some other nice possibilities for the "real eraser" style - for instance there could be some accuracy features if you start erasing a curve and track along it and start to snap at key points like intersections with other curves.

It will be a while before I'll be able to experiement with any of this though.

- Michael

> ...and I am strictly monogamous. No other programme for me, but
> many thanks for your honest suggestion.

I appreciate the sentiment, I really do! :) But at the same time I'd hate for you to limit yourself unnecessarily!

Anyway, I can understand that it can be hard to find time to mess around with other things. But when you do get in the mood to experiment at some point, you should give ArtRage a try, it is quite a lot easier than the Painter program that you tried before, it has a very clean and simple approach that I think you would appreciate.

- Michael

no rush of course... It doesn't really add anything that can't be done with current trim/split tools. Just a nice touch that would add to Moi's freehanded approach... Have you seen the videos of the metaball modelers Teddy and ShapeShop (a.k.a. BlobShop) ? they have an interesting curve "eraser" that works just by scribbling a wavy line across the segment you want to erase. Somehow the program recognizes your intent as an eraser, not as a new curve. Of course it doesn't have the accuracy required by CAD. But it's interesting...

jonah

> Have you seen the videos of the metaball modelers Teddy and ShapeShop (a.k.a. BlobShop) ?

Yeah I've seen that it is pretty cool. Gestures kind of worry me a bit in general, with too complex ones seeming to be pretty hard to remember, but that scribble=erase one is pretty good exception to that, it's easy to remember and I think distinctive enough that it gets recognized with a really high accuracy rate.

- Michael

i think a "scribble" could be integrated into a precision workflow, if Moi knows to remove a segment based on a few simple rules:

**stop at the closest intersections, quads, and knots
**remove segment if scribbled on segment of a polyline, remove section of line if scribbled on line.

customizable of course ;)