Hi, everyone.

My name is Miguel Lescano and I'm an architect in Guayaquil, Ecuador. I've been using SketchUp since January. Frenchy Pilou talks about MoI so enthusiastically in the SketchUcation forums that I'm taking a second look at it. I tried it months ago but my keyboard-driven mind was still not open enough for it. Now I've downloaded the no-save trial again and I'll be lurking around the forum to learn how to use this app, which seems to have a very bright future.

My YouTube channel, if you want to see my previous experience with 3D (nothing spectacular, really):
http://www.youtube.com/arqui3d

Hi Miguel, welcome to the forum and back to MoI again!

> I tried it months ago but my keyboard-driven mind was
> still not open enough for it.

There's actually quite a bit of keyboard support in MoI as well.

For example if you are drawing a line and you want to place the end of the line exactly at coordinate x = 2, y = 2 you can just immediately type 2,2 <enter> without having to click on anything. As soon as you type in a number, that number and the keyboard focus automatically goes into the first available field (which in this case will be the x,y,z input control in the bottom toolbar).

Another example, if you are drawing a circle and want it to be radius = 5, when you are at the radius stage just type in 5 <enter> without clicking on anything - as soon as you type 5 the focus will go into the radius field.

There are also some additional options coming in MoI v2 that let you type in command names if you like to do that as well.

Some other keyboard things - you can type in relative coordinates (offset from the previous picked point) by prefixing the point with r, like r2,2 and also the AutoCAD syntax of @ works as well like @2.2 if you are familiar with that. Similarly you can enter in polar coordinates like 5<45 (5 units angled 45 degrees from the previous point).

You can also set up whatever keyboard shortcuts you want (including ones bound to a single character instead of having to hold down Ctrl or Alt, but those work too) under Options / Shortcut keys.


So even though it was a big goal of MoI that it should be able to work without using the keyboard, there are still many things in MoI set up to still be friendly to keyboard users if you want to work that way as well.

- Michael

Hi Miguel ;)
Your car video rocks!

Thanks for the welcome, Michael. I was never a fan of the complicated AutoCAD-way of using the keyboard (I used it regularly until around 2004 and it was a pain in the neck, at least for me), especially when it comes to coordinates, so the first examples you provided seem to be just the ticket; much more elegant.

This is the kind of things that I hope to, someday, be able to build with MoI. This is design by a friend of mine called Edward McIntosh. It's simply too curvy for SketchUp.

Hi Miguel, that's a cool design!

Some kinds of curvy designs that are more totally organic in nature and not easily defined by a set of profile or cross-section curves can actually be better to do in a Sub-d type modeling system (for example, Modo, Silo, Maya, XSI, etc...) rather than in NURBS actually.

The Sub-d workflow incorporates more of a sculpting like method of manipulating the 3D point cage, pushing and pulling mesh points around.

The NURBS workflow is more based off of a kind of "drawing" like approach where you draw profile curves and use them to construct surfaces.

The design you show there could possibly be best done with a kind of hybrid approach, with a sub-d tool used for the outer surface shell and MoI NURBS used for the stuff with articulated joints, protrusions and the more mechanical type aspects.

It's a good idea to start initially with some more simple projects to begin with to get accustomed to MoI's toolset.

One good initial overview is to watch the video tutorials here:
http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/tutorials.htm

- Michael

Funny house! :)

Wow very cool design.

Impressive work, original idea.

Just want to make it clear again that these images were made by a friend, called Eduardo (or Edward, as his ID says).

I'm now trying the 30-day trial that has save functions so I can test communication with SketchUp. I'm guessing that .skp import/export is only available in the purchased version, as I can't find them in the trial.

Hi Miguel, .skp format export is only in the v2 beta, it is one of the new features that is coming for the 2.0 release.

The v2 beta is available for all v1 owners to use during the beta period.

There is no SKP import though, only export - SKP is a polygon based format and MoI works on NURBS surface data which is a lot different than polygon data.

MoI can create polygon data from NURBS surfaces by dicing the smooth surface patches up into small facets.

But it is not so easy to go the reverse way and take a bunch of diced up facets and try to reconstruct large smooth sheets from them.

So because of that MoI does not generally import any kind of polygon data, only export it.

- Michael