Hi Pilou, well I'm surprised that you would not know what format or file name that was being used, didn't you just specifically pick the name and format in the previous step?

It doesn't do a random file name or file format or anything, it only uses what you exactly told it...

So it just does not seem to be necessary to add those additional labels in.

Too many things in the UI tend to be distracting, so I do not like to add in a bunch of labels that do not serve any useful purpose.

- Michael

I think he was refering to have the "format chosen option" from within meshing dialogue. but since some export options are not poly but Nurbs, it would look more like, all the "Nubs filetypes" in the export or save as commands, then just one that said "poly's" and then choose the format in the dialogue when it's open.

Hi Burr, well the other difficulty is that some particular file formats do not permit all the meshing options.

For example if you export to STL or 3DS formats, those only support Triangle polygons and not quads or n-gons. So certain controls on the dialog can be hidden when it is being used for a particular file format.

So it's easier for the format to be picked when you are at the file dialog stage rather than in the meshing options.

That's just the most normal way to determine the file format also (in the file Save dialog I mean). I think that would be pretty strange to only have a "Polys" option in the save dialog and then have the specific poly format come up after that, just way too different than how most software works for saving I think.

It just seems to make the most sense to have the "Meshing options" dialog actually do what it says and focus just on meshing options and not on file format choices...

- Michael

< you would not know what format or file name that was being used
no no ! I want to know one more time!
It's just for info ;)
I had enter the name and the nature of the file in the save file window dialog
Then make several trys of number of polys, several different parameters etc...
and then 10 minuters after don't remember the first format choosen! :(
It's different nature of structures of polys, numbers of polys etc when you save for SKP, or 3Ds or fbx etc... even if some are automatic
So will be confortable for my memory just to see in the meshing box the 3 letters of format file previous choosen ;)

Hi Pilou, the thing is that I have put in a lot of effort to streamline that mesh options dialog and make it less cluttered. So I generally try not to add stuff in unless it serves a pretty good purpose.

This case of you forgetting what type of file you picked to write just seems like a rather strange thing to me!

Most people are exporting a file for a specific purpose, not just to play around with the mesh dialog... :)

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Hopefully I'm not hijacking this thread too much, but you mentioned that 3DS and STL are only triangle based. Does this mean that there are better formats for saving nurbs models? The reason I ask is my 3D Cam package only supports four of the same formats as MoI (STL, 3DS, OBJ and LWO). Would OBJ or LWO formats bet better?

Thanks for making such a great product.

Bob

Hi Bob,

> you mentioned that 3DS and STL are only triangle based. Does
> this mean that there are better formats for saving nurbs models?

Well, it can depend on what you are doing with them.

If you're using them for calculating toolpaths, then probably it is fine to just have triangles instead of quads or n-gons.

3DS is a really much older format though and has some 16-bit era limitations in things like the number of points that can be inside of a single mesh object. So I would say to generally avoid that particular format if at all possible.


> Would OBJ or LWO formats bet better?

For rendering you would normally want to focus on these formats intead of STL for a couple of other reasons too, like these formats also support materials in them so your style assignments in MoI will come through as material assignments in the OBJ or LWO file.

But if you are calculating toolpaths off of the mesh data rather than rendering it, that won't really make a difference.


Some programs can actually have problems dealing with polygons with more than 3 or 4 sides in them as well, so it's not necessarily an automatically better thing to use if your program does not like to deal with that kind of data.


Every program can be a little bit different in what kind of data it expects to work off of and what it has been tested with, so there isn't necessarily just one format that is always better to use in every single circumstance. Some programs are better at handling one kind of file format than another.

STL is probably the safest bet for CAM and toolpath calculation type use. STL has a very simple file structure which tends to make for less potential problems in interpreting the data.

- Michael

< This case of you forgetting what type of file you picked to write just seems like a rather strange thing to me!
Sorry but I have that
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-term_memory
First sign of the old age beginning
Maybe also because I have too many things in head :)

So I can write it on a paper or in the Note-pad if that is not possible on the meshing box