Will we ever see such a thing.
I want to create window frames(and other architectual stuff) and as it stands right now, it's close to impossible to do in MOI.

Hi niko, I will be working on that for the next v2 beta.

- Michael

>it's close to impossible to do in MOI.

do a 2 rail sweep, 1 rail on each side of your profile.

How many profiles did you use? I'm trying to create with one profile.
It's kinda of a pain to create all these profiles and re-orient them.

Hi niko, check out the Frame.3dm attachment in Nick's post - there is just one profile, the curves look like this:



That's the technique that you can use to get this kind of thing done currently.

- Michael

Ok here's what I'm trying to accomplish. This frame was created in Rhino.
The two rails are not on the same plane, and with a compound profile curve (such as the one in the file with both sharp and smooth corners) I have not been able to get a similar result in MOI.
Am I doing something wrong?

Hi niko - you've only got 1 rail there - currently in MoI to do that you need to have 2 rails and not just one rail.

Check out Nick's previous post:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3107.3

Download the Frame.3dm attachment there, and delete the surface so you can see how the curves are set up.

Notice that he has 2 outline rail curves. In your file you only have 1 rail. That's the difference.

I am going to be working on making 1-rail sweep in MoI work for that for the next v2 beta but currently you cannot use 1-rail sweep to do that in MoI, you have to use 2 rail sweep instead.

When I do get this working for 1-rail sweep, it will really be more intended that you would place the profile in the middle of the rail as a flat piece rather than in the corner at an angle like in your file. In other words, the main goal for what I'm going to be working on soon will be to work with this kind of layout here:



- Michael

Hi niko, attached here is a setup for your window frame example that will work currently in MoI - select the profile, run Sweep and then select the 2 rails.

This will definitely be easier when you only have to use 1 rail, but the attached method is the way you can make it work in the current MoI release before the mitered corners for 1-rail sweep are ready.

- Michael

I guess I was not being very clear. I'm sorry
Even with two rails this particular set-up (my window frame) produces openings at the corners.

Thanks Michael.
We were posting at the same time and I didn't see your last post...sorry. It worked great.


Now one more question. How can I do something similar to orient to 2 points (Rhino command) in MOI.
Thanks for the prompt responses by the way...
Michael you the man

Hi Niko -

> Even with two rails this particular set-up (my window frame) produces
> openings at the corners.

I think that's because your 2 rails are not set in proportion to one another - if you look in the Right-side view:



Note the different thicknesses between the rails indicated in red.

If you check out the file I attached in the previous message, if you look in the side view you can see that the rails I put in there have an even thickness between them throughout, so the shape does not warp or scale and the pieces match up.

- Michael

Hi niko,

> Now one more question. How can I do something similar to
> orient to 2 points (Rhino command) in MOI.

Orient 2 points is just a combination of Move + Rotate + Scale.

So to get the same result you can use those transform commands one after the other, or you can also use the edit frame to do some similar things, like this:



I do also have some additional orientation tools coming in the next beta as well though.

- Michael

Ok I can do everything except for scaling like in your GIF.
When I try to scale, the whole curve scales not just one side like in your example.
The little target action center thingy can only be edited for the rotate part of the edit frame.
How do I scale only a portion of the curve like in your GIF?

Clicking on the scale handle moves it from center, to corner, and back again.

Note in those animations, a red dot appears for every "click". I have Camtasia. This must be a setting in the pref's. I like the yellow hightlight and the clicking effects. Must look those up in the help docs for recording stuff!

Hi niko, yup like Burr mentions instead of holding down and dragging on the scale handle, click and release the mouse button on it - that switches between "scale from center" and "scale from opposite corner" modes.

It looks like I will be adding in an OrientLineToLine command for the next v2 beta as well, which will work like the Orient 2 points command that you were asking about earlier. So that will be another option in the next beta.

- Michael

Hi Burr,

> I have Camtasia. This must be a setting in the pref's. I like
> the yellow hightlight and the clicking effects.

Yeah in the Camtasia Recorder app, go to the Effects / Options menu item, then the Cursor tab on the dialog box.

- Michael

Thanks for that.

Thanks for the response guys.
I'm aware of the opposite corner relocation of the target but in this occasion it does not seem to work(without resorting to moving points), in which case Michaels's new feature would be really nice.
If it's currently possible with the edit frame I'd like to find out how you guys did it.
Thanks again

Hi niko - what is it that you are trying to do with your curves there, are you trying to sweep the short one with the long ones as rails?

Your base short curve is not planar - it is kind of squiggling around in 3D - you may want to flatten it to be planar in order to get some more predictable overall behavior.

To do that you can use the edit frame in the Top View with the "flat" snap, like this:



After you have done that, you can just directly sweep your curve along the rails without doing any extra manual orientation or placement steps - Sweep already incorporates a kind of automatic orientation mechanism inside of it. So just select it and run sweep:



Is that what you are trying to do here?

When the sweep profile is located a distance away from the rails (outside of the bounding box around the rails), then there is an automatic positioning mechanism that will move the profile to the rails for you so you don't need to do any manual positioning stuff in that case.


After you have flattened your curve, it is possible to use the edit frame to position it in this case, but because your rail endpoints are not on any of the world axis planes you will need to use the frame in 2 different views instead of being able to do it all in just one view.


So from the top view you would do this:



Then switch to a side view to adjust the elevation, like this:





But again, it's just easier to use the orientation stuff that is built directly into sweep and not even bother to move the profile over at all.

- Michael