Hi Michael,

As I configure my own interface by editing the HTML UI files, I am also interested in what this means. So would it still be HTML? Would I still be able to go in and create my own tabs with commands and icons?

Thanks.

Uh oh...This statement has opened a hornets nest! :o

Hi Neo,

> Michael excuse my ignorance, but could you elaborate
> please, not sure what the goals are. (reducing the need
> for proprietary plug-ins/tools sounds great.) Are you
> considering an open cross platform friendly solution?

Really it will just be a bunch of experiments, it may not amount to anything and it is not entirely clear so it is hard to elaborate at this point.

- Michael

Hi Tony,

> So would it still be HTML?

I would hope so. If not it would still need to be something similarly controlled by a text file and editable.


> Would I still be able to go in and create my own
> tabs with commands and icons?

Yes, it's important for me to have this same kind of ability to manipulate the UI when I am creating new pieces of UI myself.

- Michael

> I will probably take at least a few weeks at the start to do some general UI experimentation though.


I see everyone seems to be going with the QT toolkit especially for the multi-platform support - is that something you're considering Michael?

 

I don't see Groups doing any more for me than the surfacing exports. So I'm straight without Groups for now.

I'm actually more excited about the 1-rail sweep being able to do proper corners and the other upcoming features you've mentioned!


-Will

PS - Okay I didn't see the bit about keeping HTML before I replied so that'll probably rule out Qt then...

Hi Will, the mitered corners for 1-rail sweep is nearly done, here's a quick example:





- Michael

Hi Michael, that looks sweet!
Do the pieces end up as individual solids or is the resultant sweep a single solid?

-

Hi Danny, the result for those cases is just one single solid, all finished up. Also history works to edit the curve and have the solid update to match.

The only part that is not completely finished at this moment is getting the trimming to work between rail segments that are curved instead of line segments.

I'm going to keep working at it here for a few more hours, and if it looks like it is going to take a couple more days to finish that part I will release a new beta without it and then still have another beta release when that part is done.

- Michael

Another one:





It may not be feasible to have non-planar rails that have curved pieces in them, but you can have them for lines.

- Michael

HI Michael...

>the result for those cases is just one single solid, all finished up.
I think we need to have an option not to merge all segment as single solid.
In reality in wooden or steel structure, each segment represent as separate part.
Usually, only circle profile / pipe that we want to merge each others.

Thanks !

Hi Anis - you can just use Edit/Separate after it is created if you wish to have individual pieces.

That method is a general way to break any solid down into component pieces, it works for the results of Extrude, Revolve, Loft, Sweep, etc...

- Michael

It is going to take me a bit more time to refine the mitered corner sweep, so this next release won't quite be the very last beta still. I wouldn't be surprised if there are also some bugs to fix in some other new functions anyway.

But in the meantime I have released a new Dec-19 beta (http://moi3d.com/beta.htm) - I'll post a full announcement and release notes tomorrow.

Some brief mention of new stuff - there's now a variety of orientation tools such as copy to clipboard with origin (right-click on copy or Ctrl+Shift+C), PastePart (right click on Paste or Ctrl+Shift+V), ImportPart (Right-click on File/Import), and also some new tools under Transform > Orient.

Also mitered corners for sweep, it should be working well for sweeps along polylines, curved segments will work for basic cases but still need some tuneups for some situations.

- Michael

Quick little demo of the new Transform > Orient command:



It lets you pick a base orientation and then a target orientation, for each orientation pick you place the base point first, and then you can alter the rotation if you want, or right-click if the default rotation is fine.


The other ones like PastePart and ImportPart are similar, but they have the base orientation already set in the file or in the clipboard so you only pick the target orientation for those ones. You might use those variants if you have set a piece up as a kind of library item in a different file or if you put it in the clipboard because you will be pasting several in shortly or something like that.

- Michael

Here's one with Transform > Orient with the "Make copies" option enabled (you can also hold down Ctrl to drop a copy as well):




This would have required quite a lot of fussing with Move + Rotate a bunch of times to do this kind of stuff previously.

- Michael

It wasn't too long ago that I was planning on doing these orientation tools for v3, but I was able to get them into v2 instead.

- Michael

Hi Michael....

Use Edit/Separate...
We still need two more steps to finish the model :

1. Close hollow caps
2. Rejoin surface

Imagine if we have more complex rail, not just rectangle.
Here I am not force you to make everything perfect, this is just my feedback maybe for next version release in the future.... :)

Thanks

Oh Joae, a new beta has been released!! :-D

Thanks for the Xmas present Michael, and thanks for the refresher as to what has been added I also look forward to those orient tools!

-Will

PS - Michael, you wrote previously:
"Also in the next beta the regular Sweep command will be able to handle doing sweeps along multiple rails without needing to install the Pipe plugin.
If you select 3 or more rails, it will just be the equivalent of doing a 1-rail sweep along each of them."

Is that in there as well?

Thanks Michael ...

I just did a quick mitered window frame ... wonderful!

eric

Hi Anis,

> Use Edit/Separate...
> We still need two more steps to finish the model :
>
> 1. Close hollow caps
> 2. Rejoin surface

Yes - but that's not unusual or unintended that you may need to use more than one tool to complete a model.

Using more than one command in combination with each other can help to prevent each command from becoming too complex - if commands end up with dozens and dozens of options in them, they tend to become more difficult to use.

It's a major goal of MoI to not be difficult to use, so that's why I tend to resist adding in options too rapidly when there are other existing ways to produce the result.


If a some industry tended to need that kind of result on complex sweeps often, probably the best way to approach it would be to have a plug-in command that could process the result of a sweep to automate that sequence of separating and solidifying the components.


Also, it's actually easy to be more efficient in the use of the existing tools than what you show in your screenshot - you don't actually need the rejoin step.

Instead of separating the model into completely individual surfaces, you can instead select these 2 sets of faces (with a crossing right-to-left window selection after having selected just 1 face first):



With those pieces selected, you can then use Edit/Separate and the model will separate into 4 pieces instead of into completely individual surfaces, so you get a result like this which is ready to have Planar applied to it:




That's a feature of Separate - if you have a set of face sub-objects selected, Separate will break that collection of faces apart from the main piece but still keep them joined to one another. You can use that to more strategically break off some sub structure of an object without having to do a re-join after.

- Michael