V2 beta Dec-19-2009 available now
 1-12  13-29

Previous
Next
 From:  Paolo (PAOLOLOBBIA)
3179.13 In reply to 3179.1 
Excellent work Michael,

>> ImportPart

You could implement this feature in the Objects tab(or Groups)in the browser,
making the part easier to find.

Mary christmas,

EDITED: 24 Dec 2009 by PAOLOLOBBIA

  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  Akram
3179.14 In reply to 3179.13 
Thank you very much Mr Michael Gibson, happy to hear that.
Happy New Year for all !
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  d^^b (DAVID)
3179.15 
Hello:

Definitively, I can´t understand how works the Flat parameters in the Sweep command.

Any tips, expamples, explanation...?

Another cuestion:
How can I use the ArrayGem command?

Anoher one:
I´m sure that it´s a mistake from me, because I´m used to draw in AutoCAD and his layer managements, but.....how can I change a Style for define it like a default Style?

At the end (off topic):
I can´t see the images in Firefox.
Before, I couldn´t see directly them, but I could pick over the name and then load and see them, but now even I can´t see the name of the graphics files. There are only a small square. There are no problem with IETab (IExplore 8)

Thanks in advance!

EDITED: 29 Dec 2009 by DAVID

  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  Michael Gibson
3179.16 In reply to 3179.15 
Hi David,

> Definitively, I can´t understand how works the Flat parameters
> in the Sweep command.
>
> Any tips, expamples, explanation...?

Well, first of all there is a bug where the "Set flat direction" can show up with 2-rail sweep when it is not supposed to, it only applies to 1-rail sweeping. So ignore it for now if you see it when doing 2-rail sweeping.

With 1-rail sweeping there has always been (since v1) the option to set the Twist parameter, which controls how the profiles rotate as they travel along the rail path.

That's actually covered in the regular help file entry for sweep here:
http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/moi_command_reference7.htm#sweep

When you set "Twist: Flat", the profiles will only rotate around the world z axis direction and not "bank" left or right around the rail tangent unlike "Twist: Freeform".

The new "Set flat direction" button allows you to pick 2 points to define the rotation axis direction, previously this was fixed to the world z axis but now you can adjust it to suit something like a helix that is not aligned to world z but is pointing in some other direction.


> How can I use the ArrayGem command?

You have to set up a keyboard shortcut with ArrayGem as the command part of the shortcut in order to launch it, there is not any toolbar button for it yet.


> I´m sure that it´s a mistake from me, because I´m used
> to draw in AutoCAD and his layer managements, but.....how
> can I change a Style for define it like a default Style?

Do you mean that you want to set something like the "Current layer" in AutoCAD? I mean set which layer is applied to newly drawn objects?

For that you set the "Active Style" in MoI - go to the Styles section in the Scene Browser, and Right-click on the color swatch for the style you want to make active. It will get marked with a ring around the outside of its color swatch. After that newly drawn objects will use that style.


> I can´t see the images in Firefox.

You mean here in the forum?

Hmm, you might try clearing cookies - in FireFox this is under Tools > Clear Private Data.

Also try using the following link which will clear out cookies specific to the forum and may help to reset your login session:
http://moi3d.com/forum/logon.php?webtag=MOI&deletecookie=yes

- Michael
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  d^^b (DAVID)
3179.17 In reply to 3179.16 
Hello Michael:

1.- I think that I had an accidental non-desire situation.
If I draw any closed curve, and a path touching the curve, and after that I apply a 1 rail sweep-->Flat-->Set flat direction and I choose a diagonal direction I get a weird result. How this was the first example I was searching, I was coming back again over the same, and I was forgotten the original sense of "Flat" parameter.
I put a image for explanation. Don´t pay attention to the other lines, I only was testing things.

2.- About ArrayGem: Thanks, I saw your notes after. I always ask the questions and after read about that :-(

3.- About Active Style, very thank you! I´m sure that there are any note from you before, but.....(see 2 paragraph) :-)

4.- About images. I don´t know how and why, but I had blocked the images from this site. I had this problem 2 months ago...anyway..fixed.

Bye!

David




Attachments:

  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  d^^b (DAVID)
3179.18 
Hello again:

Following the Sweep command-->1 rail-->Flat....¿looks that the final solid is more wide than the original profile.?




Attachments:

  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  DannyT (DANTAS)
3179.19 In reply to 3179.18 
Hi David,

> ¿looks that the final solid is more wide than the original profile.?

Yes that will happen if you set the Twist option to 'Flat' on a profile and rail combination you've drawn there, and if you've set a Flat direction at some random angle you will get unpredictable results for that combination. If you leave the Twist option to 'Freeform' you will get the consistent shape of the profile along the rail.

Why do you want to use the 'Flat' option for this, what is it you are trying to achieve? the Twist 'Flat' option also means force direction, so when you choose a direction the twisting of that profile will be forced in that direction.

Here is a short video showing what Michael has explained above about what "Set flat direction" is used for.
Say I want to model a simple spring at a certain angle, you'll see a simple helix and a square profile, the helix is at 45° to the 'Z' axis, in the previous versions of MoI you had to have the axis of the helix the same direction as the 'Z' axis, apply the sweep with Twist=Flat then rotate the model 45°.



-
~Danny~
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  BurrMan
3179.20 In reply to 3179.19 
Thats a great video Danny! Cant say it's your best work though. :o (placeholder here)

[EDIT]My Bad. didnt notice the WMP add-in prompt[EDIT]
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  Michael Gibson
3179.21 In reply to 3179.17 
Hi David, Danny has a great video there to demonstrate the situation where you would want to use the "set flat direction".

> 1.- I think that I had an accidental non-desire situation.
> If I draw any closed curve, and a path touching the curve,
> and after that I apply a 1 rail sweep-->Flat-->Set flat direction
> and I choose a diagonal direction I get a weird result.

Yeah that is not how it would be used - the flat direction for a planar path like that would be perpendicular to the path's plane, not in some diagonal direction inside the same plane.

It's not really an option that is needed for planar paths like that at all - planar paths will work the same with either Twist option. It's used for non-planar paths that curve around in many directions in 3D, that's where there is different behavior possible for how the profiles are rotated as they travel along the 3D path.

When traveling along a 3D path, the Twist: Freeform option will gradually bank the object to the left or right as it moves along the path, to make for a kind of minimal but constant rotation of the shape. This is the default because it is more general purpose for any kind of crazy looping path since it is not weighted towards any one particular fixed direction.

But if you do not wish for the profile to bank in that manner, you can set the Twist:Flat option which will only rotate the profile around the "flat direction" (default is z axis but now you can set it with the new option). This kind of rotation will only work well if your path does not have any tangent pointing towards that same direction though, because the profile placement is not well defined when the path tangent and "flat direction" are identical.

You may also want to look at the example in Array curve to see another comparison of Twist: Freeform and Twist: Flat
http://moi3d.com/1.0/docs/moi_command_reference8.htm#arraycurve


Twist:Flat is often used with a helix path to make the profile only be rotated around the helix axis direction and not tilted to the left or right as it travels along the path.


But again the key thing is that the Twist option is used for controlling behavior on non-planar paths, your examples all have planar paths. For planar paths it is easiest to leave it to Twist: Freeform which will produce the same result but without needing to specify the flat direction (which needs to be perpendicular to the path's plane to get the proper result).


- Michael

EDITED: 30 Dec 2009 by MICHAEL GIBSON

  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  d^^b (DAVID)
3179.22 In reply to 3179.21 
Well Danny and Michael:

Very thank you for your explanation and the great video.
Finally, I have learned the sense of the Flat option.
Thank you again. :-)
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  tfb (THILOO)
3179.23 In reply to 3179.1 
Hi Michael,

first - excellent work -

I encountered a small Problem when exporting to ai.
MoI is messing up the scaling: draw a line in MoI (10mm) -> export to ai. and now it´s 70,556mm long?

hope you can fix this, since I need do this a lot of times in the next two weeks, and don´t want to rescale it each time in AI.
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  Mip (VINC)
3179.24 In reply to 3179.23 
Hello Thiloo,

In the AI Export dialog, uncheck the "Fit to page" option.
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  tfb (THILOO)
3179.25 In reply to 3179.24 
yes, I know and did this and the scaling is wrong.
when exporting to other formats (skp, obj) everything is fine, but to ai...
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  Marc (TELLIER)
3179.26 
Hi Thiloo,

Before exporting, try setting your units to millimeters in the option panel.

Marc
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  Michael Gibson
3179.27 In reply to 3179.23 
Hi tfb,

> I encountered a small Problem when exporting to ai.
> MoI is messing up the scaling: draw a line in MoI (10mm)
> -> export to ai. and now it´s 70,556mm long?

I'll need a bit more information to really understand - into which program are you importing the AI file where you see it as 70.556mm long?

Like others mentioned, make sure you have set your units to mm in MoI, and uncheck the "Fit to page" option at export time.

You also may need to make sure your receiving application is set to have units = mm before importing the AI file - coordinates are actually stored in an AI file in "points" units where 1 point = 1/72 of an inch. The receiving application needs to be told to convert from points into some other units - there may be some specific option for this or you may need to make sure to set your unit system in the other application to mm before the import in order for it to match.

I just tested the export with a few different 3D and 2D programs and could not reproduce any problem, as long as the appropriate unit scaling mechanism was used on the receiving program - going into Rhino, ViaCAD, Mayura Draw, and Expression all preserved scale correctly, as long as "Fit to page" was turned off at export time from MoI.

I'll need to know more details about your receiving application and what options you have set in it.

- Michael
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
Next
 From:  tfb (THILOO)
3179.28 In reply to 3179.27 
hi Michael,

I´m realy confused now - problem disappeared!
I cant even reproduce it anymore??

So: I´m working in MoI (units meter)
before export to ai, I changed units to mm - now I have a line lenght 10mm
export to ai (uncheck fit to page)
open in Illustrator CS3 (units mm)
-> wrong length! (line lenght: 70,556mm or 200pt) open in InDesgin all the same
so in MoI I found the decimal display is set to maximum - not much sense with mm, so I changed to 0,0!
export again: and everything is fine now! even when I change back, it´s stil working like expected now.
but changing the decimal display can´t have an permanent effect on export to ai, right?

anyway, all fine now - I´m happy
thanks for the concern and help
sorry for the trouble

thilo
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged

Previous
 From:  Michael Gibson
3179.29 In reply to 3179.28 
Hi thilo, no problem, I'm glad it is working for you now anyway!

Yeah, changing the decimal display should not have any effect on AI export, it only controls how numbers are displayed in MoI's UI.

- Michael
  Reply Reply More Options
Post Options
Reply as PM Reply as PM
Print Print
Mark as unread Mark as unread
Relationship Relationship
IP Logged
 

Reply to All Reply to All

 

 
 
Show messages:  1-12  13-29