Aha this is amazing :D
Transform orient is just great and look so simple to use, I cant wait to try it :)
Now I want a "components" library like in sketchup and been able to take them from the library and Transform orient them into place !

Nah im kidding its already a great new release.
Thanks for all the work Michael, and merry christmas !

runs off to test the new beta

Hi DesuDeus,

> Transform orient is just great and look so simple to use,
> I cant wait to try it :)

Yeah, I'm really glad to have that area covered now, it was previously a pretty big missing thing.

It's kind of the culmination of some UI concepts that were prototyped for the View > CPlane command much earlier on in v2.


> Now I want a "components" library like in sketchup and
> been able to take them from the library and Transform orient
> them into place !

Someday I'd like to have that, but not for v2! :)

But you should actually be able to set up some libraries just by making your "component" to be in its own 3DM file positioned around the origin, aligned to the world z axis.

Then you can use the new "ImportPart" command (right-click on File > Import) to bring it in and place its orientation pretty much like a component.

The main part that is missing from that is that it won't be an actual "instance" that would get updated when you alter its definition. But as far as assembling things together from library building blocks, it should work pretty well for that type of thing.

Let me know if you want more details on how to set it up. But it's pretty straight forward...

- Michael

Nice features and fix ups there for this release Michael, MoI is maturing quite nicely, the new import and copy stuff are great assets.
Thanks, excellent work as usual!

Cheers
~Danny~

Thanks Danny!

So some chunks of that new orientation stuff come from that previous discussion where you had asked about using separate instances of MoI and cplanes as a way to do a kind of separate "part modeling" + assembly type approach. (back here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2599.17)

So hopefully this new feature set should enable that kind of workflow that you were asking about there, it would be great to hear how it works for that when you get a chance to try it!

But the other good part is that the toolset seems to be complete enough to enable other things as well, like making library "part" files to import and place onto objects, and just transforming objects within a single model.

It also should be integrated with cplanes in several aspects, like if you have a cplane set then it will become the base reference frame of the part when copied to the clipboard with a regular Ctrl+C, or if you copy with Ctrl+Shift+C to set the base origin point, the axis directions will still come from the current cplane. Let me know if there is any type of cplane integration that is missing.

I think as a set it should allow solving a variety of similar problems in a cohesive way, but I'm interested to hear how it feels to others in practice though...

- Michael

Here's the script copier utility for this new Dec-19-2009 beta release.

You can download and run this utility which will copy over any custom plug-in commands that you may have added in MoI v1 over to the new v2 beta's install folder.

It's just a shortcut for copying files from the v1 \commands sub-folder to the new \commands sub-folder.

- Michael

Amzing xmas gift =)

This is just perfect.

Thank you Michael and merry christmas.

Thank you Michael!

Happy Festivus as well!

-Dooki

Thank you Michael and Merry Christmas.

Thank you Michael and "Marry - Moi - Christmas" :)

Those are awesome features!!

Thanks again Michael for making this real and Happy Holidays!

Marc

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,

Thank you very much Mr Michael Gibson, happy to hear that.
Happy New Year for all !

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!

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

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

Hello again:

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

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°.



-

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]

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