Thanks for the tips I might have to update my tut at some point to reflect those changes.

I am having an issue with MOI either not being able to open 1 of my designs or it hangs at 50 percent of CPU usage and about 70,000k of memory usage. Weird because every other furniture piece I have imported comes through without a hitch.

Could you take a look at this file?

I can email it directly to you as its a confidential design and I cant post a link or image on a forum - thanks.

I have been trying several different settings to get this chair into MOI it either imports nothing at all or it hangs at 50 percent of CPU indefinitely. Changing my settings to trimmed surface type and nurbs surface I was able to import this model into MOI.
Even when I get this file inot MOI when I save as .LWO it uses like 1.4 gigs of memory while saving.

All other models import and export extremely fast - even on a an old Pentium 4 2.4 with a gig of ram.


This is the only model it happens to so far out of five - I will keep you updated and can send you the file to look at its under a MB.

Actually every IGES that contains the internal framing elements will not import, there are a bunch of areas that are 1/16" thick fabric stretched over the subframe or foam elements and maybe this is why they do not import well, I can open my IGES file back up in SW and its clean geometry just trying to clear this up.
I sent you the file attached to a PM.

Hi skateboardkid, I received the file and replied to you in PM - it looks like it may be some kind of bug in reading IGES entity 186. I'll need to ask the guy that makes the IGES translators that I use about it.

You can probably avoid it if you change your export settings in SolidWorks to use individual surfaces (which is somewhat more common for IGES), which would be something like entity type 144 or type 143, rather than entity 186.

- Michael

Hi skateboardkid, now that I read your message more carefully I see that you did already try using separate surfaces and that you got that big 1.4 Gig file when doing that.

That is due to a problem that MoI v1 has in dealing with an IGES file that has many solids in it instead of only 1 solid in it. MoI v1 gets confused when it tries to join all those surfaces into solids, it can mistakenly try to join pieces together that came from adjacent touching solids and that can make a big mess.

That is fixed in MoI v2 - in MoI v2 only surfaces that belong to the same "level" in the IGES file are attempted to be joined to one another.

For MoI v1 you are best off exporting only one part at a time instead of exporting multiple parts into one single IGES file.

It is also possible to turn off automatic joining on import, in MoI v2 it is a setting in the options dialog, but in MoI v1 it is in the moi.ini file only.

- Michael

I am still having some problems with the exported geometry - the are are some surfaces doubled up and most main fillets have flipped normals.


Maybe I can send you a couple more small files and you can send them back to me out of v2?


The geometry looks unbelievably good in the preview window and I would just love to resolve this issue without bugging you too much, I have tried adjusting nearly every setting in MOI and in the IGES export in SW. I am not going to run test until I am out of options tonight and then get back to you in the morning.

Hi skateboardkid, yes certainly send me some sample models if you can.

I've actually heard back from the guy who makes the IGES translators that I use and the problem with that one type 186 model that would not come in should be fixed for the next v2 beta. It was actually an error in the IGES structure that SolidWorks created for that one model with a void pocket in it.

> the are are some surfaces doubled up

If you're using v1 this can happen if you have multiple solids within a single file and those solids have overlapping or touching pieces.

To avoid it, there are a few options - the best is to use v2 where that is solved, or you can only export one solid per IGES file instead of putting multiple parts inside of a single IGES file, or you can turn off automatic joining which in v1 is an option inside of the moi.ini file that you have to edit with a text editor like notepad.

> and most main fillets have flipped normals.

That can end up happening if pieces did not join together into a complete solid.

In v2 you can tell if an object is a solid or not by the object type indicator that shows up in the upper right corner of the window that gives some information about the selected objects.

- Michael