Just installed both MOI v1.0 and 2.0 beta. I'm running windows 7 64 bit. I can import an iges file for example, but I cannot "Save As" in any other polygon format. When I hit the save as option under File, I get the dialog asking me where to save and what format. When I fill those in and hit Save, the dialog disappears and no mesh export options appear. I check the destination file location, and no new file has been written. I can't export or save as 3ds, obj, or lwo in either program version of MOI. What gives? I found no forum article with this problem.
-Paul

Hi Paul, that's a new one on me - I have not heard of that particular problem before.

One thing though - if you are using moi version 1.0 on Windows 7, there is a problem with MoI 1.0 and Internet Explorer version 8 which comes by default on Win7.

So on Win7 you need to update the MoI 1.0 version to MoI 1.1, there is an updater available on the main web site download page that will do that:
http://moi3d.com/download.htm

But you may be running into some other problem since v2 is already updated to work with IE8.

Are you possibly running any kind of anti-virus or anti-spyware mechanisms on your system?

If so you may want to try disabling those and see if that has any effect.

Also if you have any kind of software that tries to hook into the system at a low level and do things like alter how windows are drawn or stuff like that, try disabling that.

- Michael

Also you might try doing a reset of IE settings as mentioned in this blog post:
http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/06/12/628499.aspx

Or also try the batch file posted here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3326.4

If something has gotten messed up in your Internet Explorer installation (like something mangled in the registry or whatever), that can have a bad effect on MoI's UI as well.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

I am running 1.1 and 2.0 beta. I open a 3dm file and select the object. Then I go to File/Save As/ and stick with the same file name, but change the type to LWO. I hit save and the box closes. No Meshing Options dialog opens. I check the folder destination and there no new file.
I'm running an anti virus program and I changed the exclusion settings to not monitor both MOI.exe files for the two versions. I restarted MOI but no change for file types OBJ, FBX, LWO or 3ds. I tried the other formats and I COULD save SAT, STP, IGES, STL, and SKP. The SKP save did activate the Mesh Option dialog. That's the only time I saw that box.

I purchased MOI primarily for its OBJ and LWO file conversion and meshing export options, and now that's the part I can't use. Any other ideas?

-Paul

Hi Paul, I think I see the problem - for some reason on your machine there the mechanism that automatically appends the file extension when you switch the file type is not working.

Try this - type in the full filename that you are trying to export to, including the ending 3 letter extension.

So for instance type in: part1.lwo and not just a plain: part1

Does that seem to solve the problem?

- Michael

Michael,
thanks for your help.
I reset Internet Explorer 8, then restarted MOI.
When I saved to LWO and OBJ formats, I first selected the file type drop down, then typed in the full name plus extension on the line above. Hitting save did not bring up the Mesh Options dialog, and the files were not saved.

If you were right about my machine not completing the file name extension, then I would have noticed it elsewhere in my apps. This is the only program of many that saves no file when you hit save.

-Paul

Hi Paul, can you e-mail me at moi@moi3d.com ?

I will send you back a special test version with some extra debugging stuff enabled in it which will let me know exactly what is being returned from the file open dialog.

MoI looks at the file extension of the returned filename to decide which file type to write, and from the symptoms that you describe it seems like that is what is going wrong for you.

One last thing you may try is to not touch the file type dropdown at all, and to only just type in the file name and file extension only, like type in : part1.lwo without actually changing anything in the dropdown.

There is a little bit of custom code that MoI uses for when you change the dropdown to update the filename, but maybe somehow some other software on your system is interacting with that in some unforseen way.

- Michael

Hi Paul, so I looked over your screenshots again and I think I see your problem - I didn't notice before but it looks like in your screenshot your geometry that was loaded consists entirely of curves and not any surfaces.

Is that correct?


If so then that's your actual problem - in order to write to a mesh file format like LWO or OBJ, you have to have surface data and not only wireframe curve data in the model.


One way you can test this is to try opening the attached sphere.3dm file and then do a Save As to LWO or OBJ formats - does that seem to work ok?

- Michael

That's why SKP format did work and bring up the mesh dialog box though - MoI does support writing curves to SKP format which it converts to polylines during the meshing process.

But for LWO or OBJ formats though you need to have surface data which will get converted into polygons, not just curve wireframe data.

So that actually fits more with what you are describing, sorry about going off on a tangent - I should have asked you for an example IGES file that you were having the problem with.

So if that's the case the problem though is that you need to get an IGES file that has surface data in it and not just wireframe curves.

- Michael

That solved the problem Michael. My object was converted from Solidworks to STL first, then imported to MOI. It came in without surfaces, probably lost during the first conversion. I didn't notice because modo, my main 3d app, often displays just in wire mesh view. I realize curves with out surfaces is a different situation. I was able to save out the Sphere you sent in all the formats with mesh options included.

Thanks, for sticking with me on this and seeing it through. This must be a good forum.
-Paul

Hi Paul, no problem, I'm glad we got to the bottom of it!

Sorry for leading you on a wild goose chase there for a bit.

- Michael

Hi Michael,
Here is a follow up question. Why are most of the files I load into MOI coming in as just curves and not surfaces? These files have surfaces in other programs, but come into MOI without them.

Paul

I am saving my surfaced files as igs and 3dm prior to import, but they are just curves when they open in MOI.

Hi Paul, could you maybe be a bit more specific? Like which other programs are seeing surfaces and not only curves?

Also can you send me an example file that I can look at? You can either post it here, or if you want to keep the file private, you can e-mail it to me at moi@moi3d.com .

An example file would definitely help me understand what's going on, otherwise it is hard to guess.

Maybe the surfaces have been marked as hidden objects in the IGES file, and you need to unhide them to see them in MoI.

Or with 3DM files, it's possible for some programs to store other kinds of things in the 3DM file that MoI does not read, like polygon mesh objects for example instead of NURBS objects, or block instances instead of regular objects...

- Michael

Hi Paul, thanks for sending me the file in e-mail.

So your problem is one of the last things I mentioned above - you don't have any NURBS surface data in that 3DM file, you only have polygon mesh objects.

Rhino supports several different kinds of data in 3DM files, things like NURBS, polygon meshes, dimensions & text, spotlights, etc… but MoI is focused only on NURBS modeling and will only read and write NURBS objects from a 3DM file and will not read in polygon mesh data that might be in the file.

But since you have the object as polygon mesh data already, it is actually ready to be imported directly into Modo without trying to bring it into MoI to convert it.


To bring the data into MoI you need to have the original CAD data, which will usually be in either an IGES or STEP file. That will contain the actual original NURBS spline surface data in it instead of a bunch of faceted polygons, and that spline data is what MoI is set up to be able to import.

MoI can _export_ to various mesh formats, at which time it will break the smooth spline surfaces down into polygonal facets to store as a polygon mesh, which you can then load into a polygon modeling program.

Typically you will want to do the mesh conversion in MoI instead of in the original CAD program itself, because MoI has a much better process for doing that part.


So you'll probably want to go back to whoever is sending you these files, and ask them to send you the original CAD data (preferably in both IGES and STEP formats) and not to send you only already triangulated polygon mesh data.

- Michael

Sounds like you should pop up a warning or error dialog, Michael when you try to export to a polygon format without there being any surface data available to mesh?

-Will

Hi Will, yeah that's on my "todo" list to put up an error message for this situation when there were only mesh objects in the file so that nothing was in the file that could be used by MoI.

I do kind of hate those "in your face" messages though, so I've been trying to think if there would be a better way to display these kinds of errors.

- Michael

Michael,

Can you "know that one is in it" and have some kind of "Reference object" import in? So like the scene browser would have an entry for "Non Editable Mesh object" or something with a "point" at it's bounds center (as opposed to an "Error")

Hi Burr,

> Can you "know that one is in it" and have some kind
> of "Reference object" import in?

Actually that does happen already - when opening a file that contains objects that MoI does not handle, they are actually stored in an internal table so that if you save back out again those objects can be written to the file instead of just lost. That's to try and enable "round tripping" of data in the 3DM file to help avoid data loss.

But there is no visual representation of them.


> So like the scene browser would have an entry for "Non
> Editable Mesh object" or something with a "point" at it's
> bounds center (as opposed to an "Error")

This would be quite a bit more work to make entries in the scene browser and visual representations of special non-editable objects.

I could certainly do that, but it's the age-old question - what other kinds of actual editing features would you like for me to sacrifice in order to spend time working on special stuff for non-editable "foreign" objects?

It's hard to justify spending much time on an area like this that does not really affect someone who is just modeling inside of MoI.

- Michael

Not really some kind of representation of the object, more like a "label" instead of an "Error". So since the objects exist and are being stored, and it really isnt an "error", just a label in the Scene browser that states "Stored mesh object" or something like that.

Anyway, it was just a thought.

Hi Burr, so normally in the Scene browser you can use the scene browser to select or hide or show things...

Would you expect for those operations to work on these special objects?

What about deleting them? It could be kind of frustrating if things showed up populating the scene browser but you had no way of actually doing the normal kinds of interactions with them.

I think that would likely open up a big can of worms with a lot of work trickling down from it.

- Michael