Hi there, I'm new to MoI and since I'm comming from classic CAD I was looking for freely definable construction planes immediately.
It seems however there are none (as yet)...with the exception ofcourse of the possibility of drawing in front and side view.
Since someone in an interview about MoI asked, if MoI was going to be a kind of "nurbs-sketchup" I'm wondering,
if it was possible to make the definition of construction planes as easy as in sketchup? Just move your cursor over
a face and it would line up instantly. There's not much else that I would miss then. This is going to become a very precious
application when it comes to product-design and the like (it already is!). This is pure fun - thanks a lot michael
maximum respect klaus middendorf/germany

Hi Klaus, I'm glad you like it!

I do want to add some construction-plane tools into MoI, but I have postponed this until a future release after V1.

It might help me if I understood more of the reason why this was something you were looking for immediately - is it so you could draw on a vertical/elevation plane while still inside of the 3D view?

Re: select object to set construction plane - this will definitely be a part of the construction plane tools when they become available later on.

- Michael

hello michael- I'm amazed! Your reply comes lightning fast :) ...concerning thoose construction planes I have to say that I'm very pleased by the sketchup-peoples approach.
I guess you have played around with sketchup a bit - did'nd you? Well - it obviously is that combination of real construction lines and the 'auto-aligning' feature which is mainly responsible for
being able to work so incredibly fast with sketchup. Lets assume a simple example: You build a cube and apply some fairly big champfers to it, resulting in almost evenly shaped planes
all over the object. What if I wanted to draw on one of the champfered sides directly...? I would zoom to it and would then like to align my construction plane with that champfered side of
the object to be able to construct/draw on it ...then extruding the detail vor example. May be I missed it as yet because I just found MoI, but that would be an 'aligning/rotating-job' for the time being.
Am I wrong? To my 'newcomer'-knowledge :) I would have to construct in any orthogonal view and then 'rotate' or 'align' the sketch into the desired plane - right? That's what I was talking about
In CAD-Systems you would immediately define your construction plane either by just clicking a face or selecting 3 points or two edges and 'voila' you would be able to draw onto that
face/plane. Probably I did'nd take time enough to study the forum hints or the instructions ? :) I'm sure there is a nice workaround or I just did'nd find the right hotkeys as yet.
Anyway I appreciate your prompt answer and I will go on playing around and focus on MoI...By the way - I'm working with wacom tablets since almost ten years now and I like the idea of a piece of software that aimes at people like me too. The MoI-UI even tops the rhino UI...rhino being my main application.

later klaus

> I guess you have played around with sketchup a bit - did'nd you?

Yes, certainly!


> Well - it obviously is that combination of real construction lines and the 'auto-aligning'
> feature which is mainly responsible for being able to work so incredibly fast with sketchup.

Yes, these are definitely really great for doing boxy type architectural shapes. But they don't really do anything for you if your object has curved surfaces instead of a lot of planes.


> What if I wanted to draw on one of the champfered sides directly...?

Certainly in this case a construction plane is very helpful!

Do you often create models where you want to draw on the chamfers of a box, though?

This just doesn't seem to come up really too frequently, that's why I have postponed this for a little while. Not because I don't think it is useful - there certainly are several circumstances where it is useful, it is just an area of somewhat less frequent use, and less frequently used features are more possible to postpone for a while. Postponing things helps me finish a version 1.0 ! :)


> May be I missed it as yet because I just found MoI, but that would be an 'aligning/rotating-job'
> for the time being. Am I wrong? To my 'newcomer'-knowledge :)

Nope, you're not wrong, it is true that it would require aligning and rotating right now.


> :) I'm sure there is a nice workaround or I just did'nd find the right hotkeys as yet.

Well, the workaround is to just rotate such a piece into place! :)

If you only need to rotate a few pieces around it is not really a terrible problem... If you need to do a whole lot of these kinds of things then probably Rhino will work a lot better for you until MoI gets the cplane support in.


> The MoI-UI even tops the rhino UI...

Thanks, I'm glad you like the UI! Part of the reason the UI works well is that I'm kind of slowly adding things in, so I find good spots for things (and ways of combining multiple things into one tool) instead of just jamming too much in really quickly. That's another reason why some things are missing such as construction planes, but they will come in time!

- Michael

Maybe not camfered sides, but being able to draw on a plane/surface would be very useful.

There is all sorts of paneling/line detail/geegaws/greebles that I'd like to do that are somewhat tricky with MOI as it stands.

This model was done in Rhino by John Bear Ross, and is a tank for the CAV miniatures game.
http://www.hellionproductions.com/wolverine1.jpg

This would be killer for raised panels, quick insets, etc.

Yup, it will get there eventually.

There are just some more simple things to finish up first before getting to this.

- Michael