If there are significant changes in future versions then maybe have several default menu/toolbar configurations.

Like the interface that opens when you first install and use MoI. That could be the 'default' or novice user tool set.

As you add more features or tools that do more advanced things you could add toggles in the options menus like:

Options ---> User Interface---> Default / Novice
---> Mechanical Design (more for solids & booleans)
---> Freeform Design (more geared around surfaces)
---> Assembly Tool set (snap tool set for putting multiple imported models together)
---> Drawing in a Flat World (2D only sketch tools for those that need to just brain storm and layout sketches)
---> I am Zeus (all tool bars on plus the ability for the user to cast lightning bolts)
---> Create Custom Layout

Obviously the layout could be changed on the fly such as after laying out a bunch of sketches in 'Drawing in a Flat World' mode you then know where u need to go so you enable one of the design menu options and then rotate sketches, extruding, sweeping, etc.

Currently the power of MoI is very high with a very simple and clean interface, little glitz (that sell the product but make user interaction too confusing). The simplicity of the interface cannot be lost or it will evolve into every other design tool (too complex). Right now MoI makes me feel like I am sitting down with a box of crayons. To the lay person the crayons with make a few simple pretty pictures, but the artist can make a master piece with the exact same box of crayons. Other CAD & modeling packages are dropping you in the middle of an Art Supply Store and telling you to just get what you need and yet you have never done any art in your life.

Coming from Solid Works from 1998 to 2008 I watched it evolve and get more and more complex to try to fill the needs of all the people. What truly occurs from what I see people do with 3D cad (and yes you can do sexy organic shapes) is that 95% of the people use 10% of the tools, yet the software creators put the other 90% of the tools in your face to satisfy 5% of the users. Even then most of the 90% tool set is sales/glitz garbage. Any SolidWorks users remember when the 'photorealistic' realtime rendering option first appeared, called photo real? Sales tool, very little use in designing other than to slow things down. Basic lighting and zebra stripes told you what your model was doing.

However, more tools are ok to add if the current easy to learn and use out of the box interface is maintained. It would be a shame to lose potential users that got a trial version and saw there was too much going on.

My soap box - keep it simple (unlike this message). Any new features and tools, have them be turned on via options.

mshideler

Hi mshideler, don't worry - keeping MoI's UI simple and clean is a big priority.

The UI is actually designed to be expandable already - in the future there will probably be a bunch of new toolbar sections on the right-hand side pane like "Dimension", "Render", "Analyze" , etc... but this should not add a whole lot of stuff right in your face since they will start out collapsed initially, so they'll just be some initially inactive tabs that look like this:



This kind of natural future expansion was one of the big priorities for the initial UI design, it's one reason why it took me quite a long time to do the design as well.

But despite that kind of expandability I still try very hard to incorporate more functions within the existing UI when possible, like making existing commands more powerful and stuff like that.

- Michael

you are the man, M. Gibson.

ciao!

mshideler

michael

i am very curious about this "render" new toolbar option. what does that mean?
is that perhaps some plug in rendering like sketchup has Podium for instance. i use that a lot
and i think it would be beneficial enormously for simple "white" models........i use that a lot.
if i may suggest that would be one on my wishlist. somebody also suggested more export import options
(without knowing how the program works inside and weather that is easy to make)...i guess architect like me would like
more flexibility in that respect......anyway.....i am in for v3 no matter what it brings.

regards

Hi mario,

> i am very curious about this "render" new toolbar
> option. what does that mean?

There is no render toolbar option yet - that was just an example describing how new functions will be added to the UI in the future.

At some point in the future I do expect to have some simple built in rendering in MoI but I'm not sure exactly when that will happen, the focus is generally more on modeling tools first before that.

- Michael

I agree with you Michael that moi should be focused mainly in modeling. It would be good, anyway if will be possible for someone to develop some sort of exporter, in order to better interface with the rendering software. Something similar to the exporter for Octane (a sort of Moi2Octane...).
I attach two screenshots from the max version, obviously some part is not applicable (animation, ...)but something else can.
I know that we can do the same via OBJ exporter, but it's better in this way. One problem here is that usually this rendering application need an already UVMapped geometry.







Regards
Luca

Hi Luca, in the future I would like to make it possible for 3rd parties to write exporter plug-ins and stuff like that. But unfortunately supporting other developers do custom development is a time consuming thing, so it's not something that I can easily do in the near term.

You wrote:

> I know that we can do the same via OBJ exporter, but it's better in this way.

But what specifically do you think would be better about some custom exporter instead of the already existing OBJ format exporter?

MoI is writing everything that it knows about (materials, vertex normals, uv mapping) to OBJ format already.

There is nothing that I am aware of that would be gained by exporting to a different format than OBJ, for MoI's particular case - just like you mentioned there is not anything like an animation setup or render settings that currently exist in MoI.

What is it that you think you would be gaining?


> One problem here is that usually this rendering application need
> an already UVMapped geometry.

Doing a custom exporter would not really have much to do with this - in the future I do want to enhance the already existing UV exporter to make separate UV islands for each surface in a model rather than having each surface mapped to the entire texture square.

- Michael

Hi Luca, also you wrote:

> I attach two screenshots from the max version, obviously
> some part is not applicable (animation, ...)but something
> else can.

The second screenshot that you are showing there is simply the Max dialog for OBJ export settings.

There are some similar settings you can set for MoI's OBJ export as well, under Options > Import/Export OBJ options. The option in MoI for "Orientation" is equivalent to the "Flip YZ axis" setting in your screenshot there, and there are also settings in MoI there that are equivalent of the scale factor that you show and also disabling writing material definitions.

There are also some other settings in MoI which you can edit in the moi.ini file for some other options, like the number of decimal places to use in the numeric formatting, and whether to disable writing texture coordinates. These are not shown directly in the options dialog because they are not particularly useful for typical use of the OBJ export.

So those various option actually do exist in MoI, but in general with MoI I try to avoid slamming these kinds of dialogs that are heavily populated with rarely used things right in your face on every single OBJ export...

- Michael

I understand that you already use all that can be written inside the OBJ.
One things for all can be the view (camera) position. Along with the resolution (at least with the right proportion).
Usually I prefer to choose this while modeling.

Micheal, don't get me wrong, moi already do what's needed for rendering, but when you can push a button and voila' ....
I'm becoming lazy with the age.

Anyway nothing essential, but have the possibility to write 3rd parties exporter plug-ins can open the door to enhancement in the workflow.

Hi Luca,

> Along with the resolution (at least with the right proportion).
> Usually I prefer to choose this while modeling.

How do you do this in MoI though - there is no setting within MoI for setting a particular screen resolution while you are modeling, it just depends on the size the viewport happens to be inside the window. That can change in various circumstances like if you maximize or resize the main window or maximize a particular view or switch to the split view...

- Michael

That's why I'm writing in the feature list for V3 ;-)
I'm thinking about something similar to 3ds max "show safe frame" feature.

Hi Luca I see - but that would be kind of weird to have some specific rendering oriented UI feature in MoI when it was not actually used for any purpose at all within MoI itself...

I mean probably something like "show safe frame" would not get implemented in MoI until there was some basic rendering included in MoI that would also make use of it.

- Michael

Variable filleting

Deformations

Wrap text around cylinder for engraving

Maybe some "hints" that pop up when an action fails (such as a fillet that fails). This could be turned off in preferences for the pros, but would a great asset for new users.

height reliefs wrapped around a curved solid surface

Thanks Michael,
Rudy

I am a new user learning MoI for jewelry production. If MoI could do surface treatments such as textures and reliefs it would be fantastic!

Hi sdwalker,

You're already able to get & use textures into MoI, here's a link for the Jewellery Forum I moderate at.
http://3dcadjewelry.com/forum/entry.php?22-Creating-My-Own-3DM-Texture-Files

HTH, Colin

Sorry we can't access at the link http://3dcadjewelry.com/forum/showthread.php?9944-FREE-Texture-File&p=132674&viewfull=1#post132674

Something i don't understand
This texture can be used for curvated surfaces in MOI ?

Hi Pilou,

Sorry, but you'll need to join that Forum to gain access to those files.


"This texture can be used for curvated surfaces in MOI ?"
No, not directly, for that I'm using Rhino4.

regards Colin

thx for the info ;)