Michael

Have to tell you I love this program..I just upgraded to version 2. I have only been at 3d modelling for about a year and half on and off as a hobby. I bought a carvewright cnc a couple years ago and thats what got me into it. I was bound and determined how to make my own models/patterns so I tried just about every software out there...lol with zero 3d experience. My first purchase was zbrush...lol and man the learning curve was/is steep but also alot of fun. Intially, the only way you could import files into the carvewright software was thru a depth map image but the have since come out with an option to import stl files.

I tried artcam and aspire demo versions...very high priced (too high IMO) but I was not impressed for what you got versus what else is out there far as programs and the options they have with them. The sweeps and revolves in art/aspire blow compared to moi...you have way more control in moi. I know moi is not tailored to cnc but you sure have alot of the features the bigboys have at a fraction of the cost. Between Moi and Zbrush for me I have everything the big boys of cnc offer and way more for a fraction of the cost. I mean the sculpting features in those two programs are like a smooth brush an add brush a carve brush and a blur brush...zbrush the brushes are like well over 100 with an inf9inite amount of settings...the 2d drawing in MOI destroys the big boys for ease. Been telling people on the carvewright forum with Moi and sculptris who needs artcam or aspire.

http://forum.carvewright.com/showthread.php?16602-Moi3d/page3

I only wish you had more tutorials. I have been figuring alot off stuff out reading the forum..just wish you had more stuff like the sunburst and pod man videos..awsome program. You made it too easy for a beginner like me..thanks

JP

Hi JP, thanks, I'm really glad that you like MoI!

It was one of my big goals for MoI to try and make it more approachable for people without a lot of previous experience in 3D or CAD.

re: Tutorials - there is a collection of some links to various additional tutorials here:
http://moi3d.com/resources

and I just added a link to some nice new videos that Nigel made recently, where he covers view manipulation and construction lines, those are here:
http://www.c4dcafe.com/ipb/index.php?/files/category/44-moi-tutorials/

At some point I want to make some more tutorials myself as well, it's just hard to find time to do it.

re: ArtCAM - ArtCAM works in a pretty different way than MoI since it is focused just on that kind of 2.5 D type relief work. In some kinds of cases like if you're trying to do a kind of raised bubble type of shapes those can be easier with ArtCAM's method, but then other kinds of structured shapes can be easier with MoI's geometry construction tools, it kind of depends on the particular style that you're doing. But also like you mention ZBrush is also good at handling that kind of sculpted relief shapes too, so yeah if you can stick with it to get over the initial learning curve that could cover similar types of stuff as ArtCAM.

It is also possible to use MoI to create some of the base shapes, then export that to ZBrush for applying finer sculpted details. When you do that, you'll want to adjust some of the mesh settings, use "Divide larger than" to divide up the mesh into small evenly sized bits and if you're using OBJ format switch the Output: option to "Output: Quads & Triangles", for some examples see here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=804.26
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2833.5

There is also a free program called ZSurf which can generate that kind of bubbled surface as a CAD surface which can then be loaded into MoI, sometimes that can be useful, see here for some info:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=602.7
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2799.8
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2640.1

- Michael