Hi Michael,

I have another, probably irritating, question.
I use MoI to design projects for my CNC router. I create the drawings in Moi, and then I have to transfer them to a CAM program, either V-Carve Pro, Cut3D, or DeskProto. None of these programs accecpt the *.3dm format, so I have to save the drawing into another. These CAM programs accept the following formats:

*.stl, *.dxf and *.vrml for DeskProto and *.dxf, *.eps, *.ai and *.pdf for the Vectric products.

I have been using the *.ai format but with some problems. I just found out the *.ai doesn't support arcs! No wonder I've been having trouble getting good circles and curves cut. Anyway, I have actually two questions:

1) Right now it appears the *.dxf format is the best to use but, as you well know, MoI doesn't support it. What would to the best way that you can think of to translate *.3dm files into *.dxf?

2) Of the formats that MoI does support, which would be the best for handling circles and arcs as well as lines? Please tell me your choice for each product or product group.

3) (Oops, I gues it was more than two questions) Are you planning to make MoI support any of these other formats?

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark, so it sounds like DeskProto wants to import 3D polygon data, while the other group is importing 2D curve data.

MoI does already support the STL format, so you can use that format for going into DeskProto - just do a "Save As" and choose the STL format type from the file type dropdown box. You can also use the File > Export command - that command exports only the selected objects into the file so if you use that one make sure you have selected the objects you want to export.

For the 2D curve output, try using the converter program here:
http://moi3d.com/wiki/Resources#3dmCurves2DXF_converter

That 3dmCurves2DXF program is a small converter program that I wrote that can import a 3DM file and output any curves in it to a DXF file. That may work better for you than AI format.

Note that DXF files can contain a variety of different kinds of data - the ones made by this converter app will only contain curves, so that kind of DXF file will probably not go into DeskProto because DeskProto is looking for 3D polygon data in the DXF file and not 2D curve data like Vectric is. So that's one thing to keep in mind, that there are a variety of different kinds of things that can possibly be stored in DXF files, they don't contain just one single kind of data in them unlike some other formats.


Let me know if that works for you - I do plan on supporting a 2D DXF output directly from MoI in the future.

- Michael

Michael,

I've downloaded the "3dmcurves2dxf" program. Please pardon my ignorance but, can I assign this function to a keyboard shortcut?

Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark, that converter program is actually a completely separate program for MoI, it's not like some of those other scripts that run inside of MoI where you assign a keyboard shortcut to trigger it.

So to run this one you double-click it from the Windows Explorer to launch it, it just runs totally separate from MoI. It will then prompt you to pick a 3DM file to open and then ask you for a DXF file name to output.

- Michael

That's why I asked. I didn't know if you could run a completely separate program from within MoI.
Thanks,
Mark

Hi Mark, well I could probably cook up a script that would launch the program from a MoI shortcut, but since it is a totally separate program it does not have anything to do with MoI's selection or anything like that.

Do you want something like that, just a shortcut within MoI that will launch the external program?

Again though - once it is launched it is not running "inside MoI" - it's a separate application from MoI.

- Michael

No. Thanks anyway. I've put a shortcut for the conversion program into the quick-launch toolbar, and that puts it where I can get to it without having to close or minimize my MoI window. That's all I really wanted.
Mark