Magic -

Can't save? You don't have a licensed copy?

Man - we need to take up a collection and buy you a copy in return for these mini-tutorials.

The container lid gave me an idea for creating a background to use with my jewelry.

Ed

Speak of the devil, Pilou! :-0

"Ixlrlxi" ("600V") and his strange retro cars is the reason why I'm here today!

I was looking for inspiration for a tee-shirt design that I was working on and needed pics of old cars - and I found one of his blogs.

He made 3D design look too easy, whipping these shiny cars up in SketchUp. And he told me he uses no plug-ins, just the native tools.

So I've spent the last two years trying my hand at many different trials of 3D design software.

I didn't get very far with 3Ds Max, and Rhino was too tricky at the time, with too much need for use of the command line.

SketchUp showed a lot of promise and a good community to offer solutions. It is still a worthy investment.

MoI however, has simply opened a huge door and I've realized that there is something satisfying about mechanical and product design that NURBS lends itself too.

So yes, that guy with the cars showed me that I can design in the third dimension.

Ed, the suggestion flatters me! :-)

I'm a long-time tee-shirt designer ::see:: http://k4icy.50webs.com/portfolio.htm
with a wife and five kids, so extra spending money is a very rare nicety.

Michael G. deserves every penny and more for this awesome app and his help. I've known guys in various fields to charge more than that alone just for half and hour of consultation and Michael graciously does that for free plus shows examples!

Not too many companies will let you practice as much as your heart desires with there stuff - Max wouldn't let me back on after 30 days, and all I could do was 'sigh'.

WH6DBS!

QSL & 73 WH6DBS, DE K4ICY... ;-)

@Magic
Yes russian guy works with rustic tools but with a terrific skill!
And renders are also very good!

For the fun you can see this plug that I have very solicitated to the Ruby guys guru ::)
Seems to me a cool thing for fill empty space with no periodic geomety ;)
http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?t=38152#p336983 Replace random Components
(you must sign up for see images)

Moi is the Sketchup of the Nurbs ;)
Michael gives to me also a cool method with Moi but of course not so simple that the SU plugins ;)

Ps Your site is cool and I see that you use :)

Also Russian women are not to be sniffed at. ;)

http://bride.ru

Rudl

Never did learn the Russian guy's name. For a while there, he would produce one car model every day! It was amazing.

I think I've played around with that plug-in before. Components let you change all instances of them later if you like, a good thing about SU.

Yes, I've been known to use a little CW (Morse). :-)

Thanks!

Hi Magic,
I have no equipment and have been out of it for awhile...I had never made any contact with only a handheld looking for tropospheric ducting. Maybe some day when my kids get older...

Burr

Hey Burr,
With your kids still young, it's the perfect time! ;-)
I'm the coordinator in my town for my club's yearly Field Day and the Boy Scouts Jamboree on the Air. Kid's eat that stuff up, as do their parents when they see their youngin's at the microphone.
But if you ever get the interest again, local clubs are the best way to get reacquainted. I know there are a few in your area, because I've made the long skip a couple of times to a few King Henry's!

"That would be neat to see."

Very short video which shows the essential difference in our methods:

Cool video Ambimind!

Cheers

WOW!

Thanks Ambimind! It amazing to discover new things about MoI (even ones that were there already).
First, (What?) Somewhere, I missed the fact that you could input commands in the data box below...
I might have read about, but you just have to see things in action to remember they're there sometimes.
Second, neat to know what you can do with the combination of using multiple profiles in a Loft along with history.
I've got to give that a try.


...And just discovered that the order of profile object selection is followed in the loft.

Hi Mike,

> First, (What?) Somewhere, I missed the fact that you could
> input commands in the data box below...

Yup, type tab first to put focus into that xyz control, and then it is possible to type in a command name and press Enter to run that command. Also if you type in the name of a named object there it will select it.

And of course if you're in a drawing command that is asking you for a point there is a variety of point input that you can enter there as well, see:
http://moi3d.com/2.0/docs/moi_command_reference1.htm#__XYZ%20/%20Distance%20/%20Angle


> ...And just discovered that the order of profile object
> selection is followed in the loft.

Yup, if you have selected the profiles by individual clicks on each profile, the order that you clicked on them will be taken as the order they are lofted between. If you do something else like window select them then MoI will try to figure out the order automatically - if they're on parallel planes it will sort them by distance along that plane normal.

- Michael

Now that was pretty easy!

Glad you found it useful guys.

Mike said : "It amazing to discover new things about MoI (even ones that were there already)"
I thought the same thing when, after reading your latest mini-tut, I discovered the 'Revolve by profile tool', which I had never even noticed - and is a huge time saver since it avoids duplicating and placing multiple profiles, when achieving the same effect with the Rail tool.

Regarding command input: I use it all the time with "rebuild" and "merge" - the former especially, because MOI still has a few hiccups when it comes to chamfering, lofting, blending compound-surfaces.
Rebuild, with "keep corners" disabled is also a great alternative to chamfering curves, although I wish point placement was more adaptive to reduce point counts and corners did not need constant fixing:

Today's tutorial shows you one use for the "ArrayGem" command:::

Also known as the "Fifth Wheel of the Array Toolset", it is not presented in the standard UI and needs to be activated from the command input or by keyboard assignment.
Guess what? - ArrayGem isn't a crazy extra that makes gem stones - IT CAN USE AND ARRAY ANY OBJECT!

Briefly described - it takes any selected object, and using a reference circle (usually at a base point of the object) arrays copies of it not only along any selection of curve paths, but also in orientation to an associated surface.
For more on ArrayGem, see MoI's documentation in the additional commands section.


How to model a common hair brush:

We'll be making a Network Mesh to get the plastic molded handle.
1) Create your side profile curves. One Freeform curve will work the best.


2) Go to a side view and manipulate the points to give the profiles a interesting lateral shape like an undulating curve, doing what stylish handles do...


Yes! - You can Network Mesh funky 3D curves...


3) Draw curves to define the perpendicular boundaries of the brush handle shape.


4) Rings are made laterally along the general path of the profile curves to define the shape through the network.
Note: The rings do not have to be near the ends, infact, they'll create a smoother start and end if they are set back some.


Use as many rings as you need to "emphasize" the shape along the length of the network mesh.
5) Fit the width and height of the rings to match the profile edges in all directions. They are hard to see from the ends, so guessing is fine - you can adjust them later with it's history ability.
Also: try to rotate and orient the facing direction of the rings to best suit the flow of the network shape - as you can see in the image. Note the angles of the ring's orientation...


6) Create the Network Mesh - adjust the shape and position of the profiles and rings to get the best shape - as network meshes average the profiles to each other.


7) Boolean Trim a hole in the handle for where a hook or loop strap would go.
Trim a circle through, then Fillet the edges.
- I could write a whole tutorial on how I got that hole to work... the stupid seam curve on the mesh didn't play nice with the Fillet. I had to do half a dozen go-arounds to make it work.


8) Make profiles for the rubber bristle pad base and Network Mesh them. Use the Top view for reference.


9) Make sure the bristle pad base "sinks" into the handle.


10) Trim the handle object from the bristle pad base object.


The resulting shape...


11) Draw a line or curve and Array Direction duplicate it to fill in the pad area.


12) Draw an inset curve to trim the pattern, so that it resides more on the inside of the pad and not too close to the edges.


13) Trim and delete the excess. Mirror Copy the pattern to the other side.
Also - I added a straight line down the middle of the pad (not shown here) to complete the arrangement.


14) Project the whole pattern to the base pad object face.
This will be used for the ArrayGem to follow...


15) Create a bristle, with a little ball on top using Revolve on a profile.


16) ArrayGem needs a reference circle (maybe other shapes will work - need to find out).
If there is one handy, copy and past it. Move it up a little also - this will essentially sink the bristle into the pad a little when you array it.


17) Input the command "ArrayGem" in the input box at the bottom of the screen or use a keyboard shortcut.
There are four objects that ArrayGem will ask for in two steps:
You'll first grab the [Object to be Arrayed] along with the [Orientation Reference Ring]
Then, you'll be prompted to select the [Path Curves] and the [Face for Orientation] (not necessarily called those things).
Note: The path curves must be oriented along the surface of the face. Use Projection...


Then After 18) Selecting the array distance, ArrayGem will magically make copies of your object and arrange them along the curves with the object oriented where the reference circle is rested on the surface.
Ehhh.... hmmm... Not what I wanted. Puzzled for only a few seconds, I figured it was the physical orientation of the reference ring on the object...


I flipped it across, or mirrored the circle on it's center axis...


AFTER FIVE MINUTES!!! Be patient, it takes some time to copy hundreds of your favorite objects along convoluted surfaces and paths...
You may need to change the Spacing variable...


Sweet!
Note: I have found that as the array moves along sharper curvatures, the distance seems to increase. You may have problems getting a nice arrangement around more curved surfaces.
This takes true trial and error.


Introducing the New MOI hair brush series!!! (oohs and ahhs) Comes in 22 Fabulous Colors!



Michael: Just another wish suggestion, think nothing of it, if it is too esoteric. Another Array option could be made to place a grid or diamond configured (offset) grid of objects on a surface, starting from a chosen middle point and with the ability not to place objects too close to each other, or to even space them out. For instance, I tried to create cylinders to cut holes on a curved surface for a speaker grill. It was a mess.
It would essentially "blanket" a larger object with evenly spaced smaller objects in an even pattern... You could put hair follicles on a head... weird, I know.
Just a thought off the top of my head... could be kept off the UI along with this array tool. ;-)

I've seen your example of the ArrayGem function in the commands instruction list all along... but for the life of me... I thought you really meant that it was some kind of funny "gem stone" making tool!
It should've been called "ArraySurface" or something - but I guess it really is a nice "Gem".

Woooow, these are really awesome tutorials!!! Thanks for doing all that extra effort!

I like the color scheme you use for MOI's interface a lot. That's cool! What settings did you change to archive that?

Cheers,
Chyman

Hi Mike, that's a really cool use of ArrayGem!

And yes, although ArrayGem was developed to help with placing gemstones on a surface you can use it to place any kind of object along a curve on a surface as well.

A couple of notes:


> ArrayGem needs a reference circle (maybe other shapes will
> work - need to find out).

No other shapes won't work - it definitely expects to have a circle included in your selection and it uses some pieces of the circle to control the placement - the origin of the circle will be mapped to the point on the surface (so placing your other objects relative to this allows you to control the "sink in" amount like you mentioned), and also the radius of the circle is taken as the item's size - the way spacing in array gem works is that the spacing you enter will be used as the distance between each circle. That's a different style of measurement than ArrayCurve - the spacing for array curve is taken between points and the distance measured as distance traveled along the curve.


> Ehhh.... hmmm... Not what I wanted. Puzzled for only a few seconds, I figured
> it was the physical orientation of the reference ring on the object...

So what happened there is that ArrayGem maps the upward normal of the circle to the positive direction surface normal on the surface. If your target surface is an open surface instead of a solid, it can easily be possible that the positive normal direction on it is not necessarily in the way that you want. Most commands in MoI are not sensitive to that, but ArrayGem is. You can use the Flip command to flip the surface in this case to make the surface's positive normal direction to be the other side.


> Michael: Just another wish suggestion, think nothing of it, if it is too esoteric.
> Another Array option could be made to place a grid or diamond configured
> (offset) grid of objects on a surface, starting from a chosen middle point and
> with the ability not to place objects too close to each other, or to even space
> them out.

Yeah I would like to try something like that in the future - unfortunately making a robust mechanism to do that is really quite difficult, especially something that would try to work on any kind of irregular surface that is not of uniform width throughout it.

With that kind of a thing it's not like you can just solve a simple equation and get the answer, you kind of have to make a mechanism that tries to make judgement calls on how to place things to pack them in well, and trying to give an algorithm judgment is a difficult thing to do.

If you need to do that kind of surface item arrangement, I think there are a couple of Rhino plug-ins that you could get to add on to Rhino to help with that particular task.

- Michael