Fabien Franzen has been doing some workshops to introduce working artists and students to using MoI and 3D printing, and he's made the overview PDF available. It's a handy overview to general concepts and terminology especially for users who are just starting out with MoI.

It's available for download here: http://moi3d.com/download/Moi3d-Overview.pdf and I've also added a link for it to the Tutorials section of the wiki.

Thanks very much Fabien for doing these workshops and for making the PDF available!

- Michael

Nice.......

Thanks for the introduction, Michael! Perhaps I should introduce myself some more here.

I'm a designer living and working in Belgium. I've been using MoI since 2008 for almost all my design work, from exploration to final models suitable for prototyping and CNC machining. Since then it has been my favorite tool in my toolbox of 2D and 3D applications that I've come across in the last 15 years or so. It seems to fit my workflow perfectly, and I rarely use other modeling tools nowadays. I even find myself doing 2D vector drawing in it from time to time when Illustrator just doesn't cut it.

One of the more notable 3D modeling (and NURBS/hybrid) apps for me was Amapi, which I've also enjoyed using from version 2 all the way to 7.5. In between I've used numerous packages (anyone remember RayDream? Pixels 3D?), some of which share the same fate that Amapi faced, unfortunately. Somehow I felt right at home in MoI - I guess it shows that carefully rethinking the UI from the ground up can turn out really well after all. Tools and palettes should get out of the way as much as possible, and to this regard I think there's some similarities between MoI and Amapi's original (sometimes called quirky) UI concepts.

As a longtime Mac user, my options in 3D modeling applications have traditionally been somewhat more limited. I think it's a major deal that MoI is available on my platform of choice now - and like the Mac, one of the best and definitely most approachable all around :-) I haven't touched Parallels ever since!

Anyway, here are two blogposts covering some of the MoI-centered workshops I did:

http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/jewelry-design-workshop-too-many-applicants-great-fun-wonderful-results

http://i.materialise.com/blog/entry/a-creative-journey-by-the-students-of-sint-lukas-antwerp

Both courses had an emphasis on 3D printing, and all of the participants' models were printed at the end of the course - making it a very rewarding experience for all. It was a great opportunity to see MoI's potential in the hands of novice users. None of the participants had any previous 3D software knowledge, yet were able to achieve impressive results - with a little bit of help - in a matter of (2 to 3 subsequent) days. The fact that each of them were able to express their own individual ideas and 'design signature' says a lot, I think.

If time allows I will try to be a bit more active on the forum, but meanwhile I thought it might be helpful to release the PDF documentation I designed. It's an overview of the most relevant tools and techniques, to help new users quickly identify how they relate to what they're trying to create. Or how to translate traditional prototyping and sketching skills into digital models - and vice versa. I believe both are still relevant, even in the 3D-printing era we seem to be living in; I really like how the real-world wireframe models contrast with the MoI screenshots hanging on the wall (Antwerp blogpost) … it's a perfect synergy I think.

/ Fabien

Hi Fabien, those workshops look so cool and fun too!

It's just so awesome for the participants to come in without any prior 3D experience and leave with physical 3D printed results - kind of magical...

Thanks very much for putting on those workshops and for making your PDF available as well!

- Michael

Cool!

Does the PDf exist only in English ?
I did't know that Belgian speak only that language! ;)

Thank you very much, Fabien!

I applaud your enthusiastic sharing and mentoring of this good program to many others.


Finally! The "quick reference" guide to MoI. :-)

It's visual-reference approach makes this the perfect primer.
I know that many learning MoI will benefit immensely from it.

Tried out "trim solid with curve:"

"""""""""" In between I've used numerous packages (anyone remember RayDream?""""""""""

I think 3 was my first version (was there a 3? that was long ago!) It's what got me excited about 3d!

Very cool pdf, and practice you have. What you just stated is a perfect verification of Michaels achievment of his intent.

Right on Michael.... Very good vision!

> anyone remember RayDream?

Why yes I do! My boss bought one called "RayDream Studio" in '95 (?) and tried to learn for a few years.
I tried very much to figure it out and I could do basic object creation.
It had it's own very slow shader/render and I remember I could create shapes with Bezier curves.

Wow, brings back memories!

Made this in '99, has a light in it and shaders. Not bad for one of my first dink-ular 3D creations.

But in other respects, for me, it was cumbersome and tricky to use. And you had to buy plug-ins to make it do extra features like boolean.
Franky, I think it put me off of 3D design until I found SketchUP a decade later.

Wow, that its a name i didn't see for quite sometime.

I use to own that software.

I'm old.

That's really nice Michael...

I've posted this on my site as well. ;-)

http://www.c4dlounge.eu/forum/showthread.php?p=34352#post34352

Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)

Thanks for the kind words. I'm happy you guys find my PDF useful! On a related note, I want to thank you all as well, for being such a helpful community for newcomers and experts alike. There's so much valuable information on this forum!

I sometimes get nostalgic about some of the programs of the past, now long gone and nowhere to be found… which is a shame… so many good memories lost forever…

/ Fabien

Fabien, if you don't mind, I'd like to include your guide on my tutorial site as well.

I printed a copy for my 16 yr old whom has been designing guns in SketchUp... I gave him an evil eye and tossed the guide down in front of him and said "here, start learning MoI, you'll thank me." ;-)

Mike

Splendid documentation. Very professional and slick. I would like to hear more about the STL/3D Printing side of the whole thing.

Jean-Paul Binot
(Fellow Belgian in exile)

"" I would like to hear more about the STL/3D Printing side of the whole thing.

There are a couple of good files floating around, most notably:
- www.design.upenn.edu/files/preparing-3D-print-files.pdf
- http://crit.artic.edu/aoc/pdfs/aoc_rpprep.pdf

Hi Magic Mike, feel free to link to the PDF (hosted at moi3d.com) from your site. I really like the in-depth tutorials you made! I'm curious how your son is coping with MoI and the guide itself, too!

Thanks, Jean-Paul! Nice to see some more Belgians around! Regarding STL/3D printing, there's not much to add that cannot be found in the PDF guide I guess.

I'm happy to report that MoI produces STL files of exceptional quality, and I have yet to come across any issues with these files when working with 3D printing. However, some constraints (min. wall thickness, multiple 'shells' and so on) apply, depending on the kind of technology or service provider. Let me know if you have more specific questions.

/ Fabien

I'm only a newbie to MoI and 3D printing. :)

But I am finding I have less problems if I export to STL and check for "holes" in meshlabs has I create the model.
i.e after using merge to cut a solid in half, I will export to STL and test in meshlabs for holes. I have found a few times that MoI will report a object has solid but meshlabs will report a hole, most often along a edge where the solid was cut. I also find exporting to STL and testing for holes helps when trying to figure out why a bunch of surfaces will not join into a solid.


Cheers, steve

Hi Steve,

> I have found a few times that MoI will report a object has solid but
> meshlabs will report a hole, most often along a edge where the solid
> was cut.

That could be a bug - if you run into that situation again can you please send the model to me so I could test with it?

There are some situations though where you can possibly have mangled geometry like self-intersecting surfaces (surfaces that fold back over top of themselves) and things similar to that which can still read as an object type of "solid" but not be suitable for 3D printing with that kind of geometry.

I think you posted one a while back where it was a trimming boundary that had gotten mangled somehow? The tricky thing with that is that the bug is in the thing that actually produced the mangled geometry, not in the STL export itself. The STL exporter needs to have well formed geometry (no self intersections, no curly-cues or doubling back on trim boundaries, etc...) in order to produce a proper STL result.


> I also find exporting to STL and testing for holes helps when trying to figure
> out why a bunch of surfaces will not join into a solid.

The "Select naked edges" script which you can assign to a shortcut key can be useful for finding that out while staying inside of MoI.

Set up a new shortcut key (I use the N key myself for this), and for the command part of the shortcut key paste in the script shown here: http://kyticka.webzdarma.cz/3d/moi/#SelectNaked

Then when you push N any edges that are not joined to other edges will become selected so you can then see where you've got holes.

- Michael

Hi steve

The better / cleaner your models are the easier they are to output.

A couple of quick tips (ignore if you know this already or it is too far back to basics)

When you select an object it will say up the top right hand corner (solid) which is usually pretty good
If it changes to a "joined surface" at any point I start looking for reasons and backing up.

To get clean results you will find that when cutting solids (boolean difference) either with another solid or a surface it pays to have some overlap where the cutting object goes beyond the outside surface of the solid.
If the cutting object is flush with the surface it often leaves a messy surface or the solid becomes a joined surface which will not print.

If you find when joining 2 solids (union) and you see they go from 2 or 3 solids to a joined surface you can back up (ctrl Z) and either move 1 solid slightly or scale it slightly (even .5% can be enough) and try the union again, often this will work.

Also I find that rather then join 20 solids at once, select 2 or 3 at a time which will often union then add the next ones, then next etc untill done.

If you use booleen difference rather than chamfer to angle an area or shape a surface you can control the result more

For example with the following bezel



If you camfer the inside edges you get



whereas using a cutting solid that goes beyond the surface (made by rail revolving an angled line to form the cutting solid)



As you can see you get a much cleaner inside chamfer.



Some of this stuff can take months of trial an error to figure out

But when it all goes wrong and will take hours to backtrack or redesign and you find some bad edges or faces that are just too difficult and time consuming to find or fix (I know purists will cringe)

there is a great service on line that you can upload your stl model to for repair, then download it back

http://cloud.netfabb.com/index.php

I use a program called minimagics 2.0 to check my models if it gives you the OK you can guarantee it will print.
Which comes from Materialise who is the company featured at the top of this post by fabien

cheers
shayne

Yeah I (as a nurbs modeler) do learn every day. There are so many possible solution to come to an end result with Moi.
It is trial and error... :-) but a lot of fun.

Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)