A new v3 beta (version Nov-6-2012) is now available for download here: http://moi3d.com/beta.htm , also linked to from the download page on the main web site.

New stuff:


Mac version should now work fine with the latest OSX system updates 10.8.2 and 10.7.5 without needing any other settings adjusted.


New DXF file format support for import and export - focused on curve entities like lines, polylines, arcs, circles, splines. Should help with data transfer to and from various 2D CAD programs. When exporting you can choose to export either a 2D projected view which will flatten the curves by a view projection, or to export the 3D curve data. It's saved as an AutoCAD 2000 version DXF file.


Updated closed surface skinning to do periodic closed surfaces - fixes problems with closed fillets, blends, and sweeps where the generated surface was not smooth at its closing seam area. One recent one reported here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5376.1 which should now be smooth in the seam area where there was a crease happening previously.


Fixed a regression in the last geometry library update that was causing failures with analytic intersections between planes and cylinders and preventing some Booleans from working. Also fixed another regression that was messing up Inset as reported here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5508.1


New "Bounding box center" button for Transform > Move, Copy, Scale, and Scale1D commands. On the first prompt where you can pick the base point for these transform commands there is now a "Bounding box center" button you can push to use the center of the object's bounding box as the base point, to make it easier to move the object's center point to a specific location.


Update properties panel size readout - units calculator. Make the units label in the size: line of the properties panel to be clickable separately, when clicked it brings up a mini units calculator that allows displaying the size in different unit systems.
Requested on the forum here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5503.1
Demo here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5503.14
It's also now possible to have a script change which units will be used inside of the top-level size: line inside the properties panel, here's a keyboard shortcut that switches the display in that one area from the current unit system to inches or back again:
script: /* Set property panel units display */ var sp = moi.ui.sidePane; sp.g_PropPanelUnits = (sp.g_PropPanelUnits == 'Inches' ? '' : 'Inches'); sp.UpdatePropertiesPanel();


Relabeled the vertex normals options for LWO format to make one setting labeled as "Modo 601 / LightWave v10" style normals, since as of Modo 601 it uses the same style as LightWave v10 for importing LWO vertex normals.


Updated Extrude to point - when extruding a line segment to a point, make a trimmed plane for the triangular face generated rather than a surface with a singularity (collapsed edge) at the tip.


Updated tapered extrude - added a "flip" checkbox, requested on the forum here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5403.1


Updated tessellator to fix triangulation issues in certain circumstances to fix the meshing bug reported on the forum here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5365.4 also fixed a crash bug in the tessellator reported here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5515.1


Updated curve antialiasing - new option for using thinner style antialiasing in the display engine. Can be set in moi.ini under:
  [View]
  UseThinAntiAliasing=y
Or toggled by a keyboard shortcut with: script: /* Toggle thin anti-aliasing */ moi.view.useThinAntiAliasing = !moi.view.useThinAntiAliasing;
Was requested on the forum here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5370.1


New project to cplane drawing aid - Implement new drawing aid mode which can be used to project all snap points onto the construction plane, by using the following scripts on a shortcut key:
  script: /* Toggle projecting snaps to CPlane in ortho views */ moi.drawingAids.projectToCPlaneOrtho = !moi.drawingAids.projectToCPlaneOrtho;
  script: /* Toggle projecting snaps to CPlane in ortho and 3D views */ moi.drawingAids.projectToCPlaneAll = !moi.drawingAids.projectToCPlaneAll;
Requested in forum here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5371.1


Updated Network surfacing command - fixed bug where the new fitting options from the previous beta did not get applied to 3 or 4-sided networks since those were handled by a special case Coons patch method instead. Now 3 or 4 sided networks will generate a regular Network surface with the same option in effect, and there is a new "Exact" option which shows up for 3 or 4 sided networks which will make a Coons patch with no refitting of the input curves.


Fixed a bug where the main window did not store its size properly if the window was closed while it was minimized, when closing it by right-clicking on the Windows task bar.


Fixed a bug importing spheres and surfaces of revolution from Rhino when certain additional rotation properties were set on them, fixes a bug reported on the forum here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5389.1


Updated ArrayGem - allow point objects to also be selected as target objects for creating copies instead of only path curves.


Some scripting fixes - fix problem in function signature for moi.vectorMath.createFrame() that caused different behavior when arguments were left out between Windows and Mac, disabled script timeout that would abruptly cancel scripts that ran a tight loop for too long, fixed problem where pasting a script fragment into the xyz coordinate box would evaluate it twice, and make factory.getCreatedObjects() work with async factories by waiting for the async factory to finish its work before returning back to the script with the generated objects.


Updated installer - put full version name on the "MoI" program shortcut so that multiple versions will be more distinctly labeled when they show up in the MRU area of the Start menu. Fixes the problem reported here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5405.9


Various other minor fixes.


EDIT: Originally this was a Nov-5 version, but that had a bug where all of STEP, SAT, and IGES import/export was crashing, I've updated it to a new Nov-6 release with that bug fixed now.


- Michael

Thanks Michael!

- Rich

Cool news :)
French UI done ;)
See PM :)

Thanks Michael, we are grateful for your efforts!


I, in particular would like to play with the Filleting fix.

And you have a "thinner anti-aliasing" on curves?

I'm curious to see if this looks better than how I've been running MoI with the Line Width set to ".1", which seems to make the lines a little thinner.

Mike

I've already used the mini calculator and the .dxf import feature... Yippeeee!!! ...and will be playing with the other stuff soon.

It looks like MoI isn't recognising the units setting in some imported dxf's from other programs, and so is switching to the No unit system - could that be adjusted at some time? Sample attached.

Great update, as usual - thanks, Michael!


Cheers.

Martin (2)

I'm going to have to make a decision on which kind of line type to use now. ;-)

Personally, I switch between lighting modes on a whim - maybe I'll do the same with the lines.



Here is an example of what can be done with the Line Width and Line Anti-Aliasing settings.


The "0.1" may not do anything except bring MoI's line width to its minimal.
You can also make the line as thick as you want. For instance, when you use MoI's screen capture script, when the thickness is set to something like "4" and the image is exported at four times your screen size - when reduced in a photo-editing program the final UI image is extremely clean.

Believe it or not, it is possible, in theory. to anti-alias a very thin line until it looks 'virtually' smooth and photo-realistic, but you loose opacity in the bargain as the line blurs into the surroundings.
So - it's wonderful that MoI gives us many options to choose from!

Thanks Michael, I like this option. I think it will come in very handy when I have to work with surface-heavy models.

Yes, thanks for this, Michael!

Thanks Michael G.! Just downloaded it and can't wait to test fly!

Michael T.

Thanks a lot, especially for the scripting improvements.

Hi Michael G. I am getting crashes when trying to open or import .sat file with this beta. Sept. works fine. Attached is the error report.

Thanks,

Michael T.

Cool... Thanks..

Will announce this on my site as well..


Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)

"""""""""I am getting crashes when trying to open or import .sat file with this beta."""""""""""

Confirmed here too. I wont send the report unless asked for it....

Hi Michael T, and Burr yeah it looks like all of STEP, SAT and IGES is busted, as an unintended side effect from the periodic surface update. It should not be difficult to fix and I'll roll out a new release today.

Thanks for the report.

- Michael

Thanks Michael G. The DXF export works well!

Michael T.

Hi Michael T and Burr, I've rolled out a new Nov-6 version which should now fix up the SAT/IGES/STEP format crashes, you can get it from here: http://moi3d.com/beta.htm.

- Michael

Hi Martin, thanks for posting the DXF file.

> It looks like MoI isn't recognising the units setting in some imported dxf's from other programs,
> and so is switching to the No unit system - could that be adjusted at some time? Sample
> attached.

This is unfortunately a problem with DXF format in general - Autodesk in their wisdom did not see fit to make an official mechanism in DXF to label what units all the coordinates in the file are using.

There is a "kind of" way to label them, which is a particular AutoCAD variable called "$INSUNITS", which controls what unit system to convert into when inserting blocks from other files. That's the closest thing to any unit system setting in the file, and MoI will look for that variable if it's declared in the header section of the DXF file and use it as the unit system if it's present.

But that's somewhat obscure and many programs just don't write any header section at all in the DXF file, the file you posted is one of those with no header section and so no $INSUNITS variable set, and so nothing in it marking any kind of units at all.

I tested your same file with both Rhino and ViaCAD and ran into the same problem in each of those as well - in each of those other programs if I say set units to inches and then import the file you posted, each of those programs just interprets the coordinates in the file as in inches.

What program are you using to generate this DXF file in the first place, is there possibly any option to enable setting $INSUNITS to be output into the file? If so then that would help make units come across into MoI and also Rhino too.

What happens in the same program that you're using if you set units to inches and then try to import or merge the contents of your file back in again, does it know the units of its own generated DXF file in that case? I would think that you'd see the same problem there.

As far as I know the only real option that I would have for a file with no $INSUNITS set like the one you posted is to pop up a dialog box that asks you what units the file are in, right now it just uses "No unit system" when there are no $INSUNITS present.

- Michael

Thanks Michael G. So far so good. SAT and STEP look okay. Will try IGES next.

Thanks again Michael G for such an incredible tool!

Michael T.

"""""""I've rolled out a new Nov-6 version which should now fix up the SAT/IGES/STEP format crashes"""""""""""

Fixed......

Hi Michael T,

> Thanks Michael G. The DXF export works well!

Great! I hope that will be useful, this should totally replace needing to use that other separate 3DM to DXF converter. Also this new version does a better job, doing things like converting lines, circles, and arcs into those kinds of simple object types in the generated DXF file.

There are also a couple of additional settings available in moi.ini for controlling the DXF output, under the [DXF Export] section:

[DXF Export]
UseSimpleEntities=y
NumDecimalPlaces=12


If you set UseSimpleEntities=n it will turn off exporting lines, arcs, and circles as those simple object types and instead export them all as spline object types (or polylines if you have set to export curves as polylines in the export dialog).

NumDecimalPlaces= sets the number of decimal places to use for storing numbers as text in the DXF file. The default of 12 is already quite a lot of precision, but you could bump that up to something like 16 places if you want, it will also make a larger file size as well though.

- Michael

Michael.

I fear I might have had you on a wild goose chase there.

I'm 100% sure that file originated in ViaCAD. However, I do (now) remember taking it into Ucancam (a CAM program) and working with it there. I must have re-exported and lost the Unit information from within Ucancam because dxf exports from ViaCAD seem to come into MoI with their Unit details intact - so this is definitely my mistake and not an error made by MoI.

Sorry for putting you to unnecessary extra work, I'll try to pay more attention to what I'm doing in the future.

Thanks for your reply - enjoying the latest features :-)

Martin (2).