Hi all,

How to make co-planar within MoI ?
(ie : to align some planar surfaces on the same plan)

And is there a way to automatize the planar alignment process, for instance :
1) choose the planar surfaces to align,
2) then chose the plan where to align the previous selected planar surfaces,
3) then clic somewhere or do a key and... "Voilà !" ?

I cross my fingers waiting your answers O:-)

Cheers,
Guy

Use the 'Orient' tool in the 'Transform' menu. Just a couple of clicks... will even make copies. ;-)

Hi Guy, it might help if you showed an example, there are different kinds of coplanarity like are you trying to take 2 objects that are on parallel planes but different levels and you want to align those? For that there's Transform > Align.

If you want to take some planar curves and relocate them onto the side of a building or something like that, then the Transform > Orient tool that Mike mentions can be good for that, there is some more info on that here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3977.2

Also if you have some curves that are slightly non-planar and you want to make them all planar, using "flat snap" from a side view can work well for that kind of case:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3378.4

- Michael

Hello,

A lot of thanks Mike and Michael,
it seems to be all what I needed (both Orient and Align) and I'll go to work on this ASAP...
[later]
... Well, alignment and orient tools works well for me :-)

But Michael, I thought one little thing I need and I guess many others need too, I try to explain here :
Even if I understand an unfold complete surface function could be very hard and time consuming to make within MoI as an automatic tool,
it seems to be there already within MoI each tool needed to do a good job.

1) export tools transforming nurbs to choosen mesh already exist
2) alignment tools already exist

So... Could you make an "unfold" script (or a MoI tool) which transform a NURBS surface in meshes (with the same choices as export mesh tools to let try and choose the kind of meshes needed) then allow to align them ?

The process could be for instance to choose one planar surface as reference in space, then to select some adjacent meshes to unfold and space align them with this first chosen reference.
Could you do that within MoI please ?

Or maybe a simpler solution like to transform a selected NURBS surface to chosen Meshes, then clic on a mesh, then clic on an adjacent one to align the first with, then clic an other to align both the previous and so on,
like with this unfold plug-in for SU you can see there :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&list=PLB75058881A0F5D4A&v=gcnyFolpVBg#t=111s

What do you think about ?

Best Regards,
Guy

Hi Guy, sorry no - an unfolding mechanism is much more complex than what you're describing, it's way more work than can be done in a simple script, it would take a considerable amount of time for me to develop it so I do not expect to have that anytime soon.

There are various other already existing tools you can use for unfolding though, you will need to use one of them in combination with MoI to get that kind of a job done.

It looks like you already are familiar with one for SketchUp, you might also want to check out Lamina Design, check out these previous threads for some links to some software that can help you do that:
http://moi3d.com/forum/messages.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5550.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/messages.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5463.1
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=3042.8


Right now MoI is not set up to manipulate mesh objects during modeling time, only for export, so what you are asking for would involve adding quite a lot of mesh processing code into the modeling environment of MoI, making it a considerable job.

I think Form-Z also has some tools for polygon unfolding as well if I remember right, you might also look there.

Things that involve processing polygon mesh data are basically outside of the scope of what MoI is designed to work with - MoI can generate polygon mesh data for export to a polygon mesh handling program but if you need specific functions to process the mesh data like for rendering or in your particular case unfolding that is something that you'll need to use a program that is focused on processing polygon mesh data to handle for you.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

The first link you gave pointed to my own discussion with my actual I/O SU Unfold tool solution O:-)
Unfortunately this works not very well because it is not precise enough for what I have to do : aligned meshes in SU with the Unfold Tool (or the 2 other SU unfold plug-ins) are not exactly matching the same plan. This could work for many folks as it is just few parts of millimeter only, but enough to ruin my aim.

But of course if it is too much coding work I understand you don't want to do what I suggested.

Yes, as you tell it Form-Z seems to do the unfolding job.

As I understand your words, MoI will never deal with meshes nor any unfolding process, so for this use I will investigate further in 3D modelers world to find my needed tools.

-- EDITION -

Well, in fact the best fit for my needs is a combination of MoI with SU as the work flow I have reported already :

1 modeling within MoI
2 exporting in SKP (meshes) file format
3 using "Unfold Tool" SU plug-in to unfold the surfaces needed for the plan
4 Exporting DXF with "Export DXF/STL" SU plug-in
5 opening this DXF within MoI to clean and make a cool planar drawing well fitted.

Best Regards,
Guy

Hi Guy,

> As I understand your words, MoI will never deal with meshes nor any unfolding process, so
> for this use I will investigate further in 3D modelers world to find my needed tools.

Yes, that's correct. ... Well, I'm not sure about "never" but at least not for quite some time. Functions that involve editing or processing polygon mesh data (other than for export) are not currently a focus for MoI, MoI is focused on working with NURBS data.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Yes, understood, but "workarounding" please read my edited message above ;-)

My best,
Guy

Hi Guy, that's great that you have a sequence that will work for you!

- Michael