So I saw these:

http://www.luxology.com/store/CAD_Loaders_for_modo/

Do these make any more sense than just using the OBJ or LWO export/import pipeline? I'm thinking that if Modo can read a CAD format that MoI can export directly, that would be ideal.

But, for $700 I'd like to be sure. Anyone have any input on that?

Hi Warren, there is some previous discussion here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4978.35

- Michael

And also here too: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5172.6

- Michael

Oh fantastic, thanks!

We have both MOI and the cad loader, Personally i would say that you have everything you need with MOI. I find the plugin cumbersome especially with a file with many objects: and CAD files can sometimes with thousands!
matt

Thanks Matt! Yeah, after reading about it it doesn't sound it would gain me anything over the OBJ export/import pipeline and for $700 ... seems not worth it.

Hi Warren, for Modo usually I'd recommend using LWO format, it's closest to how Modo has its own internal data structured. Modo's OBJ importer used to be a little problematic in older versions, but it's been improved a lot in the past couple of releases so I guess it's probably ok to use now too though. But most people use LWO format for going into Modo.

- Michael

OK, I'll look into it. I wish it had an easy scaling field like you have for OBJ. I work in Game Units in Modo so I need to set the OBJ exporter to export at 0.01 scale ... but for LWO I need to take some time to figure out which option will work. Meters, feet, inches, or whatever.

BTW, I used MoI to make my first real piece for a mesh I was working on at work today (a lock for a chest). So, I'm in! This thing is great... :) It would have taken at least 5 times as long to generate that mesh via subd techniques.

Hi Warren, yeah for the right project there can be a huge difference in speed. Particularly anything that has holes drilled into it can be really quite painful in subd but a snap in NURBS.

You should get a feel pretty quickly for which types of models will work the best... it's usually things that have a lot of their shape driven by 2D profile curves that are the best fit. A lot of man made objects fall into this area.

For organic shapes or things that have little localized folds and small bumpy details and things like that (like creature bodies or faces or things like that), then those are where you want to stick with sub-d.

I'll see about adding in a specific scaling factor for export to LWO as well.

- Michael