Hi citroelf,

The reason you don't see anything might be because the files were saved from Rhino as 'SaveSmall' which means there is only mesh data available no NURBS data which MoI uses.

The only option you have is to find gems with NURBS data in them which would include generic CAD formats like IGS, STEP and SAT.

Alternatively you can use the Obj23dmWireframe utility http://moi3d.com/resources#Obj23dmWireframe_converter which converts OBJ to a .3dm wireframe which then if the curves are planar you can run Construct > Planar on them to create surfaces then join them to make a solid.

The latest beta V3 does open DXF files if there are splines and curves in the file, I tried opening some on the site you linked and the same thing happens with them, empty, must be only mesh data.

There are few jewellers here on the forum they might have links to better resources for you.

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Hi citroelf - Rhino can store many different kinds of data in 3DM files, like NURBS objects, spotlights, annotation text, dimensions, polygon mesh data, etc... Of all those various kinds of data, MoI itself is only focused on working on NURBS data.

That particular file that you posted does not contain any NURBS objects in it, it only has a polygon mesh object in it. That's why nothing shows up for it when you open it up in MoI.

Polygon mesh data is structured differently than NURBS data, it's made up of a lot of little individual facets rather than large smooth surfaces. You usually need to use a polygon mesh editing program to work with that kind of data, not MoI.

For this particular kind of case where it's an actual faceted model (instead of several hundred thousand little tiny facets trying to approximate a smooth surface), you could use Rhino to convert the polygon mesh object into a NURBS object which could then be loaded into MoI. To do that, open the file in Rhino, and use the MeshToNURB command to create a trimmed planar NURBS surface in place of every polygon facet. MoI will then be able to read in the converted NURBS object.

- Michael

Hi Danny,

> The latest beta V3 does open DXF files if there are splines and curves in the file, I tried
> opening some on the site you linked and the same thing happens with them, empty,
> must be only mesh data.

Yeah with DXF files it's a similar kind of thing as with 3DM files in that there are a lot of different kinds of data that can be contained in a DXF file, including 2D drafting type data but also polygon mesh data as well.

MoI's use of DXF format is primarily oriented around 2D drawing entities, it will read in LINE, CIRCLE, ARC, POINT, ELLIPSE, SPLINE, and POLYLINE type entities from the DXF file.

Most likely those DXF files do not contain any of these specific types of data, they probably also contain polygon facet data which MoI does not try to read.

Usually for editing polygon mesh data you would need to use a polygon mesh editing program to work with that kind of data, although for the particular case of a relatively low polygon model that is actually intended to be faceted (rather than approximating a smooth surface with some huge pile of little tiny facets), you can use the MeshToNURB command in Rhino to convert the polygon mesh into a set of trimmed planar NURBS surfaces.

- Michael

Thx to all for Help :-)