Hi anto, yeah that's a good example of where "Planar sections" can help!

By default Blend makes each side of the blend come off perpendicular from the edge curve. But around bends that can then cause bunching like this:




When using the new "Planar sections" option, it uses a different method, the cross section for each blend goes on a plane. First it makes a line connecting the two opposite sides of the blend, like this:


Then it selects a plane that passes through that line. The plane is selected by using the "up direction" that you pick when you trigger the planar sections option. When you draw the "up direction", it basically specifies a family of planes that can pivot around that direction sort of like this (also called a "pencil of planes") :




The way that helps is that with each cross section completely on one of those planes it can help avoid them crossing over into each other which is what makes that kind of awkward bunching effect.

When you turn on surface control points in both of those cases you'll see the difference, with "Planar sections" each row of control points in the blend direction will be all on one plane.

Another example - without planar sections with the blend coming off perpendicular to each edge:


With planar sections - direction picked upwards along z axis:




One row of control points in the blend, note how they are all along one line when viewed from the top:





- Michael

Thanks for the additional info about the blend planar sections, a nice inclusion.
Looking forward to trying it out on my next project.

I didn't thought new features would be in V3, that's great!

Awesome work!

Marc

Michael, just a suggestion: could it be possible, as a feature, to tell any of the added 'sync points' control curves to act as independent planar sections?
This would be especially great for blend surfaces that twist and bend around complex edges.

Of course, it would be cool to also allow for separate bulge. ;-)

Hi Michael,

When extruding faces with the new tool the snapping to points, edges etc on the same solid does not seem to work? Any thoughts.

I haven't been here in a minute, but when I pop in what do I see?? A new Beta and also (Pilou beat me to it) - Sketchup style modeling within MOI!


Great stuff Michael, congrats on another great update cycle for MoI!


-Will

Hi Mike,

> Michael, just a suggestion: could it be possible, as a feature, to tell any of the added 'sync points' control
> curves to act as independent planar sections?
> This would be especially great for blend surfaces that twist and bend around complex edges.

I'm not really understanding how this would work, could you maybe describe in some more detail what an "independent planar section" would be?

The sync points will work in combination with planar sections already... When you set up sync points the blend will have a section right at those points.

Do you mean something like defining a new "up" direction at that location that's different than the main "up" direction? That would probably be quite complex, both in the UI for managing all kinds of different directions and also controlling how they ease-in/ease-out from the other ones.


> Of course, it would be cool to also allow for separate bulge. ;-)

Maybe in v4...

- Michael

Hi Matt,

> When extruding faces with the new tool the snapping to points, edges etc on the same solid does not seem to work? Any thoughts.

I experimented with that a little bit but it was kind of awkward... In order to do it, the original version of the object needed to be stuck in place in "faint wireframe" mode like it is in Transform > Move for example, but it's a little bit odd to have the wireframe drawn over top of parts of the generated object that's right in the same spot. Some way in the future to generate construction lines before you run a command might help.

Currently you could place a point object at your desired snap location before you run the command, or you could use the "Keep separate" checkbox and generate the extrusion as a separate object same as before and then do the boolean manually.

- Michael

Another great beta, thank you, Michael.

I've just noticed that doing a Tapered Extrude with Cap ends deselected isn't obeyed at the moment and a solid's created instead of just the sides.


Martin.

Hi, Michael.

Would this 'Planar sections' technique work within the Nsided tool for areas that come out slightly distorted?


Martin.

Hi Martin,

> I've just noticed that doing a Tapered Extrude with Cap ends deselected isn't obeyed at the
> moment and a solid's created instead of just the sides.

Yeah "Cap ends" is not used for tapered extrude currently, you should see the "Cap ends" checkbox itself disappears once you activate the tapered extrude mode.


> Would this 'Planar sections' technique work within the Nsided tool for areas that come
> out slightly distorted?

I don't think I can apply it to Nsided because the method of construction that Nsided uses is much different than Blend, NSided does not do a fully cross section lofting style construction method like Blend does.

- Michael

Thanks for replying to both questions, Michael.

Planar sections looks like a very elegant solution to these eyes of mine, hence the Nsided question.

Is the position critical for best effect and can several Planar sections be applied per blend - it looks like they can, but am I simply repositioning the Planar section when I apply it multiple times?

 

Martin.

Hi Martin,

> Is the position critical for best effect and can several Planar sections be applied per blend - it looks
> like they can, but am I simply repositioning the Planar section when I apply it multiple times?

Yeah definitely the position is important and needs to suit the particular shape being used. There is only one that can be set though, if you do it multiple times it is just changing the one "up" direction.

The direction defines a family of planes, then the particular plane within that family depends on the location of the ends of the blend cross-section.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

Still on Planar Sections for Blend, can one use a curve to set the Planar Section direction and will that direction have history so if I want to tweak the direction by moving the curve will the Blend update?

-

Hi Danny,

> Still on Planar Sections for Blend, can one use a curve to set the Planar Section direction and will that
> direction have history so if I want to tweak the direction by moving the curve will the Blend update?

Sorry no, the Planar sections direction is taken just as an x,y,z valued vector direction, there isn't any way to attach it to a curve like you're describing.

- Michael

Okay, Thanks.

-

Hi Michael,
do not forget the measuring tools. You have already written with version 2 that will be possible in version 3, now 4, etc ... for sure there is nothing, a draft, a roadmap?
I'm frustrated to use another software to measure.
Moi is good piece of software but I will not upgrade to version 3.

Thanks

Hi Herbert, sorry that version 3 did not address what you needed! I don't really have a specific roadmap, I tend to like to work in a more fluid manner and let what most users are asking for most frequently to guide me. Mostly that has placed the focus on improvements to modeling tools.

I do hope to add in a set of measuring tools in the future though, I think that's likely to happen in v4. I can't really promise specifically what will happen in the future though, like I said I don't really like to work on a fixed roadmap.

- Michael

Hi, Michael.

I've tried to shell the lower face of the item in the attached file at various widths from around 0.1mm to about 2mm wall thickness, but MoI seems to be struggling a little and I can't really see where the problem lies. There is also an issue with insetting the same face (again around 2mm), in that MoI creates a separate inset solid. Can you point me in the right direction for sorting this out please, or is it just a current limitation of the kernel?


Thanks, Martin.

Hi Martin, sometimes you can find problem areas for shelling by doing an offset instead, Shell basically does an offset type operation followed by a boolean, when you just do the offset by itself you will often get a result but you'll see where it's having problems.

So in this case, if I do an Offset with distance: 0.1mm with Flip turned on, then delete the original object, you'll get a result but you'll see that there are a few weird holes in a couple of the surfaces, those seem to have messed up trimming boundaries.

It probably is possible to fix those up by doing some untrimming and retrimming of the surfaces but it's probably easier to try and do the Shell in a different CAD program that has a more robust shelling mechanism, the one in MoI is just not very sophisticated I'm afraid. ViaCAD can be a good companion to use with MoI for shelling.

- Michael