Hi Michael,
as requested, here my wishes / suggestions for the V4 (8703.14).
Meanwhile I found out, that most of my whishes can be fullfilled by scrips or hidden commands.
That is the rest, possibly there is alreay a solution, but I didn't found it yet.

Wishes Prio 1:
- select all adjacent 2D curves, by clicking on a non selected segment (see 8703.4). Of course the selection can stop, if there is something non linear like a y-connection at the end/beginning of the next segment. Y-connection in between a segment can also be omitted and only the adjacent segment can be taken.
- a simple possibility to deselect / select all snap modes (no deselecting the snap mode itself). So you can in some cases select a distinct snapmode quickly. There could be a control box for all/none in the snap window and also a scripting possibility for that.
- DXF-layer to MOI-styles import (see 8703.4)

Prio 2
- better debugging window options (see 8703.14)
- make the Browser Objects-window also sortable according to the object-list entries (not only alphabetical).
- get the 2D-curve segments type(circle, polyline, etc.) by script

Suggestions: it is more a "thinking about ...":
- make the side-pane and browser window not only selectable "adjacent, inside ..." but also docable and with landscape and portrait mode. I think for example about people, who work with 2 monitors, they could for example use one for the drawing and the other for the side-pane/browser windows.
- maybe an extra window for the selection of the shortcuts. If you have a lot of shortcuts and do not use them daily, sometimes, a graphical selection from a separat window could be quicker, than searching the shortcuts in your options until you are aware of the keys again.

Best Regards,
Paul

Hi Paul,

re:
> - a simple possibility to deselect / select all snap modes (no deselecting the snap mode itself). So
> you can in some cases select a distinct snapmode quickly. There could be a control box for all/none
> in the snap window and also a scripting possibility for that.

You can do this one currently by doing a right-click on the snap mode. If you right-click on a snap in that menu, it will deselect all the other snaps and leave just that one selected. Later on if you right-click on a snap that is the only active one it will turn all of them back on.

- Michael

Thank You, Michael, good to know. I wasn't aware of that feature yet ;).

Paul

Hi Michael. Thanks for the bug fix, everything works perfectly. I have a question, you can add in the program approximation of the curve by arcs and lines. Or is it difficult?
Vladimir.

Hi Vladimir, I'm not really sure how difficult an arc fitting mechanism is, I've never made one before. Is it important for it to use the least number of arcs possible?

- Michael

> Is it important for it to use the least number of arcs possible?

Let this controls the accuracy. You can mix lines and arcs.

Vladimir.

google of "biarc approximation of nurbs curves" gets some hits...
- B

Hello Michael. I'm sorry if I wrote somewhere bad, I communicate through an interpreter. If the translation is bad let me know and I will cease to bother you.
Vladimir.

Hi Vladimir, you didn't write anything bad I'm just not sure how much work is involved and I'd need to do some studying before really knowing any answer for when an arc fitting function could be implemented.

I was also trying to think about where it could be exposed in the UI, there are a few different possibilities like maybe on a more detailed object properties dialog, or maybe as another curve conversion option for DXF export.

- Michael

Thank you for your attention. Good luck to you.

Here is a link to a recent paper, with an algorithm, for fitting arc splines to NURBS:

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Xunnian_Yang/publication/3845146_Approximating_NURBS_curves_by_arc_splines/links/594ca7eb458515e70348b782/Approximating-NURBS-curves-by-arc-splines.pdf

- Brian

Thanks Brian!

- Michael

You are welcome Michael.

I'm still reading the paper...
From my limited understanding, the purpose of such a dxf export in arc/line format would be useful?
Maybe tangents of NURBS curve would be exposed to scripting in the future?

- B

A closer look shows that the paper was uploaded in 2017, but was written in 2000.
There are 2 other similar papers by the author in ~2001, and the paper is cited by other papers.

Piegl & Tiller: https://documents.tips/documents/biarc-approximation-of-nurbs-curves.html

- B

Hi Brian,

> I'm still reading the paper...

Yeah often time research papers can take a lot of effort just to read and understand.


> From my limited understanding, the purpose of such a dxf export in arc/line format would be useful?

Yes, there are some CNC machines that need to be driven only by arcs for curved pieces and don't deal with spline curves.


> Maybe tangents of NURBS curve would be exposed to scripting in the future?

I'll see if I can cook up some initial curve evaluating methods for the next beta.

- Michael

Thank you Michael.
Maybe I'll start a new biarc thread.
There is a lot of information on the web.
- Brian

a HUUUHGE wishlist ! obj importer as reference ! similar to Topogun (for Michael ref https://youtu.be/_SOCEnTgSns?t=2m21s )!
where i should have my base Hpoly as reference for modeling, some snaps options to draw curves on Hpoly !
**
i'm not talking about the scripted one that Max did ! (it's making surfaces out of polys - where a poly converted to surface is 16 larger than it should be ->4*4 conversion for a poly) & it's slow, Hpoly wont support, only LP
**
where it can be used !
*scanned surfaces to draw on top of them
*from zbrush sketches to moi - lot's of users will enjoy it ! since poly modelling is Huge time consuming -> will speed up process *4 or more
*there are more obj (meshes) libraries than stl ones !
*u'r stuff :))

- Anti-shell. Instead of shelling out a part, be able to unshell it, essentially making the interior of a part a solid.
- An easier stl import flow. I realize from my earlier posting on the subject that stl import isn't directly supported, but there seem to be workarounds, nothing perfect, but doable (like going through the nodeditor, which I still can't understand or make work, dummy me). I'd love to see something like this incorporated into the next version.
- Parametric MOI!

Hi Cemortan_Tudor, and Bob - these are pretty different kinds of things than what MoI is really focused on doing.

@Cemortan_Tudor - Reverse engineering really needs a specialized toolset to do it well. It's a broad area of work that MoI is just not focused on.

@ Bob -
re: anti-shell, could you post an example?
re: An easier stl import flow - as I mentioned in that other thread, STL files contain triangle mesh geometry, it's a very different type of geometry than the NURBS surface geometry that MoI is focused on working with for modeling. It's also a broad area of work that is pretty different than what MoI is focused on right now.

- Michael