Anyone know of a good way to tease Moi into fake instancing (like scripts)? Or if not, are there any good workflows for helping to edit an object then transform it quickly into multiple copies of itself? I'm getting bogged down in designing an eighth of something, then having to delete the other 7 parts and then rebuild them again.

Perhaps instancing would be a good v4 feature?

Hi Chipp, yes I am hoping to do some work for implementing instancing in the future.

In the meantime if the lack of it is causing you a lot of difficulties you might be better off using some other CAD program that does support instancing in combination with MoI rather than just MoI by itself.

- Michael

Hi chippwalters

You can try my vClone script.
Unfortunately it doesn't supports exact 3D orientation yet.
http://moi3d.com/forum/display.php?webtag=MOI&print_msg=6486.1

P.S. I've wrote a new version of this script. I'll post it today evening.

Hi Michael,

Thanks. I did read where you were planning on instancing for v4. Looking forward to it! I'm up to 3 main modelers right now, Lightwave, MoI, and SketchUp. I'd rather not try and learn another one. I also own FormZ and Modo and find them both a bit harsh on the learning curve compared with MoI and SketchUp-- so I'll continue working with your program now.

Max, that does look interesting. Am I correct I can create a line segment and the vClone script will make copies everywhere it finds the correctly named line segment? If so, that's just the ticket I was looking for!

Max, vClone works GREAT! Thanks a bunch :-)))

Yep, that's a mandatory feature for me as well.
Max.

Hey Max,

Is there a way to use vClone to create a 'mirror' of an object? IOW, would it be possible to check the rotation of the vector and clone using the rotation information? Just wondering. Thanks again!

Just Mirror and / or Rotate your vectors first! ;)

>Is there a way to use vClone to create a 'mirror' of an object?
I think it's easy, but I need to make some changes in the script

I do all my instancing of MoI generated meshes in Modo.

In sketchup you can turn the MoI generated mesh into component and then copy it around as required.

I only use MoI as stepping stone to creating a nice mesh for export to 3d art program so the ability to instance objects in MoI is not something that is important to me.

vClone 1.0
Now it supports scaling

Random Scaling option ?
And where do you input the factor of scaling ?

The scale depends of vector length.
Length 1 - 1:1
Length 8 - 8:1

Doesn't work for me. See the image below:

1. Originating object
2. 2 vectors. The one on the right is a mirror (use mirror command) of the one on the left. You can see when I run vClone, they are not mirrors of each other. :(

Hi,
How to use vclone ?
thanks

Max shows how to use it at:
http://moi3d.com/forum/display.php?webtag=MOI&print_msg=6486.1

<< You can see when I run vClone, they are not mirrors of each other. :(
Select Vectors / Flip before VClone ;)
And you can also Oriente your object first with the Base Origin with the TriPod axes at the beginning of the Vclone!
See next post!

<< How to use vclone ?
:)



PS I have forgotten to align the Y axe on a very tiny gap at the bottom 's cone because I had not my glasses on the noze! :)
But I believe that you have the concept!

Zut alors!
I wasn't using the base part correctly. I will try again. Thank-you!

Thanks Pilou.
But how to do that as in the attachment.
Clones follow the sphere..