Ok, so the rule is : join edges or curves to get a logical UV layout, then run network command, no need to select them in a particular order, nor to separate the U's from the V's.

I think I will use this a lot, combined with flow command it looks very smart to create objects designs from sketches.

I made some renders. It doesn't look as the model I tried to redraw, but the global shape is similar.

The top isn't exactly as I wanted finally, an arc is missing to bend the surface until the nose of the mouse.
Also the bevel between bottom and top part is wrong, I used a projected offset curve to blend a bevel.

I exported without merging adjacent edges, so it's easier to select and the normals are consistent. Normals are messy when merging edges at export in .obj. But the resoltution is not enough, we can see the polys of open edges in the renders here, altough I exported with resolution of .obj exporter.

Is there a way to export with way more polygons ?

Hi Barry,

> I tried that but found that manually selecting them speeded up the calculation
> on my net book.
> Could the lack of processor power cause that?

I don't really know what would cause that, maybe you had some other process running at the same time that was also taking some of your processor time up...

As far as I know doing manual selection versus group selection should not make any difference as far as how Network processes things. For some other commands like Loft the selection order does have an effect though.

- Michael

Hi delic,

> Is there a way to export with way more polygons ?

You should generally join surfaces together before exporting to a mesh format, joined edges will have extra work done during processing them to ensure there is a consistent vertex structure along the edge and that avoids cracks between pieces.

For generating more polygons, the first thing to try is to move the slider at the top towards the "more polygons" side, that will tighten up the angle meshing parameter and produce more polygons on curved areas of the model. If you want still denser yet you can expand the meshing options dialog by clicking on the little arrow in the lower left corner, and then use the "Divide larger than" option to force additional divisions, see here for an example:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=2833.5

- Michael

Thanks Michael.

I was thinking about the "extra work", does the exporter merge only the joined edges, and leave open the others even if merge is set at export ?

Something is also unclear for me, should we consider joined surfaces the same as when they are displayed as one surface, or as a solid ?

Sometimes the edges can be joined to a solid or a unique surface, sometimes not, what is the rule have in mind there ?

Hi delic, I'm sorry but I'm not understanding much of what you write here...

> I was thinking about the "extra work", does the exporter merge only the joined edges,
> and leave open the others even if merge is set at export ?

Well there is no export option labeled "Merge" - do you mean the option for "Weld vertices along edges" ? That controls whether faces on either side of a joined edge will have their own separate vertices that are stacked on top of each other or whether the faces will share a single vertex. There's some illustration of that in the help file, see the section labeled "Weld vertices along edges option:" here: http://moi3d.com/3.0/docs/moi_command_reference11.htm#meshdialog


> Something is also unclear for me, should we consider joined surfaces the same as when
> they are displayed as one surface, or as a solid ?

Sorry I'm not sure if I understand this, but basically you can join several surfaces together at places where the surfaces have edges that touch each other. If you have several surfaces joined together in that way such that they form a completely enclosed skin then that will be considered a solid. If it has any empty areas in it so that it's not a solid it will be called a "joined surface".

Joined surfaces (and solids) will have extra work done at mesh export time to ensure that there is one single unified mesh vertex structure along the joined edge, to make sure that the generated mesh does not have any cracks between pieces. If 2 surfaces get meshed which are totally independent from each other rather than joined to each other it's easy for them to get slightly different vertex structures along the edges (due to different refinement in the surfaces that come off the edges), and that will result in cracks between the different independent surface pieces.

Additionally when you have a joined surface the polygons for the entire joined surface will have a consistent normal direction. If it's a solid it will additionally have the normals pointing to the outside of the volume. If it's not a solid it will have a unified normal direction but which specific side will be the positive side can vary depending on the particular way you constructed the object. There is a "Flip" command which can flip the positive normal direction for a non-solid joined surface: http://moi3d.com/3.0/docs/moi_command_reference10.htm#flip


> Sometimes the edges can be joined to a solid or a unique surface, sometimes not,
> what is the rule have in mind there ?

Well, usually you will want to join surfaces that are sitting next to one another so you'll get no cracking and a unified normal direction at mesh export time. It can also be a bit easier to have things be solids rather than open surfaces because it then also locks down the positive normal direction automatically as well, but that does not really matter if you just turn on double-sided rendering in your rendering program.

- Michael

Thanks a lot Michael.

You understood perfectly well what I meant, I'm french speaking, so I make some mistakes in English.

And yes it was about the "weld" option, not merge. Inside one 3d package it can be confusing, weld, merge, join, collapse, etc ... so between different software it's even harder to understand sometimes, it can be confusing.

For the open edges, it can be useful to let them open during export sometimes, so it's good to have an option to weld or not, joined edges in this case.

For the "joined surfaces" vs "solids" I will try to build a simple shape with different methods, to figure out how it works, when the rebuild command make sense for ex, to have clean geometries that are commands friendly.