Hi GeoBen, I've been waiting for the software to be complete before starting in on the documentation. That won't be much longer now.

Here are some tutorials that can help get you started now though:

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=402.9
http://bitreality.blogspot.com/
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=510.2
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=510.4
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=324.6

For a fig stem, you would probably want to draw 2 curves and use sweep. Here's a quick overview - I drew one curve and one circle like this.



After you have drawn those 2 curves, select the circle, then click Construct / Sweep, then select the path curve and push Done, and Done once again after you see the Sweep options. That will create this sweep:



You can adjust the rail curve, or put in additional sweep profiles to customize it some more. If you place the sweep profiles off to the side away from the rail curve, then MoI will automatically move them into position perpendicular to the rail.

Hope this helps!

If you have any ideas on how stem creation could be made more intuitive than this, please let me know!

- Michael

thanks!

dunno what it is, but i cannot seem to get things like rotate and move to work. i find myself fumbling around with the dialogue boxes and then nothing happens.

i will try your sweep (a function i have used before in other apps) and see how far i get.

if i have been ungenerous, i apologize. i think the app is brilliant... at least in those areas where I can get it to work. If you would like some assistance in writing the doc, i would be glad to help; i do have some background in that area.

i will look too, at the tutes you suggest. i have looked at a number, but none details the elementary aspects of the interface or tool basics. Heck, once i have that down, i can usually figure the rest out myself.

thanks again, i will let you know what results i can manage.

geo

Hi Geo,

> if i have been ungenerous, i apologize.

No worries, if you're having problems getting stuff done, it's good for me to hear about it. That's how I can improve things in the future!

Re: Move and Rotate - this seems to be a pretty common sticking point.

Actually you shouldn't normally need to use Move that frequently. Instead of explicitly using Transform/Move, instead just click and drag on an object while you are not inside of any command (push the cancel button or hit the Esc key to get out of a command), and you can move it around that way.

Move is still provided in addition to the drag to provide for some precision movement options, like moving one object by an exact distance specified by snapping between some points on other existing objects.

Rotate is more convoluted than you want for a similar purpose - to provide the ability to get an accurate rotation snapped on to existing points. That's why there are a few clicks in there, each one gives you the chance to snap on to some existing points in the model. Here is an example: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=156.3 .

To rotate something, select it and then run Transform / Rotate. Now you will pick 3 points to define the rotation. The first point is the center of rotation. The second point creates kind of an arm that comes out from the center of rotation. The location of this "arm" will be 0 degrees rotation. The third point creates a second "arm" coming out from the center of rotation and the angle between the 2 arms is the angle of rotation. Frequently you may want to shoot the first arm straight out to the right, then the second arm will track an angle starting with 0 to the right which is pretty straightforward. If you know the angle you want to rotate, you can skip doing any arms and just type in that angle number after you pick the center of rotation.

Since I wanted to make it possible to do accurate modeling with MoI, some of the stuff in it has this type of "accuracy-focused" tools, that's what is probably gumming you up the most. I want to augment these in the future with an additional more casual type of rotation and sizing tools, like some kind of grip frame around an object that you could grab to rotate or scale more quickly. But that won't be ready for the initial 1.0 version of MoI.

Let me know if you get stuck on any more of these things, I can give you some more details on how rotate works with some screenshots if you are still stuck.

- Michael