All good points Michael.

Perhaps there's a middle ground.

Here's an idea:

1. Currently, beginner and advanced users have trouble filleting, especially a large fillet after a model already has a small fillet.

2. There is a large requirement on many (but not 3D printed) models to have some sort of small chamfer/fillet on all edges. Let's call this auto-filleting.

3. Perhaps there can be a way to automate this process in a way which is simple. Set an auto-fillet property for a NURBS solid object (doesn't work on non-solids). Set the auto-fillet/chamfer radius to a number which the current NURBS object can handle.

4. As one starts modifying the solid, the auto-fillet can continue to be added at the end of the editing process. If the fillet is programatically impossible, then it uses a smaller number and tries again. Perhaps this runs in it's own thread.

5. Perhaps one can override the auto-fillet on a case-by-case, edge-by-edge basis, with the understanding it may revert to a smaller number if further edits create an impossible to fillet model.

6. Allow one to "BAKE" the object at some point and no further auto-filleting is possible.

Something like this would make it easier to model because you would know quickly whether or not you wrecked the opportunity to add a 'final' fillet. And furthermore, it would also pop a red flag (no auto-filleting possible!) when something you did created surfaces from a solid object.

Just my 2 cents...

Hi chippwalters

Or
7. use Octane render : as since v3.5 each octane material have the "Rounded edges radius" parameter ( a shading effect ) no more need to fillet edges.

Hi Chipp, it's an interesting idea and sounds like a good possibility for the future. Things running on their own thread greatly increases the difficulty of the coding though so it might involve quite a lot of work to make it function smoothly. Fillets in NURBS involves a lot more complex calculations than in polygons so the threaded approach might be a requirement to avoid lots of waiting before being able to do more stuff. Also I'm not sure if it makes sense to put effort into increasing fillet robustness first before attempting that.

- Michael

If Octane's round edge shader is as poor as KeyShot's, then I would prefer real geometry.

KeyShot's shader struggles mightily on any but the smallest of settings, especially with CAD models converted to poly's.

Michael (and all),

https://youtu.be/jnTZLh4Na0c

Please consider this video. Forget for a moment that it's focused on decals. What strikes me the most about this video is the relationship between the modeling and then the rendering. Design details which I thought too coarse in the model view, looked correct in the rendering.

I have seen this same phenomena in my own designs when working both in SketchUp and MoI.

I believe this iterative affordance of modeling and rendering quickly is a huge assist for designers and artists. I hope this helps provide further encouragement for the addition of a photoreal rendering or ambient occlusion addition to MoI.

Hello,

Maybe some sort of post-process micro beveling that works at the mesh level could work better than a full auto nurbs fillet idea. (might be part of the mesher ?)
I kinda like the rounded edges at render time, it works very well for stills or normal map baking, and I never had problems with it in Modo and Clarisse.

However, people seems to extract normal maps using SubstanceDesigner now, and last time I checked, there wasn't any round shader available for the baking (but there are so post trick possible once the normal is extracted).
I end up to create a little process in Houdini, that 'voxelize' / decimate / export Moi models, the result was super crisp.

Talking about hard surfacing, this video get lot's a attention lately from non CAD users ^^

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctI-tMc8U7M

Spaceclaim for gun concept :
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/3DJdB

Widget Kitbash Library link seems to be broken anyone still has it?

Maybe here ... http://moiscript.weebly.com/kitbash.html and scroll...

https://filedn.com/lLMW4jXsJqxXkRYjd1UCoKL/markdown/MoiObjLibDontMove/mdwiki.html#!index.md

Sorry, the images and links are down right now (ever since Dropbox quit hosting files). You might be better off with Pilou's version.

Cool: i was affraid about copyright trouble! :)

***NEVER FOR YOU*** Pilou. You do so much for this community! :-)

I agree!!

Pilou: the N. 1 Ambassador of the 3d world!!!

:)

Hello!

I'm new to MoI. I had some fun with these kitbash objects :). Thanks Chipp for making them and thanks pilou for your website!

I found that it will be even easier to use these with Flow. Just a few clicks and you can project them onto your geometry. Using Flow these will even work on curved surfaces.





I added a Flow Surface style to the kitbash item.





And you can project multiple kitbash items together








For curved surfaces you might want to do it in 2 steps. For example in this case I don't want to deform the fan blades and the cutter geometry so I projected them with Rigid option enabled.