Absolutely love MoI, however; I am experiencing a couple of problems on a current project...

Problem 1:
I have noticed that when editing certain spline objects (closed circles), the centre point for them disappears making it very difficult to align things to? Is this normal?

Problem (question) 2:
Is there any way of cloning a single object to multiple points in a scene? (example, cloning a single screw head to multiple, defined points on a surface).

I know that I'm asking probably beyond the softwares capability, but if anyone can help or offer a possible solution I would be most grateful.

Many thanks!

Problem 1 = Normal.... You can hit tab and type BoundingBoxCenter to get a point added for your picking

Problem 2 = Use the "CopyToPoints" command found here at the MoI resources page.

http://kyticka.webzdarma.cz/3d/moi/#CopyToPoints

Wow! I wasn't expecting a solution to both, nor such a quick response! Thank you very much BurrMan, I really appreciate your kind help.

I'll give your solutions a shot...

No worries Tyler,

""""""""""""""""""""Problem 1:
I have noticed that when editing certain spline objects (closed circles), the centre point for them disappears making it very difficult to align things to? Is this normal?""""""""""""""

When you make initial shapes like "circles and squares" etc, they are a special kind of analytical geometry, like an "arc" for instance, which has a "center snap"....

When/if you deform or modify it, it can become a regular bspline, which doesn't have that special snap. So we use the "bounding box" of a deformed object...

Hope that helps to understand.

Yes, that makes perfect sense. It's very similar to 'live' objects in Photoshop or Illustrator losing their 'live' functionality when they are edited.

Thanks again BurrMan, I do appreciate your help.

Sorry for butting in on the discussion. If I draw a circle, then select it and hit tab the only place it allows me type is in the box where you type in the x, y, z coordinates for a point. Is that where I am supposed to type "BoundingBoxCenter". If I do nothing happens.

(My amateur response)
After hitting Tab and typing BoundingBoxCenter in that box, hit Enter key on keyboard.
Center point should then show up.
- Brian

"""""""""""""and hit tab the only place it allows me type is in the box where you type in the x, y, z coordinates for a point""""""""""""""""

That box is also the "command entrance" for MoI. You can type any MoI command and it will execute from there.

Hi Wlawton,

> Is that where I am supposed to type "BoundingBoxCenter". If I do nothing happens.

Did you possibly not have the object selected before you ran that command?

What is it that you're trying to do with the center point, do you want to move the object using that point as the base point? If so then there is an option for that in the Transform > Move command, when the prompt says "Pick base point", there will be a button available in the command options area which is labeled "Bounding box center". If you click it, it will take the base point for the move to be the bounding box center point and you won't need to create a separate point object.

- Michael

The Point should be visible.
Also, the Point will be listed in the Types display, where it can be highlighted, and the description seen in the top area of the side pane.
- B

Sorry Michael,

" I was trying to follow along with the dialog in the discussion. My question went like this:
"Sorry for butting in on the discussion. If I draw a circle, then select it and hit tab the only place it allows me type is in the box where you type in the x, y, z coordinates for a point. Is that where I am supposed to type "BoundingBoxCenter". If I do nothing happens. "

I see what you are saying regarding the move command, but when you use that command the center point only stays visible while you are in the command. I thought the discussion was how to make the center point stay visible forever.

I could not see how by hitting a tab key, I would be able to enter the command "BoundingBoxCenter", unless they have a shortcut that leads them to a move command somehow.

Sincerely,
Bill

Hi Bill,

> I thought the discussion was how to make the center point stay visible forever.

Yes, but I was just wondering _why_ you wanted the center point to stay visible - I mean what were you trying to accomplish by having that. I just wanted to mention that if it was for moving the object to somewhere else, you can use the Transform > Move command for that without needing to create an extra point.

If it's for some other purpose, then yes the BoundingBoxCenter command will do that for you - is it all cleared up now how you run it now? You can also set it up on a shortcut key, under Options > Shortcut Keys.

- Michael

Michael,

Thank you again for all you advice.

Sincerely,
Bill