Is anyone out there using Moi3D along with Modo 10.1? If so what is the best approach to synchronize the sizes of imported meshes from Moi3D to Modo. Often it has been my experience that imports from almost any other application is widely skewed in relative size when ported to Modo. I believe it has to do with how Modo uses interprets units. I think 1 unit in Modo is 1 meter.

But specifically what's the best way to insure 1 inch in Moi3D will be represented as i inch in Modo?

I may have stumbled onto the answer to my question. All units being equal (in preferences) when I saved my Moi3D export as fbx it imported into Modo with a set of default options (see attached) and it seemed to work across the two applications.

Hi Mike, also another way you can make unit scale transfer from MoI into Modo is to use LWO format and set the option in MoI under Options > Import/Export > LWO options > "Scale output units to meters".

With that option enabled MoI will rescale the LWO output into meter units and that will then synchronize with how Modo's units work.

- Michael

I like that better. Thanks Michael.

I'd love to know how to do the math to make this work for other applications like StrataCX etc.
See attached for a visual of Moi import to Strata. Moi cube was 8x8 inches. See Transform box in Strata for relative size.

Hi Tom, for making it work in other applications the first thing to try probably is if you switch their unit system into meters before you do the export, hopefully that will scale it to what it needs to be to keep the same relative size and then switch back to your original units when you've finished the export.

But it's possible that the other program will not scale existing objects when the unit system is changed. In that case to do the calculation manually go to Google and type in: 1 inch in meters , on the meters side that will give you the scale factor that needs to be applied, so for example from inches to meters multiply the inch coordinates by 0.0254 .

- Michael

Oh whoops sorry Mike I thought you were asking for making those other apps go into Modo. You're talking about going from MoI into Strata though, right?

Most mesh formats do not have any way in them to label the unit system that they were created in, FBX is one that does though. So you might try FBX again with Strata.

Otherwise, it depends on the particular behavior of the specific app, maybe they have an option that you can set that will tell it what unit system the .obj file was in and sometimes they scale objects to what they figure is just a generic convenient size and you'll need to set an option to turn off that behavior to be able to get the size preserved at import time. I don't know the specifics about how Strata behaves in this regard.

- Michael

I use multiple 3D apps Modo, Strata and yes Cheetah. This scale thing always seems to come up. It really comes down to the math of scale proportions I suppose. I think Modo uses 1 unit=1 meter. In Strata 1unit=1 point or 1/72 of an inch.

Hi Mike, so if Strata interprets the .obj file coordinates as being points, and you have your MoI units set to inches, you will need the coordinates scaled up by 72 in order for them to translate properly into Strata.

You can either do this by using the Transform > Scale command in MoI - select everything, run Transform > Scale, type in 0 and push Enter to specify the world origin as the scale origin point, and then type 72 and push enter. Then undo after you have finished the file export.

Or another way that is more convenient is to go to Options > OBJ options > "Scale factor" and put in a value of 72. Then that scale factor will be applied to every .obj format export.

- Michael

Thank you again.