Hey guys

I use Moi3D in combination with Onshape. Mostly because of the strong fillet engine in Onshape, but also because there is a rotate face function which I love to model with. Since I'm still pretty new to MoI I realized I might have missed out on whether there is such a function in MoI as well - so I thought I come here and ask you guys before I go suggest that in the 'V4 wishlist'-thread :)

Cheers
Nick

have you a video of this "rotate face" function?

Sure!

https://www.onshape.com/learn/cad-tutorials#top

Roll down and check out the video called "Direct Editing", about 1 minute in.

Hi Nick, sorry no MoI does not currently have that function, it is something I want to add in the future though.

- Michael

Allrighty Michael, thanks for the info, I'm looking forward to that addition!

Coming from a poly modelling background, this direct editing feature is something I'd love to see in MoI.

There's another CAD modeller in which you can rotate and scale faces, etc, on Ipad, called 'Shapr3d'.

https://www.shapr3d.com/

(check out the main video)

Cheers!

Hi Ekar, unfortunately the geometry library MoI currently uses does not have a good function for that. In CAD it's a pretty difficult operation because it works fairly differently than in poly modeling. The CAD way involves extending both the rotated face and all neighboring faces and re-intersecting them with each other. It's a far more complex operation than just a rotation by itself.

I'd like to have that in MoI in the future, but it may involve a lot of work with integrating a different geometry library that is better at doing it.

- Michael

Thankyou Michael. I understand this feature isn't is as straightforward as one might imagine, and that poly modelling and CAD are two very different things.

As a feature request, individual editing of components like faces would be very close to the top of my wishlist. I think in general, for new users coming from poly-modelling or packages such as Maya, Max or Modo, it would also greatly help to cushion the transition to nurbs and strengthen the 'ease of use' reputation of MoI. As a poly modeller, it's a very natural inclination to want to just rotate a face this way or that, or scale an edge up or down. And it's easy to miss that kind of tweaking of surfaces when getting to grips with MoI.

Anyway, lots of work I'm sure. And not a dealbreaker by any means. For the future though, this would be a great addition.

Thanks for your explanation.
Ekar