Hi,

I'm very new to MoI and have purchased it mainly to convert CAD data for use in my other 3d apps.

I have a .stp of 1.2gb and it's causing MoI to hang then crash.

Is there a file size limit and if so what is it?

I've also been supplied the object as a 3d PDF file but when I try and open it, the scene is empty and without any 3d data at all.

Does anyone here have experience of using 3d PDF with MoI, who could offer me some assistance?

Thanks in advance.

Simon

Hi Simon, a 1.2 Gb is an extraordinarily large file - currently MoI is a 32-bit program and so it's only able to address around 3GB of RAM. But a file will expand a lot in the memory it consumes at runtime due to things like display meshes and various support structures.

So currently you will not be able to process a file of that very large size. There isn't any specific fixed file size that's the maximum because it depends on a lot of variables about what is specifically in the file, like does it contain a whole bunch of tightly curved pieces that will make a heavy display mesh, or does it contain a lot of instanced data that will then multiply the runtime size as instances are converted into regular standalone objects, etc...

You'd probably need to get that file separated out into something like 4 or 5 separate files, maybe more pieces, before it would be possible to load it into MoI. There are also some settings you can adjust to help load larger files, but 1.2 Gb is still way too big. But the details on the settings are here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=5322.2

Currently the focus of MoI is more on making it easy to model simple CAD objects very quickly with a lower learning curve. It's not focused on loading massive files from other CAD systems as of yet, but I've been working on a major rewrite for the next version to make it 64-bit so that it will be able to use all your system RAM instead of only 3GB worth.

If MoI doesn't do what you needed it to, just let me know and I can refund your purchase.

- Michael

And re: PDF - MoI only reads 2D vector lines and curves from PDF files, not 3D data. Also I'm pretty sure that 3D data in PDF files is stored as triangle meshes and not CAD surfaces and solids which is what MOI uses for modeling.

You might try loading the 3D PDF into Simlab composer and see if you can then export the mesh out to a format you need.

- Michael

There is a flavor of 3D PDF that contains nurbs solids, used in Model Based Definition. Its pretty rare I think to run into this kind of PDF outside of industry giants, but not impossible. At the moment, Simlab won't read this type of file.

Hi simon,
You could try saving the file out in a nuetral format other than step. Some programs may be saving specialized "proprietary" stuff in a step, so something like iges would have "just geometry"...( michael touched on instancing, etc.)

If you need help with it, someone here could help you oit also.