Hi Micheal

Thanks for the detailed answer. Yes I appreciate that its just you which makes this software even more impressive :-) The 10k software was a revelation when it first came out which probably justified the price tag (it also put about 80% of tech illustrator out of business . . . ). It was also developed by a small team for the Mac first, but as it got older it never really progressed. It is in my opinion a one trick pony, if i want to add a part, or modify then I had to go back to the CAD user to get a new STP file. This is why I prefer working in MOI - If i need to show aircraft door in open state i simply place in its own group and rotate about hinge axis - easy. In the other software this could take me ages, for a start i could re arrange parts into separate groups so if the file wasn't properly organised I had a real selection headache ahead of me. Also even now MOI gives a cleaner output in many cases.

Enough of the past, MOI is where its at for me :-)

So to answer your question "Typically when you have a model like this with a mix of small and large pieces, are the small pieces usually separate objects and not just some small feature of one big solid object?"

If it is a small piece, say a wheel on aircraft then yes I can export just the wheel and it will be very accurate. My problem is when I export say the hydraulic system - its made up of small pieces but spread along the full extent of the aircraft.

Regarding the cleaner ellipse with 4 points - even standard 8 points would be good. One of the main points is to have points at the outer extent of the ellipse so you don't have to cut at this point when making thick and thin, the point is already there.

Thanks for your work on this, I fully understand that this is a niche area and your time is limited, any improvements are always very much appreciated.
BTW below is the kind of thing I do. My next project, another aircraft, I want to do using MOI only for the ai export. I willl let you know how it goes :-) Image created in Adobe Illustrator.

Matt

Holy guacamole, that is an impressive amount of detail. Do you ever sleep? :)

Hi Matt, wow that's a gorgeous plane illustration!

re:
> If it is a small piece, say a wheel on aircraft then yes I can export just the wheel and it will be
> very accurate. My problem is when I export say the hydraulic system - its made up of small
> pieces but spread along the full extent of the aircraft.

So what I was getting at there is not so much that you should export just the wheel, but rather that I could probably make the hidden line exporter do an initial pass that worked on objects individually with the whole canvas temporarily framed around just that object. That could then give objects better accuracy on an individual level and the limits of the canvas resolution being stretched across the full scene would only impact how objects interacted with other objects and not also gunk up a small object's own self occlusion.

It may be a fair chunk slower than the current exporter since it would be doing more work for each individual object but would it be accurate to say that even if the exporter was say 5-10 times slower than current it would save you time in the long run if it gave cleaner results on small objects within a larger overall scene?

- Michael

An idea of time drawing this plane ?

Thats sounds like a good workaround. I assume the canvas size is calculated on what is visible?

I don't mind the speed hit, its always better than having to redraw things which didn't quite come out right. At the moment I barely have time to make a coffee let alone drink it when i export :-)

matt

this illustration took about 3 weeks, big chunk of that time is searching for all the 3d parts in NX and exporting.

In the old days to do an airbrush job would be a bout 4 weeks but this is 100% accurate, down to the last rivet if I wanted, although i usually strip out a lot of fixings in something this big. And the bonus is I can add extra bits if need - just remember the viewing angles and export at same size and position and it slots right in.

matt

That's an amazing illustration Matt !

Marc

Thx for the infos!

Hi Matt,

> I assume the canvas size is calculated on what is visible?

Yes, it covers the same area as the shaded background image that you optionally generate on AI and PDF output.

I've got these improvements on my list now, I should be able to work on them once the current V4 bug list is cut down.

- Michael

Brilliant! :-)