Good morning,

Just curious if there are any updates on MOI possibly gaining parametric features? I've been away for awhile and didn't see any super recent threads on this (apologies if I missed something). I ran into a situation last night where parametric features were pretty much needed; while I save and save often, if I save at just the wrong spot and then have to change something later, well, it's tough to simply undo certain actions.

Many thanks!

Bob

Go there for have the last version of the beast! :)

https://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9358.1

Hi Bob, sorry no updates for that in MoI - it's a large area of work and there are many other CAD programs out there that work like that. So it is assumed that if that's something you really need you would be using a program that is heavily focused on it such as SolidWorks, Solid Edge, Alibre, OnShape, etc... instead of MoI.

There is a different type of parametric functionality available with the node editor that Pilou links to above, but that's more like a programming tool not parametric history feature tree which is probably what you are looking for.

- Michael

Thanks. I have Alibre and like it a lot, but to be frank, it just isn't as fun and convenient to use as MOI. Alibre and the other solid modelers are businessmen wearing stuffy suits while MOI is the exact opposite, more open and freewheeling. I often do "free designing" with MOI, which really lets me be creative. I often don't know where the design will take me at any given time, hence why parametric functions are so desirable. Alibre is good for that, but far less adaptable and enjoyable to use as MOI.

Hopefully someday...

Bob

Hi Bob ...
I agree that parametric functions would be great ... but not coming soon.
During design phases with MoI I used incremental save a lot. Then I can at least follow my though flow through the stages of development and paste older ideas into current versions when necessary.
cheers,
eric

I do the same, but this one project was saved at just the wrong time. There was one significant thing that really needed to be deleted and/or redone and I couldn't, so...

Hi Bob, yes it's definitely something that I'd like to add but I expect it to be very time consuming. It will be challenging to avoid that same kind of "stuffy suit" feeling that you're talking about. It kind of lends itself to a more planned step by step process.

- Michael

The "stuffy suit" stuff can wait.

I bought MoI exactly because it wasn't, everything is there, no gazillion scrolling windows and options to waddle through just to get one thing done. MoI is Perfect!

Keep the main idea of Moi alive, If I wanted 3ds Max etc, I would have bought that.


Keep up the great work Michael, I love what you do, don't get talked into making this another "stuffy suit" ;-)

Hi Death, don't worry - this would be something that I'd want to make as an optional function without disturbing MoI's existing workflow. That's part of what makes it challenging too though.

- Michael

I'm with Mr. Death,
Please please no parametric/history stuff. Other CAD programs handle that very well and engineering teams can have fun with that all day. MOI is the ONLY CAD/Design software that I can use without ever thinking about where a particular utility is nested, the only CAD program i can put away for 3 months and get right back into it without reorienting myself, and the most intuitive interface ever. MOI never gets in my way. Carry on.

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly ... dims?
eric

"Yes, I agree wholeheartedly ... dims?"
for that stuff or parametric, i import my MoI projetc in OnShape (free) and it's cool.

HI All - I use Solidworks and MOI daily and there are aspects of working in SOLIDWORKS and its parametric environments which work well - many times I get sent other users SOLIDWORKS models with parametric trees longer than your arm. In these cases I export the Solid into MOI and 9 times out 10 can make the changes I require to the solid in MOI faster than trying to recourse someones design flow.

Keep MOI nimble and fast that is where its strength lies - let the others continue on the road to bloatware.

Hi eric,

re:
> Yes, I agree wholeheartedly ... dims?

They're coming along... I've got some arrowheads that I'm pretty happy with. The main things left are implementing text and also exporting to DXF/PDF/AI formats.

Here's what things look like at the moment:



- Michael

that's great michael. will it be possible to import rhino files with dimensions and have moi be able to display them?

also, i agree with the other comments. there are plenty of mcad programs with parametrics. it's nothing new. it's been out forever. most people that have used them don't like them. that's why they have been working towards at least adding direct modeling to them. it can be nice to add dimensions when needed and not have to remodel the whole project. but it's a difficult thing to implement well. i know you always strive for the best implementation. so i seriously doubt this is something that will come to moi, at least in a short time frame.

my two sense, following the forum a long time. there is always someone who comes on and says i use such and such (usually a poly modeler) and i want moi to act like that. it's very annoying. just use such and such. moi is great as it is. it can't be like every single program that someone happens to use. i don't know why people keep posting the same thing and expect that moi is going to magically be like some random program they use. then when they don't get what they want, they whine and bad mouth moi.

ugggh. rant over.

anthony

Hi Micheal ...
That's looking really good. I'll be thrilled when it is ready.
cheers,
eric

The dims are looking good will any linetypes be added to this - centre line dashed marking are pretty useful when exporting dxfs.

Hi anthony,

re:
> that's great michael. will it be possible to import rhino files with dimensions and have
> moi be able to display them?

Yes, MoI will be able to display dimensions that were created in Rhino but they won't necessarily look exactly the same in MoI as they do in Rhino.

They will round trip back and forth between MoI and Rhino though.

- Michael

Hi Alex,

> The dims are looking good will any linetypes be added to this - centre line dashed marking
> are pretty useful when exporting dxfs.

I'd like to work on linetypes at some point here but I won't be able to have that in the v4 time frame.

- Michael

The dimensions in MoI are set up a little different than in Rhino - I'm trying to keep things at a constant display size instead of getting things like huge arrowheads when you zoom in:



- Michael