> I'm able to repeat this over here on the Mac version, are you seeing it on Mac or Windows over there? I'll investigate it.

I am on the Mac version.


>I'm not quite sure how to do this, I don't think there is anything set up in the font dialog to represent a "delete setting" choice.

I was thinking if it had just had the ability to choose the "None (using UI font)..." option in the "Font:" clickable area under the annotation prop ties section of the Object properties dialog, that would work.



But I obviously don't know if that's feasible from an 'under-the-hood' perspective.

Hi Lestatdelc,

> I was thinking if it had just had the ability to choose the "None (using UI font)..." option in the
> "Font:" clickable area under the annotation prop ties section of the Object properties dialog,
> that would work.

You mean something like having an extra button shown there? That's kind of problematic from a usability standpoint because it gives a lot of weight to the "None" button.

Maybe instead of saying "None (using UI font)..." there I should just show the name of the UI font that's going to be used.

- Michael

Hi Michael,

thanks for the response. We use 3dsmax and Softimage, both at version 2015 using FBX version 7.4. I tried not exporting the materials but unfortunatly that didn't work. However, I did some further testing and the problem is special characters in object names.

If I change the name of an object inside MOI, removing all special characters (having only AaZz09), the exported fbx is just fine.
I know it's a new feature of MOI that object names are retained in the fbx export and it's a really nice feature to have. As well as the material export!

However, is there a way to get rid of special characters when exporting fbx files from moi?

Thank you,
Sven

Hey there!

1. So I was hearing (and waiting at the same time) for this Dimensions feature for a long time expecting it to work like any other "usual" CAD program (SolidWorks, Inventor etc.). But now when it's here I see it's basically just an annotation with current measurement between selected points. The way I see it- the only benefit is you don't have to click on the edge and watch at right upper corner for the measurements. Or am I missing something? Because I feel like I am, since so many people looks to be excited about this feature alot.

2. I am not fully getting 2nd biggest feature too (dimension details). What's the benefit of it? What people and for what exact reason are/will be using it?

No hate or anything, I'm just genuinely wondering.



Thanks

mantaskava

For me it's about documentation. What are you looking for?

Okay, and what are you gonna use that documentation for? I mean are you doing actual production/manufacturing or? Are these screenshots with measurements for the client that asked you to design the product/some kind of part? That's the only use case scenario I can think of at the moment.
Same about "Details" part- what's the actual use of that info? is it production/manufacturing or?

As you can see I'm probably most interested of what exact field/industry benefits from these new features. Because for me (archviz) I cannot think of where I could use these features. And I hope someone can enlighten me :)

And again, no hate from my side. Love MoI since a few years ago.

To answer your question- for starters, I would expect measurements to be live/connected to the model/spline. Meaning if I move model- measurements follow. If I scale model- measurements update automatically. If I double click on measurements- I can enter new values and the model updates accordingly. Basically how measurements work in parametric modeling apps like SW, Inventor, and Fusion 360 (I believe).

...and free Onshape, DesignSparkMechanical...

else in Moi3D...that is some cool also... ;)

MoI is not a parametric modeler like other MCAD programs

mantaskava
"To answer your question- for starters, I would expect measurements to be live/connected to the model/spline. Meaning if I move model- measurements follow. If I scale model- measurements update automatically. If I double click on measurements- I can enter new values and the model updates accordingly. Basically how measurements work in parametric modeling apps like SW, Inventor, and Fusion 360 (I believe)."

Yes, that would be sweet but not in the cards I think for MOI.

And Yes, I would create instruction docs for manufacturing.

If you want some parametrical things inside Moi use Elephant! ;)

Hi Sven, thanks for narrowing down the FBX transfer issue to extended characters in object names.

The FBX file format does have full support for extended characters, I did some quick testing and found that extended characters transfer ok to Rhino, Silo, and Blender. So I suspect that's a bug in those 2015 version's importers.

re:
> However, is there a way to get rid of special characters when exporting fbx files from moi?

There isn't any way currently but I can add in an option in moi.ini to replace extended characters with spaces. I could also cook up a script for you that would do that to the object names in MoI, would that be helpful for right now?

- Michael

Thanks Michael, I saved over that file once I got it corrected but if it happens again I will be sure to send it.

Hi mantaskava,

> 1. So I was hearing (and waiting at the same time) for this Dimensions feature for a long time
> expecting it to work like any other "usual" CAD program (SolidWorks, Inventor etc.).

Well they do work like usual 2D CAD programs like AutoCAD for example, for making annotations in 2D drawings.

The types of programs you're talking about do use them differently, those are parametric/constraint driven solid modeling programs and they use dimensions as part of their editing UI.


> Because I feel like I am, since so many people looks to be excited about this feature alot.

It's because it's going to make it a lot easier to generate 2D drawings how they need them.


> But now when it's here I see it's basically just an annotation with current measurement
> between selected points. The way I see it- the only benefit is you don't have to click on
> the edge and watch at right upper corner for the measurements. Or am I missing something?

Their primary purpose is for making annotated 2D drawings. Although you can use them for just making measurements that's not their main purpose, they're more of a communication tool that incorporates measuring in it.

If you never need to produce 2D technical drawings or illustrations then yeah they probably won't be too much use for you.


> 2. I am not fully getting 2nd biggest feature too (dimension details). What's the benefit of it? What
> people and for what exact reason are/will be using it?

Some people will use the solid volume calculation on that new dialog as part of their design process.

For dimensions different industries have different ways for how they like to present the annotations like with different types of arrowheads. So there are quite a few different properties on dimensions that change how they look.

- Michael

You have an another some tricky Dimension system inside Moi...by Max Smirnov for more design graphical use! ;)
You can deform the result! English / French

http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=7403.133

You're right. It's an issue with the import modules of the 2015 versions of our software. Here's an example of one object that was imported into MOI via step format (the format the client delivers) :

"D_1338_00IAM-00-10S14P/LIC18650-TBD PCM PC: 724189IAM-03-METAL PLATE NIL1:2: 724189IAM-03-METAL PLATE NIL1: D_1314_41IPT-03-METAL PLATE NIL1:1: D_1314_41IPT-03-METAL PLATE NIL1: Volumenkörper1"

As you can see, not only awful long names but a lot of extended chars as well. One is interesting (Volumenkörper1) because its supposed to be Volumenkörper (a german word. Client is german).
Not sure if ö got replaced by ö because of the clients export module or if was translated by MOI on import.

If you can provide a script to remove extended characters, that would be indeed very helpful! Thanks a lot!

Sven

Technical drawing is missing from my education.
I'm going to buy this book. Have to see how much of this MoI Dimensions can do.
Click on the book picture for an extensive preview:

https://www.amazon.com/Technical-Drawing-Engineering-Graphics-15th/dp/0134306414

- Brian

Hi Sven,

> As you can see, not only awful long names but a lot of extended chars as well. One is
> interesting (Volumenkörper1) because its supposed to be Volumenkörper (a german word.
> Client is german).
> Not sure if ö got replaced by ö because of the clients export module or if was translated by MOI on import.

If it is possible for you to send me the file to test with at moi@moi3d.com I promise to keep it confidential and then I might be able to test with it and find out if the ö got mangled at import or not.

Also I've been meaning to do something about these intolerably long object names. I think when I updated the import libraries to a new major version the names are getting some kind of STEP "product ID" code or something like that appended to their start. Something like that anyway.


> If you can provide a script to remove extended characters, that would be indeed very helpful! Thanks a lot!

No problem, please try setting up the following on a shortcut key, this should remove any non-ascii characters from object names:

script: var objs = moi.geometryDatabase.getObjects(); for ( var i = 0; i < objs.length; ++i ) { var obj = objs.item(i); if ( obj.name ) obj.name = obj.name.replace(/[^\x00-\x7F]/g, ""); }

- Michael

Hi Brian,

re:
> Technical drawing is missing from my education.

Did you see the link OSTexo posted above:
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mechanical-engineering/2-007-design-and-manufacturing-i-spring-2009/related-resources/drawing_and_sketching/

That's a nice short overview.

- Michael

>You mean something like having an extra button shown there?

Possibly. I was thinking just having the ability to select "default" or "none" (which would default to the UI font default would suffice.

>That's kind of problematic from a usability standpoint because it gives a lot of weight to the "None" button.

Seems the issue could be resolved by change the verbiage to be something like "reset" or something like that.

>Maybe instead of saying "None (using UI font)..." there I should just show the name of the UI font that's going to be used.

That's what it does now. Before you select a custom font it shows the "None (using UI font).." and after changing it, it shows what the current font is. The issue is there is no way to get it back to the default UI font setting except ot go in and select "Open Sans" and set it to 12pt to get you to the same font and size as the default, But even then, it shows "Open Sans" as the custom font selected.

It seems to me from a consist UI perspective, simply providing a "default" at the top of the font list when you click on the clickable area to select a font, which would reset it to the default UI font and size, would be the best solution.