New Jan-22-2020 v4 beta now available at http://moi3d.com/beta.htm .

New stuff:

Added dimension property preset system for controlling initial properties of newly drawn dimensions.
Accessed under Options > Dimensions. The properties set for the "Default" preset are stored in moi.ini
and so if you want the same settings used in all projects you can set that one. You can additionally
create additional presets for project-specific settings. Any presets after "Default" are stored in .3dm
files. When you draw a dimension there is now a "Preset:" option which you can set to control which preset
will be used.

Implement sizing of the scene browser by dragging on its edge.

Update dimensions arrowheads - Add option to position arrowheads to the outside, for linear dimension and angular dimension.

Enable turning on edit points for annotations. This can be used to edit dimensions and also to reposition dimension text.
If the text point is selected on a linear or angular dimension you can also use Delete to clear the user positioned text and reset it to default positioned text.

Add circumference field. Add a circumference field in addition to radius/diameter for circle picking.
Affects ArcTangent, Circle, CircleTangent, Cone, Cylinder, and Sphere commands.

Add length field to ArcCenter command. The ArcCenter command now has a length field that shows the length of the arc as you move
your mouse around and you can enter a length value instead of an angle value.

Update DimAngle command, add angle input field. Add angle input field to DimAngle command so you can type in a desired angle if you are drawing a standalone dimension.

Add snap points on angular dimension objects

Update annotation font dialog - add font clear button. Add "Clear" button to font dialog, if pushed will clear out the font name and set it to use the default UI font.

Updated STEP/SAT/IGES imported object names. Support unicode object names and try to avoid excessively long object names by using just the last component name instead of including the full colon delimited hierarchical names. Can be reverted to use long names by a setting in moi.ini : [NURBS Import] UseHierarchicalNames=y


Fixed bug with dimension text getting distorted when coordinate values were larger than 2500.0

Fix OBJ sub-d conversion crash when reading materials that had texture maps set up.
Fixes a crash reported through e-mail by Phil Nolan.

Fix sweep bug. History update with editing control points for Sweep was making unexpected results.
Fixes bug reported in the forum by nameless here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.196

Update Circle tangent commands - Fixed bug in curve coplanar detection that could fail with certain mirrored control point arrangements. Fixes bug reported through e-mail by Vladimir.

Fix bug with circle Tan Tan Radius reported through e-mail by Vladimir.

Fix annotation window select bug - Leaders without any text were not working with window selection.

Fix Project command styles bug. The projected curve was inheriting the target object's style instead of its input curve style. Fixed to make the projected curve have the input curve's style instead. This can be reverted to the previous behavior by a setting in moi.ini [Styles] ProjectGetStyleFromTarget=y
Fixes a bug reported in the forum by Axel here: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9615.1

Fix DXF import bug - Fix bug with importing a 2 vertex polyline with closed flag and bulge factor. Fixes import bug reported through e-mail by Vladimir.

Update edge hit testing - Fix dead zone around outside of object with selection filters active. Fixes bug reported on the forum by Pior here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=8435.42

Update annotation font handling - support all font styles and weights. Make annotation fonts handle the full range of weights instead of just bold/not bold and also allow custom font styles so all font variations can be used instead of just bold and italic.

Fixed annotation font picking bug that would cause the font size to grow to larger values on Mac just by opening the font dialog.

Update detailed properties dialog styles. When multiple styles selected, list the styles.

Fix annotation objects bounding box bug which caused Transform > Align to behave strangely with annotation objects. Reported by OSTexo on the forum here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.11

Fix dim hit testing bug - Fix problem where dimensions would go on top of lines making the lines hard to select. Reported on the forum here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.85

Fix bug with Display: Wireframe mode on Meshing options dialog box not working. Reported on the forum by Schbeurd here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.148

Fix curve offset bug - Curve offset through point wasn't working correctly if closest point was at a tangent discontinuity.

Show error dialog if trying to load a Rhino v6 or higher .3dm file.

Fixed problems with dialog box ordering on some Mac OS versions, where sub dialogs could end up below their parent windows. Fixes bug reported by tech on the forum at:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.76

Fixed bug where esc key could prevent hit testing from being reset on curve used for DimRadius. Reported through e-mail by Vladimir

Update mesh dialog - Don't restore window corner position saved in moi.ini if the corner is not on a visible screen.

Revert IGES import change - only use simple joins, not any vertex/edge splitting. Fixes regression reported on the forum by Will here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.220

Add moi.ini setting for showing grid in ortho views only, not the 3D view.
[Grid]
ShowGridInOrthoViewsOnly=y

Add option for scene browser show/unlock selection behavior. Add in options in moi.ini to select objects that are shown and/or unlocked using the scene browser when clicking on the eye or lock icon. Can be enabled in moi.ini under: [Scene Browser] SelectShownObjects=y SelectUnlockedObjects=y . Requested by Lestatdelc in the forum here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.72

Add moi.ini setting to disable selection edge flashing.
[Selection]
DisableSelectionEdgeFlash=n
If set to =y then the edge flash feedback when selecting faces or breps will be disabled. Requested by Pior in the forum here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=8435.36

Add moi.ini options for disabling preselection highlighting. In moi.ini under:
[Selection]
DisablePreselectionHighlighting=n
DisablePreselectionHighlightingExceptCurves=n
If DisablePreselectionHighlighting=y then no highlighting on mouse moves will be done. If DisablePreselectionHighlightingExceptCurves=y then highlight will still be done on curves and edges but not other objects. Requested in the forum by Pior here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=8435.28

Add moi.ini option to export FBX names as ascii [FBX Export] ConvertObjectNamesToAscii=y . Requested on the forum by Sven here:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=9526.115


scripting:

Update view.setCameraAndTarget() function. Take an optional 3rd parameter of an "up" direction vector.

Add script methods for dropping points:
curve.dropPoint( pt ) - returns curve parameter value of closest point on the curve to the given 3D point.
curvesegment.dropPoint( pt ) - returns curve parameter value of closest point on the curve segment to the given 3D point.
face.dropPoint( pt ); - returns 2D uv coordinate point of closest point on the face to the given 3D point.
brep.dropPoint( pt ); - finds closest point on brep to given 3D point. Returns a list with 3 items, 0: Face object that the closest point is on, 1: 2D uv coordinate for the face, 2: 3D coordinate of the closest point.

Updated face.planarFrame() method for analytic planes to use the same x/y axis alignment that point picking snap plane uses.

Add moi.filesystem.getDirs() method for getting a list of subdirectories within a given dir. Given a directory name and an optional filter string, return a list of sub-directories within that directory. For example: var dirs = moi.filesystem.getDirs( 'c:\\', 'p*' ); Filter can be a semi-colon delimited list of filters.

Add getEdgeIsoType script method
Takes a parameter of which face to consider, an edge can be shared between 2 faces.
var Iso = EdgeCrv.getEdgeIsoType( Face );
Return value:
-1 : Edge is not an isocurve of the given face.
0 : Edge is an isocurve of the given face, going in the U direction.
1 : Edge is an isocurve of the given face, going in the V direction.

- Michael

French translation in no time ...if necessary :)

So here the French Version
http://moiscript.weebly.com/uploads/3/9/3/8/3938813/frenchstrings.txt

Just something: Curiously the Reseach function of NodePad++ (V6.8.3 not the last but...doesn't work with * (works with anything else)
I have this message in red: find Invalid regular expression
so research of * was impossible!
so must make the research by hand & eyes! :)
Not a big deal but curious!
Was Working in the past...so a big mystery for me! :)

Thanks for the translation Pilou!

Re: Notepad++, maybe if its search function takes a regular expression (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression) you may need to put in \* for it to search for an asterisk character because that is a special control code in regular expressions.

- Michael

Resolved the problem of the mystery of the Irregular message!
In fact by default there was an Enabled button ! :(
Normal is sufficient for me! :)


i have not a big confidence of my Hands & eyes! :)
Effectly my French previous version is not complet! In no time the new! :)

here the last! (same number but updated)
http://moiscript.weebly.com/uploads/3/9/3/8/3938813/frenchstrings.txt



French news ;) http://moiscript.weebly.com/v4-quoi-de-neuf.html

Hi Michael,

The DXF text and dimension import/export is a work in progress?

You have been busy. Will be checking out the new beta. Good work.

Wayne

Hi Wayne, yes there is still work to be done on DXF support for text and dimensions. I will be trying to get export of text and dimensions working first. I'm not sure if import will be part of v4 or whether it will have to wait until further out. Importing is often times more difficult than exporting.

The 2 main remaining areas that I want to get into v4 are an option for making scale-dependent dimension text, and DXF/AI/PDF export for text and dimensions.

- Michael

Awesome! This was a lot of updates and fixes- love the additions to arc and circle fields and I wish I was script-smart enough to take advantage of the scripting changes.

How many betas until the final release? It should be close :)

Many Thanks Michael

Your soft is unique !

Hi nameless,

re:
> How many betas until the final release? It should be close :)

Well it's hard to say with certainty because it can change if bugs pop up but ideally just one more! There's a couple more pieces to do with dimensions to close the loop so they can be used for making 2D drawings easily. Once I hit that it's probably time to wrap it up. :)

- Michael

That's great to hear. I've been waiting patiently for what seems like forever.

Hi Anthony, yes it's definitely been a long time in development. But do you mean you are waiting for the final release before using V4 at all?

V3 owners can use it right now, and also anyone who purchases v3 now will get a free upgrade for v4. That's been the case for over a year now.

- Michael

Yeah I know. I want to switch from Rhino v5 to MoI though. The missing features kept me from switching. Now you have them in your v4 beta. I didn't want to go through a lot of trouble to switch. So it seemed easier to wait for v4 to be released and then attempt to switch. I don't have anything going on that prevents me from waiting. I'm retired. I just use CAD for fun mainly.

Hey there Michael ! Congratulations on yet another wrapped up beta cycle. The amount of work that went inot it looks huge - and needless to say I am thrilled to now be able to adjust the highlighting settings and I hope it will be useful to other users too. Also very glad to read that the nitpicky notes about selection behavior ended up in a bug fix :) Fantastic stuff.

One thing that I am thinking of diving into/documenting going forward is the topic of selection actions being visually confirmed on click release as opposed to click press. This very topic is being discussed in the Blender cimmunity at this time as the recent 2.8 upgrade is causing some issues in that regard and maybe Moi could benefit from some improvement in that area too (although admittedly it is way less noticeable in Moi). I also have some remarks about the behavior of the numerical input field during operations like bevel/chamfer/and so on, as I believe it could be every so slightly improved. More on that later :)

Congrats again !

Thanks Pior, I hope the selection highlighting options will be useful!

re: selection display updating on mouse release, it does work like that in MoI in some cases like if you click on an already selected curve or click on a face of an already selected solid. That's because in those cases MoI does not know at the initial mouse down if you are going to keep the button pressed and do a drag or whether you are going to release it for a click action instead of a drag action.

When you mouse down on an unselected object though it knows that it is going to become selected regardless of whether it ends up as a click or a drag. So in that case the display is updated at the mouse down so you can get feedback on it as soon as possible.

- Michael

There was a kind of annoying bug in the new scene browser sizer where it could sometimes try to activate when the scene browser pane was hidden.

So I rolled out a fix for that and I changed this to a Jan-22 release instead of Jan-21, that bug fix and Pilou's French translation are the only changes.

Thanks Steve for reporting the bug!

- Michael

Hi Michael,

The expanding side pane is great especially for imported STEP files with long file names - the dimensions is looking really elegant in its simplicity. Getting a clean dimensioned PDF drawing from MOI will be awesome as it will allow for some creative semi technical presentations for client revisions which dont really require high detailed manufacturing drawings.

Really looking forward for final release.
Great work.
thanks
Alex.

Hello Michael.
How are you? I hope all is ok :)

@You "...Once I hit that it's probably time to wrap it up. :)..."

For the next stages please, please :) don't forget one the very main target of the initial discussion about V4: A TRUE "grouping and parenting" for the objects hierarchy.
I don't want to name again the "instancing" because I know that you said that this feature maybe will never come.
But TRUE "grouping and parenting" is a very powerful feature.

Have a nice day :)

Hi Marco, instancing is very much on my radar! I never meant to say it would never come, just that I don't know yet when it will happen. Not for v4 though.

I think that probably hierarchy, grouping, and instancing will need to be all considered together in order to go in a good direction. It will take quite a lot of planning.

Previously I had been thinking that maybe groups would go inside the "Objects" section of the Scene browser along with named objects and that instances would have a separate section. But I've been wondering if it might be better for them to all be intermingled in the same section and that you could filter the view to see just instances for example.

One other kind of hierarchy that will probably be less complex to implement will be to have folders in the Styles section. That will be a lot less complicated so it's likely that will happen first.

- Michael

Thanks Alex!

re:
> Getting a clean dimensioned PDF drawing from MOI will be awesome as it will allow for
> some creative semi technical presentations for client revisions which dont really require
> high detailed manufacturing drawings.

Yup, this is exactly what I'm hoping MoI v4 will be able to do for you.

It should fit in well with the overall "get stuff done quickly" vibe for MoI.

Sounds a lot like this post of mine from 12 (!!!) years ago:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=1611.10

;)

- Michael