Hi,
I'm a first time user, and tried to extrude a *.AI file. It said it was calculating for 20 minutes. I left for work hoping that when I returned, I'd find the finish result. Instead, when I returned, the computer was locked up solid and I had to hit the power switch. When I restarted the computer then MOI, I got the crash window. I get three choices save model as, email crash report and close. I've tried all three. I've rebooted, uninstalled, installed, and repeated. I keep getting that same crash window and the same 3 choices. No matter which choice, the program stops.

Help me get this program started again please.
Dave

Hi Dave, could you please send me your moi.ini file, which is located here:
C:\Documents and Settings\[your login name]\Application Data\Moi\moi.ini ?

Please e-mail it to me at moi@moi3d.com .

Then after you send it to me, please delete it and see if that solves your problem (a brand new one will be created when MoI sees it isn't there).

From what you are describing, the only thing I can really think of is somehow that moi.ini file got corrupted and is causing problems when MoI tries to load your settings from it. That ini file also stays around when you uninstall or re-install, so that's why that might not have helped.

If you can please send me the file before you delete it, it would help me to see what might be wrong so I can make sure it doesn't happen again.

One other thing - please take a look in the MoI program folder (C:\Program Files\MoI beta Sep-4-2007), and if you find any files in there labeled moi_report1.zip, moi_report2.zip, etc.., please send those over to me also at moi@moi3d.com, when MoI crashes it writes some diagnostic information to those .zip files and getting those may also help me to track down the problem.

- Michael

Michael,
Thanks for the response. Email sent. Three zip files were found and sent. The moi.ini was not found anywhere.
Dave

Hi Dave, for whatever reason, Microsoft decided to make that /Application Data/ folder to be hidden by default, so a search may not go inside it to look for files.

But if you type in that whole path into an explorer window, you should be able to go in there to find the moi.ini file.

I'll hopefully know more after looking at the crash dump files, thanks for sending those!

- Michael

Hi Dave, the crash dump is showing the crash is inside of the Microsoft Direct3D system, when MoI first tries to talk to it.

But it is strange that this would suddenly start happening when it was working before. Do you know if there was any kind of system or driver update?

You might need to try updating to the latest DirectX version from here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

And it might be a good idea to try and update your video driver as well...

This is happening even before MoI tries to read anything from the .ini file, so it looks like the .ini file is probably not involved in the problem.

- Michael

Michael,
I'm downloading the direct X driver and installing right now. The crash I experienced was the type with a black screen and no mouse or keyboard response. I had to power down. So I can imagine it would damage files.

Regarding the moi.ini, I always run with my hidden folders visible. I don't have that file on my computer anywhere. Hopefully it will recreate it.

Regarding my video driver, that's going to be a little more difficult. I have an old version the the All-in-wonder card, and there are lots of versions. I'm not sure which one to pick. I'll revisit that one again.

Thanks for your help. Well here goes, the directX is done with the install.
Dave

Michael,
The directX install did the trick. I'm up and running. Yippy.
Dave

Michael,
I'm up and running.

Now I have a different question.

I want to change the 3d perspective and I'm using the Alt LMB to accomplish that. Those buttons allow me to pitch and roll. I want to yaw my view. Is there any way to get the 3D view to Yaw?
Dave

He's my success. Still a little modeling to do, but I'm happy so far. Great software. My poor old computer at home is so slow. This model really bogs it down.

Here's the new model, a real life flat foam version and a the computer image of it from the CNC software.

Hi Dave, I'm glad you're back up and running! Somehow your DirectX installation got hosed during that crash. It's a good thing I have that crash dump mechanism to help track down the cause of a crash, otherwise I probably wouldn't have guessed that was the problem.

> I'm downloading the direct X driver and installing right now. The crash I experienced
> was the type with a black screen and no mouse or keyboard response. I had to power
> down. So I can imagine it would damage files.

A severe full system crash like that is usually only possible if a driver is doing something bad.

If it seems to happen again or you have any system instability, you should probably update the video driver. If you do get to that point let me know and I can assist you with finding a good version.

But if you don't have any further problems you can just use what you currently have.

- Michael

> I want to change the 3d perspective and I'm using the Alt LMB to
> accomplish that. Those buttons allow me to pitch and roll. I want to
> yaw my view. Is there any way to get the 3D view to Yaw?

You mean like tilt towards the left or the right while still looking forward along the same direction?

There isn't any way to set that using the mouse, but if you really really want to tilt the view you can do it by going to Options / View / 3D view angles, and type in an angle under "Tilt angle". I could probably also figure out how to set up a keyboard shortcut that would tilt to the left or right with a keypress, let me know if you would like me to figure that out.

- Michael

> He's my success. Still a little modeling to do, but I'm happy so far.

Cool, it looks like it is coming along really well!


> My poor old computer at home is so slow. This model really bogs it down.

One thing that might help is go to Options / View, and under the "Meshing parameters" section at the top, set "Mesh angle" to 20 (instead of the default 10), and uncheck "Add detail to inflections".

This will make the shaded display have fewer polygons in it, which will make it look sort of more jaggedy on the screen but can help speed the display up a bit too.

On that same options page you can also turn off showing hidden-line curves and edges, that will also speed things up a notch but it will make it harder to select some edges since they won't be displayed through the model like they normally are.

A lot of times an older computer can be juiced up quite considerably by adding some additional RAM and a newer video card. If you've got a really old video card, even one of the really inexpensive newer generation ones (like around $40) will speed up the screen redraw quite a lot. I can give you some suggestions on upgrading your machine if you are interested.

- Michael

Michael,
I would describe the tilt as a rudder kick when flying a airplane. More specifically, the model would spin upon the z axis. If you can do a keyboard script, that would be great. I would love to see how you do that with moi.
thanks for your help.
Dave

Thanks for the tips on how to speed up the redraw times. I was sure where the main effort is, the solid generation or the display generation. Adding ram memory is probably my best bet, but a new graphic card is probably a good idea too.

Its good to get something created. I'm sure glad you had that crash file stored away. That was great foresight on your part.

> I would describe the tilt as a rudder kick when flying a airplane. More
> specifically, the model would spin upon the z axis. If you can do a
> keyboard script, that would be great. I would love to see how you do that with moi.

Hi Dave, if I understand correctly, basically the left-to-right mouse motion should be giving you that kind of a result, it doesn't sound like you want the "tilt to left or right" type motion that I was talking about scripting...

You can use Alt+left button like you mentioned before, or you can right-click and drag for that same thing.

Here's what a left-to-right mouse motion should give you, the line pointing up is the world z axis:



- Michael

The Yaw as you illustrate works today. It's weird because I tried that mouse method and I couldn't get a yaw. Now it works great. It's probably me.

I have another problem.
I can't get the Union to work. There are 4 parts to this model, L&R wings and two bodies. I can't get them to Union. The program acts like it performing the calcs and I can select the objects ok, it calculates, but when I get control again, the parts remain separate. Any idea? I try it just two at a time, and all 4 at a time. No joy.
Thanks,
Dave

Hi Dave, is it possible for you to post your model so I can check it out?

One thing that will mess up booleans is if your surfaces intersect themselves, like if they fold around on themselves. It kind of looks like you might possibly have that kind of situation. If you can post your model (or send it to me at moi@moi3d.com) I can examine it and see if that is what is happening.

- Michael

File sent via email.

Another question. When you review the wingtips, you will see that the thickness is very thin. I'd like to grab the panels and thicken them artificially to make them stronger. Is that easy to do?

Hi Dave, I haven't received the model in e-mail yet, can you please try sending it again?

> I'd like to grab the panels and thicken them artificially to make
> them stronger. Is that easy to do?

You can use Transform / Scale / Scale1D to scale things up along one direction, that might help.

There are some instructions and screenshots on how to use it here: http://moi3d.com/beta/moi_command_reference2.zip

- Michael

Michael,
The email system choked on the file. I guess I should have guessed, since the file is gigantic. I'll try sending it again.
DAve