Hi Michael, Thanks for the fast response. I will check it now.

I wasn't aware to these script options. where can I find refernce to this API? (I google it and just found some samples, but no full refernce.)

Is it posible to add the "flatten" mechanisim using the script API?

hi
Seems you can make something ;)
Draw a rectangle
Draw a curve line
Make a Sweep Rectangle on the curve
= you have your curvated volume

Now Show points
Select points of the curve or the curve itself
and you can modify as you want the volume by the curve's points as long as you don't make any other operations on the volume or drow another thing!;)

It's not yet paradise :) So export it and import it if you want to transform it inside a big project after other drawings ;)

PS you must export "Rectangle" + curve (inside) + volume !
As you know the measure of the curve, you have just to align points on a straight line of this measure and your problem is resolved ;)

Hi Pilou,

Thanks for your answer, I actually tried this method, but the problem is when more complex objects are involved.

Thanks!

Hi Daniel,

> I wasn't aware to these script options. where can I
> find refernce to this API? (I google it and just found
> some samples, but no full refernce.)

I don't really have any full reference available yet.

The closest thing is the moi.idl file which basically lists all the properties and methods that are available to a script, you can grab that here: http://moi3d.com/wiki/Scripting


> Is it posible to add the "flatten" mechanisim using
> the script API?

I don't think so... it's not really a matter of just calling into a few basic functions, a flattening function needs to do quite a lot of calculations and analysis on a surface.

Also it's not even possible to flatten just any generic surface without stretching. In order to be flattened properly a surface has to be straight in one direction. Something like a sphere for example can't be flattened as a single cut piece without stretching of the material.

Rhino has a flattening function and you can transfer objects built in MoI into Rhino easily by Copy/Pasting between them, so that may be your best option currently to produce the flattened pattern.

Also if you convert your object into a mesh, that is made up of flat facets and tends to be easier to flatten.

Lamina Design (http://laminadesign.com/) or Pepakura Designer (http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) are a couple of programs that are able to calculate a flattened result from mesh data.

I don't really have any experience in this area of flattening things, so it isn't too likely that I'll be able to add it directly in to MoI anytime soon. You'll need to use one of these other programs to handle that part, it's kind of a specialized function.

- Michael

If you want to find the surface distance on a complex, curved surface, you can project a line onto that surface and then run the length script to get it's flat equivelent. :O

Hi,

Thanks, this is exactly what I was looking for, I will deep into it and learn it more.

Daniel