Illustrator Output from MoI

[Don Cheke]

The latest version of MoI (http://moi3d.com/) came out just the other day. One thing that was implemented was the ability to export to Illustrator format with some line output options. Pretty neat I think.

Shaded background included in this one. All vector format, except the shaded background.


All vector format.


AI Export Options


AI Export Line Style Options


Layers export as well


I do own a copy of MoI but don't get to spend too much time with it since work keeps me so busy (where I use TurboCAD and SolidWorks mostly). MoI is a great additional tool though, as it is pretty easy to create shapes there that are not nearly as easy to do in TC or SW.

http://www.textualcreations.ca/Flash_Ga ... ed_800.jpg
http://www.textualcreations.ca/Flash_Ga ... l_1200.jpg
http://www.textualcreations.ca/Flash_Ga ... e_1250.jpg

[JamesProvost]

Pretty nice. How many points are we looking at in the Illustrator file?

Are the curves made up of tiny line segments like most 3D>Illustrator workflows?

[Don Cheke]

Pretty nice. How many points are we looking at in the Illustrator file?

Are the curves made up of tiny line segments like most 3D>Illustrator workflows?

Hi James,

I am not sure how to determine the total number of points. The curves seem to be pen lines with as few nodes as possible. Definitely not the million node segments that you are referring to.

Can I email you the file to have a look? It is about 2MB.

[JamesProvost]

Not too bad.. the curves are beziers rather than straight line segments.

Original file (without the outline/spatial edge) had 2604 points.
I got that down to 1836 with a quick Object > Path > Simplify.

Looks like that would be workable.

Cool stuff, Don!

[JuanCal123]

Nice Don

This might be a good solution when it comes to affordability, instead of buying the recurring Solidworks liscence. I wonder if this could hold some of the mechanical parts I need to create, to scale in Inches or Meters.

I might look into seeing more of it, I like how you can export the line work and import it into Illustrator thats a purty good feature for the price.

[Mike A]

Hi Don,
Thanks for posting this.

I've been keeping an eye on MOI, and was aware v3 was out this week. I've briefly seen some other early beta tests of this line output on the MOI forum - they looked good too. Nice that you can generate some basic thick and thin with it.

I do have an older version of Rhino - and I'm undecided whether to upgrade that, or get MOI. Broadly similar cost for me.

Mike

[Don Cheke]

Nice Don
This might be a good solution when it comes to affordability, instead of buying the recurring Solidworks liscence. I wonder if this could hold some of the mechanical parts I need to create, to scale in Inches or Meters.
I might look into seeing more of it, I like how you can export the line work and import it into Illustrator thats a purty good feature for the price.

Using MoI for mechanical is a good fit too. Here are a couple older examples that are drawn to scale. You can set MoI's unit system to metric or imperial. Sorry I don't have anything newer that I created in MoI. Most of the new stuff I have has been for work related projects that I can't share publicly.

http://moi3d.com/gallery/images/MoI%20S ... w_1200.jpg
http://moi3d.com/gallery/images/Tracked ... d_1200.jpg

[Mike A]

Don kindly allowed me to use his model to try a the same output in Rhino - using the 'make2D' command which can then be exported to ai. Illustrator screenshot attached.

Similar, but not identical, results in terms of the path construction as you might expect. As per MOI the output does use curved bezier segments - not just a series of polylines, which is good. The path / shape construction isn't great if you're looking for a closed path and filled shape construction in ai - but it would serve as a reasonable base for further work.

One thing that I did discuss with Don was the need for a specified camera position in case additional elements needed to be output from the same viewpoint later. While this is available in Rhino v5, it's not it standard function in MOI - although Don thought it may be available as a third party script.

[Don Cheke]

One thing that I did discuss with Don was the need for a specified camera position in case additional elements needed to be output from the same viewpoint later. While this is available in Rhino v5, it's not it standard function in MOI - although Don thought it may be available as a third party script.

I checked further into what I thought might be a script to create named views in MoI. Turns out someone had devised a custom user interface which included creating views that can be returned to, but the views are not stored after the file/program is closed, so really not that useful. We'll have to wait for the developer of MoI to work this into the program, which he said he has planned for the future.

An interesting note is Michael Gibson, the creator of MoI, was instrumental in the development of Rhino, so it is easy to see why so much is similar between the two programs. I have not used Rhino myself, but when I was learning MoI I utilized some Rhino tutorials to help me along.

[Don Cheke]

Michael Gibson just supplied an update view angle dialogue that shows camera position and target position. So although it does not save a named view a user can copy this data to a text file and reenter that data in the future to get that same view established. It works great. Link to thread: http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=6962.13