Moment of Inspiration

Moment of Inspiration (moi3d) is CAD software that's a little different.

Focused on being easy to use, it's a great tool for designers and artists who want to construct accurate models.

Booleans and 2D profile curve driven workflow makes a great companion modeler for rendering/DCC projects.

Best-in-industry mesh export supporting n-gon mesh generation.

Great for 3D printing.

 

MoI version 4 has been released!

A lot of new features and improvements, including 64-bit and a native Mac build.

 

New in version 4 - highlights:

 

V4 underwent a major rewrite from V3 to get to a cross platform code base.

64-bit builds for both Windows and Mac.

Native Mac build, compatible with new operating systems.

 

Multi-core processing for opening CAD files - Loading objects from 3DM, STEP, IGES, and SAT files will now use multiple CPU cores for processing objects being loaded resulting in a major speed increase.

 

Display engine updated to make use of modern GPUs with lots of VRAM - display data is now cached in the GPU's VRAM which results in faster redraw speed for large files.

 

Polygon Sub-d surface to NURBS conversion method, available on the side pane under SubD > Create > From file. This allows you to open an .obj file that contains a sub-d control polygon cage and have it converted to a high quality NURBS object in MoI.

This enables a hybrid workflow where you can make a base surface for an object in a sub-d modeling program and then bring it into MoI to continue working on it with CAD tools.

 

Annotation objects - add dimensions and text to your model to use for 2D documentation using 7 new commands in the Dim tab on the side pane.

 

The DimHorizontal command creates a linear dimension going in the x-axis direction of the construction plane:


The DimVertical command creates a linear dimension going in the y-axis direction of the construction plane:


The DimAligned command creates a linear dimension going in any direction on the construction plane:


The DimRadius command creates a radial dimension on a circle or arc curve:


The DimAngle command creates an angular dimension on the construction plane:


The Leader command creates a leader object which is a text label with an arrow:


The AnnotationText command creates an annotation text object which is a text box by itself, no arrows:

 

New Detailed object properties dialog. Gives additional information about the object type and allows for calculating the length of curves, the surface area or volume of a surface or solid and adjust properties for annotation objects.

 

DXF import - support reading layers and import/export of dimension entities. Import of TEXT, MTEXT, LEADER, and DIMENSION (linear, angular, radius/diameter sub types) is now supported. MoI will export dimensions to MTEXT, LEADER, and DIMENSION enties.

 

Added circumference field in addition to radius/diameter for circle drawing commands.

Added length field to ArcCenter command.

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

 

Update FBX export - FBX version, object names, and materials. Add option for which FBX version to use under Options dialog > Import/Export > FBX options > FBX version. Object names are now written to the FBX files instead of only generic "object1", "object2", ... names and styles are now written as materials in the FBX export.

Numerous bug fixes.