The Moran sets and the Moran class are defined by geometric fashion that di
stinguishes the classical self-similar sets from the following points:
(i) The placements of the basic sets at each step of the constructions can
be arbitrary.
(ii) The contraction ratios may be different at each step.
(iii) The lower limit of the contraction ratios permits zero.
The properties of the Moran sets and Moran class are studied, and the Hausd
orff, packing and upper Box-counting dimensions of the Moran sets are deter
mined by net measure techniques. It is shown that some important properties
of the self-similar sets no longer hold for Moran sets.