-andrew- Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 Hey all, Just actually started using V3 for FZ and I'm totally new... so please bear with my questions. Anyway - I tried applying an MXM for the first time, and it wants me to find the folder for them, I assume... and have no idea where it is, and can't seem to locate it... Any help appreciated! More noob qs coming soon... thanks, Andrew Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 I am not entirely sure what you are asking but I will take a stab at it anyway. If you have downloaded a material MXM from the Next Limit site then it needs to be put in a folder, then it needs to be unzipped, then you double click on the MXM which launches the material editor, once it is open you need to re save the material. This links all the relevant texture maps that came with the material so that the program knows where to look for them. If creating your own materials make sure that any texture maps are located within the folder that contains the material. Not entirely necessary but it helps to keep things organized. As for V3 I would immediately upgrade Maxwell to V4. It is much faster and has a lot of improvements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-andrew- Posted January 2, 2017 Author Share Posted January 2, 2017 Thanks Andrew- Ok - my issue is I have no idea in which folders I'm supposed to be placing these materials, or how to make them available to FZ. For example, with Thea, I eventually see Thea Materials being available in Materials. No clue how to get that working with Maxwell, though... I'm using the Learning Edition (Just hobby use), and since they don't offer it any more, I'll likely drop Maxwell anyway. Never was really able to use it well, though I found the SketchUp interface was easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 2, 2017 Share Posted January 2, 2017 Hi Andrew, Please see this page on the two approaches to using materials in formZ/Maxwell. I think you are saying that, in this case, you'd like to use referenced MXMs rather than auto-translated materials. You can find some sample MXMs in the Maxwell application folder. However, you can organize and keep MXMs in any folder you'd like, using any organizational strategy that reflects the way you like to work. The steps Andrew West outlined for remapping MXM dependencies (such as bitmap textures) are not necessary. Just use the Resource Manager to set a folder where all your materials and dependencies are stored, and the plugin will automatically any missing dependencies (i.e., dependencies whose filepaths are not correct) by searching that folder and all its subfolders. Hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I didn't want to start a new thread for this, as it's related to the above. Since the resources have migrated to the new site I cannot get any of the Maxwell Resource MXM files to work. I download them as before and even trying to load them into the Maxwell Editor fails. This is across three PC's in our office. I have been using these on and off for many years and this is quite frustrating. I am on V3 (3.1.1.0 on a PC). Is there any reason for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Pointer, I just tested downloading a complex material from the new site and opening it in the Maxwell 3 material editor, and all went fine. Perhaps the specific material(s) you downloaded were made in (or had been converted to) Maxwell 4? If you provide the full name of a material you are having trouble with, I'd be happy to take a look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Hi Pylon, That's very odd I have not been able to use a single one. We noticed this issue when the new site started up, for reference we are using: http://www.maxwellrender.com/materials/ I have just selected a few different materials to test, entirely at random and none of them work here: 'Brick Glass Wall Circle' (Maxwell v3), 'Mocca Wood' (also V3) and 'Bare Metal 01' (V3). I cannot get these to load either in the Editor or direct within FormZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Hmm. I downloaded those you referenced and they are working fine here. Can you post a screen capture showing the step where it's not working for you? I wonder if something is going wrong with the decompression of the zip archives on your computers. If you download and use another compression utility, such as 7zip, do the materials then work for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Still having the same issues here. I have tried downloading these files on a Mac and also two different PC's and I cannot get them to work. As a base test I have downloaded 'grind glass-frozen', this is a file that I frequently use, but I cannot get the new version to work. Is anyone else out there having this issue? I have tried decompressing the file using WinRAR (5.21) /WinZIP, your suggestion of 7zip and I have just tried on a Mac too. Each time the MXM files appear to be OK, but we cannot load any of them into the Editor or FormZ. In the Editor I have tried various ways to open the file, e.g double clicking and also using 'open', the materials do not load. At the top of the window the title remains 'untitled.mxm' rather than the name of the file I am trying to load. Within FormZ, I have tested setting up a new material, using referenced MXM and immediately a warning palette appears, which reads 'MXM cannot be read' and after I hit OK another palette appears 'MXM is NULL'. This is happening across the three PC's that we're using here. We're all on Windows 8.1 Pro, could this be the issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Pointer, All the materials that were migrated to the new materials gallery were tested for quality and efficiency, and any broken dependencies were repaired. It is likely that they were re-saved with Maxwell 3.2 in the process. I see you are on an older version of Maxwell 3. If you update your software to the latest version in the Maxwell 3 series (Maxwell Render Suite 3.2.1.5 and Maxwell for formZ plugin 3.2.1.7), does opening the materials from the new online gallery work for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 ^ Upgrading to 3.2.1.5 has solved the issue. I had overlooked the fact I was using a slightly older version. So now everything is working fine. Many thanks for your help Pylon, much appreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Upgrading to 3.2.1.5 has created another issue. FormZ hangs on start up and will not start. Removing the Maxwell plug in allows FormZ to fully start up. I am using FormZ 8.5.6, is there a conflict between this and Maxwell V3 3.2.1.5? I'm using my old plug in for the meantime until I can solve it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 18, 2017 Share Posted January 18, 2017 Hi Pointer, FormZ 8.5.6 and Maxwell 3 are fully compatible. First, please try restarting the computer and the workstation the hosts RLM, assuming you have a node-locked license (this ensures that your license are not for some reason oversubscribed). Do you have a floating license, or node-locked? Is this on your windows computer, or mac? You are using the 3.2.1.7 plugin, correct? If you temporarily start with formZ "factory default" preferences, does that allow formZ to launch? To start with "factory defaults" first quit formZ. Then, on Windows, rename the USER\App Data\Roaming\ autodessys folder before launching. Or on Mac, Quit formZ, go to the Go Menu, hold down the Option key, choose Library>Preferences and rename the autodessys folder within. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 19, 2017 Share Posted January 19, 2017 Hi Pylon, I have replied below for the sake of helping others with the same problems, all sorted now and am up and running. Thanks once again! First, please try restarting the computer and the workstation the hosts RLM, assuming you have a node-locked license (this ensures that your license are not for some reason oversubscribed). Do you have a floating license, or node-locked? NODE LOCKED Is this on your windows computer, or mac? PC You are using the 3.2.1.7 plugin, correct? YES If you temporarily start with formZ "factory default" preferences, does that allow formZ to launch? To start with "factory defaults" first quit formZ. Then, on Windows, rename the USER\App Data\Roaming\ autodessys folder before launching. Or on Mac, Quit formZ, go to the Go Menu, hold down the Option key, choose Library>Preferences and rename the autodessys folder within. THIS SOLVED THE ISSUE. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 UPDATE - I am again getting strange hang ups/freezing and crashes on start up with FormZ, I've isolated this back to the Maxwell Plugin folder again. If I remove the plug in, FormZ starts up with no problem and runs OK. I am using as before: FormZ 8.5.6 with Maxwell V3 3.2.1.5. I also have the Maxwell Plug in 3.2.1.7. I only updated my extremely stable set up to enable me to utilise the online resource materials and now I cannot open my work from the past week to work on! If I backdate the plug in to the earlier version the set up works fine BUT all of the latest materials do not work! Any further suggestions Pylon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pointer Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 ^update to above. I have reset to factory default preferences again, which is annoying but fixes the issue. Something somewhere is breaking down though, I will report back if I get the same problems in another week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pylon Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Pointer, Are you using a template file when it causes the issue? Can you send the template file to us if that is the case? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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