form•Z 8.6 Update Released

[3dworks]

third issue - an d a longstanding one is that i get duplicates of surface materials used in components all the time when reloading a scene. apparently materials inside components are not getting correctly updated when material names are changed, deleted in a scene. i have vray installed as well, maybe it is related to this?

[3dworks]

issue number four: "save as a copy" with the option 'visible entities only' and 'delete unreferenced components' will not delete components and layers which are invisible but contain any components. only way is to manually select and delete before saving.

Edited May 2, 2018 by 3dworks

[3dworks]

another issue is that during component editing (in scene - wafter using context menu) now is slowed down. i am doing this in wireframe mode,moving points even of a very simple component is slow as molasses. after finishing the edit, the program is going into an endless loop. i will try to setup a scene where i can reproduce this at 100%.

 

ok please check the attached scene. try to edit in-scene the facade component in this way: when in context menu edit mode, move points of the geometry and duplicate one of the polygons. you should notice a slowdown in operations. then close the editing mode via context men. here FZ will go into endless looping (colour wheel).

FZ862_component_edit_issue_3dworks.fmz.zip

[Tech]

thank you for the update! i am however having a new issues now: after exporting my scene with the LWO exporter, any changes in the layer palette are without effect, the scene cannot be controlled anymore. i am on macos 10.12.6.

 

We just tested this here and we  could not reproduce any issues on OS X or Windows. Can you clarify what you mean by "without effect"? The layer palette functions properly for us after multiple LWO exports. We were able to add/remove layers, change layer visibility, change active layer etc. 

 

third issue - an d a longstanding one is that i get duplicates of surface materials used in components all the time when reloading a scene. apparently materials inside components are not getting correctly updated when material names are changed, deleted in a scene. i have vray installed as well, maybe it is related to this?

 

There was an issue in the V-Ray plugin related to identifying identical materials that has been addressed. This could have cause this effect. We will be making an updated V-Ray plugin available this week.

 

issue number four: "save as a copy" with the option 'visible entities only' and 'delete unreferenced components' will not delete components and layers which are invisible but contain any components. only way is to manually select and delete before saving.

 

Delete unreferenced components just means that components that are not placed in the project will not be included in the saved copy of the project (ie in the Components palette.) formZ does not currently treat the a component as "unreferenced" with regards to layer visibility when this option is selected as components could actually have objects on visible and invisible layers. We will see if the exclusion can be added when all of a components parts are in invisible. 

 

ok please check the attached scene. try to edit in-scene the facade component in this way: when in context menu edit mode, move points of the geometry and duplicate one of the polygons. you should notice a slowdown in operations. then close the editing mode via context men. here FZ will go into endless looping (colour wheel).

 

 

Thanks for this report, we will investigate this issue. 

[3dworks]

We just tested this here and we  could not reproduce any issues on OS X or Windows. Can you clarify what you mean by "without effect"? The layer palette functions properly for us after multiple LWO exports. We were able to add/remove layers, change layer visibility, change active layer etc. 

(...)

 

"without effect" in this context was meaning that whatever i switch on or of in the layers palette has no effect on visibility. i cannot reproduce this for now but it clearly happened after exporting my working scene as LWO. if i can reproduce i will report here. for now working with 8.5.7 again because less buggy.

[3dworks]

Delete unreferenced components just means that components that are not placed in the project will not be included in the saved copy of the project (ie in the Components palette.) formZ does not currently treat the a component as "unreferenced" with regards to layer visibility when this option is selected as components could actually have objects on visible and invisible layers. We will see if the exclusion can be added when all of a components parts are in invisible. 

(...)

 

this is misleading, as "visible entities only" should then be corrected into "visible entities only, except components" or am i getting this one wrong? the result is not what i expect to be. after all this function has the purpose to clean up a scene while saving if i understand correctly.

 

kind regards

Edited May 2, 2018 by 3dworks

[Shibui Design]

Thank you for the updates Autodessys!

 

Can anyone confirm if export .DWG from Layout is working now?

[3dworks]

if in tool manager mode, i cannot edit any of the docked palettes in the top row. just deleting an entire palette is possible.

[AsOne]

The wireframe copy problem is now gone for me on Mac OS.  Thanks Z!

 

 

[Jaakko]

The Material Palette is now more responsive than before. No so much waiting for preview icons to refresh.

Thanks ADS    

 

formZ 8.6.2, Win 10, GTX 1080

[Jaakko]

After using formZ 8.6.2 build 10099 few days I think it's more stable. Not a single crash today    

[allanjl]

Greetings all,

 

formZ 8.6.2: shift-selecting multiple items on at least the lights, and layer palettes doesn't work. Mac OS 10.13.4. (Love the fact that is stable though)

[Hans]

Hello,

Zooming in and out with the scroll wheel stops working as soon as I select a tool in FZ 8.6.2
In 8.5 this still worked finne.
Is it a setting or a bug?

Thanks

Fzpro on win 8.1

[Jaakko]

Zooming with the scroll wheel seems to work fine here. 

 

8.6.2, Win 10

[bbuxton]

Hello,

Zooming in and out with the scroll wheel stops working as soon as I select a tool in FZ 8.6.2

In 8.5 this still worked finne.

Is it a setting or a bug?

Thanks

 

Fzpro on win 8.1

Broken here too. Win 7 pro 64.

You don't need a tool selected for it to stop working but when you do have a tool selected it is really disruptive as you have to drop whatever you are doing and click around until it works again.. Normally I use 3D connexion but that is completely broken too. 

 

Edited May 8, 2018 by bbuxton

[pkcn]

Hi,

What about the VRay update announced by FZ tech in a previous post?

Rgds

[mensch.mueller]

Hi @pkcn,

 

There seemed to be a newer Vray (3.6.1 from May 16) in the Vray downloads. It is only working with latest 8.6.2. 

Some things are improved, but unfortunately not proxies!

 

Edit. It would be great, if newer versions of Vray would be announced in forum!

 

Cheers

 

Edited May 22, 2018 by mensch.mueller

[AHDD Designer]

Issues I discovered in FmZ 8.6.2 Build 10099 in MacOS 10.13.4 so far:

 

• The List of Undos just shows one entry. Never the less it is possible, to undo more than one step. But just on after the other.
   
• The Maxwell Fire Viewport (window) does not match the view of the FmZ Window or Camara (before that was better.)
   
• Working with single lines is still a hassle: Sometimes it is possible to trim lines, that are not crossing on 2d plane (as intended). Sometimes they do not, and I have to extend them manually.
   
• Still I can not extend a single line to a surface. (This, and the topic above worked fine in Version 6.)
   
• The display of the points (in wireframe) slows down the speed dramatically. Sometimes the points are displayed in white (same color as my project background).
   
• Tool Manger is still faulty. E.g. a lot of Icons have the default PlugIn Icon. Extension Icons can not be placed in a collapsing palette an so on…

[AsOne]

Can anyone report if zooming with the scroll wheel works on Mac OS in 8.6.2?  

[vva]

yes I can

no problems here

I use it all the times

 

iMac 10.13.4

fZ 8.6.2

[AsOne]

Thanks for the report vva

[pointer]

I'm having issues with 8.6.2 (build 10099).  If I navigate to a palette after working on some modelling elements, I cannot scroll up or down within the palette dock, sometimes even after clicking with the left mouse button.  To get around this I have to click with the palette dock with a scroll wheel click.  Is anyone else having this issue?

[pointer]

An addition to my post above. I have spent a solid day using above build and VRay. 

I am getting a crash if I have two model windows open and click on the rear window.  This is happening quite a lot.

[Tech]

All,

 

Thanks for all of the feedback. A number of issues have ben addressed in v8.6.3 which we expect to release by 8/15/18. This includes the scroll wheel issue and the performance of window switching.

 

We have a pre-release of v8.6.3 (pro) that we can make available if you are interested in trying it. Please email support@formz.com if you are interested in testing with this pre-relase version.

 

Note that we are still working on some issues and we are reviewing the issues raised in this thread.

[Tech]

Thanks for all of the feedback! We released v8.6.3 today.

 

You can update you installation by selecting "Check for Update" from the Help menu.

 

Note that if you are using 8.5 or 8.6.0 (or if you experience issues with the software update feature because of a fire wall or other connection issue), you will need to install from the links below.

Click Here for formZ pro.
Click Here for formZ jr.
Click Here for formZ Student Edition.

 

Highlights of enhancements in v8.6.3:

• Large STEP files now open properly on OS X.
• Selecting “Group/Component Complete” while editing a group or component no longer crashes on certain systems.
• Performance of switching between graphic windows has been improved.
• Performance of switching between form•Z and other applications has been improved.
• Image files used as textures are now updated in the graphics window and material parameters when the texture is externally edited while the form•Z project is opened.
• Auto save is no longer initiated immediately when a file is opened or a new file is created.
• Animation using RenderZone on scenes where the camera (view) do not change no work properly.
• The mouse scroll wheel no works properly on certain Windows versions.
• Group override materials are now copied properly between projects with "Copy & Paste”.
• Components that contain layers with override materials or groups with override materials now work properly.
• Printing with extents selected now properly fits the page for non-perspective views.
• Printing Notes and dimensions is more accurate.
• Picking/pre-picking certain geometry no longer crashes.
• A new option “Remove Duplicate Materials” has been added to the materials palette context menu. This will remove materials with identical parameters (except name). All objects/faces that reference the duplicate material will use the remaining material.
• Selecting "Purge Unused Materials" from the materials palette context menu no longer removes materials used in Group overrides.
• Snapping/picking of arcs or objects with circular/elliptical edges much faster. (Most noticeable in files with a significant number of these shapes, specially ellipses.)
• Texture image files that are 65K in size now properly work with distributed rendering.
• Subdivision objects now inherit face colors from the original mesh/cage.
• Collada (DAE) import now loads the materials and UV’s properly.
• Notes now import from DXF/DWG files with the proper placement.
• Other various optimizations and stability improvements.