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8.6 bugs


AsOne

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In the latest build of FZ, unfortunately, I had to find difficulties when exporting STEP files:

 

  • Basically, the STEP Esport takes a long time.
     
  • If the file path is very long, the file can not be saved. I have to save on the desk.
     
  • Often, FormZ freezes.
     
  • It only appears the beach ball.
 
These problems occur with different files, not just one.
 
MacOs 10.13.6 High Sierra
FormZ 8.6.2 Build 10099
 
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Hello Brian and all

As you know (or not) I try to convert to FZ 8 ...
It's like a horror movie here!
From 3.5 to 6.7.3 there have been stability issues.
673 is by far the most stable version (agree with you Brian)
(I do not have a problem here with the stairs, and I almost never use the screws)

Without going into details, I now have the feeling of many interface improvements but not much at the bottom.
I discover a little horrified these question of stability!

Sometimes some crash on special geometrical cases or with the incremental autosave when I work very quickly in draft.
But it is rare.

At the same time I am a cool guy (yes it's true)
I pay for my update even without using them, even if I do not buy them at the exit.
I consider Formz as a very economical software and I think it is necessary to support the developers.
(here I have an emotional thought for my fellow French architect reduced to petition against the giant Autodesk who exploit them to the bone) ...

On the other hand it's been a hell of a while now (10 years) since the presentation of Bonzai at the 2008 siggraph which perfectly introduced the basics of what we know today. (see link: https://we.tl/Rml3qhB01X

I liked bonzai from the beginning, but I always considered it the "little brother" and not the complete software (complex ..) that I used.

So yes Brian, the disappearance of many tools or options is a lack that requires me to work probably less fluid but very stable.

I do not understand that there is not a more open communication of Autodessys to inform us of the things we can expect and the one for which we must find solutions elsewhere

I take advantage of the presence in this discussion of Paul Hunnicutt to send a message as an aside:

It was by examining Vectorworks as an alternative solution for BIM and drafting that I came across this old discussion:
http://www.formz.com/forum/old/messages/16/61239.html

Paul
Do you continue to work with the system you described (vectorworks + fz)?
Have you solved the questions that you then asked?

Because frankly form 7 layout is it the "holy grail" we were talking about then?

 

Jean-Luc

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I use vectorworks for drawings when I have to.

A good way still is just to reference your FormZ dwg export (ACIS), generate all sections, plans etc. (Viewports) in VW.

Add dimensions and Text - dimensions of course will not auto-update.

 

Continue modelling - update your dwg and all viewports in vw, this is a quick way to generate a set of plans, but you need the „architect“ version (pricing is ridiculous)

 

This works well (VW also has good options to hidden line, dahed, shaded modes) and essentially is what people seem to „also“ want to have from within FormZ... quite a task.

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hi r2D2

In relation to your answer, can you explain to me how you manage the parameters of the lines in VectorWorks (thickness, style, color) when they are linked to the reference file?
Can you preserve the settings if you update the reference?
How do you manage the cuts? Do you use clipping planes or sections?


This whole discussion is exciting. (as would be a conference between the participants)
The idea of ​​linking FormZ bilaterally to another software like vectorworks (or archicad) whose drawing and BIM functions are probably inaccessible to formz is perhaps the true "holy grail"

I really do not see how Autodessys could afford to catch up so big.
Is it desirable? There are already a lot of products available.

This is why in such a situation it is better to enter into a partnership with another complementary publisher under conditions, without doubt, to preserve its independence.

(It would not have occurred to Autodessys to build an in-house rendering engine to complement (or replace) Lightworks Render Zone!)

This is why we should be better informed of future directions in order to better organize our software solutions and the training that accompanies them.

On the other hand, Autodessys could focus on modeling.
In this area there is still more to do.
For example I am currently studying the solutions of retopology (topogun for example, but especially the tools present in Blender)
It is very interesting when I have to retype a model imported from a manufacturer or 3D wharhouse and has defects in topology (object doctor in 673 is not bad but sometimes you have to go further)
See this video (in french)


You will find others in English on the web
You will see for example the skinwrap modifier (genial), the tools of symmetry and more generally the topological selection on mesh in particular by a kind of brush.
The drawing of quadpoly uses tools which unless I'm wrong are not available at all.
Formz does not have the exclusivity of efficiency ...

Another chapter for which Formz seems to be autistic is that of physical constraint modeling.
For example, try to model a curtain in the wind; ok you can reconstruct the shape with nurbz curves for example (that's what I'll probably do) but another approach is to draw the object and place it in the wind (direction and force become the decisive parameters)
Nature is a great modeler, think of the erosion for example that shaped our landscapes.
Modeling clouds of smoke or simply snow is another challenge for the user of formz ..
(I would like to be able to cover an architectural model of snow in a few clicks ...)
And these are the same devices that can be used for clothes ...
(This is not my subject, but I'm sure there will be some of you interested)

A few years ago the morphing appeared in formz, even I did not find exactly one application in my work, I found it very exciting.

In the history of Formz the most striking was in my opinion the originality of some of its tool (unfold for example not to be confused with UV unfolding which remains oddly absent)

That's why it seems to me essential that Autodessys finds the solutions to solve the fundamental questions (stability, automatic 2D drawings, rich presentation and impression) to concentrate on modeling tools able to continue to write the legend.

I know that art is difficult and criticism easy, and I do not want to be a lecon donor, but there are passionate global users here.
This is a great wealth.
A tool is only what one makes of it.
Listening to your community is important if you want to enlarge it and attract young talent.
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Hi everyone. In response to some of the comments about stability:

 

Not long ago I was plagued by stability problems on windows. So I started using the mac. I was surprised at how stable it was! Night and day compared to working on windows 10. Finally, I realized the key of the problem lied in PREFERENCE FILES. I STOPPED using them. FormZ is sooooooo unstable with them. Even if you create a brand new one from scratch. I tried and tried different options, but got tired of repeated crashes and hang ups. Even on the mac, that by the way it was only stable, because I had forgotten to load up my preferences.

 

Key idea here is: DO NOT USE A CUSTOM PREFERENCE FILE. Stick to defaults. It is very unfortunate, because the dirty, dingy, ugly, yellowish default background is terrible graphically, but it's better than having formZ crash every five minutes.

 

Allan.

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Hi Allan
So these are the first preferences and maybe the second windows platform.
It is necessary that the people who have problems of stability do first the test without preference (and personally in phase test on Z6 I do not have an active preference)
Then it would be interesting to know if all windows versions are impacted in the same way ...
Not easy because you do not run multiple WIndows on one machine. This assumes to have a heterogeneous park ...

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JL, I think if your are doing organic patchworking, Vectorworks is not the right way.

 

It imports solid DWG/ACIS architectural objects well, you can set all your clipping planes, sections etc and assign a "style" to those frames.

(i.e. hidden line with bolder outlines, or shaded)

Layout all your Sheets and in the end reload the final DWG; everything updates and you add annotations and Dimensions.

Maybe try a demo of VW... but be warned it is expensive, and no 3D sections in the basic version (think FZ junior and pro...)

Basically I only use it for plans/Layout, that works; but no serious modelling in Vectorworks - forget about it.

 

Missing tools should be a separate thread, for example "make 1/2 sided", c-mesh, are still missing.

But as mentioned somewhere modelling is so much better and faster now in V8 than in V6.x, theres no way I would consider using V6 still unless I really had things I could not do with 8. (Which I personally dont have)

 

I am on mac (or on OSX to be precise) and I really like how the latest FZ runs here together with Vray.

Zero experience using FZ on windows.

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thank you R2D2

I pursue different goals.

Regarding the retopologie, I look at the tools at my disposal when I work on complex objects that I use as symbols.
Typically these are cars.
I made a Nissan that I use on current projects.

Currently I am in the process of cleaning a Ferrari 812 superfast file as part of the construction of a garage for a customer who owns (among other things) the car.
(for the time being, really a super car)
I recovered a file skp (3d wharehouse) not badly drawn but as often with a topology not terrible.

It is certain that it is not vectorworks that can be useful in this field ...

On the other hand, it is the layout of Formz 8 that does not correspond to my current workflow and the disappearance of the draft and its layout
(if I summarize: layout only in hidden line, no rendering hybrid raster / vector, disappearance of the scale view + difficult to draw in 2d before / after modeling with possibilities equivalent to draft Z673 a kind of autocad light ... I will begin a dedicated discussion)

All my problem is to know if Formz 8 will evolve to find the possibilities I have in Z673 in this area (without necessarily put in place the Z673 draft ...) (it can go through an evolved version of the layout 8 but the work seems huge to compete with solutions like VectorWorks and others)
I'm looking either to replace the draft FZ673 by an alternative draft such as Drafsight (Dassault System) that I have already used and which corresponds to Autocad Lt (There is no question that I use Autodesk software, I spend here on the reasons but I can explain if necessary).
It will replace the draft FZ673 without providing a real evolution.

Either I turn to a solution BIM Archicad (or rather Vectorworks more economical.)
The investment is not the same and it is a bit complicated for me because I mainly make new houses or renovation projects (small sizes though) but several simultaneously at different stages and different nature.
I do not necessarily need a software capable of managing very big projects and therefore complex to learn and use ..
I do not intend to change the 3D modeler a priori.

So if I summarize, either the Z9 layout becomes a real production tool (that of sketchup is a good example of the way forward?) or Autodessys finds an organization with a third-party publisher, or we must each find (tinker) the solution that suits him best (a bit like you with vectorWorks ...

Today it is clear that among all the polarities that exist in the world of 3D Autodessys seems to have been strongly influenced by the sketchup star ...

One might even think that if Formz could once be perceived as Rhino's eldest one (newbie) could now almost say that he represents a kind of Sketchup clone.

When we know his history, we can regret that he did not find a way to keep his unique originality.

Yet other lights shine in the sky, big 3D platforms like Maya and others (RIP Softimage), the software for sculptures (Zbrush, 3dcoat ...) and all the software of industrial CAD (solidworks, catia ...)

What attracted me at the very beginning (3.5 for me) was precisely that Formz was a little at the border that these galaxies: draw precisely with ease, manage many geometries and very varied, combining almost all geometric classes available (primitive, mesh, curves and math surfaces: nurbs patch (today named sub-d) metaballs etc etc .. capable of mastering situations as different as architecture design organic modeling ...
and even a little autocad in bonus ...

The strength of Formz has always been its variety, perhaps it was also a little weakness: difficult to deepen each area and at the same time modernize the code to evolve.

I do not dispute the quality of work done for simplicity and ergonomics but I regret that this was done at the expense of the depth of options of tools and software in general ...

To integrate Vray is undoubtedly also an excellent proposition that some have asked here a decent ...
I'm sure many of you find this great, and you're right but it remains that Formz already had a very high level rendering engine.
For my part I can not thank Ben Dean enough for giving us the Maxwell Gateway which remains a fabulous rendering engine whose results compete without shame with those of Vray.

 

What reassures me is that the code Formz is modern today and that I suppose all our grievances are technically feasible.

To conclude, let's think about what happened at Newtek.
A break was created between the leaders of NewTek, creators of LightWave, and the main programmers of LightWave 3D about a complete rewrite of Workflow and code LightWave 3D. A break that led NewTek Vice President of 3D Development, Brad Peebler, to leave NewTek and form a new company called Luxology. He was joined by Allan Hastings and Stuart Ferguson, main developers of LightWave, then by most of the LightWave programming team. They created Modo.

Evolving in the continuity is the challenge for Autodessys

 

 

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Hi everyone. In response to some of the comments about stability:

 

Not long ago I was plagued by stability problems on windows. So I started using the mac. I was surprised at how stable it was! Night and day compared to working on windows 10. Finally, I realized the key of the problem lied in PREFERENCE FILES. I STOPPED using them. FormZ is sooooooo unstable with them. Even if you create a brand new one from scratch. I tried and tried different options, but got tired of repeated crashes and hang ups. Even on the mac, that by the way it was only stable, because I had forgotten to load up my preferences.

 

Key idea here is: DO NOT USE A CUSTOM PREFERENCE FILE. Stick to defaults. It is very unfortunate, because the dirty, dingy, ugly, yellowish default background is terrible graphically, but it's better than having formZ crash every five minutes.

 

Allan.

 

 

Hi Allan, and anyone else struggling with Windows stability and FormZ customization.

 

I agree with you 100% and I'm glad you got your Windows FormZ working with more stability. 

 

It's also worth noting that you can still change the ugly BEIGE background permanently using the default preferences file, and allowing your default Workspace to 'SAVE Between Sessions'.  Just make sure you turn OFF 'Save Between Sessions' under the Workspace Manager after you get your nice clean Classic White or similar background setup, and all your other palettes and tools set as you prefer.  By doing this, you are only using the default preferences and workspaces files.  Much more stable and allows them to easily carry over into the next updates without issue in my experience.

 

Cheers.

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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. 

 

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.

 

 

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What attracted me at the very beginning (3.5 for me) was precisely that Formz was a little at the border that these galaxies: draw precisely with ease, manage many geometries and very varied, combining almost all geometric classes available (primitive, mesh, curves and math surfaces: nurbs patch (today named sub-d) metaballs etc etc .. capable of mastering situations as different as architecture design organic modeling ...

and even a little autocad in bonus ...

 

The strength of Formz has always been its variety, perhaps it was also a little weakness: difficult to deepen each area and at the same time modernize the code to evolve.

 

Evolving in the continuity is the challenge for Autodessys

If you or anyone else are looking to save some money on supplementing FormZ drafting with Vectorworks Fundamentals 2018 or SharkCAD pro v10 plus PowerPack, I'm looking to get rid of both of these licenses as I am looking to pair FormZ with Ansys SpaceClaim instead. SharkCAD does an excellent job alongside formZ for precise curves, with robust model to sheet drawing tools. Vectorworks (even fundamentals) is good to make up formZ's architectural capabilities. SharkCAD pro + PP retails around $2000 Vectorworks Fundamentals at a similar price point. I'll accept anything around the 50% mark. My vectorworks is dongled, so buyer needs to give a shipping address.

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hi Brian
What do you design to use software as different as VectorWork and Shark Pro / Ansys Spaceclaim?

I have not made a decision but I will look closely VectorWorks in the coming weeks.
Your offer could appeal to me ...
On the other hand no chance that I go towards Shark ...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello JL

 

Most of my work is visualization, sometime a client will say I have to use xxx application so that I can knit wore closely with their pipeline.

This usually means using Autodesk products and has pulled me away from using Mac Os.

However after moving to Tokyo work has been a bit sparse, so now is a good time to get rid of things. 

SharkCAD was brilliant when I was modelling all sorts of interesting wind turbines, so ideal for bringing in NACA curves and generating super smooth organic shapes. It has an associative subD workflow that I can derive a nurbs model from, with booleans etc. If I edit the subD the nurbs model will update - nothing affordable does this. Oh, and on Windows it opens Solidworks, ProE and Catia etc.

Vectorworks was required for one job 5 years ago. It has proved useful for lots of other things so I kept it up to date but I have very little need for it now. It has a dongle (which in an age of online license fails is an absolute blessing) but this does mean I will need a mailing address from the buyer.

 

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