Des

I just thought I'd post my experience with the Maxwell V5 Cloud rendering option. I went to render on the Rebus renderfarm but they don't support Maxwell 5 yet (they said a few more weeks), so I tried out the cloud render option straight from FormZ and I have to say I'm very impressed so far. In the Display Options in FZ, select the Maxwell tab as normal > choose Cloud Render in the "Launch Application" drop down and hit render. The mxnetwork app is then launched, where you just have to log in and name your project. Your file is automatically prepared and uploaded and starts rendering after that. The great thing is that your render can be previewed after about SL 7 or 8 and can be stopped at any time to be downloaded thereafter. This takes out the guesswork compared to other rendering farms where an SL or cost limit is set beforehand. While it is not quite as fast (during the rendering stage, but nearly) as some of the other farms, it is way more friendly to use and is integrated into FormZ very well. No more time preparing a project for upload. If you're on Maxwell V5, give it a go. Des

Just to give further info on the cloud render service in Maxwell. This is a job I did a while ago but had to remodel and render again for a redesign and had only two days to do it, so I had to render using the Maxwell cloud service. I gave each image here about 45 minutes. They reached an SL of 18.6 and 19.4 which is ok for the view distances. That calculates at about €3 ($3.50c) each. The original render sizes are 6000 x 4000 pixels and included an alpha and material ID channel with cars and some planting MXS references. Des

Did anyone else notice that ADS just dropped an update to V9? I've been using it for the last couple of hours and haven't spotted anything different so must be a bugs update.. Des

I've finally started to play with V-Ray and I'm hoping to complete a project using it, but I've already run into a little problem. The renderer is working fine when I use the Fz built in v-ray material parameters but I'd like to work on the materials inside the vrmateditor. When I try to open it to do so it momentarily appears only in the menu bar (top left on Mac) and then disappears. I tried opening the vrmateditor straight from the finder (formZ 9.0 pro > Plugins > V-Ray for FormZ) but nothing happens. As mentioned I can edit materials straight from FormZ material parameters but that seems a little basic. And so far the V-Ray renderer is running solidly (if a bit cartoony as I'm just learning). I'm used to working on Maxwell materials in the mxed editor and referencing them into FormZ so I'd like to have the same control. Any advice is appreciated. Des

Hi Martin, thanks for your reply. Yes it could be the same problem but I'm beginning to think it's something to do with the licensing of V-Ray. I did change computers since I originally licensed it. I haven't had time to follow it up since I posted this as I've gotten really busy again so I have to revert to my Maxwell workflow to get things done but hopefully I'll get back to V-Ray and get it sorted out at some stage. Des

Since the last update to FormZ 9, the Duplication Offset only works once per action. Select an object and use the shortcut for duplicate (command D), it duplicates only once before the object has to be selected again. It used to be great to use this to duplicate a set distance in any direction by just hitting the shortcut and I realise there are many ways to get around this by using the Transform Move Duplicate or array but I think it should be restored to how it worked before. It may just be a new bug. Des

Hello stranger! 😄

PAL, I did what you described and I'm getting something similar to what you're getting. Basically 'parameters > dimensions are not highlighted to be able to just tab and type in the dims without having to click into one box for it to be selected. I've never had to do this anyway so it really doesn't affect me at all in my general day to day modelling and I'm not sure it's supposed to work that way either. But get this, I had the same versions of two licences of FormZ Pro on two separate iMacs prior to this latest update. Both with the same OS (catalina) but with different graphics cards. One with NVidea GeForce GTX 775M 2BG (7 years old) and the other with an AMD Radeon Pro 5300 4GB (newer). The general dimension boxes at the top of the workspace acted differently on the two machines. On the older machine the highlighted boxes worked as expected and I could change the highlighted box by tabbing. On the newer machine I couldn't which was a real pain having to select with my mouse. But after this latest FormZ update they are both working as expected i.e.. dimensions box is highlighted and tabbing between them works fine). So I guess that was one thing that was fixed... 👏

+1 Makes sense

Glad it worked for you AsOne. It would be nice if this could be done at material level while working in Shaded Full. What would be really cool would be visible reflections on glass/mirror materials. Des

You can place the glass on a separate layer, use layer override so the layer does not cast shadows but is still visible..

Woah! Incredible model that Setz!

Really? RenderZone is not supported? It's still for sale in the shop as part of the bundle. It may be pretty out of date but it still good for some things.

+1

I'd suggest modelling one yourself keeping in mind that trees by their nature are full of overhangs. Most 3d printers can't do overhangs very well. A trunk with some basic branches at a steep angle as a placeholder for sticking some moss to maybe?

Very nicely done Jaako 👏

Cycles looks great, thanks for posting. Supports Cuda & OpenCL as well which is good news (GPU rendering for both Nvidia & Radeon). I agree, this is the way forward, especially being multi-platform.

I usually don't upgrade to new OS's for a long time after they're released, I only just upgraded to Catalina a couple of months ago. But with that said, I'm sure ADS are already working on it and your post will give them a heads ups. Des

Agreed.. This would be a great feature. I copy and paste on a regular basis just as you described from imported drawings where the data is kilometres from the origin (usually survey drawings). For years I've been able to work around it but it would be nice to be able to do as you say. Just a quick tip using the "Add Reference File" function; This is useful when I get DWG files with xrefs Import the main dwg, > when it's imported move your cursor over the part you want at the 0,0,0 origin, > write down the coordinates at the top left of your screen, > close the file and save. Go to "Add Reference File" in the file menu, > select the file you saved and you'll be prompted with the placement coordinates, > put in the coordinates you wrote down with a minus in front and the file will be placed over your origin. Do the same for all the xrefs and they will all go in place. Any future updates to those dwg imports will automatically update. I usually do a bit of cleaning of the imported files first to get rid of unwanted rubbish and the stupid amount of layers that come with Acad files. Des

In my experience this is down to object resolution so by converting it you inadvertently increased the res. But you'd need to upload the original model to really tell what's going on. One question about the design. The sides of the object looks concave which is expected when twisting an object such as this (parabola effect). If you want the sides to be at 90º, then copy one of the large faces (already twisted) delete the object, paste the face and add thickness. You can add different materials to faces by pressing the command key in conjunction with the paint tool.

Thanks for that setz, I didn't know it existed.

I had a look on the oldest installed version I have (6.7.3) and can't find it in modelling or draft mode so if it existed it must have been a script although I never had it. The current plugin place is LAB (and ¢hris £und of course!) You might just have to do some bisecting to get what you want setz.. Des

Glad you got it solved Bo. 👏 Get your moneys worth I always say! I'm on a 7 year old iMac and a 12 year old MacPro (which is still motoring along nicely).

I'm not having problems selecting objects or their faces when behind other objects in wireframe. I typically use autopick in conjunction with the command key and/or shift. In autopick with command key, select the first edge of the face you want and then the second edge so it knows what face to select. I think having selection preview on is imperative when using autopick, otherwise how do you know what it's going to select?

ouch 😬