Des

Don't know how I missed this until now, it's excellent... https://youtu.be/Z3Czf6csRHQ

Actually, scrap my last post. It's obviously able to run on newer OS's than El Capitan (10.11) seeing that the thread is titled for a hot fix for High Sierra (10.13) 🙄

Not sure, but I think El Capitan. I screen grabbed this just now on one of my older machines... I can't upgrade to any newer OS on that machine so can't be sure.

It just worked for me by putting in the license info from the original registration emails. I have two licenses over three desktops and one laptop, all can run at the same time. I didn't have to contact support (if I remember correctly).

I believe one license allows two computers regardless of platform. Des

I just did the update yesterday morning and working on a new project. So far everything seems to be working just fine, if anything it seems to be running snappier. Happy so far.. Des

Hi all, as the title says, I'm looking for someone here who has a powerful computer (massive graphics card) running Twinmotion 2021.1.4 I have created an animation from a large project on an iMac with only 4GB video ram but it could be a lot better on a machine with a much better graphics card. It lacks good definition. I'm willing to pay for your time. DM or email me (des at objectpreviews dot com) if you think you'd be able to help. I can use the "resource collector" to make sure all the assets are there. Thanks, Des

Thanks Brian

I guess not, ah well.. Des

This is very promising, thanks David & ZTEK for sharing.

👏 Excellent!!

One of the most common mistakes I make and can happen very easily is having the surface normal pointing the wrong direction (down instead of up). The grass grows in the direction of the normal. Other than that, I can't be sure. Maybe send your settings/file? Des

This seems like a great partnership. Congratulations! Back in the day (nineties) I was using Powercadd for a couple of years while I first tried out FormZ at the same time. Who would have thought they'd get together? I remember Powercadd as being a very solid and capable cad package which produced beautiful drawings. I'm happy..

If you go to the Epic Games Launcher and go to Marketplace, the type into the search Twinmotion, you'll see the Datasmith Twinmotion Importer Plugin. After you install that, install the Twinmotion Content for Unreal Engine (needed so any TM content already in your project will come in). Massive download! The links are on the same page. You can also import data smith files generated from FormZ directly into UE4 using the data smith button at the top but if it's an architectural project it's maybe better to go through Twinmotion first as TM gives more user-friendly control.

I'd love to know as well.. Those new M1pro & M1max chips announced today look seriously fast.

I hate these platform wars and comments like this (quoted below) certainly don't help. As a user of Fz for decades on "the two" platforms, I know which I'd prefer to be working on and you mentioned it already.. I'm writing this on a 13 years old Mac Pro which is still running FormZ and it's OS (2015) beautifully as well as many other programs. Correct to say keep to the topic, then you should too and stop stomping on your un-preferred OS which many, many people use and also stop flattering yourself regarding your contributions here.

I had a quick look and I'm not sure if you can. Maybe email support to see if they can help..

There used to be a script back in the day for FormZ V6.x. called gravity which would do exactly that for you. I don't think it works with V9 😢

Yes, you can use the Surface Scatter tool in the specialties palette. It gives a lot of control regarding amount of copies, direction, justification, etc. It's handy if you have for example a tree or plant cutout that you want scattered on a surface and works great with an undulating nurbs surface. Be careful with high poly objects so you don't overload your file.

Just post your progress and your queries here, I'm sure I and others here can help. Tip; Put in all known surfaces to their proper levels first, place a ghosted version of the terrain you have already done and use it to trace the new surface between the placed bases.

I use similar workflows on most terrains but they all vary slightly as it depends on the information supplied and obviously the design. If I'm given contours, then I use the terrain tool but in most jobs the terrain will change from the existing to new depending on the design. So if the terrain is not too undulating then I draw a surface extending beyond the plan extents, convert to a nurbs object and use the reconstruct tool to divide it up. I place plan surfaces of the buildings and structures to their levels (separate layer) and then I show controls on the nurbs surface and with the 'perpendicular to reference' toggled on, I move the points up and down to close to the building base plates until I'm happy. Then I chop up the nurbs surface for different materials. The roads are usually one piece so I move that down (say 120mm) and colour it to say asphalt. The nurbs surfaces are all smooth so selecting edges is easy for copying and pasting onto a new kerbs layer from which I can sweep the kerbs. When I have ramps or have to create other surfaces etc., I use either the 'Ruled Surface' or the 'Loft' tools. As I said they all vary but this one is fairly typical but FormZ always has a tool or process which works. I have even used subdivision on terrains which were generated from the terrain tool but you need to keep the amount of faces to a minimum in relation to the terrain size so you have control. Des

You just need to use the 'Surface Split' tool in the modify palette. Select the tool > select the surface and then the solid shape, it's instant. I noticed that there are a couple of triangles which need to be stitched first. I ghosted the original objects so you can see. 1963454093_Terraintest_Split.fmz

Yes, there is a setting in > Project Settings > Project Files where you can switch off 'Keep Textures'. This in conjunction to other techniques can keep the file sizes down. Regarding the 3d people, I use AXYZ people which initially come with very high resolution image maps. I usually reduce the image map sizes to be more manageable and save as two different models (Person01_High & Person01_Low). I don't know what render engine you are using but I then save them as MXS files for use with Maxwell Render. When they are placed as MXS references, FormZ does not load the image maps at all (only Maxwell does at render time). I do the same with cars, trees etc. Another thing to note are the actual images maps for your general model. Say I have a brick texture which is very large, I usually use pixel sizes of multiples of 512 and I make two copies. Again one high res and the other low res. The high res one is stored in my Maxwell material (mxm) and the low res map is used for the FormZ representation in Shaded Work mode. I think you can do the same using Vray, it's just a visual representation for working until you go to render. I do the same with components (High res version and a low res version). All my 2d imported data (plans, elevations etc.) are made into reference objects which also keeps the file size way down. I also set FormZ to delete operands as I don't like ghosts of everything in my files unless I specifically want to for a reason, but that's just me. Lastly, I set my undos to remember only about 10 operations and to reset after saving the project. This may not suit other people but I prefer it that way. By sticking to these and by having a good layer setup for easy control, my very large files fly while working on a very modest iMac. I'm sure others here have different approaches. Des

The "render texture" tool can do something similar to what you ask. It's not working in FZ 9.1 but it works in FZ 8.6.5. As a test I created a shape, reshaped it a bit and applied different colours to the faces. Use the Edit Textures tool and select the mapping type to UV. Then I used the Render Textures tool set to tiff with combined textures selected. It creates a combined image texture. Open the new texture in photoshop and make the edits over the face colours and save it with the same name. Then FormZ automatically updates the UV texture on screen. If you create a Maxwell material from the texture map to include displacement, the reliefs will show at render time I assume. I think it's only practical for simple objects as highly facetted objects could create a crazy complicated combined image map. Better than nothing at all I suppose. Des

9.2 ?