Des

Hi all, I'm really busy these days so I will need help modelling due the volume involved on multiple jobs. So I'm looking for someone to knock out clean, well structured layered models in metric. Architectural type layering. Someone trustworthy and experienced in FormZ and doesn't cost the earth. FormZ Version 9 files only. No rendering required, just bare models (may change in the future). Truthfully available. Paypal account needed (for obvious reasons). Email me at "des AT objectpreviews DOT com" if you're interested in some work over the next couple of weeks. I look forward to hearing from you. Des

Hi all, Sorry to have to shut this down so quickly, I've had numerous contacts since posting. Thank you all for the interest and I'll reply to all the emails I received as soon as I can, please be patient. Rock on, Des

Yes, it got my attention too! I think this is going to be a perfect marriage. Time to get a computer with a big graphics card..

True, but I doubt you need any noob...

Thanks ZTEK for your detailed analysis, I've been watching this post for a while. The PDF is nice, and well laid out with nice clean lines, thickness's, hatching etc. Was the hatching generated in BricsCAD? It seems quite dense and might cause problems when printing but I'm sure that can be adjusted easily enough. I started back in the 80's drawing on tracing paper using varying pen thickness's to achieve this effect and I think you have managed to get the same feel (too many architects have lost this over the years imo). In fact I'm dismayed by the quality quite often of the lack of skill or the want to produce nice drawings these days, I receive drawings on a daily basis from designers that either don't work, are messy as hell and as a result are difficult to read. While I'm no longer required to produce drawings like this any more by choice (all my work is 3d imagery), it's still interesting to see. Query; the "reflected ceiling plan" is flipped as if one were looking up at the ceiling on your drawing. Is this a result of using a section of the plan with the "camera" looking up? In my experience a reflected ceiling plan is the same as the floor plan and not flipped over (like a mirror is held under the ceiling, hence 'reflected'). I had not heard of BricsCAD until this post, it looks very capable and the fact that it's for macs as well is great. I started on Vectorworks and PowerCADD back in the day. Des

This is my first project using FormZ to Twinmotion. It was done on an iMac 2020 with 4GB of video ram, so if I get a machine with a bigger & better video card I should get better quality. Sorry the buildings (boxes) are not architecturally award winning..😁 BaldonnellUnitCDE-low

Thanks for your comments guys. I'm working on another job at the moment. It's a small minimalist house surrounded with trees so I'll post that as well once I've finished. I think TM excels with the built in entourage libraries.

Thanks John! I was actually quite pleased with how easy it is to bring the FormZ model into TM. I exported the model in parts to make it easier when there were design changes. For example, I had layer groups in Fz for each building, the site, street lighting etc. So when I had to make a change to a building I just exported it to overwrite the asset and refreshed the import which means the rest of the model stays as it was in TM. Also I had used Maxwell for the stills but when I needed to go to TM I obviously had to place the trees again so I created a layer in Fz with small cubes where the trees were (Maxwell mxs references) and exported that into TM. Then I could place the trees in their proper places and turn off the tree placement cubes later. Here are a couple of the Maxwell stills..

I seem to remember something like that back in the day. You have me intrigued now so I'll see if I can dig out my old manuals to see when I get a chance.

Thanks for sharing pipo, I always look forward to seeing your renders, they are fantastic! (and varied) As allanjl said here before "they always kick butt"

Not sure but I think they're bringing out an update soon so they might be doing something to their web-site. But you can still access the materials library directly in the mxed application (material editor), they are all there.

I think you can buy an old iMac for even cheaper online. Regarding the PDFs, in my experience it depends on what program they were created in determine the responsiveness. AutoCad creates terrible PDFs normally due to it triangulating all the fills and hatching so the file becoming way too large for what it's displaying although they can be compressed right down in Preview to display super fast. Here's a snapshot of FormZ & Pages running on my old MacPro. I don't use it for my main modelling any more (one of the machines on my mini Maxwell farm) although this old mac has a pretty decent graphics card for it's age so working in FormZ is actually great using "shaded work" & "shaded full". That might be my only concern with those old iMacs.

One of my machines is a 2008 Mac Pro and runs FormZ 8.5.6 just fine. The OS is El Capitan 10.11.6. and 4GB RAM. Pages is working fine and is version 3 as part of the iWork "08 suite. You shouldn't have any problems with FormZ assuming the computers are in good working order. My experience over the years is that FormZ modelling can be done on pretty much anything, the modelling functions only use one core anyway.

Hi Bo, I'm not at my computer a the moment but I was just thinking you could maybe set up windows sharing on your mac and pass the files over instead of formatting?

You won't regret the move. It's been so long since I used v6.5 I can't really remember all the differences but you should get to know how the pick options work. If you have Auto Pick selected (I do all the time), hold down the commend key while hovering over your object. This allows topological selection, this is necessary for the texturing as per your query. So to texture different materials on different faces, select your material, select the paint tool, command click on the faces you want. If you want to have different scalings of the materials on the same object, use the edit texture tool and command click the face you want to set the size to. I sometimes use the Map texture tool with the mapping type set to "Best Match Per Face" selected. Then I can use the Edit texture tool to select each face to set the parameters. I usually switch back and forth between "Edit On Face"" and "Edit in 3d" in the Edit Texture Map tool options depending on what I'm doing. I'm sure others here will help with their suggestions with this and with your vray queries. Des

Yes, I've figured that out now. But I did waste a lot of time on my first tries including exporting and importing multiple files to see the differences, all good now. The TM interface takes some getting used to and some functions are buried deep. Anyway, if there are other tips, please post them. Des

I thought I'd start some pointers for smoother export, please add your own so we can all help each other. I'll add more as I find them. 1• Make sure surface objects normals are pointing in the right direction, otherwise they fail to import into TM. Normals for objects such as non-solid glass need to point out and ground surfaces need to point up.

I initially had the same problem so I dragged the Datasmith plugin folder from (FormZ 9/Plugins) to (FormZ 9/FormZ 9.0 pro/Plugins) and it worked. I don't know why there are two plugin folders for FormZ.

So far I've only tried out exporting only one model and I'm pretty impressed how fast it is at exporting. Materials are coming in but all need editing as would be expected. Say I'm working on a model in TM and after editing all my materials, placed entourage etc. and then I have to make changes in the FZ model, how does TM react to this? Also, are there any rules we should follow in FormZ before exporting? For example, is it better to have UV applied materials? Anyway, this is a great direction for FormZ and I'm looking forward to getting a smooth workflow between FormZ and TM. Des

Very nice render! Cool bottle, you should have a warped glass to go with it.. think wine goggles 😆

This is kind of exciting 😀

And turn up the ambient light in the lights palette. I usually set it as high as 75% in shaded work. Dz

That's right, it was never snap-able where the clipping panes "cut" the object as it's not actually cutting the objects. Although the clipping panes can be snapped to the geometry so if you draw a line or insert a point or a segment, then you can snap to that. Or even use the grid snap. Use the blue dot to move the pane to something to snap to, not the central arrow. I think it was always intended to be a graphical tool.

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

I think if you go to the macs system preferences and then Security & Privacy (General tab) immediately after you get the message, there will be an "open anyway button". Click that to see if it works. I've had to do that a lot at least once with all of the Maxwell apps (even the nodes, manager etc.) and that includes the newer versions. I'm using macOS Catalina 10.15.7