Justin Montoya

This workflow is easily done in formZ. Though I would have to warn you that anytime you add 'Rounding' to an object, it will lose it's Parametric qualities and becomes a solid object. So Rounding should be the last step after you have all your thicknesses dialed. If you are still playing with part thicknesses, you may want to keep a seperate 'core' part copy on another layer in case you need to go back and adjust thicknesses later. You would just then need to reapply the Controlled Rounding as the final step. For exact placing of your cutouts, I would simply use the center point snap and a Polygon using the Polygon Drawing (Center Radius) option. This should let you draw on the middle line of your part and you can then adjust it's size up and down as you need it.

Ah, yes, that profile isn't obvious on how to create. While there are a couple of ways to do that, like you said, starting with circles then joining them with lines to create a face. However, I would just start with a 4 sided Polygon, then move or scale the edge points in to the right size and then use the Fillet/Bevel tool to round them. From there you can ReShape or Push/Pull the face and I think you got the rest...

Something strange is happening on your end. That green bubble should not be showing up when the Insert option is unchecked. Try toggling it on and off again? Even so, the Insert option should not be causing your cursor clicks to become inaccurate. The only time I have seen this is if the Numeric Accuracy wasn't set with enough places. Try changing it to 0.0001 mm and let us know if that improves.

Hello, Can you show an example of the workflow you are trying to replicate?

Hello again, Yes, this is a known bug and has been reported. Hopefully this is fixed in the next release. This used to be a good way to access the YouTube videos, but I think the video player is no longer supported, so it causes a crash. For now just go directly to the formZ YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/@formz3D

Hi Thommo, Can I ask what is your screen resolution? I don't use formZ Draft Layout much but opening it with a fresh install looks like it has plenty of room on my 1920x1200 screen: That being said, there is a lot of flexibility in formZ. With the Palettes in particular you may find clicking the edge of the Palette Dock will let you drag it smaller or larger. You can also try moving or turning off the Palette Dock (right side palettes nesting place) will buy you a lot of screen space. In formZ I actually have this on my second of three monitors so my modeling window is larger. All of the palettes and their docks can be turned on and off from the Palettes menu. After a quick customization, I'd setup formZ Draft Layout like this with the Status Bar - Bottom hidden after CTRL+Click+Dragging the Snap Tools and Reference Plane Tool bars to the empty space in the top bar. I also much prefer having my Toolbar on the right next to the Tool Options for cursor moving all the way across the screen continuously. To do this you right click on the Tool bar and select Move Dock Right: Does this help?

You might find the older Booleans video helpful - There are new videos coming from Evan Troxel on FormZ 10 including the Booleans, here is the first, just released this week.

Upon further testing, I can recreate your problem here. To Fix it, you just need to adjust the Numeric accuracy to greater than the default 1mm. I changed it to 0.01 mm. This will let the cursor more accurately follow your picked point.

Interesting. That Green Plus means you likely have 'Insert' turned On under the Tool options: While that Insert option is a handy feature to cut holes into things without the extra step of differencing them, you usually need to use the grid snap, or some other points or guides, or references in order to cut the newly drawn shape in the exact location you want.

This is unusual. A couple of things to check... 1- Looks like you are planning a small scale project, so make sure you set that up for accuracy under File>Project Settings: 2nd, I'd check and see if your grid snaps aren't messing with things here:

Hi, There's a lot of flexibility built into FormZ to do just that. For example, you could start with placing some Guides and move them and copy them to create your locations where you will create the cut shapes. Like if you know it is a center line or offset .25" or whatever. Then you could also create the cut object seperately away from the initial solid you already have and then move the cut objects onto your solid for cutting or as FormZ calls it, the Difference tool. FormZ solids are extremely easy to work with in this way using the Difference and Union tools. Does that help?

Awesome, thanks for sharing! The architecture is a bit brutalist for my tastes but there is certainly a place for that sort of thing. It feels like it could be a law office or something very serious like that.

Hi Alan, These install as completely seperate apps with seperate prefence files and everything. You should not have any issues using v10 and v8.5 together.

I believe this forum is the only place I've seen any FormZ discussions. Feel free to ask your questions, there are a number of us long time users who frequent here.

Did you reach out to FormZ tech support about this?

Hello, have you tried restarting your computer?

Truncated cones can be quite challenging to map to. I'm not a fan of Decals generally, but that's probably the easiest way if it works for you here. I seem to remember it not rendering correctly in VRay though, so let us know if that does work, won't you? Alternatively, you could figure out the proportions of the truncated cone and apply that to a logo file to skew it, then map the skewed logo file to the inside with cylinder mapping at 100% height and 360*. You'll need to do some math to figure out the correct r and R for the truncated cone, that is little radius and Large Radius, which you can use to find the proportions to apply to the logo file. Finally, you may have to horizontal 'Flip' the logo file in your photo editor so that the inside cylider mapping comes out correctly in FormZ. Good luck. Please share the outcome so that we can all see how you did it? Cheers.

So it's the Export from FormZ or from Illustrator that you are performing the rotation transformation?

Hello, This was an old annoyance that seems to be completely rectified in v10, atleast for me in v10 on Windows. For v8-v9, he old advice here is you need to rename or trash your formZ preferences folder and restart. To do this... Simply delete or rename the 'autodessys' folder after closing FormZ. On Windows it's located at C:/Users/(Username)/AppData/Roaming (you will have to show hidden items and folders) On Mac it's located at HOME: Library: Preferences After it launches the first time, it will rebuild the default prefences folder. Setup your workspace and palettes the way you want it, then save and close it. After you reopen it the next time, make sure you uncheck the 'Save between Sessions' option under the Workspaces Manager if you do not want to have to reset it again in v8 and v9. What happens sometimes is if formZ crashes when you have that 'Save Between Sessions' option enabled, it will not correctly save the Workspace and you will lose the palettes like the OP.

Hello, You can do it currently using the LightMix render element option with Groups enabled.

To be honest, I don't know what's changed, only that I am working too hard to keep my head above water to wait, so I simply jumped over and started exporting everything as DWG files. Have you tried a DWG export? It comes in as a Nurbz Curve...

I hear ya, I've always used Illustrator 8, as that is the last version that imported correctly for me for many years. I just tested a Illustrator 8 file and it imports as expected in FMZ10 with control points turned on. I do see it is listed as a Point Object in FormZ, but I'm not sure that's an issue? Please let me know if this Smooth Spline Curve is not what you need.

What file format are you using?

I'm not having an issue with lag in wireframe on Windows.... unless I turn on too many snaps. I only use point , center, and midpoint regularly, all the others are kept off. Does that help you?

Hello, I also noticed this roughness as well and have reported it a while ago, so I am hoping that this is just a bug that will be addressed in a coming update. It appears Anti Aliasing is not working in Wires Frame and Shaded Work on the Windows side currently. If you switch to Shaded Full and turn on the Line option, I've found this works great in the meantime and is just as fast for modeling tasks as Shaded Work. Cheers.