AsOne

Does FormZ 9 run on Apple Silicon M1 chips natively yet? If no, eoes anyone run FormZ 9 on the M1 in "rosetta" mode or whatever they are calling it now? If yes, is it working well? Is it running fast? Thinking about upgrading to a new MacBook Pro and selling my 27" iMac.

I have found v9.0.6.1 very capable and am using it professionally for architecture for months now. My favorite version ever. The bugs that are most problematic are: 1. My view and render settings change when using the file tab feature. For example I have a shaded full perspective set up and after switching to a different file to copy an object my view and render setting is completely changed back in the original file. 2. Palettes can get sucked into menu bars too easily 3. Option key doesn't always change from Move to Copy 4. I'm using the new Reference file feature, but it could be dramatically improved and sometimes causes crashes. Another thread has covered this already. 5. My customized Workspace often gets messed up and needs to be reset. To be fair, saving and restoring a Workspace is easy. On purpose I don't do that much customization anymore in case I need to rebuild from scratch. 6. Sometimes hovering palettes popups stops working forcing a restart or Workspace reset. 9.1 may have fixed some of these issues. I was having too many issues with 9.1. I believe with Layout not working and crashing over and over, but can't recall. I reverted to 9.0.6.1. I'm not on the Vray beta so can't comment on 9.2.

I set by pixel size, per Des's comment. It works quite well and subsequent image exports auto update in Vectorworks & InDesign (my two frequently used programs). No need for resizing in Photoshop or screen shots. For example I set the window to 1600x900 and export as a .png or .jpg. I include a 10'x10' box to easily scale the image in Vectorworks if it is a scaled image (building elevations). Once it is set I never have to rescale again. I export the image with the same file name and it is updated in Vectorworks (or whatever other software I use such as Adobe Indesign). For higher quality I simply start with a higher pixel size. FYI: Scenes save the window image size, so you can set an export Scene with all the correct layers on and image size set. I gave up on printing and PDF export from FormZ a while back. Simply impossible. Easier and faster to export to another program for PDF. I had a request in v7 I think to improve that and have since given up hope on that front. It's possible it is better from Layout, but I have not tried. It could be something worth looking into?

Perfect, Thanks! First print was a success:

Is there a tutorial anywhere for setting up a model for 3D printing?

I haven't seen the videos, but probably many of the basics are covered here already: https://www.getmethod.com/formz

Some the tools used to have videos - right click on a tool to View Video. They seem to be Flash though and don't work on v9 for me, probably since Flash has been retired (I think). It would be great if they were updated & reloaded without requiring Flash. A simple hyperlink to YouTube would do it for me...no need to have them built into the software, although that is nice it seems like more work.

I am doing A LOT of walkthroughs these days. Live via Zoom, sometimes in person (COVID 19 dependent) and recorded. With the power of Shaded Full rendering this is a great option to communicate the design to clients, produce marketing videos, and simply view the model in house. Twinmotion is a fantastic add to FormZ, but sometimes Shaded Full is all I need and no additional setup or render time is required. Additionally no animation setup is required. It could not be easier. However the navigation visuals get in the way and really detract from the visual quality. I would love an option to remove the navigation visuals: the yellow feet and targets that are on screen while using the walkthrough tool. There are actually two targets, one that comes up with the tool and a plus sign when you click to start walking. Plus the yellow feet. Circled in red below: I actually don't see the point of the targets at all. I can see the feet being useful for navigation. Perhaps an option to show/hide the navigation visuals would be best. Thanks for considering.

A "hack" is to use the walk tool to literally walk around the model, recording your screen while doing so. A bit annoying with the little yellow feet on screen (I have a feature request to disable these as an option), but it works. I do it all the time now to send clients walkthroughs. On Mac you can use Quicktime. It records audio as well, so if you want to narrate or add commentary you can do so. You can record the entire screen or a portion of it. I use Handbrake to reduce the size of the videos.

FormZ 9 runs as smooth as butter on my 2019 iMac. With all the Shaded Full graphics options turned on (shadows, multi sampling, AO, antialiasing, etc) I have no issues navigating the model in real time. It renders fast as well for my needs. If I needed more speed to increase render times I could buy a Mac Pro. There are a lot of options there. Is it as fast as the top end AMD PC spec? No. But Macs get the job done and probably quite well for a majority of FormZ users I would imagine. I also don't have to waste time dealing with Windows. We will probably see huge speed increases with the M chips. The low end models in laptops are already faster than most every Intel chip in single speed computing and they have excellent multicore speed for being low end mobile chips. I bet the new iMacs and eventual Mac Pro will be incredibly fast. There might always be a faster PC build out there, but I bet that is only an issue for a small percentage of FormZ users. I agree that there are frustrating things about being on the Mac platform, hardware customization being one of them. But the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, at least for me they do. Integration between software/hardware, fluid transfer between phone/tablet/desktop, the best OS with the least amount of malware (by far), and from my experience hardly ever OS system crashes or even issues, configuration and setup is a breeze, and not that I care but the machines just look better. Apple is still a very viable business ecosystem, especially for small business which I'm sure are the majority of FormZ users. And FormZ runs on both platforms, so you can configure a top of the line PC if needed. I doubt erasing Mac will at all benefit Autodessys in any way, nor would abandoning it help. In fact it would likely be very harmful as a lot of users are Mac based I would imagine. I agree with Chris that the best way to help is with very specific bug and feature request reports. That and using the product to produce great work that can be shown to others.

I think the reason it isn't popular is a marketing issue. The v9 UI definitely needs to become more stable. It is still a work in progress. More consistent updates would also help. Once a year like other software would be great. However, marketing is more the issue IMHO. There are many popular things that aren't really that good, case in point: SketchUp and since I'm on that train - Microsoft Windows! I agree with everyone that I don't know why there isn't aggressive marketing, social media, student/university training, youtube tutorials (just short 1-5 minutes each), instagram, a much simpler user gallery on the website, etc. Maybe once v9 is fully stable?

If Mac is dropped I would also drop FormZ. The LAST thing FormZ should do is pander to an utterly inferior OS. All the savings from a faster GPU would be wasted dealing with windows. Especially once the new iMac and MacPro's running M chips are released! I willing to bet FormZ's users are more Mac based than your 90/10 split. I can't take seriously everyone whining about the look of the UI who runs Windows.

For single monitor use I keep a bank of minimized palettes at the top of my modeling window and keep the Tool Options + Inspector at the top of the right side dock :

Once setup my v9 UI is working well on Mac. I think it is a step in the right direction over v7 and v8. There are things to improve upon (I have posted about them and contacted support), but for me it works well once set up and I'm working very fast in v9 now. I really love the look and feel of the UI in general. I have not used or seen other software, including many mentioned in this and other threads that make me think AutoDessys should be focused on a total UI rebuild. Much more important things to do IMHO. Plus from watching these and other similar threads in the forum there is no broad consensus on a UI look or features. For example I see nothing in the Blender look that appeals to me over FormZ. 3DSMax has done quite well given it's apparent repulsive UI. Cinema 4D looks well organized, but doesn't blow me away over FormZ. If anything UI stability is the most pressing concern shared by everyone. I will take that over tweaking of fonts and icons. In general I wish updates were more frequent, even if more incremental. However to say there has been very little improvement is incorrect. What is the point of coming into the forum to simply trash a program you apparently don't even use, besides trolling. Just use something else that works for you.

How about instead of one day you take a week and deliver us a perfect 3D software...I'll be waiting...