snow

Thanks for the tips, Justin. I'll give them a try!

Update: zero crashes while working on the Mac with the same file. I will forever be upset with my company switching to Windows.

anyone else having this problem? I've lost about 4 hours of work the last 2 days because of crashing/error loops. Both error loops were caused by Undo's being reset (different processes so of course I could not reproduce the error) and one crash was just navigating around the model. I don't have auto-save enabled because auto-save = routine temporary freezing while modeling which is not ideal. For the rest of the day I'm going to work on a Mac that is at my disposal to see if that is any better with 8.6.4.1.

I'm not sure if this is a bug or if it's designed this way, but I use groups quite a bit and my preferred method to edit groups is by selecting Unlock Groups. However if I have Unlock Groups checked, copy a whole group, then uncheck Unlock Groups, the original group remains, but the copied group is not a group. For example: Draw a number of cubes. Select all and group. Go to Edit and check Unlock Groups. Select all cubes, move/copy them. Uncheck Unlock Groups. The original group is still grouped, the new "group" is not. Personally, I'd prefer the group to remain as a part of the copied objects, but maybe I'm not the majority. Regardless of this workflow, I'd like to see the Unlock Groups and Unlock Components be a more prevalent part of the formZ UI. Maybe something similar to how the Lock Reference Plane is displayed? If there were icons for these functions I'd probably create a custom toolbar for it so I can stop making this mistake... which is almost everyday haha.

1. create your wall 2. use offset segment tool (insert OFF) to offset 2" from each side and 3' from bottom (you can also use guides here, but it'll take more clicks) 3. define reference plane on your wall 4. draw a rectangle (insert OFF) starting at the bottom left corner with a length of 16" and a width of 9" 5. use a guide to mark the 16:9 ratio of the rectangle in the previous setp 6. draw another rectangle (with insert ON) in the same bottom left corner and follow the guide to the intersection on the other side of the wall. 7. reshape -1" and delete offset lines, guides, reference rectangle. After doing this, I realize it would be REALLY beneficial if you could lock your aspect ratio in the rectangle tool options... 🤔

True. I think a workaround for that is to change the image options to something high-res, export image to tiff, place this image in Illustrator, and run Image Trace. Depending on the model and how much tinkering needs to be done, this would probably be faster than letting hidden line grind out a rendering for 10+ minutes.

hidden line is still awful and I was thinking "there must be a better way..." there is. and it's so easy I feel like a dunce that it took me 5+ years to figure it out. 1. Have a white background and turn off grid and axes. 2. Create a white material and set the reflection to constant. 3. Turn on Antialiasing in Shaded Options Done. Instant Hidden Line that is at least 100,000x faster than the real hidden line and with MUCH better results in regards to text (i didn't do a benchmark test on this, so please don't quote me). I'm literally never using the hidden line again and i am so happy about this so i needed to share.

the jpg needs to be saved as "standard" a "progressive" jpg will not open. you should also use RGB color space for best results

I agree this could be very useful to see an Object Parameters window open all the time... it should probably be separate palette from the Tool Options. I say could because the Parameters function kinda broken in formZ. Example: Draw a cube... parameters are there and adjustable. Reshape the cube: Parameters are gone. This is the same for all generated solids. Yes, you can use the Transform/Non-Uniform Scaling to change the size, but it's not *quite* the same. formZ needs to retain these parametric properties when just reshaping an object. Maybe a version 9 fix?

this statement gives me a migraine. I really hope Z9 addresses most of these silly preference issues. I think a simple application frame will do wonders as opposed to the floating palettes.

because formZ is the best and it can do anything and everything, of course! but no seriously... this is a pretty silly and annoying bug. we installed formZ on a number of machines in our office and on every machine it made most file types want to open in formZ--DWG, 3DS, SKP, etc--were all affected by this. There's no workaround for this, you'll just slowly change the default application for every file type and eventually the problem will be solved.

I've noticed this issue too. I wasn't sure which unit it was exporting, but when I import the FBX into C4D the model is always quite small. I have not found a proper workaround. I suspect something is broken in the export settings (i've tried all the settings with no luck) and I've tried changing the import settings on C4D without any luck. I just scale my model in the destination program.

after you uninstall it you'll have to contact support and they will remove the serial number from your IP address.

Try turning off snaps you aren't using. Snap to Intersections does more harm than good when modeling in moderately complex files. I rarely use it.

Corona is another one that is intrigueing. I'm tempted to pick up a cheap PC in the near future to test out some of these new rendering engines.