snow

Honestly I have a hard time seriously recommending formZ to other designers. Yes I am very fast in creating models but find a seasoned 3DS/C4D/Sketchup/Rhino user and they could likely build the same model within a comparable time frame. Unfortunately speed isn't the only thing that matters. 3DS and C4D might lack a level of precision that formZ inherently has, but there's a level of parametric modeling that formZ doesn't have i.e. live booleans. Couple this with NUMEROUS 3rd party plugins and rendering engines and you have a hard time trying to pry a visual artist from those programs. Blender and Modo can be tossed in this mix too. C4D also has one of the cleanest interfaces in the business, especially considering the scale of the program. Blender and Modo both have VERY nice interfaces that are modern and sleek. 3DS is a little behind in this category but they have the backing of Autodesk so it plays well with everything else that is popular from Autodesk (Revit, Maya, Inventor...). Sketchup is extremely basic and intuitive right out of the box, which is very attractive, but the program has the ability to grow with the user because of the extension warehouse. Don't want to manually fillet that edge? Well there's a plugin for that. It was also free for a very long time and was initially backed by Google. Rhino, IMHO is the most comparable program to formZ but I find it a bit more flexible. The Rhino for Mac interface is super clean and the more I work with the program the more aware I've become of it's expansive tool set. However it's not inherently a solid modeler so there always seems to be an extra step or to to get what I need to the engineers in my office. It also has a LOT of 3rd party plugin/rendering engine support. Oh, and Grasshopper is awesome. I feel like formZ is best with users who know it best. I know that if I recommend it to someone they would undoubtedly come across one of the many "quirks" of formZ and I'd have to steer them away from certain tools or actions to prevent a crash (i.e. components). Having known a number of people who work in these other programs and having worked in them myself I can see why they are so popular and why many never return back to a previous program. The unpopularity of formZ isn't because it's a bad program. It's not. It's a very GOOD program..... BUT.... the many other 3D modelers/visuallizers that have a number of pros that outweigh the cons compared to formZ.

+1 the axes of grouped objects needs to ALWAYS be center of volume (or center of bounding box). i don't know what causes the axes to go haywire anytime objects are grouped together.

Have you thought about using software that is more geared towards visualization such as C4D or 3DS Max? FormZ is a great modeler, but anytime I'm rendering an entire scene I just export parts of it into C4D for ease of use. Models that render formZ useless when simply panning or rotating seems to work just fine in those other programs. I've been using C4D for over 2 years for this reason and I have yet to see it crash. It's arguably the most stable program I've ever used.

I've had some good luck with SKP files after it's been exported to FBX. The materials are a little wonky, but the model is fairly clean. Highlight all and Ungroup a few times followed by Object Doctor and it should help. Granted, I've grabbed some models from the 3D warehouse that are beyond the grasp of formZ triage. It largely depends on the SKP user.

Allow the selection of multiple objects / group, select Edit Axes, and change to Center of Gravity, etc.

I experience this DAILY (without the MIMI script).

Yes formZ and Catalina work fine together... but Catalina is still a little buggy. I'd suggest waiting until the first or second patch arrives. It's also worth noting that Catalina drops support for all 32 bit apps.

I use a Logitech M720 and it works fine. Did you download Logitech Options? Maybe something isn't configured properly on the mouse?

here you go! lowpoly trees.fbx.fmz

I found recently something really useful with InDesign: Immediately after you lunch the app press "Ctrl + Alt + Shift". A dialogue will pop up asking if you want to reset preferences. formZ ABSOLUTELY NEEDS this. resetting preferences isn't a fix... it's basically a workflow at this point and any and all workflow shortcuts are welcome

Is this possible? If not can it be added? I believe rhino is currently using this functionality--you export a textured model as FBX the image files are not separately exported, but they are unpacked when imported into the next software. I ask because Windows 3D viewer needs to have the textures embedded to view files properly. If they are linked files the model only shows up as a single shade.

this doesn't make sense to me... in theory if you work on a file (any file/format) for 2 days or 200 days, if the file size stays the same then read/write speeds (and if everything else on the computer is unchanged) should remain constant? right? or do you think this is specific to formZ and there's an optimization issue with saves/re-writes?

yes use the polygon tool and changed the # of segments to 4

Are you talking about the autogrid? You can lock the grid to the various default planes which will prevent the autogrid from appearing.

this is a common workflow in many other modeling and rendering applications (sketchup, rhino, c4d, 3ds). if formZ implemented this it would help immensely.

is there a file you can post?

I just tested a progressive jpg in sketchup and it loads without an issue. same with rhino.

I have "Keep Texture" enabled in the project settings. All my textures are present in formZ, but they don't show up when exporting to FBX for render. Now I have to re-link a couple dozen textures in formZ because even though they show up in the project, when I click to "load texture" in the Material Parameters it goes to the default texture. I would think if I move the file from computer to computer with "Keep Textures" enabled it would, you know, keep textures with the file.

Bump. I copied a project folder from work PC onto a flash drive, which was then copied to my Mac at home. Search paths are directed right to this folder on my home desktop. Linked files show all textures with a green check. My file shows no textures at all. Looks like I'm going into the office early tomorrow...

Me: "One more crash and I'm done with this program!" Also me: "Ah, another project that needs to be finished in an unrealistic amount of time... *opens formZ*"

I come across this issue fairly often. the object in question was created using Reshape and Offset Outline. In the front view, Slice the 3/4" tube with the lines (Heal enabled), then try to delete one of the resulting objects. The objects have turned into surfaces instead of solids. My workaround was to create an ambiguous object and boolean difference the objects. It's not a huge issue, but an issue that should be fixed, nonetheless. slice.fmz

change "smooth" to facetted in the drop down and also change the radial button from "parametric" to "facetted" sketchup doesn't play well with smooth geometry.

Yes, that works too. But the (non) issue is that the slicing lines shouldn't have to connect. I'd like to see less bugs, not more workarounds.

is anyone else having this problem? Working from a server I have this problem a few times a week. There isn't any specific set of functions, or in a specific file, it's any file after routine functions. Copying my projects locally is not a viable workaround because that breaks linked textures that I need to export to render... and I often need to work on projects from two different locations. formZ is a very fast modeler, but that efficiently doesn't matter when I'm constantly losing 15, 20, 30+ minutes of work in my projects. sigh.

I never thought about that, but yes, it is set to Unlimited. Ill change it to 12 (and maybe increase later) to see if that resolves the issue. thanks, Des!