Tech

Thank you all for your passion on this issue. The plugin for Maxwell is owned by Next Limit and more recently maintained and improved for them by the Pylon team. While we have made a number of enhancements to the formZ API to support Maxwell over the years, we have no control over the development of the plugin itself. As the formZ API is forward compatible, the current plugin is expected function with v9 and hopefully beyond. We are in discussion with Next Limit about picking up support of the plugin for future versions of Maxwell, however we do not yet know if this will be viable. A lot will depend on how significant the changes are in the next Maxwell API and how much support we can get from Next Limit and Pylon. I encourage everyone to let Next Limit know how important this is to you. If you are into coding and interested in contributing to this effort, please let us know.

Hello, Though we aren't directly integrated with Unreal, TwinMotion, or Lumion, form•Z files can be exported into various different formats to work in each: Unreal: DWG, FBX, IGES, 3DM, SAT, STEP. TwinMotion: FBX, DAE, DWG Lumion: DAE, FBX, DWG, DXF, 3DS, OBJ We are working on incorporating BIM information into our importers but currently do not have a timeline for when it will be included. We will support VRay Next shortly after the version 9 release.

Could you help me to understand what you mean by "have default naming be the name?" What should the name default to instead in your opinion?

That is a legitimate suggestion! As of right now the layers will need to have unique names, but this would make a nice improvement. Thank you for your feedback! If you have any more, please submit them to support@formz.com.

A recent graphics driver update for Windows 10 on machines with Intel integrated graphics causes objects to render black in shaded work and shaded full modes. This hot fix replaces the formZ 8 OpenGL shaders to be compatible with these drivers. These updated shaders should be compatible with other graphics driver versions and other manufactures drivers as well. This fix applies to formZ pro, formZ SE (Student edition), formZ jr and formZ free on Windows. To apply the hot fix, please follow the following steps: 1. Quit formZ. 2. Download and extract the .zip file below. This will yield a directory called "glsl_shaders" in your system downloads location. 3. Copy this directory to the "\support" folder of your formZ installation, replacing the existing "glsl_shaders" directory. formZ pro: \Program Files\formZ 8\formZ 8.x pro\support formZ SE: \Program Files\formZ 8\formZ 8.x SE\support formZ jr: \Program Files\formZ 8\formZ 8.x jr\support formZ free: \Program Files\formZ 8\formZ 8.x free\support 4. Restart formZ. glsl_shaders.zip

Roughness is an essential material parameter that will need to be increased for a more visible effect of light on a surface, especially if the light is very close to the surface. Take a look at the images here: the plane on the left has a roughness of ~20, while on the right it has a roughness of 100. The left plane will reflect the light more directly, allowing it to be visible only from certain angles. The one on the right will diffuse the light with its rough surface, scattering the light and giving it a more illuminated effect. Some of the reflective materials for Renderzone will illuminate, even if the path is obscured. Here is the list of modes that behave that way: Chrome, Frosty, Glass Accurate, Glossy, Metal Accurate, Mirror, and Multilayer Paint. This is a limitation of Renderzone, though there are work-arounds to achieve desired results (as was mentioned above). Limitations like this is the reason we've adopted the V-Ray technology. V-Ray for form•Z does not have these restrictions and will only catch the light on a surface when light rays make contact. To try out these capabilities, sign up for a 30-day free trial on our website: http://www.formz.com/home/evalvrayLanding.html

Okay, I wasn't able to make out the thickness from the above images. Could we get you to send that to support@formz.com for us to investigate more closely?

Judging by these images, it looks as though your displays are letting light pass through the back-faces. Only one side of a face will block light, the other ends up "invisible." You can test this theory by creating a cube, then using the Reverse tool on it. This is essentially what you have, an intricate "box" with a light inside: You can see that the light leaks out through the cube, because there is no face to catch the light. To fix this, I'll need to create inward-facing faces. The easiest way to do that is by using the Thicken tool. Once the object has thickness, it will block the light.

Thank you for bringing these to our attention. We will work on getting these issues patched ASAP! For quicker responses, please email us at support@formz.com with your bugs/problems/recommendations/hopes/dreams/etc.

It seems as though your GFX card isn't getting used for the render. Open your V-Ray Settings palette and click the arrow in the bottom right corner next to Utilities. From that drop-down menu, select GPU Device Selection. Then choose your Nvidia card in the next window. Make sure you click Set Devices, then try a render. The artifacts should be gone. In the future, please contact us at support@formz.com for quicker response times.

This follows the broad UI standard that you normally expect with a paste operation (think of how in a text editor the paste operation replaces the highlighted text). While a 3D application is a bit different, its not uncommon to copy a set of objects, paste them in an empty project to work with them and then copy and paste them back into the original project. In this workflow you want to replace the original objects but there are also times where you may not won't to replace them and its easy to forget to deselect first. We can easily add some control over this function, the question is what is the best way? One option is a preference setting (Replace on Paste: on/off/ask) but that is hard to find and tedious to change. A better solution may be separate paste commands in the edit menu (ie "Paste" and "Paste and Replace").

You can do that already by going to Project Settings > Appearance > Select or create and custom style > Select Pre-Pick to change the colour to green or whatever. Thanks Des. Also be sure that you have "Selection Preview" checked in the Edit Menu. When enabled, the preview of the selection will be shown in the "Pre-Pick" color when the cursor is over the Object/Face/Edge etc or in the boundary of an area selection. This option is on by default (but could have be inadvertently deselected in the Edit menu).

The SDK has been available since v6 as both a C(/C++) interface and an FSL (form•Z script language) interface. With v9 we are introducing Python support. This simplifies and standardizes the scriptable interface for form•Z making extending form•Z easier and opening an channel to a wealth of existing python libraries that offer a variety of functionality. The C interface will still be supported in v9, but we expect the to be used primarily for existing plugins or development that needs to access external C libraries. FSL will be discontinues. We expect that the Python interface will bring new interest in extensions and to the LAB project which has not been updated in a while. We expect to start beta testing towards the end of next month so stay tuned!

Are you using the new Toon material with GPU enabled? We are aware that GPU creates artifacts with this shader. See this post:

Not quite sure what result you are trying to get here...Based on the position of your source and path objects, The Axial Sweep tool with the "As positioned" option yields the result below. Is this what you are looking for?