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Hi Chris, Sorry, it bumped into this thread almost a year late ... 🙂 I think this is a very interesting initiative. Did you take it any further?

Hi Des, Many thanks for your reply. I got the standalone version of Maxwell to work in the way you described: clicking through all the frameworks that are used under the hood. Sadly, I still can't get the plug-in to work anymore (MaxwellRender.fzp). I think it is because FormZ continues to start up and doesn't wait for me to give permission via Security & Privacy. // Tom

I'm using an old version of Maxwell (3) in combination with FormZ 9.06 which until recently worked fine for my modest needs. With the latest versions of MacOS, I can't get it to work anymore because of tightened security measures. I get warnings like in the screenshots below. I cannot use the standalone Maxwell application nor the plug-in. Does anyone know a workaround for this? Or do I have no other choice than forking out a couple of hundred euros for Maxwell 5? Any help greatly appreciated. // Tom

Today I finally realized what is causing the problem with printing at 100%. Choosing ISO A4 as the print size in FormZ assumes that the paper size will be 29.7 x 21.0 cm. But on my MacBook - and I don't know whether this is an Apple thing or an HP print driver thing - A4 is defined as 29.7 x 20.99cm. As a result, FormZ thinks that my layout document doesn't fit the paper size and starts splitting up the print over two pages: the document is 0.01cm too high for the paper size ... 🙂 If I make a custom paper size in the print driver that is 29.7 x 21.0cm everything is fine. I guess I could also make a 'Custom Paper Size' in FormZ Draft Layout File -> Project Settiings that is 29.7 x 20.99 I think the screenshots show the mismatch. No drama, all solvable, it just stumped me 🙂

The pictures in the paper look pretty awesome. Sadly they're not sharing source code.

Dear Des, Bo & Setz, Many thanks for the great pointers. I likely wouldn't be using FDM printing but more likely an SLA flavour so overhang wouldn't be a problem. @Setz many thanks for the kind offer. I think I first need to play around a bit myself. @Bo I like the aesthetic of your trees. They are unmistakenly trees even though they do not have foliage.

Hi, I was hoping that someone here could help me. Excuse my ignorance, I am not an architect by training. I am looking for 3D models of trees which can be 3D printed. The reason being that I am trying to create a match between a physical model and a virtual scene, a sort of virtual twin approach. I am not necessarily looking for realism; aesthetic abstraction is also fine. Of course there are thousands of beautiful tree models, but most of them are created for rendering, relying heavily on texture-mapped foliage. Then are trees for table top gaming which to me look very cheesy and toy-like. And finally there are printable trees with huge poly counts which make them less suitable for realtime visualization. Can anyone point me in the right direction? Any help greatly appreciated! // Tom

I think from Next Limit's perspective, they say that the license is cheaper now that you can buy the plug-in license and Studio separately. I don't actually know whether this is true, since it is such a long time ago that I bought v3 with the plug-in and Studio together. I agree it would be nice to have a special offer to upgrade to a combination of plug-in and Studio. I'm still on version 3, which works for now. In general I find Next Limit's support disappointing. When I start a support case, I typically get a first reply pretty quickly but after that first reply it may hang indefinitely. Some of my problems: v3 refused to run freshly installed on my new MacBook. This was solved remotely after more than a week of emails back and forth. Turned out to be the result of a spelling mistake in a file name and the license file being misplaced in the directory structure which can't have been user error because it was a completely fresh install... I can't access the online materials library anymore with MXED v3. It used to be possible on previous machines. My support case seems to have been abandoned. Next Limit changes the URLs of their support database which means that links in blogs, tutorials and even on their own website tend to be broken. This is a real killer for community building. // Tom

Hi Andrew, It may have to do with the Extents settings of your reference plane. If you need more resolution (i.e. smaller units) for modelling a very small object (e.g. a watch, a molecule 🙂 ) then typically your total scene will be smaller so you can reduce the Extents of your grid. Typically it does not make sense to have a very large grid in combination with very high resolution and FormZ does not support this: if the Extents of your reference plane are very large, FormZ refuses to further increase the fineness of the grid. If you go to menu Palettes/References Plane Parameters and then reduce the Extents of your references plane, does that help? // Tom

So far I've been rendering in 4:3 aspects ratio using Maxwell v3. When I switch to 16:9, the rendering in Maxwell looks different from the preview in the FormZ window. Clearly, I would like them to look the same so that the Maxwell rendering is an accurate reflection of my preview in FormZ. I can remember this being discussed a long time ago but I cannot find the thread anymore. Can anyone enlighten me? // Tom

Hi, I notice that there are many dead links from the Help Topics to the Maxwell site. Of the following, only the 'Maxwell Render Dos and Donts' works for me. Any chance of fixing this? I notice in general that Next Limit tends to change the URLs of their help section, so that many blogs with tips and techniques are turned useless. Such a shame. Help Topics Installation and Licensing Problems and Solutions Improving Rendering Speed: Speed Bottlenecks in Maxwell Photography Techniques for Interior Rendering Maxwell Render Dos and Donts

OK, I finally figured it out: grass should be set through the Attributes for Maxwell panel. In the Materials panel, the Maxwell pane should be set to 'Translate shaded', *not* to 'Referenced MXM'. How counterintuitive is that?

I notice Maxwell 5 for FormZ is now available on the Next Limit portal. Does this mean the plug-in is also finished or is the 'glue' between FormZ 9 and Maxwell 5 missing? // Tom

No one at all who can help me out? Even when I start a completely new project, draw a simple rectangular plane, add a physical sky and apply this grass MXM material, I still get this 'UVW channels on this object are not enough' warning.

I'm getting this error message when trying to render grass. I found this thread (http://www.formz.com/forum/old/messages/35953/61315.html) but still can't figure it out. I'm on FormZ 8.6 and Maxwell v3. I've already put an 8-bit PNG texture on the 'Shaded' material type of the Materials Parameter panel but it doesn't help. Also, I do not understand what to do with the three buttons 'Update shade..', 'Preview' and 'Use MXED'. Which one do I click and where do I see the feedback which one is active? Any help greatly appreciated. // Tom