Pobo

Many thanks, Tech. I tried and it works fine, also in metric. From my perspective as an end user, the UI is totally counterintuitive: "this process will only work properly if you are drawing in 2D", yet when I choose the 'Export Image > DWG' it doesn't work as expected and when I choose the 'Export > DWG' - which supposedly is for handling 3D output - it does. Why can't the same scaling behaviour be applied to 'Export Image > DWG'?

In my 25 years with FormZ, if there's one consistent frustration, it must be export to Illustrator. It has changed many times but it never seems to get better. It requires so much manual tidying up, it drives me completely up the wall. Could you please, please, please at least do something about the scaling? I'm not asking for magical auto-join, circle/bezier output, superfluous hidden line removal or anything fancy: just 1:1 output. Yes, I know I can scale proportionally in Illustrator but by the time I prepare my 27th file for the lasercutter I don't want to. This is what I do: - I draw a 100x100mm square in FormZ in Modeller - I switch off grid and axes - I'm happy with this: I don't want to go to Layout. That's an unnecessary extra step. This square is perfect as it is. - I use Export Image -> DWG - I import in Illustrator, 1 unit = 1 mm - I end up with 353.503x353.503mm square. - Why? I don't see any metric to imperial conversion in there. // Tom

On a related note: I've tried exporting from both Modelling and Layout and on exporting to both AI and DWG my circles get converted to facets. Is there any way to keep them circles?

Thank you, Tech.

Alan, Andrew, many thanks for your suggestions. Seems like something that could/should be solved in code rather than manually.

Can someone help me on which setting determines whether arrow heads end up inside or outside of the leader lines? Clearly, here the 4mm dimension should have its arrow heads outside of the leader lines. I've found the 'Dimension Style' palette but I still cannot figure it out. Any help greatly appreciated. Tom

Thank you for the quick reply. I can't make the contextual right mouse click work. When clicking on an object in the scene, this triggers the hand tool for me, even though in Key Shortcuts it is set to middle button (see screenshot). When clicking on an object in the Object Palette I don't get an Edit Group option. The Unlock Groups menu function works though.

Sorry, this probably a completely stupid question but I have trouble selecting a single object within a group: when I try to select an object (with the pick tool at object level, not automatic) or try to pick an object in the Object Palette the whole group gets automatically selected. How do I select just a single object? Is there a setting for this? Any help greatly appreciated. Tomtest.fmz.zip

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Yessios, Thank you so much for creating FormZ which I've been using since 1995. I would describe FormZ as 'idiosyncratic, sometimes quirky but always powerful and engaging'. The main reason I keep returning to FormZ are the stellar customer support and forums. Thank you again, best wishes, Tom

Strange. I made this 10x10mm test square with its bottom left corner in the origin. When I export it to DWG and then open this DWG in Illustrator, suddenly the square is centred around the bottom left hand corner of the Illustrator page. I expected the square to have its bottom left corner in the bottom left corner of the page. I attach some screenshots and the file. Pobo.zip

Is it possible that something has changed in the way FormZ exports to DWG? I think it used to be that the origin stayed at the origin when exported. But I think that now FormZ takes the centre of the bounding box of the artwork and then puts that at the origin of the exported DWG. I actually preferred things the way they were. Now I've got to figure out how to accurately translate things back to where they're supposed to be.

Surely what you're writing here first would be invalid in any programming language? Basically you are comparing a bunch of values, resulting in true if they are and false if you don't. In your case they are topotypes but it could be anything really. As a thought experiment when you substitute integers for topotypes, I find it becomes easier to see that there is something strange going on: if ( 1 == ( 2 || 3 || 4) && LengthAbs_v_Perc == 0) The compiler will try to evaluate the ( 2 || 3 || 4) first as it lives between brackets but there isn't really an operation to evaluate there. The other one you write makes more sense if ((1 == 2 || 1 == 3 || 1 == 4) && LengthAbs_v_Perc == 0) I don't think there is any way of writing it shorter. There is no shorter syntax and you can't shorten the variable names as they are predefined. If it's just about readability you could consider doing the comparisons before the if statement (but you already knew that): in pseudocode: bool comparison1 = topoType == FZ_OBJT_TOPO_OWRE bool comparison2 = topoType == FZ_OBJT_TOPO_CWRE bool comparison3 = topoType == FZ_OBJT_TOPO_SURF if ((comparison1 || comparison2 || comparison3) && LengthAbs_v_Perc == 0) { // }

Brilliant, thank you!

Hi, I've imported a model from SolidWorks to which I need to add some simple stuff: draw some lines from keypoints (points, midpoints, endpoints etc.) When I'm using the line tool in Shaded Full mode, FormZ keeps pointing out the polygons with green dashed lines. Is there any way to switch this off? I find the hinting distracts from the keypoints I'm trying to find. Any help greatly appreciated. Tom

Hi Chris, Thank you for the clarification. One of many situations in which the desired result is achievable, it's just a convoluted process to get there. Yes, I had discovered the grid and axis trick though really I would like that to be part of the export dialogue box. // Tom