ThatMNTishman Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Is is just me or has this wonderful part of FormZ been just left to die? I have tried it a number of times recently, and it only seems to reliably work with Renderzone settings. Ive set up Full Shaded batches of rendering with all the proper file and rendering options as I had for years under v6.8, and it freezes, crashes, and the window GUI changes to strange outlines of input areas and more. Is it just my setup? Is anyone using Imager reliably these days? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Hi Andrew, We are not sure why you would have trouble generating Shaded Full Images with the Imager. Can you please send your FMZ and FIS files so we can test with these and see if it is something we can reproduce here, or if it is something we need to trouble shoot with regards to your computer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsOne Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Funny that I was just logging into to ask why I'm getting this error message in Imager. Everything seems to be setup correctly as I normally would set it up. I agree that Imager needs an overhaul and could have a lot of improvements. I don't have time to illiterate right now, but will try to soon. Sorry to hijack the thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsOne Posted March 30, 2016 Share Posted March 30, 2016 Ok a couple of ideas... 1. Would be great to have a Preview window where I can see a test render. Ideally copying the current settings from my .fmz file window. 2. A quick global "set to current .fmz file settings" from window #__ would be awesome. In this case it would auto set the display and image options without me having to go into those dialog boxes every time. 3. Be able to select multiple views by clicking and dragging the mouse...not clicking on every single view. 4. Imager never seems to remember my default settings in Imager Setup. Sort of annoying to set it every single time. 5. In that vein, would be nice to have a few user defined default settings to use. Sort of Imager "workspaces" For example I use the same Shaded Full and Hidden Line settings constantly. Would be nice to simply choose my workspace and Generate. This would include Display options, Image options, file path, and .fmz file window #. Most times I have my FormZ model setup exactly as I want to render. Especially for non Renderzone images. 6. Would love to be able to open Imager natively in FormZ. Similar to Maxwell Fire (if I'm remembering Maxwell correctly). Or just add a multiple view export option: It would be really REALLY nice to simply highlight the views I want in FormZ, be given a file/folder location to choose, and click Generate for images with the same Display and Image options. As it stands I have to open Imager, select the views, setup all the Display and Image options (which I already have set within FormZ), go into Imager setup to choose a file location, then finally Generate. Even if I'm choosing the Display and Image options from Window #1 (or whatever window) in FormZ that is still two dialog boxes to open and set. Oh and I have to click "All Images" every single time. Most of the time I end up simply exporting all the images right from FormZ, which is very time consuming. Multiple image export with the same Display and Image options should be much easier and faster. If you don't imbed Imager into FormZ...another idea would be to have the following option: When I open Imager and select my file: it automatically has a preview window of my current .fmz file with the current .fmz file window selected. It also has the same Display Option and Image Options palettes as FormZ on screen (with the options from my .fmz file turned on/off). It also has the same View palette as FormZ with my current .fmz file views loaded. Then I can multi select my views, click Generate, choose a file location, and done! So Imager could have user set "render workspaces" and also a "use my current .fmz file Display and Image options" option. Maybe for a Renderzone workspace the preview window would not start rendering a Renderzone image, but just default to Shaded Full...until Generate is clicked. Hope that makes sense. In theory Imager is a great idea, in practice I sadly find it more time consuming overall than simply exporting views directly from FormZ. Obviously if I needed to run a lot of Renderzone renders then it might be useful, but for everything else I have given up on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThatMNTishman Posted April 2, 2016 Author Share Posted April 2, 2016 I will send in a file, but its fundamentally not-functional in my opinion. Its like ADS stopped converting the code or updating it in the transition to v7 and beyond. It simply does not work reliably and I've tried it on different computers with different project files since version 7. I'm asking if others are experiencing the same issues. So far a yes. No one has chimed in saying its working great either. I have architect users who use this religiously and have stayed back on v6.8 just because they want files to run at night and come in to finished renders the next day. I'm just asking Zweb to give us the lo-down on Imager. Any plans to focus on it? Is is left for dead? Do you really think its up to current code with no errors during batch runs and no GUI weirdness when it runs? One thing it doesnt do is show the live state of a render as it does in a normal formZ screen rendering. This is a crucial missing piece that was there in v6.8 and allows one to monitor another computer running a batch of images. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Hi Andrew, The Imager is generally "working" fine for us but you are correct that there needs to be both visual feedback and a progress bar -- which is currently lacking. If you are having other issues, we will investigate these when we receive your report and file(s). Asone, Thanks for your suggestions. Note that you can currently right click in any View in a formZ project and choose Imager Render -- and it will render that view with the desired Display using the current project Display Options for that mode. Note that we have seen a few cases where the Imager window does not properly reflect the completed image, but as soon as it is completed, if you check the designated folder, you should find the properly rendered image (and we are working on a correction for that issue). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsOne Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 Thanks for pointing out Imager Render right click option. Nothing happens when I attempt it. No renders or files of any sort are present anywhere. Doesn't matter if I choose to save with the project or in a custom location or what type of render I try. What is supposed to happen here? Also can it render multiple images at once? If so, are they saved with the View name as the file name. If so this would be a HUGE improvement to my workflow and essentially would solve my problem with Imager, which essentially is the difficult nature of batch render output. Of course Imager could still use a facelift, especially for Renderzone users. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted April 5, 2016 Share Posted April 5, 2016 Hi Asone, The images should be saved in the same folder as your project, and you should be able to generate multiple images (one after the other). If you run a simple test, is that not working for you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsOne Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 Ok I got it to work on my laptop today running Mac OS Yosemite. However, only the first of 5 images were rendered correctly. The others all had issues. I will try to post. On my machine running Mavericks at the office nothing happens at all. ? If I can get this to work it would be such a huge improvement to my workflow!!! How did I not know about this feature??? How long has this been around? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsOne Posted April 6, 2016 Share Posted April 6, 2016 and I should note I still get that error message posted above if I try to load everything directly through Imager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Hi Andrew, We are not sure why you would have trouble generating Shaded Full Images with the Imager. Can you please send your FMZ and FIS files so we can test with these and see if it is something we can reproduce here, or if it is something we need to trouble shoot with regards to your computer? Dear Asone, This feature has been available since formZ v7.0. We have run numerous tests and the images are all being generated properly for us. Please send your file(s) and specific steps as to what you are doing with these files so we can try the exact same thing here. If we can reproduce the problem, we can investigate why this might occur, and if we don't we can try to help fix your installation on your computer so you can generate your images properly. Andrew, We have not received any files from you either. If you are still able to reproduce any issues, please make sure to send the file(s) and steps so we can help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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