Justin Montoya Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Hello- It seems I have lost the ability to create a new material by double clicking in the blank space of the Materials palette. Is this intended? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Justin, Did you check this option from the Preferences? (From Edit: Preferences: Palettes.) NOTE that this will add the new item with a single click -- not a double click -- which would normally open the Material Parameters Palette if you are double clicking on an existing Material (but not the blank space...) Does that help? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I have the same issue. If I click in the layer palette or view palette I can sometimes get a new view or layer. It often takes a few clicks. However, in the material palette it doesn't work at all. I need to click on the plus sign to add a new material. Just happened with the latest update. On a separate issue I was wondering if anyone out there is having an issue with the snap guide "move" or "scale" lock while in shaded mode. Essentially what is happening is that I can move an object along the guide in wireframe just fine. However, once my model gets to a certain size I can not get it to lock on the guide in shaded mode. So I am forced to go back to wireframe to get it to work. This is true of scale as well. If I want to scale an object up only in the z direction then I have to go back to wireframe. It happens on all three of my computers and it has been an issue for at least a year or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 Justin, Did you check this option from the Preferences? (From Edit: Preferences: Palettes.) NOTE that this will add the new item with a single click -- not a double click -- which would normally open the Material Parameters Palette if you are double clicking on an existing Material (but not the blank space...) Does that help? Yes, I have the click option in Preferences checked as always. Something has broken recently here, though I suppose it could also be the Thea plugin I am using? Single click, yes, I think when it stopped working I started clicking more in frustration! I have the same issue. If I click in the layer palette or view palette I can sometimes get a new view or layer. It often takes a few clicks. However, in the material palette it doesn't work at all. I need to click on the plus sign to add a new material. Just happened with the latest update. On a separate issue I was wondering if anyone out there is having an issue with the snap guide "move" or "scale" lock while in shaded mode. Essentially what is happening is that I can move an object along the guide in wireframe just fine. However, once my model gets to a certain size I can not get it to lock on the guide in shaded mode. So I am forced to go back to wireframe to get it to work. This is true of scale as well. If I want to scale an object up only in the z direction then I have to go back to wireframe. It happens on all three of my computers and it has been an issue for at least a year or two. I have had the other palettes stop responding to a click as well, but I can't pinpoint when and where. Certainly does seem to be when the projects get bigger and more complicated and FormZ has been open for a long time -ie. Days. I have also noticed the same thing with snap guides stop working correctly. Sometimes the point snaps will work, but then the guide snaps stop, very strange as for me it also happens in Wireframe as well as Shaded. However a reboot always seems to fix it. I'm now just getting back in the habit of turning off my computer every day instead of letting it sleep. Seems to help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I wish I had time to troubleshoot all the little quirks that I am experiencing but they seem to be so arbitrary. You are right about rebooting regularly. And of course hitting command s on a regular basis. Especially before asking the program to Bollean or any other complicated function. Things seem to be getting less stable lately. I just experienced a crash by copy pasting a piece of furniture that I have been using for years. Totally random. Restart the program and it imports fine. Are you also having an issue with speed in the material palette? I used to be able to breeze through the materials and their parameters easily. Now there seems to be a significant lag when loading and adjusting materials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Hi Andrew, If you have a problem that is new with the latest patch, have you tried downloading a clean copy from here and try that, does this work any better for you? www.formz.com/update If that by itself does not solve it, does Quitting formZ and renaming the autodessys folder (from USER: Library: Preferences), does that help? And if you are still having issues and can reproduce it with a specific file, please send that so we can test with it here. Hi Justin, We are not sure why the Thea Plugin would affect most palettes in general, but it does modify the Materials Palette -- so it is possible it could be releated to that. If you are beta testing this software and you find an issue you can reproduce, the next step would be to see if it happens without the Thea plugin as well. (And if it only happens with the Thea plugin loaded, then this should be reported to Solid Iris so it can be corrected.) If you can find any issues that you can reproduce, please let us know, but Saving, and Rebooting on a regular basis (at least every half hour for saving, and at least every day or two for rebooting) will help your computer run more cleanly and is highly recommended... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Justin Montoya Posted November 23, 2016 Author Share Posted November 23, 2016 The speed of the material palette seems to change depending on the number of materials in it. I suspect we have a memory handling issue here, which is getting compounded by the use and need for more accurate materials. Thea has a neat option where it will automatically save a smaller version of the file in the same folder as the full size file for use with the shaded preview. This has really helped keep the materials more responsive when using Thea. I don't love creating more files, but at least it clearly labels it as such. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Hi Andrew, If you have a problem that is new with the latest patch, have you tried downloading a clean copy from here and try that, does this work any better for you? www.formz.com/update If that by itself does not solve it, does Quitting formZ and renaming the autodessys folder (from USER: Library: Preferences), does that help? And if you are still having issues and can reproduce it with a specific file, please send that so we can test with it here. Hi Justin, We are not sure why the Thea Plugin would affect most palettes in general, but it does modify the Materials Palette -- so it is possible it could be releated to that. If you are beta testing this software and you find an issue you can reproduce, the next step would be to see if it happens without the Thea plugin as well. (And if it only happens with the Thea plugin loaded, then this should be reported to Solid Iris so it can be corrected.) If you can find any issues that you can reproduce, please let us know, but Saving, and Rebooting on a regular basis (at least every half hour for saving, and at least every day or two for rebooting) will help your computer run more cleanly and is highly recommended... As long as we are here talking about the materials I would like to know if it is possible to keep Form.z from GUESSING on the material texture mapping orientation and style. ie. if I create a 3d wall extrusion each face is mapped FLAT! I want everything I build to be mapped CUBIC by default with no mapping orientation or rotation at all. When the program guesses for me it does it wrong 90% of the time. As a result I have to use the MAP TEXTURE tool to clear everything and start over. Pretty awkward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Hi Andrew, Yes, as we have mentioned repeatedly, objects automatically get the appropriate mapping type based on the type of face. So if you have a cylinder for example, the top round flat face will get flat mapping, and the curved cylindrical face will get cylindrical mapping. We have also indicated per your repeated requests that we will see if an option for this can be added for the future, but for now you need to get the Map Texture tool, choose Cubic Mapping, Select All, and click in the screen to apply cubic mapping to everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I was just hoping that there could be a way to disable it now............... or in the not to distant future. Out of curiosity why would a cube built using the rectangle tool and 3d extrusion be mapped Flat? Or for that case why would a line drawn with 3d Wall selected be mapped flat? Getting back to the material palette issue I can safely rule out Thea or Maxwell as the issue. I have taken those plugins out and the issue persists. I will try a clean install. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Hi Andrew, Yes, as we have mentioned repeatedly, objects automatically get the appropriate mapping type based on the type of face. So if you have a cylinder for example, the top round flat face will get flat mapping, and the curved cylindrical face will get cylindrical mapping. We have also indicated per your repeated requests that we will see if an option for this can be added for the future, but for now you need to get the Map Texture tool, choose Cubic Mapping, Select All, and click in the screen to apply cubic mapping to everything. Just an FYI that is not how I build models. I texture map as I build each piece. Not at the end of modeling. So each piece needs to be cleared of its mapping coordinates every time. The reason for this is organizational. For instance if I build a beam and map it correctly then I used to be able to use the Copy Attributes tool to map all future beams in the same manner. But now I need to clear all the mapping info from each new beam before I can copy the attributes from the correct one. Do you know of a better way to do this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Andrew, Once you have mapped one beam as you would like, select all the others, get the Copy Attributes tool, and click on the first beam you mapped. The others should now have all the same mapping applied, and you should not need to clear the others before doing this. Isn't this a better method -- and are there any reasons you say you need to map all the others before copying attributes to them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 If I did that on my current model I would have 30 ceiling beams that all looked identical. Many of my projects are timber frame buildings with a lot of rustic character. In order to make my images realistic I can not have repetitive patterns. In your method if I had 30 beams I would then need to apply my different wood materials in a random way to each of them. Then I would need to use the texture map tool to move the alignment on a bunch of them. Perhaps that was not a good example but it demonstrates the issue. In my method I create 5 beams and map them correctly. Then as I build the rest of them I randomly copy the attributes from each to the next 25. In very complicated models I just find it less confusing to map as I go rather than at the end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tech Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 Ok, but just to be clear, mapping things to make them different, vs, mapping them before using the Copy Attributes are completely different, and while the former may be necessary, the latter should not be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew West Posted November 23, 2016 Share Posted November 23, 2016 I adjust the alignment of each texture map after I use the Copy Attributes tool and while the piece of geometry is right in front of me. It saves me time panning around the model later and isolating pieces to see what I missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
¢hris £und Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 When scripting is available again, I will update and post a script I did for randomizong the mapping parameters. I don't recall if I ever posted it before, it was for 6.x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AsOne Posted November 29, 2016 Share Posted November 29, 2016 Andrew, Maybe we should start another thread, but I also have the same problem "locking" the moving along a guide line. I either have to hit shift and lock it in "space" where there are no other objects behind the axis line or switch to wireframe. Pretty annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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