9.1 components still buggy... any updates?

[3dworks]

I'm currently trying to work on a complex project with the latest available 9.1 version but very unhappy with how many bugs when dealing with components make FZ simply hang. I reported only a few, as not all steps are reproducible and every bug report takes time. Mostly i found issues when making a copy of a component a new unique component. for example assigning a new layer to this one makes hang FZ. Also just trying to rename a component after certain steps makes FZ hang. I'm getting about one hang every 10 minutes now, so I guess i will - once more  - switch back to FZ 8.5.x, which is really frustrating, as I will also need to switch  machine. Anyone else having these issues?

[Smarttec]

1 hour ago, 3dworks said:

I'm currently trying to work on a complex project with the latest available 9.1 version but very unhappy with how many bugs when dealing with components make FZ simply hang. I reported only a few, as not all steps are reproducible and every bug report takes time. Mostly i found issues when making a copy of a component a new unique component. for example assigning a new layer to this one makes hang FZ. Also just trying to rename a component after certain steps makes FZ hang. I'm getting about one hang every 10 minutes now, so I guess i will - once more  - switch back to FZ 8.5.x, which is really frustrating, as I will also need to switch  machine. Anyone else having these issues?

No but have you had any resposnses from the support group?

 

[Justin Montoya]

9.2 is out... you can try that.

Components are a bit of a mixed bag.  I found if they contain only native, FormZ created geometry, to work well.  However if you try to make components out of imported geometry, it can hang as you are describing.  This happened to me on something as simple as a small wheel caster I had imported.  The geometry looked very clean, if a bit meshed.  It simply did not work well in FormZ as a component, but once I quickly traced it for a native FormZ geometry, and made a component, all was well.  Hope this helps.

[Smarttec]

My issue here is that there appears to be too much 'airing' of dirty linen on this forum from people that don't appear to be using the proper 'Support' system - support@formz.com

Doesn't it make sense to at least get some responses from  proper 'formZ Support' - the forum is NOT an official support site.

However, I agree sometimes there may be some colloquial greater knowledge from the forum, but at least add the 'support' response. The software comes with long support and autodessys is reasonably flexible.

[bbuxton]

5 hours ago, Smarttec said:

My issue here is that there appears to be too much 'airing' of dirty linen on this forum from people that don't appear to be using the proper 'Support' system - support@formz.com

Doesn't it make sense to at least get some responses from  proper 'formZ Support' - the forum is NOT an official support site.

However, I agree sometimes there may be some colloquial greater knowledge from the forum, but at least add the 'support' response. The software comes with long support and autodessys is reasonably flexible.

Seems like a perfectly reasonable question to me. Given how many years Markus has contributed to the discussions here I cannot see anything in this post or previous posts, that could be construed as "airing dirty linen". Can you explain your basis for such an accusation?

For the record, components are not one of FormZ's strongest features and have been plagued with issues from the beginning.  

[3dworks]

9 hours ago, Smarttec said:

My issue here is that there appears to be too much 'airing' of dirty linen on this forum from people that don't appear to be using the proper 'Support' system - support@formz.com

Doesn't it make sense to at least get some responses from  proper 'formZ Support' - the forum is NOT an official support site.

However, I agree sometimes there may be some colloquial greater knowledge from the forum, but at least add the 'support' response. The software comes with long support and autodessys is reasonably flexible.

No airing here, and I didn't get any answer from FZ support for all my last e-mails, be it just crash reporting or direct support questions. FZ Support used to be one of the best services of any software I ever used, but nowadays unfortunately it is not anymore. After the sad departure of Paul Helm a few years ago, everything changed to the worse. One example: a few weeks ago I was even in a very bad situation when I couldn't use FZ on my new laptop beacuse of licensing issues. I really needed to work on my trip, but couldn't because support didn't answer my email.

Also, for what are forums here if not for sharing experience and asking questions which maybe support couldn't easily answer from a technical point of view? Why getting polemical over this? Aren't we all in the same boat using this software which is working so well on one side and at the same time has so many bigger or smaller quirks on the other?

I will now try the fresh new 9.2, hopefully something got better. Unfortunaltely, the "changes" document reports ...no changes.

Edited November 8, 2021 by 3dworks

[Tech]

5 hours ago, 3dworks said:

No airing here, and I didn't get any answer from FZ support for all my last e-mails, be it just crash reporting or direct support questions. FZ Support used to be one of the best services of any software I ever used, but nowadays unfortunately it is not anymore. After the sad departure of Paul Helm a few years ago, everything changed to the worse. One example: a few weeks ago I was even in a very bad situation when I couldn't use FZ on my new laptop beacuse of licensing issues. I really needed to work on my trip, but couldn't because support didn't answer my email.

Also, for what are forums here if not for sharing experience and asking questions which maybe support couldn't easily answer from a technical point of view? Why getting polemical over this? Aren't we all in the same boat using this software which is working so well on one side and at the same time has so many bigger or smaller quirks on the other?

I will now try the fresh new 9.2, hopefully something got better. Unfortunaltely, the "changes" document reports ...no changes.

 

We have received no messages in the support queue from you since July 22nd when a response was delivered within 10 minutes. After not hearing back from you, a follow-up response was sent on August 25th to check in, which also went unanswered. If you are not receiving emails from us, please let us know so we can work through a solution to make our exchanges smoother.

Though we do try to make it a point to monitor the forums when we can, it is meant for user discussions and not the primary outlet for support.

If you have a file that conveys these Component issues that you're experiencing, we would appreciate you sending it our way to investigate further!

[AsOne]

Fair question given the checkered history of components over the past few years.  
 

I have just stopped using them altogether.  I thought about testing them in v9 again, but this gives me pause.  Though Justin's response gives some hope.

[3dworks]

4 hours ago, Tech said:

 

We have received no messages in the support queue from you since July 22nd when a response was delivered within 10 minutes. After not hearing back from you, a follow-up response was sent on August 25th to check in, which also went unanswered. If you are not receiving emails from us, please let us know so we can work through a solution to make our exchanges smoother.

Though we do try to make it a point to monitor the forums when we can, it is meant for user discussions and not the primary outlet for support.

If you have a file that conveys these Component issues that you're experiencing, we would appreciate you sending it our way to investigate further!

Thanks for getting back! I see now that I sent my licensing issue email to sales@formz.com on October 9 , maybe because i thought licensing is part of their work. I never got a reply, but probably this is not your department, then...

Also, I did receive all your answers on the Vray server issues, but after telling you in the previous email that I did a reinstall of the server - and sending logs and screenshots - you recommended me to do a clean re-install. Not really helpful in this case... This issue is still unresolved, but I do not need to use Vray at this time.

[ZTEK]

I have been testing and trying to use the components intermittently from version 7 onwards, which I think has been the best so far to use them, but in the end, I have had too many problems with them in all subsequent versions to keep trying.  My last serious attempt was with version 9.06.1, and it failed badly.

Before posting, I did some simple tests with version 9.2 on my new Mac mini M1 with similar results. Just some extrusions plus some trees and silhouettes from the Components Manager without good results.

The most important and serious problem I have had is that components simply cannot be used along with scenes without the risk they disappear for no apparent reason, and you simply lose them. This is already a big problem, but the worst was that sometimes it happened that I have lost other objects (not components) as a result. Maybe I'm totally wrong, but in the end, I think this problem between components and scenes could affect the structure of the objects within the Objects Palette of the file. There's no way to understand what's happening because it doesn't have any apparent logic.

Also, I remember that I had some similar issues when I grouped them. Sorry, I'm not totally clear because it was some time ago, but probably it was again also related to the use of scenes. Anyway, I would be careful and not group them or do some tests before doing it.

The other problems are less severe but annoying. Sometimes I use some silhouettes of trees and people in a controlled way, taking all the safeguards without grouping or adding them to my scenes. What happens is that usually, the link with texture maps associated with their materials breaks, and also they stop adjusting the rotation angle and looking perpendicular to the view. To resolve these troubles, you have to select and restore them, one by one, dragging their icons from the Component Palette to the corresponding icons on their parameters in the Inspector palette and reloading the textures for each material. All very tedious.

With all of these problems, in no case, I use components for anything serious. Although with my regular work system for my architectural projects, I don't need them much. Or, well, from another less positive perspective, perhaps these problems with components could have forced me to adapt my methods over the years, which sounds a little disappointing looking backward.

In my work, I organize all my projects with the Objects Palette, plus the Layers Palette, so if I need some components for my images, I have some workarounds, of course, to solve the actual situation. For example, I add the ones I need for my predefined views, positioning and rotating them at the right angles first, and then I explode them all to manage everything using groups and scenes. Also, since I only generate images in Shaded Full, I can do some easy edits to my exported images in Affinity Photo.

Finally, regardless of the excellent way to handle and organize the objects in FormZ, with its Object and Layer Palettes plus other tools, I consider this is a serious problem that, at some point, needs to be solved by implementing a well-functioning component system.🤞

[Smarttec]

22 hours ago, 3dworks said:

No airing here, and I didn't get any answer from FZ support for all my last e-mails, be it just crash reporting or direct support questions. FZ Support used to be one of the best services of any software I ever used, but nowadays unfortunately it is not anymore. After the sad departure of Paul Helm a few years ago, everything changed to the worse. One example: a few weeks ago I was even in a very bad situation when I couldn't use FZ on my new laptop beacuse of licensing issues. I really needed to work on my trip, but couldn't because support didn't answer my email.

Also, for what are forums here if not for sharing experience and asking questions which maybe support couldn't easily answer from a technical point of view? Why getting polemical over this? Aren't we all in the same boat using this software which is working so well on one side and at the same time has so many bigger or smaller quirks on the other?

I will now try the fresh new 9.2, hopefully something got better. Unfortunaltely, the "changes" document reports ...no changes.

I hear that you have had problems with the software. But what you say is pure BS...

I get that Components have been an issue - why not help "support" to resolve these issues.

It is about getting an answer from the right source - support@ formz.com responds immediately with a Incident # and you can respond to them during US East cost business time. The forum is just 'airing' your isuues - there are many more out there as well - it's software. All programs have problems but to talk to the authors is the best way to get them resolved.

Stop wasting time and space on this forum with negative BS talk directly to the authors and to Support for help. Remember sometimes the imposible can happen but Miracles can happen.

Be concise, helpful and respectful of their support system and keep up to date with current versions for proper support 

[3dworks]

Yes, crossing fingers. I've given up on 9.2 as well this morning after trying to handle my current project. Components geometry simply disappears when trying to edit with "open component" command from the components palette. Some components material assignments get scrambled over time as well. After trying to edit components sometimes layer visibility settings are unfunctional until restart and reload of the scene. Too much stuff going on and as ZTEK reported very well, in an illogical way, so reporting is extremely difficult, because mostly there are no reproducible steps to make the bugs happen.

 

So, switching back once again to version 8.5.6 which for me remains the most stable version ever. Some bugs there as well, but at least i know how avoid them.As long as I can keep my MacOS High Sierra Mac running with it, it remains a backup solution but working. Fortunately, FZ has the ability to save to older versions!

[3dworks]

3 minutes ago, Smarttec said:

I hear that you have had problems with the software. But what you say is pure BS...

I get that Components have been an issue - why not help "support" to resolve these issues.

It is about getting an answer from the right source - support@ formz.com responds immediately with a Incident # and you can respond to them during US East cost business time. The forum is just 'airing' your isuues - there are many more out there as well - it's software. All programs have problems but to talk to the authors is the best way to get them resolved.

Stop wasting time and space on this forum with negative BS talk directly to the authors and to Support for help. Remember sometimes the imposible can happen but Miracles can happen.

Be concise, helpful and respectful of their support system and keep up to date with current versions for proper support 

You should first of all respect rules of conduct here.

[Tech]

18 hours ago, 3dworks said:

Thanks for getting back! I see now that I sent my licensing issue email to sales@formz.com on October 9 , maybe because i thought licensing is part of their work. I never got a reply, but probably this is not your department, then...

Also, I did receive all your answers on the Vray server issues, but after telling you in the previous email that I did a reinstall of the server - and sending logs and screenshots - you recommended me to do a clean re-install. Not really helpful in this case... This issue is still unresolved, but I do not need to use Vray at this time.

Yes, all questions and issues regarding setup should come to support, not sales.

If the license server is connected (as it was in your screenshot) but form•Z still does not recognise it, it means there is some sort of cached data causing a conflict. The instructions sent was a document from ChaosGroup that went through the process of a clean installation that would clear any of that cache that may be lingering on your machine.

If you need any help getting V-Ray running, or have any files with problematic Components that you can send to us, please contact us at support!

[AsOne]

I'm finding 9.2 stable on Mac OS 14 Mojave.  Still a few things to fix such as my view and render settings change after switching to another file tab and back, but overall it is going well.  Not using components at all however.