Disappearing palettes on Mac

[misterpeter]

My palettes have disappeared.it doesn't matter if I open a new project or old, I don't have any materials, layers, objects... Nothing. I CAN open the inspector and only that. I have tried resetting to defaults in the preferences and have opened and closed FormZ a few times, have tried a new preferences file, all to no avail. My palettes menu doesn't alter anything, but there is now a blank space on the right. I don't think that this is file related, as it happens to all of them since this morning. I cannot start or continue anything like this. For the last few weeks, I had to keep turning on and off the reference plane parameters palette to get it to display, but all else was OK until today. Please advise. Thanks, Peter Gouws

 

[vva]

hi Peter,

I send you my workspace file and my template file ...

and a new installation with the firewall disabled may help - perhaps...

vva

[Gyro]

Welcome to my world. I completely rebuild my custom palettes every few weeks, when Fmz crashes it destroys the current set it seems. 

[misterpeter]

Well I managed sort it out temporarily by switching to ‘animation’ mode, where the pallets were suddenly showing again. I had to go back and forth between Animation and Modeling a few times before it ‘stuck’, but after (I think) three times, it worked again.
I still have a problem with mysteriously disappearing content (even after opening saved documents), but the palletes being there! One drawing I have done eleven times….  Strange is that when I move the mouse around, it highlights objects in the palletes, but I can see nothing on the screen ;(

Another problem I still have is with radii - as soon as I try to fillet or radius anything, FormZ ‘bombs’ at the moment - again. I have had problems especially with this function since only about version 1.3 (!)… as a pattern maker to the industry a total catastrophe. Some do work, some don’t - even on object clones with different results or failures. Sometimes FormZ drives me crazy… 🤪 

[allanjl]

I am not on the mac, but when things like this happen to me on windows, I throw away the autodessys folder, and restart formZ. On windows at least, since version 9 formZ became much more stable and these types of problems went away.

[misterpeter]

I am also using version 9, but with each new version there are still always ‘new’ teething problems…

[Justin Montoya]

Hello,

This was an old annoyance that seems to be completely rectified in v10, atleast for me in v10 on Windows.  

For v8-v9, he old advice here is you need to rename or trash your formZ preferences folder and restart.  To do this...

Simply delete or rename the 'autodessys' folder after closing FormZ.

On Windows it's located at C:/Users/(Username)/AppData/Roaming   (you will have to show hidden items and folders)

On Mac it's located at HOME: Library: Preferences

After it launches the first time, it will rebuild the default prefences folder.  Setup your workspace and palettes the way you want it, then save and close it.  After you reopen it the next time, make sure you uncheck the 'Save between Sessions' option under the Workspaces Manager if you do not want to have to reset it again in v8 and v9.  What happens sometimes is if formZ crashes when you have that 'Save Between Sessions' option enabled, it will not correctly save the Workspace and you will lose the palettes like the OP.

[Des]

14 hours ago, Justin Montoya said:

make sure you uncheck the 'Save between Sessions' option under the Workspaces Manager if you do not want to have to reset it again in v8 and v9.  What happens sometimes is if formZ crashes when you have that 'Save Between Sessions' option enabled, it will not correctly save the Workspace and you will lose the palettes like the OP.

This is spot on Justin, take note guys. I meant to chime in with the same advise but you beat me to it 😉

[misterpeter]

I'm afraid that I am tired of finding/making/having to use 'work-arounds' for problems that are obviously being felt by many users. Why aren't the problems fixed where they should be and when they are discovered?? I have never had another application where the bugs were not adressed as soon as they were discovered.

 

[Gyro]

Related issue, in my current file if I select the ZX Reference Plane all objects disappear, the workaround is to make a custom plane in it's place, anyone know of a better fix?

 

Thanks in advance

Andrew

[Jim_G]

9 hours ago, Gyro said:

Related issue, in my current file if I select the ZX Reference Plane all objects disappear, the workaround is to make a custom plane in it's place, anyone know of a better fix?

 

Thanks in advance

Andrew

Does this consistently happen *every* time you select the ZX plane?

I'm asking because I've encountered a *lot* of similar behavior--that is, when I switch reference planes, all the objects disappear. If I keep switching planes they eventually reappear, but it's a *real* annoyance and happens fairly frequently. For me, though, it seems random, not something that happens when I select a given plane.