Guest Rick Butera Posted May 3, 2002 Share Posted May 3, 2002 Are there any CGarch members using formZ? I know that it is very popular software among architects, but I have not seen it mentioned much on the site. Just curious? It would be nice if there was some news topics or articles that related to formZ. Most of the principles that are used in modeling are universal but some direct thoughts regarding Z would be cool too. I know that auto-des-sys has a pretty good forum. Would love to see something here on CGarch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voo Posted May 21, 2002 Share Posted May 21, 2002 I guess there is at least now one more. Hope we can get the traffic up and going. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted May 21, 2002 Share Posted May 21, 2002 I have been a formZ user for the last 9 years. Most of the guys at my work use formZ too. Nothing beats Z for boolean operations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voo Posted May 22, 2002 Share Posted May 22, 2002 Did you see that max now has to have a special plugin just so it can boolean. 10 bucks says it still isn't close to form z. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolf Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Hey guys tell me more about form Z its only for the mac ...right? what are its strength/weaknesses? does it do nurbs/polys/solids? can u animate in it? radiosity? didnt they use it on myst? i havnt heard too much about it, but the people that i have met that use it, seem to swear by it, and wont use anything else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nisus Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 Hi all, As far as I remember it was just a modelling tool. Or has things changed? nisus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rod Posted May 23, 2002 Share Posted May 23, 2002 FormZ is cross platform and should be available on os X later this summer. YOu can buy it as a stand-alone modeler or purchase the renderzone add-on. I wouldn't recommend it. We use to use it way back in the day at Neoscape but have since moved on to max, lightscape, maya, vray etc. FormZ is a great solids modeler with some nice boolean functionality. If you're looking for a tight clean model to export to lightscape then you should check out formz. Rod Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclops Posted May 28, 2002 Share Posted May 28, 2002 Hi guys, I use FormZ for modelling as well. I used Autocad and Max for a number of years and then changed to FormZ. It is a great modeller, it handles huge files so easily and it's very easy to learn and use. OpenGL support is amazing, I haven't seen a modeller with better OpenGL performance. It has a good set of organic modelling tools (nurbs, metaballs) and, as some people have already pointed out, great boolean operations. Most elements that it gennerates are solids and it supports suboject editing (points, faces, etc). It's simple and you always feel in control on what's going on in your scene. What a nice little modeller! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest archibabble Posted July 19, 2002 Share Posted July 19, 2002 I've been using Form-Z for about 5 years now, and for modeling it's great. Especially with their newest release, the range of modeling techniques is amazing. From nurbs to controled solids, it is intuitive, quick, and accurate. Rendering in form-z is another story, however. But I think auto-des-sys recognizes this and allows all kinds of exports to be done from form-z. You can export directly to lightscape, 3ds, rhino, or save as dxf or dwg, and almost everything in between. It really is a great, powerful tool to have, and doesn't have a very steep learning curve. I definitely recommend at least checking it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted August 19, 2002 Share Posted August 19, 2002 I have used Form-Z for years and have found it to be, by far, the best and most accurate modeling tool for architecture. I would like to learn more Max, but not being able to Ctrl-Z everything (that crazy 'Hold' feature is really bad) has detered me for sometime. For architectural viz, there is no better. As mentioned many times, the renderer could be a lot faster, but it does have nice features (Imager is awesome - every 3D package should have it!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted August 21, 2002 Share Posted August 21, 2002 hi guys, I'm with you regarding some of the good fmz features. It's an easy to learn modeler, but... what about the interface? Autosnap? Mouse right button? Hello... unless you on a mac (god knows why you do that...) its a must!!! Have you ever looked at task manager/performance (CPU usage) while in the middle of a simple command? if you start acommand (almost any) and go aside to do something - answer the phone, the machine is at 100% cpu usage all the time. Its true that the fmz renderer is bad, and I can live with that. Already got used to use fmz as a modeler only. But even as a modeler autodessys still has a lot of work making it a more user friendly modeler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mbr Posted August 21, 2002 Share Posted August 21, 2002 It really depends on what you get used to. I learned 3D in Form-Z (2.95) and find that it is much quicker and more intuitive to set up scenes to render. Need glass? Bingo, simple and complex. Texturing is done in a clean pop up that reacts quickly, allows you to easily view the tiles, and renders the object alone. I know Max, Maya, etc., has these features and many more, but it gets tedious making simple materials all the time (the glass mat libraries I have for Max are useless - way to complex and time consuming for arch. renderings). Then there's the Imager that lets you set up as many renderings as you want within minutes, even lets you send them to print. In school, that was the only way to get some sleep! All that said, the renderings are too slow and unreliable. The radiosity can be good, but takes waaay to long. So, although I am a big fan, Max is the choice for renderings and animations. I still use Form-Z to model, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upsidedown Posted September 9, 2002 Share Posted September 9, 2002 FormZ has had Autosnap for several versions (at least 2 years), it supports the right and middle mouse buttons on both the mac and PC (even different settings for double and triple clicks, and the user interface is completely customizable. You can rearange all toolbars and make custom key shortcuts for almost every tool, function and option. I have used 3ds R3 and R4, Max 2,3,4, Lightwave and was working on the Maya PLE. I still think Z is the best and most intuitive modeller for architectural work. I agree with everyone else about the rendering engine though. It takes lots of time and work to get decent renderings out of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 11, 2002 Share Posted September 11, 2002 upsidedown, If you are refering to the key shortcuts option then I'm afraid that doesn't count. Thats only a shortcut.! What about being able to press and hold mid btn for pan? Intellimouse scroll for zoom? Or even more simple: hold space for pan with left btn? (you know, the Adobe kind of keys) or just Enter for last command. You can program keys for commands, but not commands for keys, and thats the basic of our problem. If there is a way to do ANY of the above, just tell me and be my hero. Can I say tnx in advance? BTW: what did u mean about the autosnap? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted September 14, 2002 Share Posted September 14, 2002 >>what did u mean about the autosnap? PMFJI, i think he means that FormZ automaticly detects if you want to snap to point, segment...., so you don't have to click the snap method before you draw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_A Posted September 15, 2002 Share Posted September 15, 2002 Try the "Combo" (combination) snap selection in the snaps menu. 'Option-click' and you can pick which snap(s) you want the system to pick up. This lets you have multiple snaps active with the nearest one being selected. --Chris_A Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upsidedown Posted September 17, 2002 Share Posted September 17, 2002 bigcahunak, You're right. The scroll wheel doesn't work to zoom and pan. I guess this never bothers me since I avoid using this in any of the software I use. I use the old stand by Adobe spacebar=pan. just set a key shortcut for the spacebar, and you're done. Just remember, it's a tap to start the pan and a tap to release. I also only ever zoom by window, so I have this set as a shortcut. The option for last command is only available if you have Return to Pick Tool set in the options. If you are running this way, Ctrl+Alt=click for Last Tool does what you want from the enter key. I don't have my options set this way, so I don't know how it works in practice. Ingo is right. In Z it's called the Combo Snap. Same as setting the Osnap settings in autocad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Voo Posted September 18, 2002 Share Posted September 18, 2002 If your interested in using the different buttons on your mouse you need to go into the key shortcuts under the edit menu. Specifically you talked about getting the hand tool (pan) set to your middle mouse button. Go to the edit menu at the bottom you'll see Key shortcuts. In the keyshort cuts you'll see a list of commands on the left side and a bunch of buttons on the right. Find the command you want to set. In this case under Tools, Windows> Zoom> Hand. Hit the edit button and then you can set this command to any key or combination or in this case the middle mouse button as a single double or triple click. After you hit ok you then have to save out your key shortcuts. At any point you can get back to your own shortcuts by loading them with the load button. I generally load my shortcuts and then save out my preference file so it always knows to load those shortcuts when I start the program. Hope that helps Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted January 21, 2003 Share Posted January 21, 2003 Hi Ed, well when i look at Morphosis architectural design no wonder that FormZ doesn't want to save them Seriously, when does it happen ? I have no problems so far when i'm below a certain file size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted January 21, 2003 Share Posted January 21, 2003 Originally posted by studio451: although I have to question a bit when the programmers wright in a 'save/don't save' dialog box when the program crashes...shouldn't they work on making it NOT crash... Hi Ed. question: which fmz version you use, and on which platform? The problem you describe used to happen when fmz 3.0 to 3.5 was installed on W2K or WXP. FMZ 3.6 and later are running just fine on all win versions. Comming from La La Land, there is also a chance that you might be using a MAC... and as far as I remember fmz runs 100% stable on all mac OS versions. If not, you just need to increase the memory that the OS allocates for fmz. In second thought... if I remember correctly, the save/dont save option only shows up in Windows. On macs it just crashes... Even so, at least it warns you and save it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O+ Posted January 21, 2003 Share Posted January 21, 2003 hey all, another form-z-er, just nodding my head to all responses so far, great modeler ( although I have to question a bit when the programmers wright in a 'save/don't save' dialog box when the program crashes...shouldn't they work on making it NOT crash...heheh) slow as hell rendering, especially when full raytracing with multiple glass surfaces.... wish list: saveable layer states as in lightscape saveable selection sets, as in old 3dsr3-4 nice to see others use form-z too, later, ed hatcher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
O+ Posted January 21, 2003 Share Posted January 21, 2003 heheh, funny ingo... bigcahunak, we're on form-z 3.9, windows xp. file sizes are usually 15 mb to 60 mb depending on the sq.ft. of projects (and that's without undo's saved), since most of the working drawings come directly from the model, there is a ton of information, plus a heavy use of our own symbol libraries... I've mastered the art of saving often and in sequential files so I lose at most 5-10 minutes of work, so it's not a big deal, more annoying than anything. never had problems with z up to 2.9.5, after that, crashes were pretty dependable. although in defense of z, we do run pre-releases from auto-des-sys a lot, so we're used to a bit of buggery..... later guys, ed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ingo Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 Hi Ed, i think what we need is something like the file reference system that Microstation has, so you can build your object on different files (with different people) but you can extract a plan from all files together. Although i'm on a Mac i'll try to keep my file sizes below 20 MB and structure my object that way, this helps a lot. And since i didn't render in FormZ i have to structure the object for ex- and import anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris_A Posted January 22, 2003 Share Posted January 22, 2003 Referencing would help so much just in dealing with changes that happen in plan and need to be reflected in the model. Better than re-importing or copy/paste. IMHO, this is the biggest contraint to FormZ being used in larger, collaborative design groups. It's simply too cumbersome for more than one person to work on a model. Many other packages (most a bit more CAD oriented) rely on this ability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 Hello, I am also a long time FormZ user - since 2.93. I am an Architectural Graduate student and have been a sessional instructor at a University for several years. Similar to everyone else, I quickly became fed up with FormZ's rendering engine and adopted Cinema 4D. MacAddict Magazine offered a demo version on a CD which was upgradeable for $50 and I jumped at it. I have had no regrets. FormZ's import and export features are top notch and works seemlessly with almost any application. I do, however, wish that speed and stability were as good on Windows as they are on Mac. I use it on both platforms and the difference is shocking. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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