gathering info on FormZ

[keyboard cowboy]

hi people!

 

a while ago i posted a thread about rhino and FormZ. the academic institue i represent now wants me to check out the benefits of these two programs.

 

If you have a few minutes, please drop a comment about these programs: working with them, learning them, pros and cons, etc- to this e-mail adress:

 

yanosh@bezeqint.net

 

thanx a lot to everyone, take care!

 

keyboard cowboy

[mbr]

FormZ -

Pros:

 

-probably the most widely used 3D program for architects and industrial designers.

-intuitive interface for designers (assuming they don't have knowledge of 3d)

-fast solid modeling (the fastest, imho)

-all encompassing toolset (modeling, rendering, animations)

-technically accurate

-drafting mode (although limited)

-great import/export features

-modular purchasing

-fantastic forum and phone support

 

Cons:

 

-not the best modeler for complex curves

-slow rendering, mediocre quality (but that should change soon)

-animation is very limited

 

 

Rhino (never used it, but this is what people say):

Pros:

-Easy to use

-fast modeling for complex curves

-technically accurate

-reasonably priced (as is FormZ)

Cons:

-you will need to buy another renderer (which can be good, since Brazil now makes a compatible plugin)

-more of a surface modeler, so it depends on what you are modeling (others will know more about this, though)

 

 

FormZ is the safest way to go, as it can do just about everything and is very common.

[Ernest Burden III]

FormZ is the safest way to go, as it can do just about everything and is very common.

 

I am not going to email somebody about this, this is a public forum. But since you posted the above, I will point out that FormZ is, in my opinion, unacceptably slow. It cannot handle complex models, especially those with high poly counts. Their tech support has suggested that all would be great if I did all modeling in FZ and wasn't importing from other apps. Fooey. The program can take hours to open a file that five other apps open in seconds or a few minutes. Techsupport suggests opening files overnight. Double-foey.

 

FormZ is worthwhile for some tasks, but is non-intuitive and very unforgiving about entity types, pick order. I am glad I bought it and glad I don't have to rely upon it day-to-day.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

I like Z. If I was going to buy Z, I would only buy a pre 4.0 version. I would not recommend rendering or animating in Z. Z lacks file linking. Z is stubborn when it comes to organic modeling (everything needs to be to precise.) Z rocks at solid modeling of architecture. Z is cheap for uiversities.

[Frosty]

Ernest, could you explain further about your slow load times? The ONLY time I have any problems at all, is opening rediculous DWGs from my clients. FormZ usually has problems with the way text and blocks are handled - they end up being a million little lines. I end up spending an hr deleting them and then carry on my way. By the way, FormZ runs much more happily on a Mac in my experience.

[Ernest Burden III]

Ernest, could you explain further about your slow load times?

 

I often jump around between Datacad, FormZ, Cinema, occasionally Rhno and now add SketchUp. I will use whatever function works best in whichever program. So often I try opening the same dxf or 3ds file in four or five apps to work on it. FormZ is many times slower opening the same file than all the others I mentioned, and not by a little. Hours instead of minutes--same file. And no, I'm not clicking anything like 'join coplanar' or 'make solids'--even though those would very USEFUL to have done upon import.

 

The same can be said for writing files--as compared to other programs (from the same input files)--too long.

 

Cinema routinely outperforms FormZ. In fact, where booleans are concerned, C kicks Z's butt. C is much faster in polygon reduction, smoothing, beveling...

 

The file I had sent FZ techsupport to figure out why it was so slow--they wrote back that it was 200,000 polygons! I should import in pieces or overnight, they explained. Nevermind that Lightscape can import the data in seconds and spin the same 200K polys textured in realtime, FZ can do neither.

[jackb602]

a while ago i posted a thread about rhino and FormZ. the academic institue i represent now wants me to check out the benefits of these two programs.

 

My first question would be, what are you planning to use these programs for? I have used FormZ for many years, and I have mixed feelings about it. It is definitely a very powerful and complete modeling package. But it can be frustrating to use for many reasons. It can be unpredictable, and tools don't always give you the result you expect. The interface, though it's totally customizable, is still somewhat inefficient (i.e. too many clicks to do what you want).

 

FormZ really doesn't have usable animation. And it's rendering engine is way behind the times, taking ages to produce mediocre results. So if you choose to use it (and there are plenty of good reasons to choose it) I recommend that you treat it only as a modeling tool. In fact, this will save you some money too.

 

This brings me to another point. I happen to love working with Cinema 4D, and I would recommend it partly because it includes such a wide range of tools (modeling, rendering, texturing, animation, much more) in a single well-designed package. It has an extremely logical, intuitive interface, and it is probably the single most stable program I own. If you're teaching 3d, I think it's a great all-around package to start on.

 

I kind of feel bad criticizing FormZ, because I think there are some very dedicated people working on it, and they do offer exceptional support. My best guess is that they are understaffed, and therefore can't keep development moving at a fast enought pace to keep up with all the competition. Good luck with your decision. And one last thing, the best way to evaluate any package is to download a demo and work through some tutorials.

 

Jack