Patch form•Z 3.5.0.1

December 23, 1999

This patch has been released (as of December 23, 1999) and can be downloaded from the Updates area on this site.


form•Z 3.5 has shipped

December 16, 1999

AutoDesSys, Inc. is please to announce the release of form•Z 3.5. This new version contains 20+ new features including direct access to the web, the import/export translator for Art·lantis, right to left text, transformations about object centroids, and much more. Please see the complete list of features.

Along with this release come some developments that are worthy of special notice:

• form•Z 3.5 supports network licenses. There is now a network license of form•Z that runs under KeyServer®. It requires a single key attached to a server machine. This allows site licenses to float, rather than requiring an individual key at each computer. This version requires the installation of Key Server® 5.0, available from Sassafras Software, Inc. (sassafras.com).
• Independent key for the Imager. This is now available to facilitate batch rendering and animation on a second computer without having to buy a second user license.
• Alpha version to be discontinued after v.3.5. This is due to the fact that both Compaq and Microsoft are discontinuing the development of Windows NT for the Alpha platform.

NEW FEATURES IN form•Z 3.5 Options menu:

• Three new colors, Control Editor Color 1, Control Editor Color 2, and Active Drafting Pane, have been added to the Project Colors dialog, invoked from the Project Colors... item, which makes them definable by the user.

Palettes menu:

• A previously available palette, the Status Of Objects palette, which was discontinued with version 3.0, has been reintroduced. The respective item also has been reintroduced in the Palettes menu to be able to open it.

Help menu:

• Three new items, form•Z Web Site..., form•Z Web Support..., and email Tech Support, have been added to the Help menu. They either take you to the AutoDesSys web site or they set you up for e-mailing to our technical support group.

form•Z Imager:

• The option to eliminate duplicate lines, when saving wire frame and hidden line images as form•Z draft files, is now available.
• The ability to define the search path for files referenced in a project processed by the Imager has ben introduced and works as for similar searches in the main program.

Modeling

• When nurbz revolved objects, helixes, sweeps, and skins are derived from parametric sources and/or paths, the original controls of these shapes are now used for the derivation of these objects.
• Additional adjustments and clarifications have been made to a few options of the above objects.
• The ability to switch smooth control points of nurbz objects to non-smooth points has been introduced in the Edit Controls procedures.
• Right-to-left text, such as Arabic and Hebrew, now can be handled by form•Z when running under operating systems that support these types of script.
• When the Symbol Place tool can not find the referenced Symbol library, the option to search and locate the library file to be loaded is now available at the time the warning is issued.
• When reversing the directions of parametric objects, the new directions are now remembered when the parametric object is edited.
• Options for executing the geometric transformations relative to the local coordinate axes of objects are now available.

Drafting

• Option for controling the resolution of the arcs included with angular and arc dimension is now available.

RenderZone

• Enhancements have been made to the interface of the Texture Map tool to allow deletion and replacement of previously defaulted texture maps and for handling the choice between simple and parametric texture map assignments for parametric objects.
  

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The review starts by recognizing a fact that not too many 3D users know. "Most of today's CAD programs for desktop computers started as electronic versions of the drafting boards, T-squares, scales, and pencils that have been used for generations in making technical drawing on paper. 3D features were added to these programs as the power of computers and interest in 3D modeling increased. But since the features were tacked-on piecemeal, their functionality is sometimes not coordinated or even complementary."

Mr. Wilson notes the advantages of using form•Z , which was conceived and developed as a 3D program from its inception. He finds it particularly well suited for industrial and archi tectural design but also mentions its value for manual illustrations, publications and adver tisements.

His findings indicate that form•Z contains all the tools and features that one anticipates to find in a 3D modeler. He praises the hybrid use of solid and surface modeling while main taining all the parameters of given objects when blending them to create another object , regardless of whether the objects combined are surface or solid ones. This gives form•Z its versatility to create both organic and angular shapes and, as Mr. Wilson notes, the "well deserved reputation for being able to model almost any shape you can imagine."

The review includes references to form•Z 's solid import/export capabilities which allow the users to interface with programs that use the ACIS kernel, the file formats DWG, DXF, and 3DS used by Autodesk's products, as well as the IGES and STL translators that are crucial for rapid prototyping. The manuals are considered "complete, well written and fully illus trated." The rendering capabilities found in RenderZone and RadioZity are seen as en hancements to the program by adding photo-realism to the models created in form•Z.

In his conclusion Mr. Wilson finds form•Z to be a "flexible 3D modeler that can create geometric shapes that are beyond the capabilities of many other programs - even those that cost more than twice as much...." He also indicates that the parametric technology in form•Z is not as fully developed as in the exclusively parametric modelers, but quickly adds that "after reviewing form•Z, I am confident that it will become a major 3D modeler for these [Windows] platforms because it can handle 3D geometry that the parametric solid modelers cannot."

"We are particularly happy with Mr. Wilson's insightful review," said Chris Yessios, president of AutoDesSys. "It is not very often that people recognize the backbone of form•Z: the fact that it was developed as a 3D program from its inception and how this helps the smooth integration of its 3D tools and other features. We are also happy to see that the shortcomings he refers to in his review are being addressed in the next major upgrade of the software. The ACIS kernel will be incorporated into form•Z, its architecture will open to add ons, and programming extensions will be included."


For immediate release - difficult to pigeonhole, hard to beat!

September 15, 1999

The September 1999 issue of Computer Graphics World Magazine, includes a review of form•Z 3.0. Jeffrey Rowe is the reviewer and the title of his review is "Difficult to pigeonhole, hard to beat".

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Jeffrey Rowe finds several unique aspects to form•Z. One is the fact that it appeals to a wide range of users in a variety of industries which include architecture, industrial design, and entertainment production. Another is form•Z's ability to handle multiple personalities. "Version 3.0 can merge different object types so that NURBS, Bezier curves, Coons patches, analytic primitives, polygonal objects, and metaballs can be separate representations or can coexist on the same object. Each object can have a distinct personality and behavior... NURBS and parametric primitives five form•Z 3.0 some of its 3D design flexibility."

"Mr. Rowe, captures the essence of form•Z very well", remarked Chris Yessios, president of auto·des·. "From the outset, the goal of auto·des· has been to develop a general purpose, quality 3D product which brings workstation power features to the personal computer at an affordable price. We are happy to see the recognition of the design flexibility that form•Z provides."

The reviewer also talks about the new animation feature introduced in version 3.0, the improved drafting tool set, and the restructuring of the import/export file formats that offers uniformly predictable behavior when moving files from one program to another. His conclusion is that "the product has no compettion in its particular market space."

The complete review may be viewed at http://pennwell.shore.net/cgw/body.html.



Beyond form•Z 3.5

October, 1999

How will life with form•Z be after v. 3.5? Following are highlights of some of our future directions that we can disclose today. More details will follow at a later time.

Modular and open architecture:
Both form•Z and form•Z RenderZone will become modular allowing some parts to be installed while others are not, depending on the needs of individual users. Also, support for plug-ins will be made available, allowing 3rd parties to expand form•Z.

Specialized versions:
Taking advantage of its open architecture, the general purpose modeling core of form•Z will be supplemented with profession specific modules. Among the first specialized modules to be offered by AutoDesSys will be one for product design and one for architecture.

ACIS support:
form•Z's modeling will be complemented with the ACIS modeling engine, intended to better support parametric primitives and CAM (computer aided manufacturing). The ACIS modeling procedures will be integrated into form•Z and will coexist with the currently available modeling operations. Our goal is to offer the best of two distinct modeling worlds, a task nobody else has undertaken on any platform.

 

form•Z 3.1.4 patch

November 23, 1999

This patch is now available to be downloaded from the Support area of this site. It corrects the irregularities reported to us since v. 3.1.3.