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FAQS: Troubleshoot and Miscellaneous

Fit: Why does my project disappear when I Fit it to the screen?

This can occur if you have imported, drawn, or moved objects way out in space (perhaps caused by moving objects above the horizon line from a perspective view). Select Top view and Fit your project. Move your cursor around the screen and look at your Coordinates palette. Try to identify where your geometry should be located. Make sure that all of your objects and layers are unlocked, and frame pick the half of the screen away from your objects and select Cut from the Edit menu. (See the Picking FAQ if you are unsure about frame picking.) Fit your project again to see if it fixes the problem. (If you like, you can get a New Model and Paste to see what "space junk" you have removed from your file.) Repeat as necessary. It is less likely, but you may need to repeat this procedure from a Front or Side view as well (but not both).

 

 

 

Beep: How do I disable the beep alert sound?

In the form·Z Pick Options dialog, you can uncheck: Beep When Deselecting Objects. Save this in your Preferences file if you like. Your computer will still beep sometimes when error messages or progress bars appear. You can disable this beep as follows:

 

Windows: From the System Control Panel, click on Hardware, open the Device Manager, select View -> Show Hidden Devices, and disable "Beep" under "Non-Plug and Play Drivers."

 

OS X: Go to the System Preferences : Sound and set the Alert Volume to the minimum.

 

 

 

Render clients: They are not connecting. Why?

We have seen a few rare cases where the network rendering preferences have become confused and the Render Clients are not connecting -- or staying connected properly to the Render Server. In the unlikely event that you should encounter this problem, quit all Render Clients and the Render Server, open the autodessys folder (located in [HOME] :Library : Preferences on OS X, or C:\ Documents and Settings \ [USER] \ application data \ on Windows) and delete the form·Z Render Client and / or form·Z Render Server folders from all client computers and the server. Re-launch the Render Server, then re-launch each of the Render Clients. Click the Add button on the Render Clients and enter the IP address of the Render Server. Also make sure that you have disabled the option for these computers to go to sleep. Now when you send the network rendering job from form·Z it should again process correctly.

 

 

 

Corrupted file: I am having problems opening a file. What should I do?

First of all, you should always save a file to an actual hard drive and not to a removable media like a flash drive or ZIP disk, as these devices are less reliable than a hard drive. (If you need to create a file on a flash drive, save it to a hard disk first, then copy it to the removable media.)

 

If you are unable to open a file and you have already followed the suggestions in the Instability FAQ, get a New Model, select File / Open, select your file clicking on it once, check the Add to Project Checkbox, and click Open. If asked, select Use New (and apply to all if you like). If this does not resolve the problem, send the file to support@formz.com. We can see if we can recover the file for you and see if we can determine what could have caused this problem.

 

 

 

Instability: form·Z appears abnormally unstable.` What should I do?

Many stability issues are caused by a corrupted installation or by a bad preference file. It is also possible that you have not installed available patches that have already corrected the problem you are encountering. Therefore, we generally recommend that you follow these suggestions in this order:

  1. First make sure that you have a clean installation (If you have already followed these instructions, you may skip this step):
    If you are using OS X, delete the existing form·Z application folder, quit out of all programs (especially including disabling virus software, if any), and reinstall.
    If you are using Windows, delete the form·Z application folder, quit all programs, disable virus detection, and reinstall the WIBU driver. If you are using v. 6.1 or later, you will also need to reinstall the Microsoft Visual C Runtime kit (both from the Support folder found on your form·Z DVD). Then go to the Start menu, select Run, type msconfig and click OK. Note your existing startup selection. Then select Diagnostic Startup, click OK, and restart. When the System Configuration Utility appears, check Don't Show... click OK, and Install form·Z (If you receive an error about Windows Installer, ignore this). When complete, go to the Start menu, select Run, click OK to run msconfig again, select your previous startup selection, click OK and restart once more. (See the Clean installation FAQ for further details.)

    2.  

  2. You should also make sure that you have the latest patches for form·Z. You can find these on our web site, or if you are running form·Z version 6, run form·Z, from the Edit menu, select Preferences, click on Updates, and click Check Now. (See Patching for further details.)

    3.  

  3. If you continue to have difficulties, quit form·Z and delete the autodessys folder. On Windows, this is located in C:\Documents and Settings\[USER]\application data\ (If you do not see application data, go to the Tools Menu of Windows Explorer, select Folder Options, click the View tab, and select Show Hidden Files and Folders.) On OS X, go to HOME : Library : Preferences (where HOME = Hard Drive : Users : [Your Login Name]. After the autodessys folder has been deleted, re-launch form·Z and see if the problem persists. If the problem goes away, reload your Preferences file (if any). If the problem returns, please send this file to support@formz.com. and describe the steps that cause the problem. You should then recreate your Preferences file.

    4.  

  4. If the problem persists, see if you can isolate the issue. For example, if it is a rendering problem, turn off half of your layers and render again. If the problem goes away, turn off these layers and turn on the other half, save the file under a new name, and repeat as necessary. Once you have simplified this down to a single layer, frame-pick half the objects and Cut them out of the file. If the problem goes away, select all and Paste (this will replace the selected objects with the copied objects). In this way you can simplify the file and identify the object(s) that are responsible for the problem. Most likely if you delete or recreate this bad object you should be able to resolve the problem. (See the Rendering problems FAQ for further details.)

After completing steps 1-4, if you have identified an object that is causing a problem, or if you have a file with a problem that you are unable to simplify, please send this to support@formz.com. We can then find the cause of the problem, report it so that it can be fixed, and help you find a work-around, if necessary.

 

 

 

Zooming in perspective views: How do I do that?

When you Zoom In into a perspective view using either the Incremental Zoom or the Zoom by Frame commands, you will be viewing a portion of the original image. This maintains the exact same perspective distortion and effectively crops the original view. If you look at such a view in the Edit Cone of Vision environment, this will appear as an inner (gray) cone inside the cone of the original view. Such views are very useful when you wish to isolate a portion of an original view without changing the perspective distortion of the view. Note that such "cropping" of the view will be ignored and the original view used if these are used as key frames for an animation. Note also that if you are zooming out incrementally in a perspective view, the zoom out process will stop when you reach the original view.

 

If you do not want to create a cropped view, or if you wish to increase the perspective distortion you should move (or dolly) the camera closer to the objects. This can be done numerically through the View Parameters, graphically through the Cone of Vision, by using the scroll wheel, or by using the Set View tool in conjunction with the option key (OS X) or ctrl-shift keys (Windows). Version 5.5 also adds many "Direct View Navigation" features and you can dolly along the line of sight using the Depth Interactive command, which uses the default keyboard shortcut of command left click (OS X) or ctrl left click (Windows). Using these commands to dolly the camera will also allow you to zoom past an original perspective view.

 

The Direct View Navigation tools are very useful. If you are not familiar with these, you should see section 3.2.6 of your User's Manual.

 

 

 

“Feature Unavailable in Demo” message: I am a licensed user, why am I getting this error?

If you get this error message when attempting to open a FMZ file into a licensed version, this can indicate that there is a problem with the file. This could be caused by saving the file to a "less reliable media" such as a Flash or ZIP drive, which could result in an undetected write error. Files should always be saved to a local or network hard drive first and then copied to a removable media. This problem could also be caused if the file was sent uncompressed over the Internet. When you do this, files should generally be ZIPped, stuffed, or otherwise compressed to avoid this problem.

 

If you are getting this message and would like us to look into this, please send the file to support@formz.com so we can determine what might have occurred. If you need this file recovered, please let us know and we will do our best to recover the file, if possible. If you wish to send a ZIP archive, make sure to change the extension to .SAFE, so that the file is not blocked by our ISP.

 

 

 

Menus: Sometimes selecting a menu item does not work the first time and I need to select it again. Why is this?

This can occur if you have been using the Zoom or Set View tools with the Continuous Zoom option (which is the default). As documented, you need to click on anything else to end the Continuous Zoom, which is essentially what you are doing when you select the menu item the first time. If you prefer, you can disable the Continuous Zoom option from Edit / Preferences / Project / General.

 

 

 

Quicktime and Quicktime Authoring: The form·Z documentation says it can create MOV movie files, QTVR files, and read and write PSD and other formats. I can't do this on myWindows computer. Why is this?

These capabilities require that Quicktime & Quicktime Authoring be installed. Go to http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download to download and install this. Note that you should use the Custom Install Option to install Quicktime Authoring, as well as the base version of Quicktime. If you already have Quicktime installed, you can go to Start / Programs / Quicktime and run Quicktime Updater. Click Custom to select and install Quicktime Authoring, as well as the rest of the available Quicktime updates. We would recommend at least version 7.0 of Quicktime, and as always, make sure that Virus Software is disabled when installing this. (Quicktime Authoring is built into Quicktime version 7 or later.)

 

 

 

Surface styles or layers locked: Why?

This is caused by having a symbol library loaded that contains objects that use these surface styles or layers. To edit these, you should open the symbol library (ZLB) file and edit these parameters there.

 

 

 

Interactive Shaded: Why is it sometimes grayed out?

This can occur if you are in a Perspective view that has the Keep Vertical Lines Straight enabled. This creates an "artificial view" that OpenGL cannot handle and thus these are mutually exclusive. Uncheck Keep Vertical Lines Straight from the View Parameters and you will be able to select the Interactive Shaded display mode again.
Note also that you can create a view with vertical lines straight without using this option. Simply set an equal Z value for the Eye Point and Center of Interest in your View Parameters. Then you will be able to display this 2-point perspective in the Interactive Shaded display mode.

 

 

 

Hardware, OS, MP, 64-bit, Mac Intel, HT support?

It is generally recommended to have a modern processor with a minimum of 512 Mb RAM, with 1-2 Gigs preferred, especially if you will be working on large projects.

 

OS X 10.4 or later, Windows 2000, Windows XP, or Vista operating systems are also recommended.

 

Dual / Multiple processor cores are supported with the Full Raytrace Rendering Mode. You can select this from the Rendering Type pull-down menu from the top of the RenderZone Options.
On the Intel Macs versions prior to 6.1, form·Z will run in "Rosetta". Version 6.1 and later will run natively, resulting in about 3 times faster performance.

 

On Windows, there are both a 32 and a 64 bit version available as of version 6.1. On Windows 32, you can access 2 GB RAM or 3 GB RAM if you turn on the 3GB switch. On Windows 64, you can access 4 GB of RAM with the 32 bit version of form·Z, or up to 128 GB RAM with the 64 bit version. With OSX, form·Z versions 4.0 and later can access 4 GB RAM.

 

form·Z will work on Windows computers that have HyperThreading (HT) enabled. However this will generally slow down the RenderZone renderings. Therefore, unless you need this enabled for other applications, we would generally recommend that you disable this (from your Bios or Setup). Note also that HT will make your computer look like it has more than one processor, so if you only have one and have already installed form·Z, you should delete this installation and reinstall the single processor version (which will be installed automatically after HT is disabled).