| |
|
|
| |
form•Z 5.0 is above all the version that offers the API technology and the script language of form•Z. They are both methods that invite the user to develop his or her own extensions to the program, which can be done either through a plugin that is developed outside of form•Z or through a script, which is developed using form•Z’s own editing environment. Both of these methods are discussed in detail in the separate form•Z Software Development Kit (SDK) Manual. Version 5.0 also contains a number of significant new features. Some of these are actually implemented and attached to form•Z as plugins, which is intended to offer additional practical examples of how the application can now be extended.
- Highly interactive graphic interface with associated multiple
windows, tear off tool palettes, virtually unlimited and
selectively applied Undo/Redo operations, customizable key
shortcuts for all the operations, simultaneously available
prepick and postpick modes, and integrated 2D/3D operations
allow you to work in either 2D or directly in 3D space.
- Dynamically generated 3D solids and 2D shapes include
rectangles, n-sided polygons, patterned polygons, circles,
ellipses, arcs, free hand line drawings, splines, and double
("wall") lines. These can be extruded in a direction perpendicular
to their plane, or to a point.
- Derivative objects that can be generated from other objects
include 2D shapes, parallel extrusions or extrusions to
a point, walls, lathed objects, helixes, screws and bolts,
spiral stairs, one and two-source sweeps along arbitrary
paths, multi-source/multi-path skinning, 2D and 3D sections
of solids, projections of objects including unfolded objects,
and parallel objects.
- Spherical objects, that include the complete set of Platonic
solids, soccer balls, and lathed and geodesic spheres, can
be generated both interactively and through numeric input,
and can also be scaled and stretched. Terrain models can
be generated as true 3D solids, trimmed to the shape of
a site, from 2D contour lines. The four available types,
mesh, triangulated mesh, stepped, and triangulated contour
models, can be freely combined to model rivers, roads, flat
areas, and a variety of other topographies. Smoothly curved
splines and meshed surfaces can be generated and edited
interactively using one of a complete set of mathematical
methods that include NURBS, B-splines, and Bezier curves.
- Metaformz™ allow you to organically blend a variety of
3D forms, and as implemented in form•Z raises the metaballs
technology to unprecedented levels.
- Mesh models both flat and smoothly curved can be created,
then edited and reshaped interactively by changing their
parameters and their geometry, or by applying one of the
many available deformation operations to pull or push an
area, or to bend and twist. Image based displacements can
be used to imprint a shape on both flat and already meshed
surfaces. Advanced rounding can be applied to vertices,
edges, or both vertices and edges including concave vertices
and sequences of edges called stitches. Draft angles can
also be applied to surfaces of solids.
- 2D and 3D text (TrueType™ and PostScript™) can be generated
as plain text or as text objects. A variety of text placement
methods are available, including the placement of text on
or between freely unfolding and editable control lines.
- Boolean operations, which include union, intersection,
and difference, as well as the composite split operation,
can be applied to either 2D shapes or 3D solids. They can
be used to compose primitive shapes into arbitrarily complex
forms.
- Trim, Split, and Stitch operations are Boolean-like operations
that can be applied to surface meshed objects as well as
to solids, to cut away a piece, to separate an object into
two or more parts, or to connect objects together.
- Both 3D symbols for modeling and 2D symbols for drafting
can be defined and stored into symbol libraries. The program
actually ships with a few libraries of its own. Symbols
can be placed as instances as many times as desirable through
a variety of placement options. Also, symbol editing operations
allow you to apply global or local changes to instances.
- The Query tool provides the ability to determine information
about objects, and to calculate areas, volumes, and distances.
- Graphically and dynamically executed 2D/3D geometric transformations
provide the ability to move, rotate, scale, or reflect either
individual entities or groups of entities simultaneously.
They can be applied at any of the topological levels (point,
segment, face, volume, or group), and a sequence of transformations
can be recorded as a macro, which is editable and can be
applied as a single operation.
- Insertions and deletions are 2D/3D form editing and sculpting
operations that can be applied to points, segments, outlines,
faces, or volumes. Combined with geometric transformations,
they provide an extensive ability to reshape forms.
- Attach, extend, and place tools facilitate the positioning
of objects or their parts relative to other objects.
- Perspective, axonometric, oblique, isometric, and panoramic
views can be graphically controlled by interactively changing
the viewing position. You may also view your work in straight
up perspective, or use match perspective view to easily
blend your model into an existing environment. Viewing positions
can be selected from a menu, or one of two tools can be
used to navigate through space interactively and to select
the desired view. For more control of the viewing parameters,
the Cone of Vision may be manipulated to accurately define
the position of the viewer, angle of vision, center of interest,
and light source, and to position the hither and yon planes.
Drawing and graphic input in general can occur under any
viewing type and angle.
- Underlays are images that can be opened and placed in
the background of a window for both 2D projections and 3D
views. They are useful both for tracing drawings that may
have been scanned, and for modeling within the context of
an existing environment which may be depicted in the underlay.
- Display options include wire frame, hidden line, surface,
and z-buffer rendering with smooth shading, soft and hard
shadows, and antialiasing. Photorealistic rendering, including
raytrace, and radiosity is available in form•Z RenderZone
and form•Z RadioZity. Shaded renderings for interactive
manipulations are available through QD3D on MacOS and OpenGL.
- A drafting module is integrated with the modeling module,
which allows images to be transported from modeling to drafting
and vice versa. In addition to a variety of drawing tools,
the drafting module offers associative dimensioning and
hatching, 2D Boolean operations, text, and symbols.
- Import and export utilities include BMP, DWG, DXF, EPS,
FACT, IGES, Illustrator, Lightscape, OBJ, PICT, PNG, QTVR,
RIB, SAT, STL, Targa, TIFF, VRML, 3DGF, 3DMF, and 3DS.
- Rapid prototyping is made easy with STL.
- 2D/3D digitizing is supported through two distinct modes,
screen and world.
- Floating point precision, virtually unlimited layers,
English and metric units, on line Help, numeric input, user
defined preferences, and more features are also included.
|
|
|
CAD/BIM 
Back
to previous page
