in·form·Z 2002

June 10, 2002

This year's newsletter was mailed the first week of June. We thank all of you that submitted artwork. Now is a good time to start thinking about the 2003 calendar submissions. We have begun preliminary work on it and hope to receive images from our users at their earliest convenience.

form·Z wins Best of Show Award

June 10, 2002

Cadalyst magazine's editors selected products for CAD/CAM/CAE featured at the A/E/C SYSTEMS Show in Anaheim, California to bestow Best of Show Awards. form·Z was one of the winners of the awards, which according to the magazine were given out after editors reviewed many new and outstanding hardware and software offerings on display at the show. According to editor in chief Art Liddle, "as always, it proved difficult to narrow down the field of worthy contenders." AutoDesSys is honored and proud to receive this distinction. Read more about the awards at http://www.cadalyst.com

Four month extension of the family plan

April 23, 2002

In recognition of some delay in sending our regular update to our family plan subscribers, AutoDesSys is extending the duration of the current subscriptions for 4 months. Our family plan members need do nothing; their subscriptions will be extended automatically. Also, anybody subscribing for the first time or renewing his/her subscription between April 22 and the release of version 4.0 will be getting a 16 month subscription for the price of 12 months.

form·Z 4.0 is coming.

April 23, 2002

Work on version 4.0 continues intensively and this version is scheduled to be introduced at Siggraph in late July. Some of the most significant goodies that will either be in form·Z 4.0 or will be offered as plug ins follow: Support of Mac OS X and Windows interface improvements: form·Z 4.0 supports Mac OS X as well as Mac OS 9. When running under OS X, form·Z 4.0 uses the new Apple Aqua interface. Also, thanks to Mac OS X, form·Z RenderZone 4.0 will now support multiprocessors on the Mac, which results in enhanced rendering speed. Platform specific interfacing improvements have also been made to the Windows versions of form·Z.

Plug-in technology: A variety of operations ranging from object generation and manipulation to rendering and export/import procedures can be developed independently by using the full set of the C and C++ language and by incorporating direct calls to internal form·Z procedures. These operations are compiled as plug-ins that can be added and executed as any of the regular form·Z operations.

Script language: Intended for the technically more casual programmers and users, this is a simplified C like interpretive language that offers the means to write new or extend existing operations from within the form·Z environment. These can be easily edited and changed and attached to form·Z icons or menu items, to be executed interactively as any other operation of form·Z.

Extensive set of NURBS: To say it plainly, with v. 4.0, NURBS operations that may be available in other exclusively NURBS based applications on the market will be offered in form·Z. And all this without sacrificing any of the other types of objects and operations that the exclusively NURBS programs do not have.

Point cloud threading: Deriving properly structured objects from arbitrary and unstructured collections of coordinate points as generated by 3D laser digitizers. These objects will initially be structured as polygonal entities and will later be transformed into NURBS surfaces.

Lights in symbols: Lights and light groups can now be included in symbol definitions allowing for easy creation of reusable light fixtures. This feature makes lighting studies and simulations significantly easier and faster to create.

Sketch rendering: The generation of images that look like they were done by free hand. That is, a variety of effects can be applied to rendered images to produce expressionistic pictures that do not look like they were done on the computer.

Network rendering: This mode of rendering allows single frame images and animations to be rendered on multiple machines simultaneously, resulting in significant savings in production time. The form•Z network rendering uses TCP/IP technology, which allows rendering to be performed over the internet or on local machines.

Many more responses to suggestions: This is a long list of extensions and improvements made in response to suggestions sent to us in recent years. This is a list that gets longer every day, as more and more suggestions are addressed. Look for specific announcements in the near future.

Free update to v. 4.0, if you buy today.

April 23, 2002

Whoever buys a new user license of form·Z 3.9 or 3.9.5 between April 25th, 2002 and until the release of version 4.0, will automatically get form·Z 4.0, free of additional charge. In addition there will be free support and updates for 4 months from the date v. 4.0 is released. So, there is no need to wait!