"WOW! What you guys did with version 3.8 is great!"
- Dominik Wojtarowicz, Ontario, Canada

May 21, 2001

form·Z 3.8 introduces one more object personality to an already extensive repertoire of personalities. Smooth parametric objects now exist next to the traditional form·Z polygonal or facetted objects. form·Z has integrated the two types, which can work together in a manner that maximizes their distinct advantages. This results in a modeling environment that offers the best of two worlds and also allows to fluently convert one type of object to the other. Here are some of the highlights in v. 3.8:

Smooth objects, existing side by side with facetted and nurbz objects, are now available for the primitives (cone, cylinder, sphere, and torus), the revolved objects, the helixes, the sweeps, and more. Advanced operations of form·Z, such as Booleans, can be applied to the smooth objects alone or in combination with polygonal objects.

Parametric objects, including facetted and smooth, can freely be edited and reshaped, after their initial generation. Editing is typically interactive and graphic, which allows you to dynamically observe the effects of your manipulations.

Trimmed parametric surfaces that can result from Boolean and Trim/Split operations preserve their parametric nature and controls. Most notably, the trimmed surfaces can be exported parametrically.

Conversion of objects from one type to another can be fluently executed with a click of the mouse. Each of these types offers distinct possibilities of reshaping through graphic editing.

Advanced rounding and blending can be applied to parametric surfaces and objects. By bypassing the constraints imposed by the facetted objects, the new blending is capable of handling many more irregular shapes of edges than the facetted rounding does.

More subdivision methods are provided for meshing surfaces to transform low resolution cages, or approximate models, to smoothly detailed models. With these subdivision capabilities, form•Z takes a position at the forefront of supporting evolving techniques for efficient animation oriented 3D modeling.

Light groups, constructed through operations in the Lights palette, offer some extra conveniences in setting up scenes for rendering, including the manipulation of light attributes and status at the group level.

Importing/Exporting the parameters of all the smoothly parametric objects is now possible, especially as required for prototyping and manufacturing purposes.

A new import/export translator for Newtek's LightWave has been introduced.

 

"This version of form·Z will confirm once again that you guys are really aware of what your users expect... I am a form·Z user for seven years, and you know why? Because you are constantly evolving side-by-side with your users. Keep up the good work"
- Carlos Rego, Lisbon, Portugal