form·Z 5.5, offers a number of new features and enhancements in both modeling and rendering. Most significantly it implements new versions of the LightWorks and the ACIS libraries, both of which offer important performance enhancements. In addition, v.5.5 includes corrections to a variety of irregularities reported to us. The latter have also been made available as patch 5.0.5 for those users that may not update to v.5.5.

Following are the most significant enhancements in v.5.5:

Interface

Scene palette: A new palette that allows you to set up and save scenes, including views, lights, rendering options, status of objects, and layers has been introduced.

Contextual menu: This is a shortcut for accessing frequently used items and is invoked using the right mouse button (or the left button with a key combination).

Direct view navigation: A series of new key and mose driven navigation commands have been introduced. They facilitate view navigation without the need for icon selection.

Modeling

ACIS R14: A new version of smooth modeling has been implemented which includes corrections for a number of irregularities and performance enhancements.

Bend along Curve tool: This is a new modeling tool that bends an object along a curve, according to a variety of alignment options. A powerful tool for creating complex deformed shapes.

Query Parameters tool: This new tool allows a user to directly invoke the editable parameters of an object by clicking on it.

Import/export

DWG/DXF: A new plugin for DXF/DWG import and export based on the Open Design Alliance DirectDWG library. It adds support for the AutoCAD 2004 and 2006 formats, improves the transfer of smooth objects, and addresses a number of the limitations found in the legacy OpenDWG based translator.

STEP: This optional plugin has been extended and now includes support for layers and for dual names, when found in a file. For complete details see the form·Z Plugin STEP Translator User's Manual.

Rendering
Lightworks 7.5: The latest version of the LW rendering libraries is now supported and includes a number of bug corrections and performance improvements.

New surface styles: Surface Evaluation (Zebra) and Fabric are new surface styles that have been added as plugins. The former is useful for evaluating the smoothness of surfaces and the latter generates a large range of woven patterns.

Imager/network rendering: The Imager can now be used to send batch renderings to the network rendering server. This improves workflow when a set of images need to be rendered frequently.

LWA predefined material: In addition to the form·Z predefined materials previously available, Lightworks Archive (LWA) files can now be opened to extract a variety of sample materials made available by LW and a variety of manufacturers.

Other enhancements: A number of defaults in both the RenderZone Options and the RadioZity Options dialogs have been adjusted to facilitate the immediate generation of images with default setups. Also, the previous Quality bar has been replaced by the Silhouette Quality and Surface Quality slider bars, which makes the control of smooth shading easier.

Sketch Rendering: A new sketch style, called Lines And Strokes has been added to the optional Sketch Rendering plugin. It gives control over edge lines as well as a fill pattern that is created as a set of brush or pencil strokes. This new style introduces a large number of parameters that a user can control to create a variety of effects. For complete details, see the form·Z Plugin Sketch Rendering User's Manual.

Scripts
Script Helper: The Script Editor automatically generates script shells. A shell is a script that has all of the necessary elements and syntax for of a script, but no real functionality. This allows a script writer to fill in the desired functionality without being burdened with creating the entire script structure. This makes script writing easier and shortens development time.