rodlord Posted March 6, 2017 Report Share Posted March 6, 2017 Hi Once upon a time in the distant past I used to be able to export reasonable FACT files from FormZ which could be imported into EIAS with hierarchy intact and geometry that was sound. No longer I'm afraid. Exports from FormZ 7.3.4 to FACT now produce insane nonsense geometry that cannot be used. So the best I can now achieve is to export to .OBJ. The geometry is robust, but all hierarchy structure is lost. Can anybody please suggest a reasonable route to get model data from FormZ into Animator ? Thank you in advance. Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Hey Rod, Could you install the latest FormZ 8.5 trial and see if the problem persist? Thanks Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodlord Posted March 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Hi Tom Thanks for your reply. I have ordered the trial version and waiting for FormZ email. Not sure what the OS requirements situation is as I am on Mountain Lion and have no intention of upgrading as that would give me a nightmare situation with all my Adobe software. So I am stuck with whatever I can run on OSX 10.8.5. Not sure either if I can justify the additional cost as I can find no info on upgrade cost. My best route currently is to export each FormZ group to .OBJ and import each of those into EIAS in order to recreate a hierarchy manually. This is tedious but at least gives me reliable robust geometry. Once EIAS has saved its FACT versions I can then get rid of all the redundant .OBJ files. Anyway, I will give it a try as you suggest but I don't really have great expectations ! Will let you know. cheers Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ola Rod! I remember autodesys had problems exporting .fac in FormZ 7, they did a Fix, but in theory was for FormZ 8.. you could try, do a backup of your old plug-in. Thanks Tom Fact.fzp.zip Dear formZ / Electric Image users, Thank you for your recent report of issues with the FACT Export with formZ v8 on OS X. We have now fixed this, and would like to invite you to test this fix to make sure that it is working properly for you. To test this, download, unzip, and copy the attached file: Go to your Applications: formZ 8: formZ 8 Pro: Plugins: FFMT folder and Paste this file, replacing the older plugin. (Make sure this asks to Replace the older file to make sure you have it in the right location.) Then Relaunch formZ 8, and the plugin should be ready for testing. Please give it a try at your earliest convenience, and let us know if you have any issues, or if it is now working as you would expect. Best Regards, formZ Technical Support AutoDesSys, Inc.https://www.facebook.com/AutodesSys (614) 488-8838 Monday - Friday 9am - 6 pm EST Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodlord Posted March 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 OK - I've just done a quick test from FormZ 8.5. As it won't open my current project file I just did a simple cube and a cylinder and it does appear to import into EIAS ok with hierarchy intact. HOWEVER - every updated version of FormZ I am forced to use I HATE MORE AND MORE. It's like trying to use some kind of Phsychedelic light show on speed and things just don't work as I have grown to expect over 20 years or more. I now can't even select some points and expect ALL of them within the dragged frame to be selected - and I can't select points in one window and expect them to remain active in another so that I can drag them ... etc, etc, etc ... This is of course because you are now supposed to do everything within a single perspective window - and that simply is not the way I work. So the whole logic of the enforced working methods simply do not mesh with my logic and my instincts. So I will not be upgrading - the stress will shorten my life ! I will instead stick with what I have and live with it. Thank you Tom. cheers Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ola Rod! I understand Rod! Its why we want our next upgrade the same feel we love in EIAS but a LOT more modern :) Did you try only the formZ plug-in? Thanks Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodlord Posted March 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Hi Tom No I didn't - not sure what I need to do. Is this the file mentioned in the FormZ message you included ? - Fact.fzp.zip I had assumed that was specifically designed to work with 8.5 and I'm on 7.3.4 If I download that and replace the one in the FormZ plugins folder I presume I can re-instate the old one if necessary ? Although there's probably not much point worrying about that as the current one is clearly useless ! I'll give it a try and let you know but I have to go out now - will try when I'm back in the studio tonight. cheers Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ola Rod! Try it.. dont forget to do a back-up of the old one. Thanks Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodlord Posted March 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Hi Tom I did try it but all it did was remove the FACT export option altogether ! So I re-instated the old version just to set things back to what they were. I decided to try a FACT export one more time and found that to my extreme surprise I actually got some useable geometry and with hierarchy intact. Really don't understand why this is suddenly ok as I had been struggling some time back for quite a while to get anything. But I am so rusty now that when I tried to scale the outer group x 10 and only some elements changed position but NOT scale I can't for the life of me remember why that is ! I have been searching for the way to set the inherit scale attributes but can't find that in searches of the manual or online. This is very irritating and embarrassing after all the years I've been using EI. Can you remind me please or should I start a new thread ? Thanks, Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ola Rod! Its simple: 1) Select your group(s) 2) Open the Link Window 3) Enable the Inherit Scale and with control pressed in the keyboard, you will see the contextual menu, options like, All, Remaining, Children... and so on :) Thanks Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodlord Posted March 7, 2017 Author Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Excellent ! Thank you Tom. So the conclusion of all this is that somehow I am now getting reasonable results from a FormZ export to FACT but I don't have a clue why ! I'm not going to waste any more time worrying about it. Many thanks for your time and patience ! cheers Rod Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomas Egger Posted March 7, 2017 Report Share Posted March 7, 2017 Ola Rod! Glad to know! Its always a pleasure to help.. Thanks Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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