Form·Z is a general-purpose

solid Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structura ...

and

surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is t ...

modeling software. It offers 2D/ 3D form manipulating and sculpting capabilities. It can be used on

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for ...

and

Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software en ...

computers. It is available in English, German, Italian, Spanish, French, Greek, Korean and Japanese languages.

Modeling

Form·Z allows design in 3D or in 2D, using numeric or interactive graphic input through either line or smooth shaded drawings (

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve ha ...

). Modeling features include Boolean solids to generate complex composite objects; the ability to create

curved surface A surface, as the term is most generally used, is the outermost or uppermost layer of a physical object or space. It is the portion or region of the object that can first be perceived by an observer using the senses of sight and touch, and is ...

s from splines, including

NURBS Non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) is a mathematical model using basis splines (B-splines) that is commonly used in computer graphics for representing curves and surfaces. It offers great flexibility and precision for handling both analy ...

and Bézier/

Coons patch In mathematics, a Coons patch, is a type of surface patch or manifold parametrization used in computer graphics to smoothly join other surfaces together, and in computational mechanics applications, particularly in finite element method and boun ...

es; mechanical and organic forms using the previous as well as metaforms, patches, subdivisions, displacements, or skinning, plus tools such as Terrain models,

Platonic solid In geometry, a Platonic solid is a convex, regular polyhedron in three-dimensional Euclidean space. Being a regular polyhedron means that the faces are congruent (identical in shape and size) regular polygons (all angles congruent and all e ...

geodesic In geometry, a geodesic () is a curve representing in some sense the shortest path ( arc) between two points in a surface, or more generally in a Riemannian manifold. The term also has meaning in any differentiable manifold with a connection. ...

spheres, double line/wall objects,

staircases Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

helix A helix () is a shape like a corkscrew or spiral staircase. It is a type of smooth space curve with tangent lines at a constant angle to a fixed axis. Helices are important in biology, as the DNA molecule is formed as two intertwined hel ...

es,

screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to fa ...

s, and bolts. In addition, Form·Z supports 3D transforming and morphing, and animated shape capture. Technical output oriented modeling allows to refine the design with double precision

CAD Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

accuracy to full structural detail for

3D visualization Visualization or visualisation (see spelling differences) is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message. Visualization through visual imagery has been an effective way to communicate both abstract and ...

for the production of 2D construction drawings,

3D printing 3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer ...

rapid prototyping Rapid prototyping is a group of techniques used to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly using three-dimensional computer aided design ( CAD) data. Construction of the part or assembly is usually done using 3D print ...

, and

CNC Numerical control (also computer numerical control, and commonly called CNC) is the automated control of machining tools (such as drills, lathes, mills, grinders, routers and 3D printers) by means of a computer. A CNC machine processes a pie ...

milling. It has information management of bills of materials and

spreadsheet A spreadsheet is a computer application for computation, organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form. Spreadsheets were developed as computerized analogs of paper accounting worksheets. The program operates on data entered in ce ...

support for construction documents.

Version history

Animation

Form·Z offers an animation environment where objects, lights, cameras, and surface styles (colors) can be animated and transformed. Animation features are object-centric and are applied as modeling operations that support animated visualizations, dynamic modeling and form creation.

Rendering

RenderZone Plus provides photorealistic rendering with

global illumination Global illumination (GI), or indirect illumination, is a group of algorithms used in 3D computer graphics that are meant to add more realistic lighting to 3D scenes. Such algorithms take into account not only the light that comes directly from ...

based on final gather (

raytrace In 3D computer graphics, ray tracing is a technique for modeling light transport for use in a wide variety of rendering algorithms for generating digital images. On a spectrum of computational cost and visual fidelity, ray tracing-based rend ...

ambient occlusion In 3D computer graphics, modeling, and animation, ambient occlusion is a shading and rendering technique used to calculate how exposed each point in a scene is to ambient lighting. For example, the interior of a tube is typically more occlude ...

, and radiosity, for advanced simulation of lighting effects and rendering techniques. Scene illumination considers the accurate distribution of light in the environment. Key rendering features include multiple light types (distant (sun), cone, point, projector, area, custom, line, environment, and atmospheric) whereas the environment and atmospheric lights are optimized for global illumination. Both procedural and pre-captured textures are offered and can be mapped onto object surfaces using six different mapping methods: flat, cubic, cylindrical, spherical, parametric, or UV coordinates. Decals can be attached on top of other surface styles to produce a variety of rendering effects, such as labels on objects, graffiti on walls, partially reflective surfaces, masked transparencies, and more. State of the art shaders are used to render surfaces and other effects. A surface style is defined by up to four layers of shaders, which produce color, reflections, transparency, and bump effects. They can be applied independently or can be correlated. Libraries with many predefined materials are included and can be extended/customized. A sketch rendering mode produces non photorealistic images that appear as if they were drawn by manual rendering techniques, such as oil painting, water color, or pencil hatches.

Third-party rendering plugins

Maxwell Maxwell 5 is a rendering engine developed by NextLimit based on light physics. The Maxwell plugin allows for the assignment of Maxwell materials to form·Z objects with fast visual rendered feedback using Maxwell FIRE. Once the materials are established, the plugin transfers the scene including objects, lights and the viewing parameters to Maxwell for rendering. Maxwell 5 uses CPU and or GPU* hardware and has access to cloud-based rendering internally. V-Ray

V-Ray V-Ray is a biased computer-generated imagery rendering software application developed by Bulgarian software company Chaos . V-Ray is a commercial plug-in for third-party 3D computer graphics software applications and is used for visualization ...

is a rendering engine developed by Chaos Labs & austodessys using CPU and/or GPU (PC hardware with Nvidia

CUDA CUDA (or Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a parallel computing platform and application programming interface (API) that allows software to use certain types of graphics processing units (GPUs) for general purpose processing, an approach ...

-based GPU cards.). The V-Ray plugin allows for the assignment of V-Ray materials to form·Z objects. Once the materials are established, the plugin transfers the scene including objects, lights interactive or progressive rendering.

Popular culture

Form•Z and RenderZone Plus claim to be used in Hollywood productions, in and behind the scenes (set design pre-production and construction, miniature model design, pre-vis animation, CG special effects, post-production etc.).form•Z presented at the Directors Guild of Canada
/ref> Productions include: ''Ocean's Eleven'', ''Pirates of the Caribbean'', ''Planet of the Apes'', ''Reign of Fire'', S''pace Cowboys'', ''Solaris'', ''Star Trek Into Darkness'', ''Terminator 3'' and ''Transformers''.

Literature

Pierluigi Serraino: History of form Z, Birkhäuser, 2002,

External links

AutoDesSys, the publishers of form•Z

Notes

{{reflist 3D graphics software Global illumination software MacOS computer-aided design software