formZ RenderZone New Features Include:

form·Z is a general purpose 3D modeler, which combines surface and solids modeling, and includes drafting and rendering, all in a single integrated package. Its users come from all design fields, including illustrators, animators, movie makers, special effects designers, architects, urban designers, landscape architects, interior designers, product and industrial designers, engineers, and even attorneys and doctors. Through the form·Z Joint Study program, form·Z is also used at about two hundred Universities worldwide to educate novice design professionals.

• It is a general purpose modeler that designers from a variety of different fields can use to create and visualize 3D forms.
• It combines solids and surface modeling. It also combines faceted (boundary) representations with parametric spline representations, NURBS, patches, and metaballs. This unique mixture of modeling personalities allows you to create any form, existing or imaginary, while working in a single package.
  
• It is a design oriented program that, not only allows you to visualize existing forms, but also to create new ones, which remain soft and tentative while they are generated. formZ is above all a 3D form synthesiser.
• The STEP (Standard for the Exchange of Product Data) translator, previously available only as a separately purchased plugin, is now included with all form·Z 6.5 versions. This translator allows for importing and exporting of 3D data to the STEP file format within form·Z.
• The Sweep tool has been improved with a new option that yields better results when creating a nurbz sweep.
• A new option has been added to the Deformation and Bend Along Path tools to
  optionally not introduce new points into the deformed or bent objects. This allows for a well-meshed and textured object to be deformed and animated without disturbing the texturing of the object.
• The options of the Smooth Shade tool and the Smooth Shading parameters in the Project Rendering Options dialog, have been simplified. Smooth shading rendering effects are now easier to control.
• The RenderZone and Shaded Render display modes now have the Silhouette and
  Surface Quality parameters, previously located in the Project Rendering Options
  dialog.
  

formZ RenderZone Plus New Features Include:

RenderZone offers seven levels of rendering that include z-buffer and raytracing. It uses state of the art shader technology, and offers both procedural and precaptured textures mapped on objects through five different methods. It offers smooth shading and highlights, multiple lights of three different types that can even glow, both hard and soft shadows, cubic and spherical environment mapping, accurate reflections and transparencies, backgrounds and depth effects, decals, and many other rendering effects that are produced at impressive speeds.

• .formZ RenderZone Plus now includes more than 600 new predefined materials.
• A new symbol library with 24 new tree symbols is included. The symbols are eachdefined with multiple levels, where each level uses increasingly higher resolution texture maps.
• The Interactive Shaded OpenGL based renderer has been reengineered to improve performance and attain new features. This improves its use as a working environment and also makes it a more accurate method for previewing RenderZone Plus renderings
  and texture placements. Specific improvements are as follows:
  - Shadows from point and cone lights are now supported and shadows can now be shown with accurate intensities.
  - Procedural textures generated by RenderZone are now also rendered.
  - Transparent and bump textures, both map based and procedural, are now rendered.
• Numerous interface changes, improvements and updates have been incorporated in formZ RenderZone Plus, primarily in the RenderZone and radiosity area
• Ambient Occlusion is a global illumination method, which is now available as a RenderZone option. It performs a better distribution of the otherwise uniformly applied ambient light. For a given point to be rendered, the ambient light is decreased, based on close by objects that may occlude the point.
• Final Gather is the second new global illumination technique in formZ RenderZone Plus. It computes a one bounce light reflection to create indirect illumination, not unlike radiosity. The reflected light is stored as sample points in a cache.
• The radiosity interface has been restructured. Its primary purpose is now to support the final gather RenderZone option. In this mode, radiosity can be executed quickly with a minimal set of user options.
• The new Radiosity Attributes modeling tool allows the user to set object and face level radiosity attributes. Individual objects can now be excluded entirely from radiosity. Objects may also be set to receive light in a radiosity solution, but not reflect it.
• The new Radiosity Bounding Box modeling tool can be used to further optimize a
  radiosity solution. It allows a user to interactively define a 3D box. Objects inside the box fully participate in radiosity. Objects outside the box are excluded.
• The Exposure Correction method of the RenderZone Postprocess option has been extended with two new types, Automatic and Brightness & Contrast.
• 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. Up to thirty-two decals can be applied to a single object and, because these decals may freely overlap, the rendering effects can be combined in virtually unlimited ways.
• The Sketch render, previously available only as a separately purchased plugin, is now included with form·Z RenderZone Plus.
• The Gradient colour shader blends different colors in a straight, radial or circular pattern. It is also available as a transparency, bump and background shader.
• The Brick, Paver colour shader creates a layout of 12 different brick patterns for use as wall or ground paving textures. It is also available as a bump shader.
• The Paving color shader creates an irregular pattern of natural paving stones separated by mortar joints. It is also available as a bump shader.
• The Frosty reflection shader produces blurry transparency. It can be used for frosted windows, glasses or thin translucent materials, such as curtains.
• The Shingles bump shader generates a pattern that simulates roof and wall shingles. The pattern is formed from individual tiles of a certain shape, which are separated by grooves.
• The Preferences dialog has a new option where the number of processors that are
  used during multi processing calculations, such as raytraced rendering and ambient occlusion, can be selected.
• The Light Parameters dialog has been reorganized into a series of tabs that contain intensity, location, shadow and parameter settings.
• The Environment light now has a Spin parameter that can be used to rotate the
  environment light around the world Z-axis.

Minimum System Requirements:

Macintosh

• OS X: Minimum version: 10.1 (Recommended Version: 10.2.x).
  
• Computer with USB port (or USB hub).
• Mac OS: Minimum version: 8.6 (Recommended Version: 9.2).
• CD-ROM drive.
• Minimum: 64 Mb (Recommended: 256 Mb) Memory.
  
• Hard Disk Space: Minimum: 200 Mb; Recommended: 400 MB
  

* Note that complex models or large texture maps may require additional hard disk space.

• DVD-ROM Drive: Required for installation only.
  

Windows:

• PC with minimum 386 and math coprocessor (Pentium II or better recommended).
• Windows 98, Windows ME or Windows XP home edition, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, or Windows XP Operating system
• CD-ROM drive.
• Minimum: 64 Mb (Recommended: 256 Mb) Memory.
  
• Hard Disk Space: Minimum: 200 Mb; Recommended: 400 MB
  

* Note that complex models or large texture maps may require additional hard disk space.

• DVD-ROM Drive: Required for installation only.
  
• Computer with USB port (or USB hub) or Parallel port.

Educational Pricing:

Please state Windows or Mac on order