Spring is here! 🌻 And with it, we're excited to outline another round of recent enhancements to Forma. 💪
Building on our previous work, we've spent the past few months making a series of small but meaningful improvements covering both app-wide experiences like navigation as well as more targeted modes like floor plans and 3D Sketch.
Let's dive in!
App-Wide Improvements
Orbit and Zoom Reliability
We overhauled and unified the code underpinning navigation tools like Orbit and Zoom, fixing issues ranging from the camera moving too fast to the camera stalling and not moving at all.
Forma now uses the cursor's position to determine how fast to move the camera: The farther away the cursor is from the object beneath it, the faster the camera will move. As the camera approaches the object, the movement will slow down:
Ctrl + Middle Mouse Zoom
We love addressing customer requests, and a recent feedback post suggesting the use of Ctrl + Middle Mouse for zoom caught our attention.
In addition to aligning with Revit, this configuration would also enable zoom for customers who don't have a scroll wheel or a touchpad. Makes all the sense, so we did it. Enjoy!
Add Floors to LOD2 Contextual Buildings
We've recently added the ability to order LOD2 contextual buildings in some geographies and have more planned. Because LOD2 buildings may have pitched roofs and other 3D geometry that can't be represented with a Forma basic building, these previously could be not be edited or enriched with floors.
However, the power of 3D Sketch enables all of this and more! It's now possible to edit LOD2 contextual buildings in 3D Sketch, which also unlocks adding floors and even floor plans.
Floor Plan Sketcher Improvements
Surrounding Context in 2D View
Architectural design never happens in a vacuum, so we've enhanced the floor plan sketching experience to include the terrain in the 2D view:
Constraint Visibility
In a similar vein, we've also addressed some customer feedback which rightly pointed out that constraints weren't visible at all in the 2D view of the floor plan sketcher, and would appear as opaque and gray in the 3D view.
We've now enhanced this so that constraints are drawn in 2D and displayed as pink and translucent in 3D:
3D Sketch Improvements
Smooth Curved Surfaces Outside of 3D Sketch
3D Sketch has always supported smooth curved surfaces while editing, but upon exit back to Forma's main design mode, those smooth surfaces would show their facets via lines that were previously hidden.
No longer! Forma's main design mode will now hide the edges that were hidden in 3D Sketch, providing consistent rendering whether in edit mode or not:
Model Recovery
Sketching in 3D is complicated business, and this inherent complexity prevents 3D Sketch from auto-saving to the cloud in the same way as other Forma elements. If something goes wrong during the modeling session, or if the browser tab is closed or refreshed, 3D Sketch data would previously be lost.
However, we recently implemented model recovery to mitigate this. After every action, 3D Sketch saves a local copy of your model, which is cleared once the mode ends and the model is saved to the cloud. In the event this cloud save doesn't happen, the next time 3D Sketch is launched or a particular element is edited, 3D Sketch uses the presence of the local unsaved model to prompt whether those unsaved changes should be loaded or discarded:
More Tools in Contextual Toolbar
3D Sketch can make a wide variety of powerful modifications depending on the selection, but most of these modification tools were previously hidden in the right-click context menu.
Now, 3D Sketch will surface more tools in the contextual toolbar on the right side, depending on the specific selection set, including operations like Array, Mirror, Scale, Non-uniform Scale, and Group tools:
Quick Access Support
If you've ever wondered about the full suite of tools available in 3D Sketch, or which shortcuts correspond to which tools, this update is for you!
Aligning with the main Forma design mode, 3D Sketch now supports Quick Access, enabling instant discovery of tools and shortcuts with a handy search bar:
Edit Selected Geometry from Toolbar
Speaking of toolbars, we've updated the main Forma toolbar to dynamically change the 3D Sketch button icon and behavior depending on the current selection.
The 3D Sketch button will now edit the selected element if it's compatible, rather than always launching a new 3D Sketch create session:
Backside Visualization and Selection
It's possible to create geometry that's not solid in 3D Sketch, and doing so can pose challenges to downstream operations.
For example, drawing a box with a missing face like the example below and then exiting to the main design mode would cause the inside of the box (which shows the backsides of surfaces) to render transparently. Worse, it wasn't even possible to select the element using the backfaces in order to edit it and repair the solid.
Forma will now display the backsides with red, similar to how 3D Sketch indicates non-solid geometry issues, and it's now possible to select 3D Sketch elements using their backsides:
Auto-Start Sketch Tools on Launch
In order to reduce the number of steps to let your creativity flow, and to better align with other Forma toolsets, 3D Sketch will now automatically start the Freeform solid tool when launched as a new creation session from the main Forma toolbar.
Bonus: If the initial tool is changed before anything is drawn, that tool will be remembered next time 3D Sketch is launched:
Auto-Aligned Bounding Boxes
3D Sketch now automatically aligns bounding boxes to their geometry, creating a tight-fitting container which is crucial for tools that use the bounding box for alignment like Non-Uniform Scale and Groups.
Previously, this misalignment would have to be manually corrected with the Set Axes tool. Such misalignment would be especially prevalent if the geometry being drawn wasn't aligned with world north (very common):
Edit 3D Sketch Geometry Through Constraints
Have you ever tried to edit a 3D Sketch building while it was enveloped in a constraint? This can be a useful workflow to edit in real time while also making sure your design is not violating the bounds of the constraint.
Previously, the presence of the constraint would prevent selection of the currently-edited 3D Sketch geometry. But now, it's possible to select and modify 3D Sketch faces and edges "through" the constraint, enabling an always-on visual analysis of constraint compliance (note that you'll still have to temporarily disable constraints in the layers palette to double-click the 3D Sketch building to begin the editing session):
Geometry Highlighting for Parallel/Perpendicular Inferencing
3D Sketch features a powerful snapping and inferencing engine that helps keep your sketched geometry parallel or perpendicular to other elements.
We've now improved the engine to highlight the relevant geometry which is being used for the parallel or perpendicular inference axes:
End Sketch Tools When Surfaces Are Split
Finally, we've made a small improvement to the core 3D Sketching experience: If you split a surface with a sketching tool, 3D Sketch will automatically end the current tool. This enables quicker access to follow-on actions, like moving the edge or extruding one of the split faces, rather than requiring you to hit ESC to end the tool - which is likely at the end of its utility in the workflow anyway:
We hope these small improvements make a meaningful impact in your Forma workflows!
Rest assured, we're not stopping here: Much bigger things are being cooked up. Stay tuned!
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