No Satellite Image

[Anonymous]

Hi guys,

I am using the 30 day trial for FormIt Pro. So far when I add a location and import the satellite image, the image does not show up. This is what shows up. Is this because it is a trail version? This issue happens when I use Firefox or Chrome for Web App.

Thanks,

Bryon

[Tobias_Hathorn]

Hello There - THIS IS A BUG! Google changed something on their side and we cannot resolve it on the FormIt side... so we're unfotunately stuck with this behavior for a few days until Google fixes the issue.

I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience - this just started happening today - very unfortunate all around. I do believe it is just the satellite image which is affected - other FormIt Pro trial features should still work as expected.

Thanks,

Tobias

[Anonymous]

Thanks Tobias,

I was hoping that was the answer. Also thanks for all the Formit Friday tutorials, they were great and I just finished all of them today. My new job asked me to look into this software as a replacement to Sketch-Up before I started, and I really do like it. It pretty much just took the conceptual massing tools in revit and made everything much more simple while adding a lot of great features. Thanks.

[Anonymous]

Hi Tobias,

but this issue continues. So, do you have any idea why it keeps happening? Otherwise, is there any other tip?

Thank you.

Regards,

Maurilio

[josh.goldstein]

Hi Maurilio, 

Can you confirm whether you're using FormIt Web, Windows, or iOS? Are you seeing this issue with new files, or old files? 

FormIt gets its satellite data from online services, so your internet connection could be a factor here. But if you have a file that consistently exhibits this behavior, we'd like to take a look at it. I'll reach out via DM if that's the case.

Thanks,

[josh.goldstein]

Hi again Maurilio, 

It appears the Google service that supplies FormIt with satellite imagery is having intermittent issues, which is causing FormIt apps to occasionally fail when downloading and displaying the image.

We'll try to alert Google of the issue. In the meantime, apologies for the inconvenience.

[Anonymous]

That´s ok Josh.

Thank you very much.

Maurilio

[josh.goldstein]

Wanted to post an update here for anyone who is affected by the recent satellite image issues.

It appears Google has changed the way apps like FormIt must make requests for satellite imagery, and we'll need to issue updates for FormIt Windows and FormIt iOS to resolve this. 

FormIt Web is unaffected, so if you need to work with satellite imagery, you can open your models in Web: https://app.formit.autodesk.com/

Unfortunately, opening a FormIt model with satellite imagery in Windows or iOS will still result in blank sat imagery, since FormIt must request the imagery from Google when the file is opened.

Sorry for the inconvenience. We're working to resolve this as soon as we can. We'll post here when the app updates with the fixes are available to download.

[Anonymous]

Hi Josh,

I´m using Pro for Windows but you´re right. The webversion works nice.

Thks,

Maurilio

[josh.goldstein]

Hi everyone,

FormIt for iPad and Windows have been updated to address the issue with Google Maps. The iOS store should update the iPad app to v16.4 automatically, and you can get FormIt for Windows v16.4 through the Autodesk Desktop App, or download it directly from our website. The current Windows app will also alert you of an available update in the UI, which will take you to our website.

We apologize for the downtime. Happy modeling!

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Any updates. Extremely frustrating at present regarding the maps issue.

Robin

[josh.goldstein]

Hi Robin,

As I posted in the previous message, this should be fixed in FormIt v16.4. Can you confirm your app is updated?

You can look for a button on the toolbar that looks like this:

... then choose "About FormIt" to verify the version is v16.4. If not, you'll need to update your app to get the fix.

Thanks,

[greg_benson-shettle]

I am using FormIt v 17 on the web version and windows version, still no image and blank placement image is from Bing!

Any solutions?

[josh.goldstein]

Hi Greg,

If what you're experiencing looks like this, it's an issue with Bing Maps. You'll just need to zoom out a bit to get the imagery. We're working on an improvement for this in the next version of FormIt.

If that's not the issue you're seeing, can you post a screenshot of what exactly FormIt shows after you import the satellite image?

Thanks!

[greg_benson-shettle]

Hi, Thanks for the response.
Your screen shot is exactly what I see after capturing the location map, but no matter how far I zoom out it that doesn’t change it.
Regards

Greg

[josh.goldstein]

Thanks Greg. Can you tell us what location is giving you this trouble?

[greg_benson-shettle]

Hi,  Thanks for getting back to me.

I repeated the process and did get an image, of sorts,  after several attempts, however the image quality is so poor to be un-usable, and yes, I needed to zoom out a bit.

Location: 121-122 Marine Parade, Worthing, BN11 3SA, UK

Tried to reproduce but there seemed to be an error with app.formit.autodesk and could not get past the Finish Importing process, it just returned me to the map selection screen; unless I have missed something in the process.

Switched to FormIt Pro Windows application, image capturing and quality results were the same but it did import the satellite capture into FormIt.   See attached PDF for results.

Is there a way to set FormIt to use Google Maps instead, see image 4 in PDF, this is a usable capture !?

Thanks for your time.

[josh.goldstein]

Hi again Greg,

Are you able to reproduce the error you mention when trying to import the satellite image in FormIt Web? We'd like to look into that.

Glad you were able to get the imagery into FormIt for Windows. Sorry that it's lower-quality than you were hoping. We're at the mercy of Bing Maps here, as we just consume whatever data they have available.

We switched away from Google Maps earlier this year for many reasons, including new restrictions that severely limited our use of their data. There is no way to use Google Maps in FormIt currently. However, you could try taking a screenshot of a higher-quality satellite image from somewhere else, and importing it into FormIt as a regular image, then scaling it up to match the size/position of the satellite image you get from Bing.

Thanks for the PDF illustrating the data quality between the two services. Hopefully Bing updates their satellite imagery soon. If they do, FormIt will receive the latest data automatically. Until then, maybe the workaround above will suffice.