[Gary]

Hello:

I just finished a large job where many form z symbols where used in the form z file and then rendered as instances in Maxwell. I ran into some serious problems where the symbols/instances would render moved or rotated in Maxwell.

This was a big job with a lot of variables so trouble shooting may be complex but I would hate to have to face this problem again as many hours were lost. Really not sure if this is a Z problem, a Maxwell problem or a bit of both. Some of the unusual problems were specific to each application, some were not. Some potential areas that could have contributed:

1. form z symbol file was to large. I was accessing a few symbol libraries, one with over 100 symbols.

2. I was placing symbols and then copying and rotating the symbols in form z.

3. I was placing many symbols and then through the "edit symbol" tool i was selecting a different symbol. When moving one of these symbols it always seemed to show a bounding box relevant to the first symbols size.

4. Maxwell specific— I could write a mxi from form z and test render in mxcl and all looked correct. I would open the mxi in mxstudio and write a "pack and go" to upload to a render farm. I would then retest the "pack and go" mxi and the instances would render moved or rotated. I could then swap out the bad mxi with the good mxi and it would render correctly. Note that some mxi's written from form z were bad from the beginning.

I can share these files internally with Maxwell staff if that helps. Any help, ideas, insights are appreciated.

Thanks,

Gary

[desclarke]

Gary, I have had a similar problem where the symbols would rotate or flip in the MXI file. For example, I had a door symbol which I had placed multiple times in my FormZ model. The door symbol had been mirrored and rotated to suit it's desired position. Then when saved out as maxwell, the doors would be rotated almost as though they wanted to return to their original position. My quick workaround was to explode the symbols, export to Maxwell and then undo the explode in FormZ.

Des

[Gary]

Des:

Thanks for the information. That helps point efforts in the Maxwell direction more than the Z direction. Unfortunately, with more than a 1,000 placed symbols I was fearful of way to large a file if I exploded all symbols. Perhaps I should have tried it...

I did have 2 times when working with this file where Z would confuse a symbol— meaning I would open the file and for example, a truss symbol would appear as a store fixture symbol.

Regards,

Gary

[tcamco]

Gary,
I also explode symbols before exporting to Maxwell as Des suggested. I have found that Maxwell can easily handle very large files that Form Z would have difficulty handling.