Still no manual supports, no maya-style direct manipulators, no stl export, no designators for the peel side, etc on the print base. But overall nice little update.
**GUYS… really anyone is happy with this s/w? **
It is so minimal it makes me sick to use it - and I’m a Form1 kickstarter backer and a real fan of the printer.
**FORM1 TEAM ---- Get with it… Haven’t you figured out that the user base is not stupid. We need usable software. **
Get out of the lab and sit with 10-15 users - Figure it out. You have the VC funding and our $$$.
Oh BTW - Yes - I’m screaming…
I would like to see lots of improvements in preform but at least for me every version has worked well enough for me to print with.
Could it be better? Yes.
Much better? Yes.
Is it getting there? It seems like it.
Fast enough? Seems like it depends on how patient you are I.
I really don’t see any reason to be screaming about it though. Seems like staying calm and suggesting improvements is the best plan.
I’m happy enough with preform right now based on the constantly improving (even if it’s only in small steps) software.
#1 improvement on my list right now is a way to add in / define support points. I would be happy with a very very basic method asap and a more advanced and robust method down the road. Sure you can model them in but it would be much much easier to do it in preform.
I’m pretty happy with PreForm as well. As others have pointed out, there’s a list of things that would improve the user experience (manual supports being high up my personal list as well… if anything has cost me time in PreForm, it’s constantly regenerating supports in the hope that some critical model part is either supported or unblemished by supports, depending on the situation), but I find the overall package quite usable for my workflow i.e. importing STLs, setting them up for printing, and sending the job off to the printer.
I would hope any ‘power user’ features added do not detract from ease-of-use: available when you need them, but out of the way when you don’t.
If the software worked at all, I’d be able to comment about the interface.
I’ve tried it on two different Macs, both on 10.8.6, and both crash before the software can finish loading. Apparently, in stamping out all the Mac bugs, they also stamped out the ability to actually run the software in the first place.
I can’t speak to compatibility with 10.8.6, but I’m running PreForm on 10.9.1. So far so good. The previous version seemed to be quite a resource hog (I’d hear the fan on my Mac spinning up shortly after starting up PreForm), but 1.0 seems to have fixed that for me.
10.6.8 - my bad. Need coffee. If the guys at FL claim 10.6.8 compatibility, it would be nice if it were true. Of course, that said, since they know 10.9.1 works, there’s no incentive to fix 10.6.8 and the easy way out is to not support 10.6.8.
The feature suggestions are very much appreciated and our software team is hard at work prioritizing their workload to improve PreForm in future releases. We do compile all feedback and review. That being said, we are a very small team and make every effort to take suggestions into account while working on new features.
Anthony - There is a known bug with 10.6.8 that we have been able to reproduce in house. We have a patch fix that we are aiming to have released very soon.
Jory
Hi,
OS X 10.6.8 won’t work. Windows do it.
Process: PreForm [251]
Path: /Applications/PreForm.app/Contents/MacOS/PreForm
Identifier: com.formlabs.PreForm
Version: preview (1.0.0)
Code Type: X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process: launchd [120]
Date/Time: 2014-01-15 23:22:24.188 +0100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)-
Benjamin,
Thanks for posting, please see above…we are working on a patch fix for 10.6.8.
Jory
Hi Jory,
sorry my fault. I got to much action around me and only fly by the posts.
Benjamin
No worries Benjamin!
A patch has been released – so head over to our software page (http://formlabs.com/software) to pick it up.
The patch is for Snow Leopard 10.6.8 only. Other OSX and Windows don’t need to update.
Hi,
The update works fine 4 me. Thank you!
Benjamin
Hi everyone,
I have a problem with the last update of Preform… since the 1.0.0 version i cannot open a .stl file !
i’m running on Win7 64bits and the amazing things is that the 0.9.2 version of preform run perfectly !
Do you have an idea of the problem ? or a patch for some Win7 version ?
Could you give us a few more details on the problem, Gregory? What happens when you open an STL? Do they open in the previous version? Can you share the STL here?
Hi Sam,
When i’m opening a stl file, Preform tell me this message :
" Unable to read this file "
i have the same problem with all my stl files and my friend don’t have the problem.
So i returned to the old one and no problem was detected, all my files was open without problem.
i do the update again, and the problem’s back " unable to read this file "
i can send you a .stl example but it’s with all my files.
OK – when you do have an STL, please let me know! And if you can also post the specifics of your software system (graphics, memory, etc.), that might be useful.
Sam,
There is a Print screen of the error
and the stl file of it.
This files was printed a few weeks ago without problem.
My softwa re system is :
Win 7 Premium Family 64bits
8 Go Ram
with Nvidia GT540m 2Gb
And a intel Core i7- 2630QM 2Ghz
thank’s for your time.
