Forum Help

To access the Maxwell for form•Z community forum:

Select the Extensions > Maxwell Render > Forum from within form•Z.
Copy the system info provided and click OK. The forum web page should pop up in a moment.
On the forum web page, click on 'Start a New Thread' if you need to post an inquiry. Paste the system info provided into your post.

(or, http://www.formz.com/forum/discus41/messages/35953/35953.html?1370882281 )

Troubleshooting

1. The Maxwell display menu item is "greyed-out" and cannot be selected

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Your file is most likely opening with the active window set to an orthographic, axonometric, or 2-point perspective view type. These projections are not supported by Maxwell, so the it's menu item will be dimmed. (If you need a 2-point perspective type, investigate Maxwell's Shift Lens feature.)

Solution:

Select View>3-Point Perspective from the main menubar, then Maxwell should be available.

2. Auto-translated Materials are too glossy

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The plugin attempts to translate formZ "Shaded" materials as faithfully as possible with the Closest Match and Realistic Match material hints. By default, formZ's materials are quite glossy.

Solution:

To make a material appear more matte in Maxwell, either decrease the "Shaded" representation Specular Factor, increase the Specular Roughness, or both.

3. The plugin exports an MXS scene, but Maxwell (or Studio) is not launched to render it. (OSX only)

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The MXS file type may not be associated with your current version of Maxwell Render.

Solution:

1. Quit Maxwell & Studio if they are running.
2. Select any MXS file and 'Get Info' with the Finder.
3. Set "Open With" to your current version of Maxwell
4. Click the "Change All" button.

4. Maxwell can’t find the textures in my MXMs

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Solution:

Use the Resource Manager to set up a search path to the library containing the textures.

5. Export fails; Log indicates that a bitmap from an auto-translated material cannot be found or read

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formZ sometimes does not report correct paths to the plugin if the 'Keep Textures' project-level setting is enabled. We recommend that 'Keep Textures' be disabled permanently in formZ Preferences > Project > Project Files.

Solution:

In File > Project Preferences, 'Project Files' Tab, disable 'Keep Textures.' Note that it may be necessary to manually reload the affected texture(s) after this step.

6. When Network Rendering, scenes are sometimes overwritten

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Solution:

Use Automatic filepaths, and enable the Timestamp option. See Files.

7. Rendered scene is extremely dark (or black)

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Solutions:

Confirm that your camera's exposure is correct; a real camera model is in effect. You are not in RenderZone anymore.
Maxwell’s emitters behave according to real-world conditions. Confirm that the Emitter power is sufficient. Don't forget efficacy for watt-based emitters.
Confirm that your scene scale is realistic. 100W spread out over 100 sq. meters will result in a very dim scene.
Check the Log to determine if the plugin is finding all HDRIs, IESs, and MXM emitter materials. If not, add a search path to the library containing these dependencies using the Resource Manager.

8. Export process is slow

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Solutions:

Avoid face-level materials assignment on complex objects. This makes the translation of the object take much longer.
Reduce the display resolution of smooth (ACIS) objects.

9. Maxwell rendering is slow

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Solutions:

For test renders, set the Scale parameter in Render Options> Image to a value less than 100%.
Disable Dispersion, Refractions, and/or displacement.
Reduce the number of lights in the scene.
Merge like emitter-mapped objects into a single object using form•Z's Join tool.
Use simpler MXM materials. Lambertian (100% rough) materials will render very quickly; materials with complex IORs, translucency, and subsurface scattering take longer to clear noise.

10. Rendering exhibits triangulation artifacts

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Maxwell Render works with triangulated, facetted objects only. When Formz’s mathematically-defined ACIS (smooth) objects are encountered, the plugin will use the facetted representation of the ACIS object. This is the same representation that the Shaded render mode uses.

Solution:

Adjust the Display Resolution Facet Density option. Increasing the facet density will usually resolve this issue, but will also result in longer export times. Use the minimum value that produces acceptable results, especially on complex objects.

11. (Windows only) Error 'There is no MAXWELL_ROOT environment variable on this machine'

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Solution:

This issue occurs on Windows systems only. If you encounter this error when attempting to load the plugin, it means that either:

Maxwell Render is not installed on the machine. Download and install Maxwell Render to fix the problem.
Maxwell Render is incorrectly installed on the machine. Uninstall/re-install Maxwell Render to fix the problem.

If this does not solve the issue. A System Environment Variable is a value that is available to every application on your computer. As such, the MAXWELL_ROOT variable points to Maxwell's home directory, and provides the ability for any application that wishes to locate Maxwell to be able to do so. So, it is very important that it is correctly set when you install Maxwell. Usually this is no problem, but there are always cases where installation is not completely successful, and it is possible that you may need to manually create the variable. To do so, please follow the instructions on this Knowledgebase page: Install troubleshooting (FAQ nr 2 in the Windows specific section)

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