The Mechanical CAD website SolidSmack has a nice write-up on formZ 7 beta. The article also posts several YouTube videos from AutoDesSys on the new formZ 7.
formZ 7 Highlights
The whole program has been dramatically updated, including a streamlined user-interface (UI). formZ 7 has some new dramatic dynamic modeling tools with new parametric capabilities.
There is a new roof tool that quickly builds simple and complex roofs. And the parametric stairs tool has been updated as well. There is also a new Contour Doctor tool that helps clean up contour line data.
formZ 7 features non-destructive clipping planes (sectioning planes) just like SketchUp and you can model directly inside these clips. formZ 7 has a top class-A NURBS modeling engine and can produce dramatic shapes and forms. While SolidSmack remarks that formZ has always been a great architectural modeler the new formZ 7 will bring powerful new tools to the product design market.
This is significant for AutoDesSys because the “maker” market and digital prototyping are both powerful new trends in design. formZ 7 will feature tools helpful for digital fabrication makers.
To read the article and see some of those YouTube videos go here.