Formview Software Allows Designers To Realize New Design Ideas Instantaneously

By Ron Romanik

Quick, automatic tiling of selected design ideas allows for easy comparison. Formview maintains "persistent worksessions," so all of the work in the program is saved automatically, and the program always returns to where the user left off.

One of the most useful functions of Formview is the combining of graphic files and structures, and instantly previewing the designs in real-time 3D images. Also, the original graphic files can be altered, updated, uploaded, and reapplied in a very short time.

Even though the 3D image on screen is not picture-perfect, the real mechanical graphic and structure files are used for accurate 3D prototypes and high-resolution 2D virtual photographs that the user can output directly from the Formview software.

Imagine a virtual white board where graphic and structural design ideas can be developed, altered, applied, and updated immediately in an embedded 3D world on your computer screen. Imagine that this virtual tool can let you quickly compare design ideas on interactive 3D models that will let you customize just about every aspect of the packaging, product, and environment, and imagine every function that you would want this program to have.

When you test-drive the Formview software from Brandimation LLC, it's difficult to think of a useful function that it doesn't already have. To be clear, the program isn't for the actual designing of structures and graphics themselves, it's for instantly seeing what those designs might look like in manipulate-able 3D models, for comparing many design ideas, and for producing realistic prototypes or photograph-quality reproductions directly from the program.

What is important to understand is that the Formview program is doing two separate things at once. First, the program is combining real mechanical files into a composite that may eventually become a realistic 3D prototype or high-resolution graphic representation. At the same time, the program is allowing the user to view a realistic 3D model on-screen from any angle, and compare with a multitude of variations.

Up and running

Graphic files that are compatible with the Formview system are file types most commonly used in graphic design, such as PDF, Illustrator, Photoshop, JPG, and TIFF formats. When uploaded, brand graphics are aligned as they would be in production of actual labels and packages. A repository of die-lines associated with packaging structures also resides inside the program, and can be updated at any time.

Structural engineers and graphic designers need not be threatened by this technology, as the program does neither of these functions. What the program facilitates is the realization of how the combination of graphics and structure will come together in 3D, and it does this with real production level specifications, parameters, and graphic files.

Formview has been years in the making, and has many patent pending innovations that make it all possible. It is the brainchild of Brandimation partners Robert Ziegler and Scott Miller, who met in college and shared a vision of 3D software that went far beyond the technology of the time.

Brandimation has set up Formview as an SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) subscription, requiring no internal IT investment from user companies and no special software installation. The Formview program runs on enterprise class application servers, which assures users of a stable workspace with no downtime or invested risk. The user of the service can assign different levels of access to a list of registered users, sort of like normal networked computers, so the shared workspace can ease collaboration and quick "testing" of ideas.

A revolutionary GUI

In 2002, Ziegler and Miller decided to reinvent virtual 3D software and develop a revolutionary graphical user interface (GUI). "We decided to do it before it was technically possible to do it," says Ziegler. The GUI interface they envisioned has come to fruition, and it's as seamless and user-friendly an interface as you will find anywhere.

The Formview application incorporates sophisticated DAM (Digital Asset Management) features for handling files. All files uploaded into the program immediately become stored files in the program, on the Formview secure server. The program maintains a "persistent worksession," meaning that when you sign on, the application picks up from wherever you left off, and all previous work is saved at all times.

Formview is a rich Internet application (RIA) with functionality you expect on high-end workstations projected to an Internet-based, remote program. This means that Formview runs in most web browsers, and there is no need for users to install Formview application software on client computers. It also means that all of the "heavy lifting" required for high-resolution 3D is done on the server side.

The interface in Formview is a combination of Flash and Viewpoint and proprietary in-house Brandimation programming. It even allows drag-and-drop functionality, which is in itself quite an accomplishment on an Internet-based application. Another Formview GUI feature is the ease of comparative viewing and analysis, or what Brandimation calls a "Virtual Whiteboard." The program automatically tiles multiple graphics immediately upon selection.

The core functions

The core of the Formview value is in "parametric" design; not structural or graphic design itself, but mix-and-match on the fly. Graphics can be altered and updated, and the resulting 3D model will reflect that in seconds. Structural designs and shapes can be input into the system relatively easily. Each structural design is connected to real engineering files in the source library.

"An engineer should be really happy with this system," Ziegler says. "No one can change his or her native CAD files." The program has built-in compatibility parameters, so only components already determined to fit can be combined. If there is a question of compatibility, a notation tool can alert the program users ("Label not the ideal method").

The list of variables that can be altered easily by the user are many. For example, just about everything about a bottle can adjusted, from compatible caps that can be swapped in and out to the color of the bottle, which could be opaque, translucent, clear, or frosted. The contents of the bottle can be different colors, with different grades of opacity, and can even show the mix of solid and liquid in soups. The labels can have a reflective foil stamping, and the lighting and background can be altered to simulate different environments.

Formview's rendered 3D files can be placed in customizable digital environments, and users can output realistic "virtual photographs."

One thing to emphasize is that the virtual package exists in a rendered 3D virtual reality that is separate from its environment. The default gradient gray background and the default light sources can be altered to convey real-world environments, and these could then be output to produce realistic 2D virtual photographs. "We're going to go beyond what's possible with digital photography, in a fraction of the time" says Ziegler.

Another patent pending feature is the one-click ordering of prototype comps or digital prints from the virtual 3D world of Formview. There's no pre-flight necessary at this point, because if it's in the program, it's already flighted, so to speak. Brandimation has a partner that can turn around most prototype package orders from the Formview system in 24 to 48 hours.