FormIt – Basic Starter Tools

By Garry Stockton

At Cadline we are trying to encourage the AEC community to engage more with FormIt. This software is just one of the many useful applications in Autodesk’s AEC Collection that can improve workflow efficiency.

Below you will find some simple tools to help you navigate around this useful application. It’s only a basic introduction, such as Zoom, Pan & Rotate.  They are very much like those in other design packages you just need to be very aware of what you are doing and where you are at in the scene. If you are a keyboard shortcut user, your options for these tools are the following:

Orbit:

• Key-in O + hold left-click mouse button and drag around model to orbit scene.

Zoom:  

• Key-in Z + hold left mouse button and drag up to zoom in and down to zoom out within the scene
• Key-in ZA = To zoom entire model in the scene
• Select element + key-in ZS to zoom fit selected elements within the scene

Pan:

• Key-in P + hold wheel mouse button and drag to pan around the scene

Note: Like Revit keying in a shortcut, you do not need to select the enter key to confirm the command.

Like most Autodesk products, there are many ways to access the same commands.  The keyboard key-in and just using the mouse.  You can also access these navigation tools using either the Floating Navigation or Navigation toolbars.  These two toolbars can be turned on and off by selecting them on or off via the ribbon Windows tab, then drop down (See below).

When you turn on the Navigation toolbar its display location may vary depending on how many tools bars are already on in your interface.  The toolbar is displayed below.  Once you locate where the toolbar is displayed, you can relocate it, or any other toolbar, to any location you like, even another monitor just by dragging and dropping the toolbar.

The Floating Navigation tools are on the right-hand side of the interface within the modelling scene window itself.  This toolbar can’t be relocated but remember… if it’s not on or you don’t want it on, simply go to the “Windows” tab on the ribbon and check on/off Floating Navigation Toolbar (H B keyboard shortcut).

There are of course more ways you can successfully navigate a FormIt scene.  Here we mentioned Orbit, Zoom & Pan, to change how you look at the scene and move around it.  As show in the image to the right, the full “Floating Navigation toolbar”.  It contains additional tools not discussed in this blog.