Release Notes for FARO Zone Viewer

Why:

The switch to project folders is mainly due to Windows limitations in file size. FARO Zone file (projects) size are steadily increasing due to large byte size of detailed models, high res images, physically based render materials (textures) and other supporting files

Project folders are better for backing up and sharing files. The project folder contains all the parts: diagram, reports, animations, textures, materials, images, imported models, more…

This system was implemented to allow better support for saving and loading project folders. Windows does not support using a folder as a “file”. To make things easier for the customer we built our own that does. Using this dialog, project folders will look and act like a normal diagram file. Instead of seeing the folder for the project, you’ll see the project file displayed with a green FZ3D icon. In this example the dialog is showing the project folder as “Intersection_Animation.fzproj”. You can double click or select and click Open to open the diagram.

Breakdown:

1. the fzproj file is the master file for the project.
2. the fzproj file is contained in the project folder
3. the project folder can be zipped up and sent to other users
4. the fzproj file is displayed in place of the folder (green icon)

Workflow

1. Like the normal Windows load dialog that you are so used to.
2. Click on the open button.
   
3. Use the left or right panel to browse to the location where you want to load your project.
   
4. To Change the File Filter
   1. Click on the combo box in the bottom right corner
   2. Select the filter you are looking for

NOTES

1. If you have any trouble with the new project open dialog, click on the “Use Windows Dialog” in the bottom left. This will get you back to the normal Windows form.
2. You can type the path into the textbox at the top middle of the dialog box.
3. Double clicking on a folder in the main window will open that folder.
4. The back and forward buttons on your mouse will move work to go back and forward between folders you have visited.
5. If you have saved a project folder inside another project folder, you can still navigate down into it using the left panel.
6. The search text box in the top left will filter out files that contain the text that you type into there. You can use this to quickly find files.
7. Other helpful features you’ll only find in the Zone open dialog.
   1. Your FARO Zone Backup folder and other special folders such as OneDrive are displayed in a different color.
   2. The zipped folder is automatically give a .fz.zip file extension and displayed in the dialog.
      NOTE – You can open a zipped project by selecting the zip file without actually un- zipping the folder.
   3. Open a preview windowpane to see a thumbnail of any highlighted Zone project.
      
   4. With Windowpane project preview ON