On Windows
Maxwell 5 is compatible with form•Z 10 on Windows.
On macOS with Intel-based macs
Maxwell 5 is compatible with form•Z 10 on Intel-based macs.
On macOS with M-series ("Apple Silicon") based macs
Maxwell 5 is compatible with form•Z 10 on M-series based macs when form•Z is configured to run in Rosetta mode.
Plugin Install Location
You will need to place a copy of the Maxwell for form•Z plugin where form•Z 10 can find it.
1. Quit form•Z 10 if it is running.
2. If you have already installed Maxwell 5, you do not need to do so again. (Run Next Limit's Maxwell 5 installer if you do not already have Maxwell installed on your system.)
3. If it does not already exist, create a "Plugins" folder at the following location:
On macOS: /Applications/formZ 10/Plugins/
On Windows: C:\Program Files\formZ 10\Plugins
4. Place a copy of your existing formZ 9 Maxwell plugin folder inside the folder mentioned in step 3.
Additional steps for macs with M-series ("Apple Silicon") processors ONLY
5. To ensure Rosetta is installed on your mac, double-click on the Maxwell application in /Applications/Maxwell Render 5/. If macOS has not yet installed Rosetta on your mac, you will be prompted to approve installation.
6. Navigate to /Applications/formZ 10/formZ 10.x/
7. Control-click on the formZ application and choose "Get Info"
8. In the resulting Info panel, enable the checkbox option "Open Using Rosetta"
9. Launch form•Z. If the Maxwell icons do not at first appear, you may need to reset your workspace. (Workspace > Reset Workspace...)
Why Rosetta emulation is necessary on M-series ("Apple Silicon") based macs
This section is not required to get Maxwell to run; it is provided for those who had requested a detailed technical explanation.
form•Z 10 is a Universal application, which means that it contains compiled code to run natively on both M-series and Intel processors. When form•Z is launched, macOS selects the appropriate architecture to run: M-series or Intel. For a plugin to load, it must contain the same architecture, e.g., they must match.
As of this writing, Next Limit's Maxwell Suite of applications (Maxwell, Studio, MXED, etc.) provide Intel processor support only. However, macOS provides a useful feature called Rosetta 2, which allows Intel-only applications to run in processor emulation on a M-series mac. When you launch the Maxwell Render or Maxwell Studio application on your M1 or M2 mac, it is running in emulation through Rosetta.
To run the Maxwell plugin in form•Z 10 on an M-series mac, you must explicitly tell macOS to load form•Z's Intel architecture instead of its M-series architecture, so it matches the Maxwell plugin. This is what you did in step 8 in the instructions above.
Rosetta should only be used when it's necessary to access applications or plugins not built for M-series processors, as performance will be negatively impacted.
To run natively on M-series processors, Next Limit would need to update the entire Maxwell Suite. It is not technically possible to update the Maxwell for form•Z plugin by itself because the plugin is dependent upon Intel compiled code within the Maxwell Suite.