Installation

Download and run the plug-in installer

1. Go to manage.autodesk.com and look for "Form Explorer for Alias". If the plug-in does not show up, you may not have access yet. In that case you can reach out to your Autodesk account representative to inquire about access to Form Explorer for Alias. If it does show up, proceed.
2. Download the plug-in installer.
3. Quit Alias if it is running.
4. Once the download finished, locate and run the installer on your computer. The file to run is called Setup.exe.

Activate the plug-in in the Plug-in Manager

1. Launch Autodesk Alias.
2. In Alias, navigate to Utilities > Plug-in Manager.

1. The plug-in will show up in the Autodesk Form Explorer section as FormExplorer_2026.0_<version>.plugin.

4. Check the box next to Form Explorer to activate the plug-in. If you have previous versions of Form Explorer installed, deactivate them to make sure Alias will run the new version.

Locate the Form Explorer Tool

1. In Alias, open the Palette.
2. Navigate to the Mesh section.
3. Find the Form Explorer tool, labeled as formEx or +Form Explorer.

Launch the Form Explorer Control window

1. Select Option,
2. double-click the tool itself,
3. or Shift + click the tool.

Use Form Explorer

1. The Form Explorer window should now appear.
2. Enter your text prompt to describe the car design you want to create.
3. Select Generate to see the output.

Import shelf

1. In Alias, navigate to Window > Shelves > Import.

2. In the file browser window, navigate to the installation folder of the plug-in. The default location is C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Autodesk\ApplicationPlugins\FormExplorer.
3. Select the Form Explorer Presets.json file and select Open.

4. The shelf appears on screen.
5. Configure the display option of the shelf to your liking.
6. Start Form Explorer from one of the tool instances in the shelf to use it with pre-configured options.

Learn more about using presets.