I’m trying to use Zbrush from an external hard drive to have the same on diferent computers, so I would know if there’s a way to change the path of ZBrushData folder when Zbrush startup. Now Zbrush starts looking at the ZbrushData folder from local documents and i want it to look at the folder on my hard drive.
Hello @3D_Boy ,
You cannot change the location of ZBrushData2022 folder on your machine, and ZBrush can’t function properly without access to that folder in that location.
You can change the location of both the Scratch Disk and the Quicksave directory, which are the only things in that folder that take up a significant amount of space.
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/customizing-zbrush/scratch-disk-location/
http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/customizing-zbrush/quicksave-files-location/
Hi @3D_Boy
One thing you could try is to make a symbolic link/hard link/junction point (the term depends on your operating system) from the data folder to a folder on your external drive. As long as the external drive maps to the same drive letter whenever you move/replace it, then this should work since the junction point just redirects the operating system to the actual location of files in a linked folder. A bit like shortcuts on Windows but more sophisticated. I have used this successfully for games which are installed on C: drive. Due to limited C: drive space the entire game folder is moved to another drive and a junction points set from the empty game installation folder on C: to the external location. As far as the operating system is concerned the game files are stored on C: but in fact disk operations are performed on the mapped external drive. I have not tried this with ZBrush so I can’t vouch for it’s efficacy. There may be hidden files in the Zbrush data folder or files encoded with installation drive signatures that might render this method useless. Try at your own risk.
Good Luck.
It’s a shame that so many people ask for help but don’t respond when their problem has been resolved (or whether they gave up and just purchased a larger harddrive/or whatever).
" You can change the location of both the Scratch Disk and the Quicksave directory, which are the only things in that folder that take up a significant amount of space."
Sorry, but I have to say, “BS” to that. There are other ‘things’ in that folder that can take up a hell of a lot of space!
My 500GB SSD was filled to capacity and I could basically do nothing with it; after many hours of online “research” and looking through my C drive (in an external caddy connected to another PC), I found the problem.
My C:\Users\Public\Documents\ZBrushData2023\ZPluginData\DecimationMasterData & C:\Users\Public\Documents\ZBrushData2023\ZPluginData\ExportImportData folders were full of all of the processes I had carried out in ZBrush over the past few months; adding up to a total of 179GB of garbage (yes, you read that correctly; 179GB!).
Now I’m assuming that ZBrush should be emptying these folders after a session but they have not.
Anyone know WTF is going on here?
Right now, I have shortcuts to those 2 locations on my Desktop so I can empty them myself; but who wants to take out the rubbish?
Not surprisingly; my PC is running so much better - it’s almost as if I’d purchased a new PC but I’d gotten it for free (except for those few grey strands of hair left on my head that now lie on the floor)…
BTW; yes, I know this thread is almost 3 years old but it’s still relevant and I hope it’s of some use to others over the next 3 years