ZBrushCentral

Clip brush issue when trying to do hard surface

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi Guys,

If im in wrong subforum, please let me know, i couldnt find any place else :slight_smile:

anyway, im trying to make my first sword project, which has fancy hilt that needs alot of cutting. when im trying to clip i have multiple issues, some of which i managed to resolve by just raising model resolution, but some of those i just cant understand to even know where to look at to fix them.
the biggest issue i have is when trying to clip a part, lets say its bit rounded, but i dont use clip circle, i use clip curve, i set up my clip line, but when i execute - there is ilttle ‘tail’ on the model itself with some weird leftovers (they look like clipped mesh gets flattened and glued to model), even when trying to just cut them they dont go away. i can, of course, mask, hide, del hidden and fill holes, but thats not the way i wanted to do it, and now i need to understand the issue so i can fix it in the future :wink:
i cant present any screenshots at the moment, since im at work, and all the assets are at my home, i can post screenshots with more questions later on (i really hope my description will suffice, but as english is not my main language id understand if it might sound like gibberish, especially when i dont know propper terms for certain functionalities).

thanks in advance for any hints, and even bit or ranting due to fact i didnt provide screenshots, at least that will mean that i will get an answer when i attach them :wink:

have a nice day guys!

#2

ok, so in the meantime i had some time do to a little search, and now i can safely assume the issue was caused by me using clip brush, not the trim brush.

#3

The important thing to remember about the “clip” brushes is that they are actually “flatten” brushes. If you flatten down geometry that overhangs (sticks out farther than) your target plane, you will get that extraneous 2d edge there.

Therefore, it is good technique to sometimes clip(flatten) in multiple steps. First clip the overhanging portion inward at a diagonal angle so its flattened toward the center and no longer overhangs the target plane. Then flatten downward onto the target plane.

The Trim tools behave much like the Clip tools, except they actually remove geometry, not just flatten it. TrimCurv may be more useful in some situations than clip curv. It doesn’t work in every situation, and works best as simple straight cuts, but it can be useful to slice off a bit of unwanted flattened geometry left over from a clipping operation.