ZBrushCentral

Computer crashed can no longer start ZBrush

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

My Mac computer just crashed (ran out of power) and I can no longer start ZBrush. When I attempt starting it, only the leftmost menu selection (titled ZBrushOSX) appears. Afterwards, a dialog box containing this message appears:

The most recent ZBrush session was abnormally terminated. You may view the available QuickSave files in LightBox/QuickSave tab.

But after pressing the “OK” button, ZBrush just hangs…

Is there any files that I can remove to get ZBrush to just start up (I’m willing to lose my work as it wasn’t that important)? Is there are log files that I can view to find any possible issues? Any other suggestions?

I’m hoping that I won’t have blow everything away and re-install ZBrush as this installation is configured with hotkeys, customization and plug-ins.

Thanks, Norman

#2

Recovered files. UIState.txt :wink:

#3

There was no UIState.txt file in /Applications/ZBrushOSX 4R6/Recovered Files. So I created an empty file with that filename. Unfortunately, this only caused ZBrush to start up and just hang without displaying the error dialog. So I removed the UIState.txt file and the error dialog is displayed again (putting me back at my original starting position).

So it appears there is another file (whose existence) is causing ZBrush to hang. I’ll also try removing some of my plug-ins but they have been working for a while and shouldn’t be the cause of this issue.

Thanks, Norman

#4

4R6
Check for P2 update. (ZPlugins:AutoUpdate) :wink:
There could be something in this folder but I’m not sure. C:\Users\Public\Documents\ZBrushData\ZStartup\ConfigFiles
There was a post on here months back telling what file it was. :frowning:

#5

Already loaded the P2 upgrade, but it didn’t change the behavior. I don’t think there is any code problems, just that when my computer crashed, things weren’t cleaned up correctly. I’ll take a deeper look into the ZStartup/config files

Thanks, Norman

#6

It might have startup in the filename(my guess) Recent file(was working so must be recent :wink: )
Hope you get running soon, I hate to be without my precious :wink:

#7

You could try deleting the ZBrushData folder in Users/Shared/. ZBrush will simply recreate this if it doesn’t exist, so removing it will make sure there’s nothing there causing the problem. However, if you’ve custom UIs, hotkeys, or have set the scratch disk location you might want to copy the folder somewhere before you delete it so you can restore the relevant stuff.

If that doesn’t help then probably the best thing is to submit a ticket to Pixologic Support.

#8

Thanks that did it.

I tried at first to be more surgical and just delete individual directories such as Temp and then QuickSave, but it was still hanging. Finally, I backed everything up and removed everything in /Users/shared/ZBrushData and finally ZBrush came up successfully. Now I’ll try restoring some of the individual directories such as HotKeys and ZStartup to get back something close to my original configuration.

Thanks again, this was an informative exercise as its good to have some understanding of ZBrush’s internal operations.

Norman

#9

It managed to happen again (it happens whenever ZBrush is open and my computer’s battery completely runs out).

I discovered that what is happening is these two files

ZBrushUIGroupsStatus.cfg
ZBrushWindowStartupSize.cfg

in /users/Shared/ZBrushData/ZStartup/ConfigFiles are becoming corrupted.

So instead of having to delete everything in ZBrushData – and losing all your configuration and Hotkey settings – its only necessary to delete these two files as ZBrush will recreate them when it starts up again. This makes this problem significantly less painful.

Norman

#10

Thanks for sharing that, and I’m glad you have found an easier way to get ZBrush going again. I’ll pass on the information to the development team.