ZBrushCentral

Exporting Subtools.Why does their position get changed?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Another problem.
I’m often exporting some stuff from ZBrush to MAX so I could add more geometry,objects etc etc and here’s the problem. While all the subtools are in the right position in ZBrush,they somehow change it when I import them in MAX.For example,my model has a belt and a gun holder.Since they are separate objects I have to export them one by one,but when I import them,the belt is flying somewere on top and the gun holder is bellow the grid…They have different size as well…
In other words,after importing something back to ZBrush I always have to adjust both size and position of the objects which is kind of annoying.

-Aleks

#2

I’m currently have this problem as well. As I understand, zbrush messes with scale when you split off sub tools from one tool (say you imported the holster and gun as one mesh and then split off the subtools).

Whats annoying is that you don’t realize it’s happened as everything still lines up in zbrush until you do an export/import/append. Is there no way to simply freeze/bake the scale in zbrush so everything is on the same scale.

#3

Same problem here.

Things i have noticed:

wrong size when exporting from zbrush is happening with meshes that were created in zbrush and not imported (from a zsphere). (big problem)
every .obj you import as new tool is centered instead of using the existing pivot point which would place the mesh at the correct position.

Steve

#4

Using the GrpSplit button in subtools definately doesn’t work as expected!
The inherent XForm of the separate subtools gets jumbled,
as becomes apparent when you export the separate objects back into your
original application (in my case 3dsmax). The scale and position is wrong.
In ZBrush this means that you can’t use any symmetry while sculpting cause the
axis is slightly off.

However if you load all the objects that make up a model as separate ZTools and then use append to add them to your main tool (say append boots, ammobelt, etc, to the trousers tool), then the XForm of all the objects stays intact (as in application of origin).

Big scare here to be honest…I hope I don’t come across any more of these sort of surprises. ZBrush3 is a full release…so people are expecting it to be integrating seamlessly into existing ZBrush2 pipelines…not beta-testing it.

#5

To avoid all this reported “bugs” set the apropiate setting in the import/export Panel in the Preference Palette.
I give a try with some object and could not reproduce it.
Andreseloy
ps:in some of the post im sure what was done, so apologize if i misundertand your point

#6

More details about the wrong size problem:

If you create a new mesh from a zsphere using the topology feature and you export that tool and import it as new tool the shape is larger and centered around the pivot point (the original mesh is x0.0686 smaller) (this can be tested by appending the new tool to the old tool or the other way around)
The same happens if you import the .obj in another program except that it keeps the correct pivot point position
If you import the .obj into the old tool the size gets smaller (the same as when clicking on unify) and the mesh is centered around the pivot point (wrong position)
The wrong size only happens with tools or subtools that were created from zspheres and not with meshes that were created in another program and then imported into zbrush (those meshes though still have the problem that their pivot point is ignored and they are centered)

This shows that the size problems are not created by wrong import/export settings.

Steve

#7

“The wrong size only happens with tools or subtools that were created from zspheres and not with meshes that were created in another program”.

Well…no…I am having a similar problem with objects modeled in max…exported to ZBrush…Grpsplit into subtools and then reexported back into max. The pivot point and the size of some of the models changes.

And I’m using the exact same import/export settings that I was using in our ZBrush2 pipeline.

And I can repeat it too…

…Ok…enough beta testing for today:p

#8

After reading in many posts that most ‘bugs’ are no bugs i was wondering if someone knew how to solve this wrong scale ‘bug’ ? :wink:

Thanks,
Steve

#9

Oh man… I’ve exactly the same problem too.
anyone can come out with a good solution would be great.
I’m working on a character now in different parts. it’s such a shame that I have to refit the position everytime I export things back to max.

#10

Hi guys. I’ve found a workaround to this problem.
What I did to get the correct scale and position back to Max is by “insert mesh” of the subtool to the main base object. just make sure that u’ve deleted the un-needed division and u’ll be able to include the mesh in to the base mesh that u’ve started.
seems like the base mesh which is the main object still can maintain it’s X-form but not the rest of the sub-mesh. I hope pixology can fix this bug as soon as possible.

when i bring the base mesh with the sub mesh in 1 single object. all of the sub mesh seem to align correctly with the base mesh with no transformation error. u can even import them back as a group so that u’ll have the ability to seperate them without having to extract it manually from the elements.
cheers.