ZBrushCentral

Hotkey assignment works, but pressing the hotkey does nothing

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I assigned the tilde key ( `, the one above the Tab key on the left) to Geometry -> EdgeLoop -> Delete Loops. I saved the hotkey file, the hotkey shows up when I hover over the Delete Loops button, yet nothing happens when I press the hotkey.
How do I get this hotkey to work?
Running ZBrush 2020.1.1 on Win10

Edit: If I assign the hotkey again, the warning pops up “Hotkey note: The same hotkey is already assigned to this interface item”. The hotkey will then work once, but then it does nothing.

#2

Hi @bebeaux

There are a couple issues in play.

  1. The “Delete Loops” function will only work if there are eligible loops for deletion based on its current settings. If there are no eligible loops based on those settings, it wont do anything. So after you use it once, it won’t function again until you change the geometry or the function settings.

  2. Certain more sensitive keys tend to resist hotkey assignments, or conflict with some other function. The ` key is one such key.

I made this work once with the ` key, but it promptly broke its assignment. I was able to assign this function to the ‘;’ key without problem, and use it repeatedly.

If you’d like to bring the issues surrounding hotkey assignments to the ` key to Pixologic’s attention, this needs to be reported directly to them via Support ticket.

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#3

Thanks, I’ll have to try that.
EDIT: I reassigned it to the semi-colon key per your suggestion, and it works. Strangely,
when you hover over the button and the popup gives you the button name and hotkey assignment, the semi-colon is not shown.
I’ve read elsewhere on the forum that hotkey combinations with Alt and Ctrl are risky as well. If I can’t use rarely used characters like the tilde key and can’t use Alt and Ctrl, it seems like there aren’t many options for making custom hotkeys.

#4

Not a feature that I use a lot, but the tilde key might be hard coded into ZBrush. Could be why you are having problems with it. Used in the Layer palette, the following is from the online docs. Also used for scrolling the canvas for tiled texture creation.

AutoSelect

With Auto Select turned on, you can select any layer by holding the ~ (tilde) key and clicking on any painted element.
The ~ key is also used to pan the layer horizontally or vertically. If this button is pressed, the layer is selected before panning occurs.

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#5

Ctrl and Alt can be used. In certain contexts they will be problematic, because they have hard coded functions related to brush behavior. When you fully understand these behaviors, you’ll get a sense for when and why there might be a conflict.

For instance, [Ctrl +; ] works perfectly fine as a shortcut for the Delete Loops function. As does [Shift + ; ], as does [Shift + Ctrl + ; ], as does [Shift + Ctrl + Alt + ; ].

You just have to understand that those keys toggle ongoing effects related to brushes, and if you try to assign them also to another ongoing effect or brush related effect to be used while brushing, there are likely to be conflicts. For instance Shift will always activate smooth mode, which will result in any changes to the active brush being applied to the smoothing brush. If you try to use shift to activate some other feature related to the active sculpting brush, it is likely to cause problems.

If you’d like to request more hotkey opportunities, that request needs to be submitted to Pixologic Support. This is just the community forum. We don’t develop the program.

#6

I’ve been reading the documentation, and F1 through F6 should toggle the palettes for Brush, Stroke, Alpha, etc., just like the toolbar on the left side of the UI. However, when I hit F6, the Material palette doesn’t come up, it just changes the Material to Flat Color.
If I reassign F6, is this going to give me trouble?

#7

If you press F5 and then F6 immediately after, you will get the Materials palette. Personally, I find the F keys to be redundant and wouldn’t hesitate to re-assign any of them, but that is just my personal preference. Weird things seem to happen if you press them consecutively too. F7 to F12 keys don’t appear to do anything.

#8

That seems totally intuitive, I can’t believe I didn’t figure it out myself. :wink:
Upon further reading in the documentation, you need to have the cursor off of the canvas area and F6 will toggle the Materials palette.

#9

I don’t think there is any need for sarcasm. I wasn’t implying anything, only trying to help.

#10

No sarcasm intended toward you, I appreciate the help.
It just struck me as a bizarre behavior that isn’t in the docs.

#11

I’ll repeat this yet again. If you’d like to provide feedback or make a feature request, that needs to be submitted to Pixologic in the form of a support ticket. Anything else is a waste of your time. We don’t develop the program, and any suggestions are likely to be missed here by the people that do.