Hi,
I would like to add two meshes to the default 3d Meshes primitives that appear in the tool palette and I would like them to be there by default on startup. This way I won’t have to load them from outside the file.
I don’t need them to have the ability to Initialize. I just want to be able to append/insert.
Thanks
There is no direct way that I know of, but you can record a Macro to import your meshes then have the Macro run automatically at startup which will put your 2 meshes into the Tool palette.
Recording your Macro
Getting the Macro to run automatically when you start ZBrush
In the “ZBrush 2019.1.2/ZScripts” folder you’ll see a file called DefaultZScript.txt . Open the file with Notepad and add the following line in between //startup and [pd].
[If,1,[IPress,Macro:Macros:Misc:StartupMacro]]
Save the file. Restart ZBrush.
It is important that the code for the DefaultZScript.txt file is correct and that you have named and saved your Macro in the proper folder as I indicated above. If you get an ‘Interface item can not be found’ error when you start ZBrush, then you have made a mistake somewhere.
LightBox is Zbrush’s preferred way to handle custom content. You could drop your models in the Lightbox directory, and recall them on demand at any time. “,” is the default hotkey for Lightbox. Actually altering Zbrush’s startup items comes with performance concerns, and should be avoided for situational items unless you’ll be using them every single session.
Thanks for the ideas guys.
Zber2 - Sounds good but I guess I wouldn’t want to add these models every time I open, which I think is what the macro would end up doing.
Spyndel - Lightbox would work but I don’t think it’s any easier than Tool> Load. They are small models so I’m sure would not affect performance (8,000 polys).
They are just remeshed and resized versions of the sphere and spherinder. That’s why I would like them to appear right along where the default sphere and sperinder are located, out of the way of the interface.
Looks like there’s not a way to do that. Thanks for your help though.
The purpose of Lightbox isn’t to be easier necessarily. There may always be an extra click or two involved when opening subfolders. It’s purpose is to be a tidy, well organized hub for on-demand content that won’t be required in every single session, otherwise free of much impact on the program, and easily portable between program versions.
I agree with you that two additional items would probably not be much of an issue other than adding clutter to the Tool menu–if you stopped there. But newer users can be overly aggressive in adding all sorts of items to the startup, and in my experience, this will increase your chances of ending up back here with some sort of unexplained issue. When troubleshooting problems one has to subtract variables, and a heavily modified Zbrush startup adds a lot of variables.
It is my recommendation that you use Lightbox whenever possible rather than add many items (materials, brushes, whatever) directly to the startup. In the long run, it may be easier than dealing with the potential issues associated with not doing this.
You can also just save out a Project file that has any extra tools you wish to load saved as part of it, along with other settings you wish to be present by default. I almost always start by loading a custom project.
Thanks for the suggestions you two!
Spyndel - I know what you mean about people crowding their UI and startup with all kinds of stuff. When I was a new user, I actually removed a lot of brushes turned my UI minimalist, and didn’t really add anything to my startup. I put all of my frequent items into two popup menus (so they’re always out of site), so I know I’m not the typical user that way.
Anyway, so much of the UI is customizable that I was hoping this would be also.
Cryrid - I do have a template file that I use for starting projects. It has a “measuring stick” that I use to make my characters about the same size. I could also drop these other two tools in there and just leave them to work with.