ZBrushCentral

Live Boolean System Suggestions if possible

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have been experimenting quite a bit with live booleans lately, and I have noticed a few changes which may be useful for people other than just me I think.

  1. Currently, the first subtool in a folder seems to be ignored by the live boolean system if it is negative. There are many instances when playing around that I have wished that were not the case. Like when putting all of the components of a window or door into a folder. It would be great to be able to have a negative subtoolin the first position in order to cut a hole for said door or window.

  2. It would be handy if the IMM brush system had a toggle to create it as a new subtool which would remove the need to split the insert afterwards if using for live booleans. I suppose that might technically turn it into an append as opposed to an insert brush, but that’s sort of splitting hairs.

  3. It would also be cool if there were an (Insert Multi-Folder brush). That way you could put a bunch of doors, windows, vents. etc into a brush with a cutout subtoool in the first position of the folder if desired of course.

  4. Another minor thing. It would be nice if when a Folder is selected in the subtool palette that the gizmo defaulted to selecting the entire contents when translating. After all you can simply select one of the subtools in the folder to move just one if desired. It would also be nice if Ctrl+translate worked to create copies of folders (with their contents) IMO.

As and aside. Is there a reason Ctrl+Gizmo rotation couldn’t or shouldn’t be programmed to create copies/instances in an arc/circle? It would be even more cool if while doing so it could snap and infer equidistant patterns of copies within a 360 degree circuit, or at least a toggle to enable such a feature.

It’s not like these changes/additions would make anything possible that isn’t already, but it would take fewer steps in more than a few cases when working with the live boolean system.

#2

Hi @The.Great.ESCape!

This is explained in the Live Boolean documentation in the “Linearity of the Boolean operations” section. Each folder is its own chain, and so the top most subtool will always be additive. Subtractive subtools need to be placed below their targets.

This can currently be done with ArrayMesh with the Transpose function.

Otherwise, feature requests for ZBrush can be submitted directly to Pixologic Support where we can track them, and make certain they are submitted to the right people for consideration. We don’t use the community forums for this purpose.

Take Care! :slightly_smiling_face:

#3

Thank you for the reply and added information. There used to be a thread on the old forum for suggestions. I was wondering why I didn’t find one here. Now I know. I attempt to look into things before posting. However, I invariably seem to miss, or to have forgotten something. Then again I am not exactly a professional researcher.

I was aware of the transpose array feature, but ZBrush does provide multiple methods for achieving many other goals. I just though it could be more of a quick burn and go option. Sort of like IMM with radial symmetry, but without the need for a surface to put them on.

I should probably spend more time making custom UI’s & Scripts to speed up things for myself for different types of modelling.

Anyway, thanks again :slightly_smiling_face: