I have just duplicated my mesh accidentally and ctrl-z does not undo that so I have been trying to select the new mesh and delete it. The issue is I really do not understand ZBrush’s mesh/tool/sub tool management system. I did watch a video that went over the sub tool menu but that did not help at all.
PS: Yes yes I know, It is the worst sculpt you have ever seen.
Based on your screenshot, your duplicated mesh resides in the same subtool “layer” as the original… which is the normal result when making a duplicate through the CTRL key while you’re in one of the move/scale/rotate Transpose modes. (Duplicating a mesh with Transpose)
This is different than if you were to go into the Subtool palette and explicitly clicked the Duplicate button. There, it makes a copy of the tool (mesh) and puts it in a dedicated subtool “layer”.
When you have multiple meshes under a single subtool layer, CTRL-SHIFT and click the mesh you want. The other meshes turn hidden. CTRL + mousedrag on an empty part of the canvas to inverse it. CTRL + mouseclick on an empty part of the canvas to restore/reveal all meshes.
When you get some of the (unwanted) meshes hidden, go to the Tools > Geometry > Modify Topology palette where you’ll find a Del Hidden button. This permanently deletes those meshes you intentionally hid.
It’s also possible looking at your screenshot you made a 2.5D layer of your subtool (hitting Shift + S will do this)
To get rid of it, just press Crtl + N, or go up to Layers > Clear
If this isn’t the case then CarterTG’s solution will work.
Cheers ~°~
I don’t think it’s a duplicated mesh (it doesn’t show up in the preview window), but rather a classic case of stamping the model onto the document. In this case pressing Ctrl+N will clear the document and leave just the 3d model behind.
The issue is I really do not understand ZBrush’s mesh/tool/sub tool management system. I did watch a video that went over the sub tool menu but that did not help at all.
Essentially, the document window/viewport in Zbrush is a 2d document just like in Photoshop. It is made up of pixels that store RGB information*, and you paint on this document to create an image. With Zbrush you’re not just limited to standard brushes; you can paint the image by placing 3d models around the document. This is why 3D models are referred to as ‘Tools’ and are stored with the other 2D brushes inside of Zbrush. The whole magic behind understanding Zbrush is that when you place a model onto the 2D image document, you are given a chance to edit it before converting the model into pixels on document. Editing can be as simple as rotating and scaling the model into the desired place, or changing its shape and colors. This is where edit mode and actual 3d sculpting/polypainting comes into play. So Zbrush is not a 3d program where you are rotating a camera in a virtual environment around a model, but rather it is a painting program where you are rotating a model on top of the canvas. Once that concept clicks, Zbrush’s behavior is easier to understand.
This means two things right away:
If you accidentally leave edit mode then you end up turning the model into image pixels. If this happens, you can clear the image document by hitting Ctrl+N, redraw the tool onto the document, and re-enter edit mode to continue sculpt.
There’s also a way to ‘stamp’ the model onto the document, which stamps the current view down into pixels while keeping the sculpt active. This is done by hitting ctrl+s, and so this is something you might have accidentally done over the course of sculpting. Again, you can just clear the document with ctrl+n and keep sculpting.
This also means that when you want to save a 3d sculpt, you’ll want to save the Tool and NOT the Document. If you just save the document you’ll be left with an image made out of pixels, not a 3d model made out of polygons. Use the Tool palette when saving or exporting the 3d tool.
*Note: Pixels in Zbrush are a little more advanced than regular pixels as they can also store material and z-depth information along with RGB channels. These advanced pixels are named ‘pixols’. You can start to see where the names ‘Pixologic’ and ‘Zbrush’ come from.
Thanks everyone for the replies. I’ve read each reply and figured out that ctrl-n is what I needed.
Thanks Cryrid for the wealth of information, ZBrush is quite complex indeed.
Also yes the first save I did was just a document save, so I lost my 3d model (tool). I now use ctrl-s or “file”>“save as”, this seems to work just fine.
Now… how to mark this as “solved”?