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Mesh to axis + Unexpected Transpose set behavior

ZBrush Usage Questions ZBrush 2019.1 Usage Questions
#1

2019-06-12%2014_31_14-ZBrush
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I’m prepping a model for 3D printing and to connect parts that I print I have a series of peg subtools. I have two subtools in a folder because one is the boolean subtool that will make the cavity for the other subtool peg to fit into. Because of this I want to move both the peg and its boolean counterpart together as one.

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If you hit the gear icon on a folder and do “transpose set” you can indeed move both subtools together, however if you hit the little house on the move gizmo “mesh to axis” only one of the subtools moves to the center of the screen. I understand that’s how it normally works, but I feel if you are transposing multiple subtools, they should all be brought to the center. Is this intended behavior? I could of course try and manually move them to the center with transpose set but if I needed real precision that would not be ideal. If anyone knows if this is an oversight or if there is a workaround please let me know. Thanks!

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#2

Hi there. I think this is just a limitation of the multiple subtool transpose behavior. Transpose set seems to be the same thing as Transpose All in Gizmo, and that shares the same limitations. You can only do the most basic sorts of transforms on multiple subtools–move, scale, rotate --more advanced operations only apply to the active subtool. Mind, it was only fairly recently we got the ability to do this, so we can hope for added functionality in releases to come.

In the meantime, to transform multiple subtools as one with more advanced operations will require a some manual subtool merging and splitting, OR you could just use Transpose Master which automates the process. It’s designed around the idea of character posing, but would work for this as well. It will make a merged tool of any visible subtools. Pose this merged tool in any way you wish, and then transfer the changes back to your original tool across multiple subtools. If you want to transform these two subtools in relation to another subtool, make that other subtool part of the merged mesh as well, and mask it while moving your target subtools.

The alternative is to merge the target subtools with one of the commands in the Tool > Subtool > Merge menu, transform the merged tool, then split it back into separate subtools with one of the functions in the Tool > Subtool > split menu. The subtools in question must have the same level/number of subdivision levels to merge and split cleanly with subdivision levels intact.