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Messed up my "Z' spotlight hotkey - how to restore? [Solved]

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

** RESOLVED ** Leaving this here in case anyone else has similar problem.

Loving QModeler and decided to assign the ‘Dynamic Subdivision’ command to a simple on-off click of the letter Z. No problem. Worked fine until it came time to use Spotlight. Now I can turn Spotlight on and off no worries, but to get the radial palette up you normally hit the Z button, right? Well, of course, now that does nothing except turn the Dynamic Subdivision on and off.

I have looked through the documentation and there seems no simple way of “undoing” that hotkey assigment. The Hotkeys/Restore option in Preferences is greyed out. The startuphotkeys.txt file is of no use either. See last line below:

//ZBrush Hotkeys
[BRUSH:MORE ITEMS,98] // B
[BRUSH:STANDARD,5447796] // Popup+T
[BRUSH:SMOOTH STRONGER,5447795] // Popup+S
[BRUSH:MOVE ELASTIC,5054565] // Popup+E
[BRUSH:MPOLISH,7151728] // Popup+P
[BRUSH:CLIPCURVE,4399203] // Popup+C
[BRUSH:CLAYLINE,4399212] // Popup+L
[TOOL:GEOMETRY:S.DYNAMIC,122] // Z

If I change that Z to another letter the Z key still turns on/off Dynamic Subd. (Yes, I saved and then restarted ZB)

The documentation for restoring factory default hotkeys is less than ideal. I am very wary of copying the example of the txt file in the doc’s since who knows how old that is and what I would do to my install.

I can’t even assign another key for the Z in Spotlight since that is the only way I know of activating it.

Anyone got any suggestions?

Resolution: I ended up copying my default hotkeys file as a backup then copied the text from online doc’s into it and saved. Restarted ZB and all back to normal.

This is what was in the doc’s

//ZBrush Hotkeys
[BRUSH:MORE ITEMS,98] // B
[BRUSH:STANDARD,5447796] // Popup+T
[BRUSH:SMOOTH STRONGER,5447795] // Popup+S
[BRUSH:MOVE ELASTIC,5054565] // Popup+E
[BRUSH:MPOLISH,7151728] // Popup+P
[BRUSH:CLIPCURVE,4399203] // Popup+C
[BRUSH:CLAYLINE,4399212] // Popup+L
[ZPLUGIN:MISC UTILITIES :<<BRUSH,219] // [
[ZPLUGIN:MISC UTILITIES :BRUSH>>,221] // ]

#2

You can always re-assign a hotkey if you’ve changed it by mistake. Changing Dynamic Subdivision to something else would have freed ‘Z’ for Spotlight. And the ‘Edit Spotlight’ button (that show the dial) is actually at the top of the Transform palette. (Yes, I’ve no idea why it’s there either…) So you could Ctrl+Alt+click on that and then press ‘Z’ or some other hotkey.

But editing the StartupHotkeys.txt file works just as well, as you found. The reason why changing the letter didn’t work is that the “//Z” bit is just a comment - the 122 is the actual code for the ‘Z’ key.

#3

Quote: “The reason why changing the letter didn’t work is that the “//Z” bit is just a comment - the 122 is the actual code for the ‘Z’ key.”

Ha! - Thanks. I was suspecting so at the end. And, no, I would NEVER have found that Spotlight radial wheel button in the Transform palette!

As an aside, I haven’t been receiving notifications of Forum Thread replies by email. I have to come here and find them. I know I receive them if I make a comment in a users sketchbook thread, for example… or I have in the past at least.

#4

I’m getting emails some days late at the moment. It may be because of server problems associated with the release of 4R7. I’d wait a bit to see if it improves.

#5

Hi Marcus, that’s helpful to know. Thanks! Is there a lookup table of sorts that one can reference to find out the codes for other keys and key combinations? This could prove helpful when needing to edit the hotkeys .txt files.

Cheers!

#6

If you look in the Preferences Utilities sub-palette, one of the sliders is ‘View Keyboard Status’. You’ll need to see which slider by holding the cursor over it and looking at the pop-up. This gives the code for the most recently pressed keyboard combination.

Alternatively you can simply assign some shortcuts to various buttons and then save out a hotkeys file by pressing Preferences>Hotkeys>Save. This will let you save the file to your Desktop from where you can open it in Notepad. Because you are pressing ‘Save’ rather than ‘Store’ your default hotkeys are unaffected.

#7

Yes, after my experience I would suggest Saving as opposed to Storing. Be aware that after assigning a key(s) when you close ZB a prompt comes up asking if your want to keep (store?) it. I just automatically chose yes instead of thinking about it. And when it comes to computers it’s best not to just automatically chose anything! :confused:

#8

Thanks Marcus! Finally a legitimate use for that enigmatic Preferences–>Utilities sub menu! :slight_smile: