I’ve tried several way of exporting an .obj from maya and I can’t get it to split my object into multiple polygroups. For example, I have three spheres in maya, each intersecting the other about 20%. I’ve tried selecting them all and exporting, combining them and exporting, and i’ve tried turning “groups” on and off in maya’s .obj export option dialogue for both methods. Is there something i’m missing here? Subtool–>Split–>Split to Parts works just fine so I know that ZBrush is aware that my tool contains multiple objects.
Try doing the opposite of what I suggested in this thread.
edit: Nevermind, I think I misread what you where saying. Instead, try turning on "Import Polygroups’ in ‘Preferences> ImportExport >Import’. If that isn’t it, then I don’t really understand what it is that you are trying to do. Is your problem after you import into ZBrush? What is your final objective?
I’m trying to import an .obj from maya that has multiple pieces that I can use with polygroups to isolate each piece. When I import the .obj, as expected, it comes in as one solid piece. Breaking it into subtools works fine (using subtool–>split–>split to parts) but I want to use polygroups so that the pieces can be transformed together and so that I can use the ctrl+shift+click hotkeys to easily swap the visibility between them. The “Import Polygroups” preference you mentioned was already on. The process is mentioned pretty clearly in the book, “Zbrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpting”, which I’ve been following, so I am at a loss as to why this isn’t working.
OK, I see what you mean. As far as Maya goes, and I don’t have Maya but the export process is pretty much the same across all apps, groups would have to be on. It has been my experience though that when you import .obj’s into ZBrush that sometimes the polygroup colors are very similar and almost look like it is just one polygroup but in fact are seperate. What happens when you do a ‘Groups Split’ instead of a ‘Split To Parts’? Does it still split the polygroups as expected? Does ‘Ctrl+Shift+click’ on a section you know that should be a polygroup hide the rest of the polygroups? If it does then change the color of the visible polygroup by clicking on ‘Group Visible’ in ‘Tool > Polygroups’ until you get a more contrasting color.
‘Groups Split’ works… splits my object into 3 subtools but ctrl+shift+click and ‘group visible’ don’t seem to do anything at all. Auto groups does nothing as usual…
Can you zip and upload the ztool here so I can have a look at it? If it’s only 3 spheres then the file size should be small. You are allowed up 500k upload on ZBrushCentral. If you can do a ‘Groups Split’ then it is 3 seperate polygroups. The only reason I see for 'Ctrl+Shift+click not working is if you remapped one of those keys. I wiil have to try the ztool to see if I get the same thing.
OK, this on my end is perfectly fine but the polygroup colors are very similar when I imported the obj. as I expected and as I mentioned above. I can ‘Ctrl+Shift+click’ on one ball and it will hide the other two at which point I can ‘Group Visible’ several times to change it’s polygroup color and also do the same for the other two balls.
Ah weird… I think the issue is that 1) I never had polyframe on which is the only way to see the different colors and 2) I had already separated the balls into 3 separate subtools. If they’re split into subtools, the ctrl+shift+click method doesn’t do anything. So I guess you can’t have both… Anways… Thanks for the help! So many weird little quirks in ZBrush… 
Great! 
small_orange_diamond:) Sorry, I did forget to mention Polyframe on.