ZBrushCentral

Quick palette utility access like for brushes?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi there,
working with palettes needs a lot navigating.
i.e. The large ones like Subtools, or Geometry.

I would love to have an access system like for brushes.
Is it already possible?

i.e. If I hoover over Geometry and enter “d” I would jump directly to a opened “Dynamesh” dialogue.

If this is not possible so far, wouldn’t that be cool? These are tiny, but daily steps wich will rapidly save time for your workflow.
Sure, one can always assign hotkeys to the most used, but I like the brush hotkey system which is logical and fast learned because working with first letters.

#2

Spacebar brings up a menu where lots of options can be set or accessed. Big can of worms. It is as it is, but you can change a lot of stuff. You’re welcome to try out my configuration.

#3

You can set any key up to bring up really anything you’d like. But they won’t be context sensitive as far as I am aware.
I have G for all of my concept tools, dynamesh, etc, H pulls up hard surface tools, etc
You just need to make the necessary custom menus

#4

Like it was said,
you can fully customize hotkeys, palettes and menus.
You can make a try by going to ‘preference’ menu, then ‘config’, then activate ‘enable customize’,

at this moment, you are able to move what you want where you want by clicking ctrl+alt and drag&drop what you want.
You have the ability to create your own menu (with what you want inside), and assign hotkey to it
then it popus up when you clic on your hotkey.

For instance, me, when I clic on ctrl+shift+w I have a personal menu/palette with few elements I need:

Custom UI_menuperso.jpg

I suggest you to look for tutorials with these words: zBrush UI, zBrush custom UI, etc here or on youtube, vimeo, etc… I think it is not complicated to learn and create your own menu, ui, hotkeys, etc…

#5

Be forewarned, due to the context sensitive nature of the UI, when you launch ZBrush(such as in not opening a file) buttons might not be where you expect them to be. It’s a big gotcha and cause for frustration.

#6

indeed, sometimes (I don’ t know why/how), it appears that some custom button is missing, or even my custom menu and its hotkey, but…
…instead of close zBrush, and re launch it, I’ ve discovered recently that in the preference menu,
you can clic on “restore custom ui”, making it instantly come back to its ‘regular’ custom settings/look/hotkey, etc

So with this button/function, it is not really a problem I think (especially for the benefits of custom ui).
ps: nice ui you made Doug !

edit: sorry Doug, now I understand when you talked about context sensitive nature of the UI,
some functions are not available in some cases, then button are not displayed…

#7

Thanks, I can’t leave it alone ;), been at it almost 3 years :slight_smile:

#8

Thanks a lot ,Doug, beta_channel & markantonik

You guys are brilliant.
So many suggestions. Cool.

I was hoping that there is something like the brush menu already somewhere :wink:
I am working with an old, dos like system quite often.
There you can access each command by entering the capital letters of each command in a menu.
Due to the amount of commands, sometimes even two letters.
But that makes it easy to access them when very quickly without navigating through UI.
And it is much easier learned than SHIFT+CTRL+L for load script i.e., which has no logical connection at all.
Maybe some time in future?

So it’s gonna be a custom UI.

I really like your pop up menu, markantonik. A lot of stuff of daily needs already there.

I made some steps into personalized UI earlier, but fought with some probs Doug describes.
Suddenly active points were gone etc.
I’ll give it a try again.

Is there a alphabetical sheet list showing which shortcuts are left free in zBrush?
Would be a help. Didn’t find a “short” list.
Sure, I was there: http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/keyboard-shortcuts/

#9

B brings up the brush pallette :wink: