I use a single mesh for my production at work for my male heads and update with zbrush. In ZB4 when I am importing the new .obj it destroys the UV’s for that .obj upon import. I can take the same .obj into max and see that it is correctly UV’d. What’s strange is that the original mesh also had UV’s laid out correctly. It’s as if it’s losing the vert count when I’m bringing it in even if it’s the .obj I exported from Zbrush. Am I missing a setting?
max is the killer.
How is it breaking your UV’s? It can/will do it in different ways and they have a different fix for each. It’s like playing a RTS except with autodesk vs pixologic 
I really don’t think it’s Max since I can take the same OBJ back into it and the UV’s are fine. The only way I think it could be max is it is somehow losing the vert numbering order. I’ve tried all the settings in the exporter but still no luck.
I’ve even tried GoZ and when I bring it from Zb to Max it has the screwed up UV’s.
When I say that the UV’s are screwed up I mean that they have the same pattern that the do upon import but they are not the correct order. The edges are not the corresponding UV edges.
Max has it’s own .obj file type. GW, everything else uses wavefront, so Max has no problem reading it’s own obj type.
Try Tool>UV map>cycle UV
Do that 2x. At least that sounds like the error you’re having.
If you can post up an image of what is happening to the UV’s that should help as well.
Sorry about the long time to reply, I went on vacation for a week.
Still having the problem and I don’t see the cycle UV’s in Zbrush at all under tools. It’s basically looking like an Atlas Map. I would love to post a pic but I’m under NDA for this. :\
Got permission since this is a generic background character. You can also see my export settings.
Attachments
Finally got the “cycle uv” button to not be grayed out. Did that and it worked.
When you do that is it looking at stored matsets? If you have mesh with something that isn’t with a matID 1 then it places a AUV style map on it? Or is it something completely different?
No clue. I don’t use max as it is the devil.
I’ve just seen in the forums how to fix the problem. Maybe someone else knows the answer though.
Well, the problem is back and I doubt it is Max. The reason I say this is that when I update the model as a tool it breaks the UV pattern even to the point that cycle UV doesn’t work. I can create polymesh and apply the .obj and it works fine but then I don’t have my high res details. Guh.
The only people that have this problem are max users. Max uses a gw obj exporter while every other program uses the wavefront obj.
The problem probably come from both sides. Max exports a wonky file, and Zbrush can’t read that type of file.
Try importing your mesh into blender (or any other 3D app) and export out the mesh as a wavefront obj and see if that fixes the problem. If you have an older version of Max you can try in there as well. I think 2008 or 2009 is when autodesk changed their obj type.
I don’t remember if we discussed this earlier or not, but is there a reason you’re not using goZ? I hear it makes moving things to and from max pretty painless.
You don’t have to create a polymesh either. That step is only required for Zbrush primitives. You can always project the “new mesh” with proper uvs on to the non UV’d version as well.
I wouldn’t doubt it’s just max users that have this problem, ha ha.
I just don’t understand how in Zbrush I can import the file two separate ways and it will work one way and not the other. If I am trying to update the mesh it screws up but if I bring it in from scratch it is o.k. Plus, I can do an, “equalize surface area” and that fixes the uv’s on the mesh I’m updating?
Odd.
goZ is using a different type of file I believe. I don’t think it uses objs, but I could be way off on that one.
I believe it is using a .goz if you look at the file import options dropdown.