ZBrush resetting ztools location

[ArsMod]

I’m working on a character model in Brush and due to the amount of poly’s I decided to break up the model into three pieces. The head, torso and legs and work on them independently. The idea was as I finish a piece I would use the ZB2KS bridge for each piece and recombine the piece to render. Well, this worked well for the head but when I sent the torso over to KS, ZB I believe reset the location in space and thus created the following issue:

So my question is how can I set the original center point for the model so they align up as expected in KS?

Attachments

[MealeaYing]

You are sending them as SubTools right?
If so, that’s weird (and broken), but maybe try merging them before sending them to KeyShot?
If you are somehow sending them as separate tools (as in not subtools) I would love to know how you are doing it.

[ArsMod]

Essentially all I’ve done is split up my initial project file into three ztools of the head, torso and legs. Of course each ztool has various subtools within them.

So as I finish sculpting the head ztool I can send it to KS as I work on the textures in Mari and view renders back in KS. When I’m done with texturing the head, I rename the folder in KS to something appropriate like “head” so the bridge doesn’t override it the next time I send something from ZB. Now I can go back to ZB and work on the torso ztool. The plan was to send it, and the subtools, to KS via the bridge again(to join the head), and start the same process of texturing with it that I did with the head. But as you can see in the image I posted previously, it alters the location.

What I have discovered today is that if I open a ztool, say the head, in ZB and append the torso, then it does open and get placed in the appropriate place. So it makes me wonder if its KS thats doing the adjusting.

[ArsMod]

I guess I should specify that Im trying to set up a workflow between ZB and KS that will allow me to do what I outlined previously and go back and forth between the two to make updates as needed in ZB. If I have to adjust the position in KS after every ZB update, it would become quite cumbersome.

[MealeaYing]

This is fascinating, and I think Im missing something, but if I have this correctly you are able to import more than one separate ZTool into KeyShot at a time, and the result is they are placed (and maybe sized) wrong? But if you take all of your tools, append them to each other in ZBrush and then send it it works correctly?
How are you doing that?
Or am I missing something?
If I send a ZTool to KeyShot, and then try to send another ZTool to it, the second one replaces the first…

I’m doing something like this but with rigging in Blender, but I can only have one ZTool (it can have lots of subtools though) in KeyShot at a time and its making me want to claw out my eyes. I blame the Bridge for this, well, the Bridge and my own ignorance.

Something that drives me insane is that the Import feature in KeyShot Pro doesn’t allow you to import .ZPR files, you can see them but they just generate errors (its one of the documented un-features I bought KeyShot Pro for). It seems to me that if it DID work that what you are doing would be easy since its all ZBrush coordinates instead of KeyShots.
I mentioned a while ago in here that it would be nice if the Bridge were more like GoZ which goes both ways and keeps all the ZBrush info (I use GoB, and it works amazingly well in Blender).

[ArsMod]

Correct. If I append the torso ztool to the head in ZB they are placed correctly but not in KS.

In KS to be able to import more than one ztool, you just need to rename the default folder thats called “zbrush” to whatever else you want. Then when you send something again via the bridge, it won’t override that folder thus saving the original imported model. Which is what you see in my original image.

[MealeaYing]

OH MY GOD!!!
I gotta try this!
Thank you, I had no idea!

[ArsMod]

[MealeaYing]

Do you realize that that stupefyingly simple little trick changed what I think of KeyShot completely?
It was driving me absolutely bat**** not being able to do that, and now, after… what, two or three years? I can and IT’S FRIGGIN EASY!

THANK YOU!!!

[ArsMod]

Thats great!

Now if I can find a stupid easy solution to my problem. :o

[MealeaYing]

Now that I know how you are doing this, Im working on it too…
Wish us both luck!