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Auto file Recovery - Strange Abnormal Termination

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey guys.

I hope all of you are happily brushing with the big 4 by now.
On topic, remember how in 3.5R3, auto file recovery was a feature NOT supported by Win7? I think it even said that in the online documentation.
Is that still the case with Z4?
It seems to work fine for me, with the exception of something rather peculiar. I’m using Win7 64bit, by the way.
If I activate it and restart, it runs just fine, but as soon as I browse (e.g. by clicking on “Load Tool”) to “My Computer” (where I can access all the partitions) it gives me a popup, stating there’s been an “abnormal termination” and my tool has been recovered and saved in the corresponding folder.
Fair enough.
While it really does that, I realized I can completely ignore that popup and simply return to ZBrush, and keep working. It hasn’t frozen or anything. The only thing it DID was drop my active tool to the canvas. That’s all. I can continue working just fine.
As soon as I click “OK” or the “X” to close the popup though, it shuts down ZBrush. While I can live with having to avoid browsing to “My Computer” since I will do most of my “browsing” via lightbox now that there’s Projects and all, I still wonder:
Is there’s still no support for auto file recovery for Win7 and I am just lucky it kinda works for me anyway? Or is this just a minor bug? Maybe it’s unique to my system, I was just curious anyway. <img src=“http://www.zbrushcentral.com/pixo/atn.gif”>

Oh and another thing, but unrelated to autofile recovery…
before, my shortcut for the Claytubes brush was ctrl+c .
While that still works, for some reason it won’t load the alpha bound to Claytubes (The square one). So when I press ctrl+c, I get a Claytubes brush without the alpha, which sorta kinda makes it not very clayTUBES like. <img src=“http://www.zbrushcentral.com/pixo/atn.gif”>
Is ctrl+c bound to anything that has to do with alphas or anyhing? I know that C by default picks a color, is it possible this is related?
Other shortcuts work just fine.
This isn’t a big issue, but I wanna understand my Tools, after all I’m going to be using them for many years to come.

Thank you for your time!

#2

Hi, I have the exact same problem. Did you find a solution?

Thanks

#3

Hello!
Curious - Thread’s been open so long, I thought it had been closed for inactivity. I assume you’re referring to the autofile recovery issue, and not to the alpha loading thing? (which I solved by making a custom brush)

Well…I wouldn’t say it’s a solution, but it -works- for me.
I currently have auto file recovery enabled, and if ZBrush crashes, it really does save the document and tool I’ve been working on.
However it only saves one instance, so I need to save the recovered tool right away before another crash occurs and it gets overwritten.
ZBrush still crashes whenever I browse to “My Computer”, where all the partitions and drives are listed. For some reason, it just can’t display that and crashes. I’ve gotten used to Lightbox by now, though, so…I don’t have to use the Browse-Dialogue anymore. I’ve put down shortcuts in every major directory I use, so I can easily navigate using Lightbox.
I think that if I disable outfile recovery, I can browse normally without any crashes - however, I’d rather not miss out on that feature, cause it’s incredibly useful. I guess you need to know your priorities - or maybe make your own thread - maybe you’re luckier than I am and someone actually replies.

EDIT

Apparently there’s already (and not surprisingly) a few other threads that report similar issues. Lookie.

http://www.zbrushcentral.com/showthread.php?t=92099&highlight=recovery

#4

Hi Max and thanks for you fast reply.
I tried to disable autorecovery and I still cant navigate to my Computer directory… I am afraid I have to move my works to ztl directory.

Do you have any problem with GoZ? I didn’t try with new ztls but the one I created in Zbrush 3.5 just won’t work!

Bye

Clay

#5

Just making sure - You disabled auto file recovery, saved your config, restarted - checked whether it’s disabled and THEN tried browsing?
Changes won’t be saved unless you save it to the config and restart ZBrush.

About GoZ, I haven’t been using it, sorry. I only use ZApplink for PSCS5E, and I use Blender 2.5b for all my other 3d software package needs. I’ve learned 3dSMax, but I don’t have a license for it. I’m sure there’s been a lot of talk about GoZ in these forums already - just take a look around.

Good luck!

…also, merry christmas and a happy new year, by the way :wink:

#6

Hi, you’re right I didn’t store my configuration. Now it works but I don’t have auto backup on. Big dilemma… I think I am going to move my ztls to zbrush directory.

Thanks a lot and happy new year to you too.

#7

Hi, I’ve been trying some other tools in Zbrush and I found lots of them don’t work properly.
So I installed Zbrush on a Xp 32 bit virtual machine and it seems to work perfectly fine, yes also the load tool with auto file recovery on!
Don’t you think it’s a bit annoying? Don’t you know of any zbrush patch for win7 64? I’ve been searching but found nothing.

Thanks

#8

Well, that’s not the only thing ZBrush users everywhere are waiting for.
Personally, I’m thankful we got all upgrades thus far for free.
Even though I can’t WAIT till ZBrush is a 64bit app - and there’s a few things like the autofile recovery issue and such I’d really like to see fixed.
Here’s hoping we will soon be blessed with a new release that takes ZBrush to a new level. ( voxel sculpting, plx! )

For the time being, bear with it.

#9

I am using win7 and every time I enable auto recovery and then hit save UI pref. It freezes and crashes on me. Does anyone know why this is happening??

#10

nope…sorry, no idea.
All I know about this issue I already posted in this thread.
As it stands, it’s still officially not compatible with win7, I believe.

#11

I’m having a similar problem with ZB4, in that I can’t save anything if the autoback up is turned on. At first I though my file was corrupt, but I tried the ztools that come with the program, still the system just freezes and crashes if I try to save.

I turned the auto save off and now it’s working fine… :confused:

Windows vista 64

#12

Okay, if this is anything like what I have encountered…here’s what’s up.
You know how when you press “load tool” or “save tool” you get a little dialogue window? Now, on the left, there’s this navigation thingie. It shows you like, this folder tree and all. Starting from my computer, C:\ and all that good stuff.
What I found out that causes Zbrush trouble, is the MY COMPUTER part.
As soon as that shows up in ANY dialogue (except lightbox) it will almost certainly crash if autofile recovery si enabled.
Now, what you can try, is…

  1. Disable Autofile recovery, save config and quit.
  2. Load up zBrush, press Load Tool and disable the navigation thingie of your dialogue. (there should be a button to modify somewhere on the top of that load tool dialogue)
  3. Turn on Autofile recovery, save cfg, quit.
  4. Start up ZBrush, press load tool / save tool, it should give you the dialogue properly now, with no crashes, albeit with no navigation tab.
    As long as you do NOT browse to “My Computer” (or Desktop, I think…) you should be free of crashes. Shortcuts proved quite handy.
    At least this is how stuff worked for me.
    Like I said before in this thread, I pretty much completely use Lightbox for my browsing. Put down some shortcuts, it’s all managable.
    It’s no real solution, but a workaround.

Maybe it will get resolved sometime…
I wish Pixo would put more into resolving issues with zBrush, getting it 64bit and maybe improving the retopo thingie instead of bringing up new features…what’s there is good, but those few things would take it to a whole different level, imo.

Anyway, good luck.
Please let me know what you find out, your experience might help others with the same problem.

#13

It didn’t work, it actually got worse :lol:

Looks like it does have something to do with it, because I turned off the navigation pane and now it doesn’t even show the files window. It loads a white window and crashes fast.

I turned the auto recovery off again, and now I’m able to open and save files no problem.

Thanks for trying to help, but oh well…, I know not to use that option in the future.

#14

EDIT:
I just remembered something,
MAYBE, just MAYBE…
when you open the file/load tool dialogue, in which folder is it by default?
If it happens to startup in a folder that’s “off limits” because of this bug or whatever, then it’s understandable it crashes right away.
As long as it ain’t desktop or My computer, it should be okay.
Give it a try.

Hmm…I see…that’s a pity.
Well, I recon it’s because you’re using Vista instead of win7.
I can’t tell you how this behaves on Vista…
But say, isn’t vista listed as supporting autofile recovery?
Or was it only XP…I don’t know.
Anyway, sorry it didn’t work out for you.
Good luck finding a solution (or a workaround, at least).

In the meantime, happy easter.