ZBrushCentral

Axis Display in 4R4 [Answered]

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hello All,

Head’s up, I’m a noob … lots of inane questions to follow :slight_smile:

The first is about how to display the axes in 4R4.

I’m coming to ZB from product design (Alias, Rhino, etc), so it’s disorienting to not have a quick sense of which way is up, especially given ZB’s, um, unique 3D navigation/tumbling system :). I know how to turn the floors/planes on and off, but I can’t find a way to display axes. I assume they’re still a feature in ZB, but I can’t find any documentation one way or another. I see how/where to activate the axes in earlier versions of ZB, but I can’t find the same options in 4R4.

Many thanks in advance,
Gamal

#2

axis.jpg

#3

Thanks for your response :slight_smile:

But what I’m looking for are axes like these, the world axes that are normal to the floors/planes
…
Grid.jpg

Most of the time I don’t need to see any other floor than the y-floor, but it’s nice to know which way is x and z relative.

#4

You can change the scale of the world axis in the draw menue. In my opinion they are very thin in R4 and I don´t see an option to change that.

Attachments

axis.jpg

#5

ah, indeed they are thin, but thanks for finding that slider!

#6

You can turn on the floor grid for all three axes (click the little X Y Z inside the Floor button - turning it off will show the letters better). This will then show thicker axis lines. To position the grids at the origin set the Elv slider to 0. You can also color the grids if you want by setting the Fill Mode slider to 1 or 2.

Attachments

Grid.jpg

#7

Thanks Marcus.

Now I’ve gone and hit ‘snapshot to grid’, but I don’t know how to clear those images.

I don’t understand why it hasn’t occurred to the kind folks at Pixologic that when you tell people how to do something, it’s also helpful to explain how to undo it as well, haha. I shouldn’t complain because overall they do provide great content to help you get started, especially compared to everyone else but maybe Luxology.

#8

You can turn off the images by going through the Front-Back, Up-Down & Right-Left sections, clicking on the image thumbnails and selecting ‘Texture Off’ from the pop-up. However, that’s a bit time-consuming so instead here is an ‘Empty Grid’.

Unzip the file and put it in the ZBrush4R4/ZGrids folder - that way you’ll always be able to access it from the Lightbox Grids tab. Or you can load the file by pressing the Open button in the Draw palette.

The Elv and Fill Mode settings are saved with the grid, so you can set it up how you like, and save the result, for use any time you want it.

I’ll try to add a ‘how do I get out of this mess’ section to the docs. :wink:

#9

I think the other point worth noting in the documentation is the floor and axis visibility are LINKED and their visibility can’t be unlinked.

In other apps, their visibility isn’t necessarily linked, hence that’s why I think it’s worth noting for noobs like m’self… I was assuming they weren’t linked.