Ok so this is a weird one; just installed ZBrush on a new laptop and it’s consistently crashing when I scroll quickly through subtools in the tool menu. If i scroll very slowly it’s fine but if I scroll fast the it crashes straight to desktop, no error message, no recovery save.
Reinstalled in case it was some of my plugins or settings I’d copied over but is doing it on a clean install too.
Hello @Boozebeard
I’m sorry you’re having some problems. Clearly this shouldn’t be happening. I have a few questions.
Zbrush version? OS?
Are you disabling antivirus when performing installs/re-installs? It’s a common source of installation issues.
In the case of the latter, does that tool contain any especially dense subtools in terms of polycount that may be adversely affecting the program stability? Also, how large is the actual file?
also in that case, does the crashing happen when clicking on the same subtool each time, or is it completely random?
I’m in contact with support about it now but it’s ZBrush 2019.1.2 on Win 10 Pro 10.0.18362 Build 18362
Originally I didn’t disable AV (i just run windows defender) but when I tried reinstalling it I did.
I can make it happen just by duplicating the stock cylinder 15 times and scrolling back and forth quickly. I recorded a gif of it: https://gyazo.com/b4829d00d75eb25f341e852f5e49f9ec
Happens to me, too, with any kind of subtool, but only in projects with a ton of subtools. I just got used to it and save every time before I have to dig through my tool folders.
Not to suggest there may not be some other issue at work --issues can and do occur with botched installations or corrupted tools-- but Zbrush and Zbrush files do also become less stable when handling especially dense subtools, or files where the the total size exceeds a certain threshold. This is usually due to the accumulation of geometry, or “tons of subtools.” This threshhold will vary with the system, but I generally start to purge before exceeding a few GB.
Remember that saving a project file will save every tool loaded into the session. If you only need to save the active tool, save it as a tool instead in the Tool > Save As menu.
Glad that I’m not the only one who facing this problem. Yes my ZBrush 2019.1 window just disappears when I scroll subtools quickly. No error message.
Here’s my screen capture:
If you have a technical issue with your Zbrush installation not related to a specific tool, subtool, or file size issues, you can try reinstalling the program from a freshly downloaded installer–they can become corrupted. You can download this from your My Licenses page in your support account. Be sure to disable any antivirus during the install.
Note that the current version of ZBrush is 2019.1.2. Be sure to be up to date before reporting issues.
If this does not resolve your issue, you will have to contact Support and create a ticket to have them assist you. We are not equipped to troubleshoot installation issues here.
[edit] For the record, I just spent a few minutes scrolling rapidly back and forth between 150 duplicated cylinders, so it is not specifically an issue with subtool quantity or the scrolling mechanism, at least on Windows.
Yes I’m in contact with support and they are also watching this thread now.
I have done 3 or 4 clean installs at this point with about 3 fresh downloads of the the installer and I am able to recreate the issue straight off a fresh install by simply launching ZBrush, and duplicating the default cylinder tool 15+ times and then dragging the scroll bar around quickly. It crashes easier with more tools, about 30 makes it crash almost instantly on dragging the scroll bar. Obviously this is not a ubiquitous problem, I’ve never had this problem on any other systems. It must be related to specific system setups.
I am running it on a Razer Blade 15 2019 with i7-9750h and 2080 max-q.
Please let us know when support team replies to you. Thank you. If there’s no proper solution, I have to roll back to ZBrush 2018 
Absolutely, and I didn’t consider it a bug since I do have a lot and very large subtools. Just the usual instability that can occur in any 3D software when polycount gets very high.
Not come to a solution with support yet. And to clarify it’s nothing to do with a heavy scene, I’m able to recreate it by duplicating the standard cylinder so we are talking about a few thousand pollies total across all subtools.
I don’t believe that file size is the issue for a couple of you. Two of you seem to have a more specific problem. Both of you report having the issue with duplicating a low poly primitive a few times. zzeebee, however, reports only having the issue with “tons of subtools”, which could be read as “I have this issue with large files”, which could be just business as usual, depending on the system and the file size involved.
Exactly the same problem here, on 2 computers at home and at work. It’s very problematic.
I think I finally found what was causing the issue for me. Seems ZBrush does not like the software Display Fusion. So far have not been able to recreate the crash when Display Fusion is not running.
I figured it out by closing all my background applications and then trying to make it crash; realised it didn’t and then was a case of trial and error to find the culprit. So if you don’t have display fusion running try doing that to figure out if it’s something else conflicting. I suppose a better way to do it would be by booting into safe mode.
I have made support aware, hopefully they can fix it as Display Fusion is a very useful utility.
Im having this exact issue. Zbrush has crashed about 30 times this morning if I scroll through subtools so its virtually impossible to do any work - perhaps its something to do with folders as this never used to happen
As I said above for me it ended up being incompatibility with other software that caused it. In my case Display Fusion. This is software that does a lot of things to do with multiple monitors, application windows, general desktop display related stuff. If you have anything similar try disabling or uninstalling it. Disabling it helped for me but I had to fully uninstall to totally fix it (well for some reason it still happens extremely rarely for me, once or twice a month maybe).
Just to post in solidarity, I have a similar issue; At random intervals grabbing the slider on the Subtool palette, to scroll to a Subtool, causes Zbrush to instantly fail; it doesn’t freeze or lock, just goes straight to desktop. This also occurs, at random, when I select a subtool either by clicking it in the subtool palette or by ALT + Right Clicking a subtool that is visible on the canvas. A similar crash occurs, at random, when using the ‘See-through’ slider to view reference open beneath the Zbrush window. It happens at random, it happens to projects with huge numbers of highly detailed subtools and projects with only a few low res subtools, in other words, all projects but not all of the time. I don’t run Display Fusion but I do run a dual monitor system which is managed by NVidia software rather than windows because the colour calibration is so much more refined, I shall see if GeForce Experience is having an effect on the issue. Its sounds like a graphical issue more than anything else, hoping it is something that can be switched off, it’ll be a problem if it’s related to my Huion tablet-monitor.
Having had more time since my last post I should say that I definitely do still occasionally have this happen. Not consistently like I did when display fusion was installed but it has happened more than once since then, so it’s defiantly not specifically linked to that software. Just seems like that software was amplifying what ever the issue is.
I agree, as a matter of fact I got into the habit of saving my scene every time before scrolling through subtools or clicking on a couple of other critical spots in the UI. Particularly dangerous is for me to resize the canvas by dragging the separator bars which also leads to instant death instead of just crashing normally. I have the suspicion that dragging on the UI with a Wacaom pen is less stable than scrolling with the mouse.
Hello, I have had the same problem since today, I can no longer access my subtools and can no longer work with the program. I use a laptop with Win 8.1.
I have only 6!! Subtools, is there any solution?? I using Zbrushcore 2020.I’ve had crashes before and from time to time, so fortunately I back up regularly
but now I can’t work with it anymore.