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Detailed .ZPR project loads as a single ZSphere. Help!

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m new to ZBrush, but I knew to save my model as a .ZPR file, so that I could pick up on it where I left off. It shows as a 2GB file in the Mac Finder, but when I load it in ZBrush (File / Open / Load Project), it only shows as a single ZSphere. How do I get my model back? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Background info:


  • Using ZBrush 4R4 on a Mac Pro
  • I built my model with a very complex ZSphere skeleton, and then created a Unified Skin, and made a lot of transformations to the mesh with the Move Elastic and Pinch brushes.
  • It takes quite a while for ZBrush to retrieve my project, so it appears to be loading a lot of data. But the result is only one ZSphere, when loads.

#2

.ZPR is a project file, saves all tool and such. Have you looked in Tool>SubTool for your other objects?

#3

Thanks for your response, Doug. The subtool was saved, but it was an old version.

I’m really perplexed about what went wrong - why did my .ZPR save fail? And how do I prevent this from happening again? I’m feeling shaky about saving my work in ZBrush…

#4

Personally, the majority of the time, I don’t save using the project save (.ZPR). I will always use ‘Tool > Save As’ (.ZTL). Even if I did save as a project, I always saved the ZTool also. I have never run into any issues when saving or loading the ZTL file. The only time I did have problems was when I tried to load a ZTool created in a previous version of ZBrush, and even then it was only on occasion.

#5

I just thought of something; the file size is a bit more than 2GB. Could the file be too large? Could that be the cause of the problem?

#6

You did expand the Subtools and it’s not in there? From the size of your file, I’d think there has to be more than 1 subtool.

#7

Thanks for this suggestion, to always save the ZTool. I’m doing that now, and I’m able to quit and reload the tool with no problem. So I’m going to do that from now on, for sure.

I wonder why my .ZPR save failed. That’s a bit unsettling. I wonder if there’s some bug in the Mac version involving files that are < 2GB? Has anyone else heard of this happening?

#8

Yes, I did check in the Subtools and there was only one version there, and it was an old one. Something went really wrong with the Project save, and I can’t figure out what. If anyone at Pixologic would like to look at the file, I’d be happy to send it to them.