ZBrushCentral

"Error has been encountered while trying to load a Tool."

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Anyone else running into the issue of saving a tool in ZB3 then when you go to load it up again, you get:

File Error:

Error has been encountered while trying to load a Tool.
Loading has been aborted.

ZB3 has me consistently saving while I work now, but I just went a little longer than usual and lost about 40 minutes of work. Not life threatening, but it was good.

This “error loading tool” error has actually happened to me multiple times, but this is the first time it’s really really hurt.

Just wondering if anyone has had this problem or if there is any potential file fix.

Thanks.

#2

I have gotten trying to load some old zbrush 2 stuff…no problems so far reloading something started in z3.

not sure what the deal is.

#3

Ok, so at least I’m not alone. :slight_smile: Has happened to me trying to load ZB2 stuff as well. But mainly ZB3 stuff, as that’s what I’m been working on.

From the file size of the file, it looks like it was a complete save… I have no idea really, but it’s not a “0k” file or anything like that. It’s 118,755k actually. The previously saved version was 57,122k, so you can tell I did some work. To bad I can’t get it back…

Ironically (?), I saved the tool and quit Zbrush specifically so I could restart it and have it be totally refreshed so I could do some rendering. D’oh. I’ll think twice about that in the future. Even if I couldn’t (can’t) load the file, I’d at least have some nice renders. Dammit.

#4

if you remember what all you saved in that file…maybe it’ll help Aurick or pixologic more…such as

it had 4 subdlevels with 3 subtools also at 4 subd’s each

kind of thing.

#5

This has happened to me with single meshes and meshes with subtools… and just happened to me again, with a single mesh of about 7M polys and 1 layer.

I saved 2 incremented files over the past hour as I worked, just to be safe (aware of this bug) and BOTH files are corrupted!

I do have all my corrupted files available (if that’s of any use to anyone at Pixologic), but I really can’t think of the exact details of what was involved with each one. In my mind, they’re all different…

  • though they all started as base meshes in 3DS
  • some are different versions of the same model

I’ll try to pay closer attention… but this corrupted tool thing is scaring me.

Perhaps some kind of file validation during the save to make sure all is saved would be good… Um, yeah… :slight_smile:

I’m not sure it’ll work, but I’ll try loading the tools after I save them (without exiting ZB3 too see if that will let me know whether they won’t load or not)

#6

is good tip to make a clone inside Z3 before work and save it!
Andreseloy

#7

hey zero

are you saying that you quit zb then loaded one of the previous incremental saves? or you tried to load it after the first failure…did you leave zb or do a init zb and come back…details will help pixologic narrow it down.

specially if you know have the incremental saves that are also messed up…then question is…before the save or because of it eh?

#8

just had a thought…

since both zb and svengali’s plugin save the tool(s) at the first subd level but upon loading them return them to the subd the user saved them at…

my point being…how much ram do you have…this was kind of a problem with z2…and trying to save at higher subdlevels…because reloading it meant it was trying to load all the levels at once i think…

so i wonder if it’s not tied to the same kind of thing…trying to load all that info…but ram or virtual/disk space is not enuf to cover this…which i thought was supposed to be fixed in z3 but they are only magicians not miracle workers who can know every machine config that ever existed…so help em out…with what ever you did, have in the machine etc.

#9

Hmmm…

Here’s my typical process…

  1. open up previously saved .ZTL
  2. edit and work on .ZTL
  3. save .ZTL
  4. keep working (usually)…
  5. save another version of the .ZTL
  6. exit ZBrush
  7. load up a fresh copy of ZBrush
  8. try to load last version of saved .ZTL…
    get *error has been encountered" and ZTL won’t load
  9. go to previous saved version of .ZTL…
    tonight my previously saved version was also corrupt
    But other times, the previously saved version (if there was one), loads

More info:

Tonight I started using Svengali’s QuickSave plugin, but this ZTL load error has happen before I installed the plugin.

I generally don’t use the INIT Zbrush option unless I’m working on relatively low poly or unimportant work, as I like to have ZBrush be completey refreshed when I’m working on something important or that has a lot of polys.

The high-poly objects I generally work on are around or under 4million. Lately I’ve been disabling UVs and sometimes get up to around 7-8 million. Performance generally seems ok, but I can’t go higher as I have my poly limit set to 8million and I don’t want my machine to explode. :wink:

More info:

WinXP
2GB RAM
3GHz
Lots of hard drive space, saving to a “network” drive though.

The dragon model I’ve been working on lately, with 6 subds, and 7.6M polys, appears to use up around 900MB on “average”. Though sometimes goes up to 1400MB and uses virtual mem.

Also, I’ve had this issue from a <1M poly model I created in ZB2… just won’t load in ZB3. Same error. I didn’t check to see if it still loads in ZB2.

–

More info:

I believe tonight’s work, my model had 1 layer that I was working on. However, at some point during editing (working at different SubD’s), I lost the ability to access it (select it), regardless of the SubD level I was on…however, all the work I had done was still visible, so I wasn’t terribly concerned…

#10

And another thing… this error pops up really quickly, even for a large file… so whatever it is that’s corrupt, it finds it pretty quickly. It doesn’t seem like it’s chugging away loading the files and then comes across something at the end that causes the error… it seems that it encountered the problem quite quickly.

More…

Lately, the file thats corrupt has occured after I’ve done a lot of alpha sculpting… so adding a lot of detail (scales and wrinkles) to a dragon. The work essentially doubles my file size from around 50MB to 100MB (or I think I mention this in my first post)…

#11

hmmm good info…eliminates my problems hahaha just kidding…since my problems so far only seem to be with old z2 models…maybe we can help eliminate some things then.

i see you are saving to a networked drive? something about that rings a durn bell with me and zb2…can’t for the life of me remember what the heck it was…will scan my old saved links to see if i can jog it a bit. just in case there is something there.

#12

haha i never thought to try to open a .ztl file in a text editor like an obj file or the like…if one can do that…it would be interesting to know what info is saved in that file…specially now with z3 and in what order…that way we could also eliminate what is messing things up on the save since it happens so quickly.

#13

Magic pixol dust. :wink:

My thought was maybe my file isn’t getting completely saved to the network drive… thought that’s what I use exclusively for all my work. FWIW, the network drive is actually a hard drive plugged into the computer I’m actually working from (though it is mapped as a network drive to a specific directory on the drive and given a drive letter different than the letter of the actual drive as it’s plugged into my PC). I just have another computer sitting next to it, with more drives, and so on…

And I, too, thought about opening a .ZTL file, but I suspect you can’t… not without the magic key.

So far, my new method of working, saving, and then immediately loading the file I just saved appears to be a safeguard (I think)…

It places what seems like a copy of the new file in the tools menu next to the one I was working on…but they both share the same name and details…

I don’t know what will happen when I encounter a corrupt file though… if it does save a corrupted file and I go to reload it, I don’t want it to somehow mess up the version I just saved (and still have “live” in ZB).

If I do get the error and it doesn’t mess with my live model, then I can just keep resaving/repeating the process until it loads correctly…I hope. :slight_smile:

#14

if ya know someone with z3 …see if they can load your “corrupted” mesh…oops i mean ztl.

#15

Hmmm… I don’t know if this helps, but I’ve got a file open right now… 1 mesh, 1 layer, no subtools. Attempted to save the tool, seemed to work ok, then did my load the tool after save to make sure, and I get the “error has been encountered”.

My current tool is still up, so at least I’ve got that (nope, lost it - won’t render, ZB froze). I’ve since tried to save and re-save the tool, but each time, it won’t load.

At the same time as this (this hasn’t happened before), I keep getting “Memory Error - Unable to read virtual memory file” errors popping up. Again, I don’t recall this hasn’t happening before, but maybe its related.

Currently using 412MB ram with 1037 indicated as free. Model is at 1 SubD (where I put it at to save, equaling 6,082 polys), but has 6 subD’s, I believe, bringing to to around 6.2 million polys, I think.

Last major thing I did to the file was add a bunch of alpha sculpting (skin texture).

Still trying to save the darn thing, but I’m not sure it’ll happen.

  • I’ve tried going to Preferences > Mem > compact now, but no change.

  • I’ve reduced the size of my canvas to 480x360, no change

  • I’ve made a clone of the tool and tried to save that, no change

  • I can still perform actions in ZB, even change my canvas size, etc, but this virtual memory error pops up several times in a row every few seconds and my object won’t save (without loading as corrupt)

  • Tried to render. ZB froze and I can’t take a screenshot (printscreen didn’t take, and clicking away from ZB to come back, ZB won’t popup/screen refresh, appears to have frozen explorer, except everything else works)… so more progress on a model down the drain. :frowning:

  • Under task manager, Applications, ZB3 isn’t even listed. Under processes, however, it is, taking 00 CPU.

  • End process successful :frowning: Sad, very sad.

  • Restarted ZB, still doesn’t show up for me under task manager > Applications.

  • reloaded last working version of tool. ZBrush states 284.16 MB memory used. Task manager contradicts this with 375.8 MB used.

  • Previously saved working version, 3:09pm, 15,651KB

  • 7 save attempts, starting at 3:44pm and stopping at 4:03pm, all exactly 138,962KB, even the cloned version.

  • Estimated total loss of productivity due to this bug at this point, 3-4 hours.

#16

Ok, so I essentially redid the work I did on my previous model.

But this time, when I created a new layer, I did so at the lowest level. That’s the only difference.

I went up to 6 subD’s and applied alpha deformations. Saved the file. Reloaded the file. It works.

Interesting to note:

File size before edits: 15,651KB.
File size after edits on the working saved file: 47,768KB.

File size of the corrupt files of this model that wouldn’t load: 138,962KB.

#17

As far as I am aware a layer is basically a clone or a morph target of your mesh (same in mudbox). So creating a layer at sub d level six probably isn’t going to yield the most stable results.

Creating a lot of layers on high sub d levels can cause your file size to grow quite large because of this. And also can create instabilities in your tool when trying to load because its so complex.

Basically the larger your file size the more likely it is that you will have problems when trying to reload it.

This may be the problem you are running into.

#18

Did a little more work on the current model…can’t save. Seems like every time i push the detail envelope. Hmmm.

#19

I am having a huge problem with my last work on zbrush!!

I was working on a pretty simple model, and I saved different versions of the same file to make sure that even if there is a problem with its latest version I could make some rework on a previous version… So I worked all day yesterday, and today when I’ve tried to open my file, zbrush displayed this message:

File Error

Error has been encountered when trying to load a tool.
Loading has been aborted.

And it happens with ALL versions of my model!!

I just lost all my work…

Please someone could help me??

Is there a way to recover my file??

Thank you guys

#20

i have the same exact problem. I save a few copies of my single zbrush work and tried reopen it again. It works during that time. But somehow it doesnt work again when i restart my pc. What could be the problem? its ruining my hard work and time spend… sigh… i really need some way to recover it. It will be a really really great help.