ZBrushCentral

How to preserve Polygroups from OBJ?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I hope this is not an FAQ, I searched the forums but could not find an answer.
The problem is simple:

  • Load an .OBJ which contains group (g statement)
  • The groups are used for rigging, not for materials, the materials defined can be spanning several groups
  • Morph the model in ZBrush, export it as OBJ, the groups and group names are preserved.
  • Save the tool in a ZTL file, quit ZBrush
  • Restart ZBrush, load the previously saved ZTL file, do more modifications
  • Export the OBJ again, the groups are preserved but their names are gone. Each groups is named “Group1”, “Group2” etc.

Is there a way of saving a ZBrush tool and preserve the groups names?

TIA

#2

Polygroups don’t have names in ZBrush, so I’m confused. Can you clarify? Are you talking about Subtools?

#3

Ahhh, that explains it. Too bad.
If you look at a .OBJ file, the "g " statement declares a group of polygons. Following that statement there is the list of “faces” that make up the group. Each group has a name. Poser names each group with the corresponding name of the the bone that control that part of the geometry. For example: lForeArm, head, neck etc. So, in the OBJ file you see something like:

g lForeArm
f x, y, z

When importing an .OBJ with the Poser Scaler Plugin ZBrush preserves the group names. If I save the tool as a ZTL file and reload it, the names are gone. This is too bad. I hoped that there was a configuration option to preserve the names. It would help greatly in order to create clothing and props for Poser figures as the clothes are rigged in the same way. When you create clothing you load the base figure and then start sculpting on top of it. In ZBrush you would create a tool for the clothing and use the base figure as a subtool. Without the option to save the polygroup names this cannot be done. Every time you want to continue the work you need to recreate your setup from scratch.

Thanks for the info. Hopefully ZBrush 4 will fix this.