Hello, I saved my first project in zbrush like a noob apparently. ==> Document>save as>zbr project. I saw a guy in an other forum who did like me and he can’t edit his file. Apparently we had to start from scratch. What the hell ??? This is my file when I open it :
My sculpt is like a background file, I can’t edit, move or turn around the object… Can you help me please?
Hi @tomtom75
You shouldn’t have used “Document > Save As”. That only saves a snapshot of the document. You saved a file with a .zbr extension and not a .zpr extention. Saving the project is done via “File > Save As” which will save the 3D Tool and all your settings associated with it and is still editable when you open it. “Tool > Save As” will save the Tool and is editable when opened again. If you didn’t save the project or tool, you will have to start over again.
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This is the most ridiculus things I’ve seen in a software, I’m sure lot of peolpe did the same mistake… Pixologic has the craziest Dev omg, not just for this.
But thanks for your reply…
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The most common mistake repeatedly made by people is not reading the documentation for the software they ostensibly just paid hundreds of dollars for. I recommend reading the “getting started” section at least.
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Haha I was waiting for this comment. Let me give you my point of view:
Why people read documentation ? Because they are stuck in a process.
When in 100% of software, if you do “save” document you save your work, why would you read the doc ? Just nobody do that.
Dev have to think like Users, not other way around.
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ZBrush originally started out as a 2.5D application, meaning that not only could you paint with color and material, but you could also paint with depth and also using the primatives and 2.5D brushes in the Tool palette to accompany that. ZBrush still holds this capability to this day. That is the reason that you have “Document > Save As”. You would save the 2.5D document, open it again and continue to work on it in 2.5D. It is still used for illustration today. A good example of this kind of work would be the art of Meats Meier.
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Hello, and welcome to ZBC.
The reason people suggest reading the documentation is not because the program is poorly designed, but because it helps shed light on what the program truly is. Someone will never be able to pilot a helicopter if they keep thinking it flies like an airplane.
In this case, it is an extremely common misconception for new users to think of Zbrush purely as a 3d sculpting program. This is a perfectly understandable mistake; most people are introduced to Zbrush by seeing an artist create an amazing sculpture with it (there are more great Zbrush sculpts out there than you could swing a stick at, especially on this forum). And hey, Zbrush is the industry standard sculpting program for several industries so… you know, sculpting! But because new users only think of sculpting and nothing else, the very name of the program and its rather specific choice of UI Glossary never clicks even though it is staring them in the face and they’ve seen it before.
You see, z BRUSH was originally designed as a painting program.
Just like Photoshop, MS Paint, and other painting programs, it has a “Document” which is an image canvas made out of pixels. You set the size of the document (its x and y resolution), select a “Tool” from the Tool palette (such as a paintbrush or clone stamp), select a color from the Color palette, adjust your Draw settings such as the strength, and then draw the Tool onto the Document to modify the Document’s pixel values accordingly. You can draw these tools on different Layers, and save the document (or export it as a .psd file, just like photoshop).
But zbrush wasn’t content to stick with the same old Tools like paintbrushes, it wanted to let you also use 3d Meshes as Tools since it could can sample color and depth values from the vertices. It came up with a way to let you quickly Edit those 3d Tools so that you can fine tune the information contained in its vertices, and the approach it took make it incredibly powerful (manipulating millions of vertices with ease even with a basic CPU, back when such numbers were unheard of).
So virtually everyone uses it to create and edit 3D Tools, but there remains a very big difference between saving the 3d Tool and saving the 2d Document.
If you use the File menu to save your work like in virtually every other program, you’ll see a more clear distinction made between saving the Canvas or the Mesh.
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I agree with you, you made some enemies haha but anyone that has worked with any other program would agree with you. I did the same mistake at first, even putting saving options away from each other it’s pretty confusing and not necessary at all. If you make a work place messy obviously people are going to complain. It’s not the options that are frustrating it’s the way they show the options for saving. Not even coding programs are these confusing.
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Think me losing my entire progress in a day with this sh*t situation. Anyone who open the program for the first time won’t keep in mind that stupid Document function it’s just a snapshot 2.5D. A complete joke made by devs. Shame
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