ZBrushCentral

Importing meshes and point order

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Having tons of problems as usual importing meshes from Max 2009 and have a couple of questions about zbrush and the way it reads the OBJ files.

I have a finished mesh in Zbrush and export into another application. I play with it detaching and attaching faces and stuff BUT the final result is a mesh with the exact same vertice position (but with different vertex order).

Can I import this mesh to replace the original one in Zbrush or will it explode? Does the point order need to be the same when I import into Zbrush or just the vertex count and position?

#2

The mesh will explode. Multi-resolution subdivision editing means that each subdivision level is related. So there’s a direct correlation between any point at one level and the four points that were derived from it when the mesh was divided.

This means that if the points are scrambled, the higher level points will scramble as well. The mesh explodes.

#3

Thats what i thought, but made a quick test and:

I have MESH A finished in zbrush. (symmetrical in the x axis)

Open MESH A in max, delete half, UVW map the mesh, make him symmetrical and export (creating MESH B).

If I import MESH B into MESH A it explodes (making me thing that when I deleted half for the UVW mapping I changed the point order)

BUT!

If I import MESH B into Zbrush, subdivide and then import MESH A then it works on all sud divisions… How is this possible? THe point order was changed!

Why is it that importing MESH A into MESH B works but not the other way around?

#4

Anyone?

This is becoming a crucial issue in the pipeline and its causing more problems than ever. Also getting the same issue with exported OBJ from max 2009. Any solution whatsoever?

#5

I’d avoid any risks of mesh explosion by using this method:

  1. Append your new low res mesh to original as a new subtool.
  2. Subdivide to the same level as high res.
  3. With both at high res and new mesh selected, press Tool>SubTool>Project All.
#6

Thats what I’ve been doing but I end up having to do some clean up after the projection. If I’m only doing UV changes I can’t afford to have to clean the mesh every time I do some tweaks on the UV layout. And usually you get projection issues on the parts that took most time to work on like eyelids, inside of mouth and ears… Even using Zproject, storing morph targets etc…

I know there is the 3ds max OBJ export/import problem. But the issue I’me having with just exploding the model in one direction but not the other (mesh A and mesh B thing) doesn’t seem to make any sense.