I’m posting this because for some reason Zbrush 3 decided to reinstall on its own. I didnt do anything but browse an obj. After I reimput my recovery code and liscence file it installed but ALL MY WORK, ALL MY ZTOOLS ARE GONE! :mad: Is there a way to recover it?!!!??!! WHATS GOING ON?!
Eraserhead : The installer can’t delete any files, it can only create new files or recover existing damaged files.
are you sure you are looking for your Ztools in the correct folder?
Cause like mentioned above, an uninstall only keeps record of a tree folder structure as it was installed , anything newly added after the instalation is not included in the uninstall.
thats just it, it didn’t uninstall the program. I was browsing to my ztools folder to save an OBJ then when it wouldn’t let me I went to close Zbrush. As soon as it closed I got the istaller window. But I’ll keep looking to see if my Ztools are on another folder somewhere.
have you tried a windows search for *.ztl?
Just tried it and I found only shortcuts to the ZTLs. I thought “oh good” but when I went to open them in Zbrush it said " file not found check the file name and try again" I gots lots of resculpting to do
ZBrush as downloaded from Pixologic does not have any code in it to force a reinstall of the software. It also does not have any code in it to delete any of your custom content. Even the installer itself does not delete that custom content. For example, if you run it to uninstall ZBrush, it will still leave the folders with any files that you have created.
This means one of two things:
- Your copy of ZBrush did not come from Pixologic.
or
- There is something seriously wrong with your system. For example, spyware or viruses.
—edit—
my fault, havent read correctly. pls delete this post.
ZBrush creates some folders during installation that are not removed during the uninstall. For example, the ZStartup and ZTools folders. Uninstalling ZBrush will leave those folders and all of their contents. Repairing the ZBrush installation will only replace items in those folders that were created during the intial installation. So it will restore the original contents of those folders to their original state, but will not remove any extra content that was created after the initial installation.
This is why repairing or uninstalling/reinstalling ZBrush will not correct problems that are caused by incompatible plugins. Those plugins remain even after the uninstall/reinstall or repair operation.
I think I solved the problem. For some reason my “Pixologic” folder ended up within another folder
I have no idea how this happened but luckily all my ZTLs were there intact. Confused tho
… I love happy endings 
thats not so surprising , you said it happened while loading an obj , all it takes is holding your mouse button too long while browsing for your obj and you could have dragged your folder into another one.
Just a pointer, and a personal preference - i do not save any files for any program in their native folders.
back in 2000, i installed Windows 2000 on a brand new athlon and did some work. I had to format and go back to 98SE because of technical problems. I had work on my desktop and in different folders on my computer and i soon realized i had lost lots of work.
Ever since then i’ve been pretty meticulous about my saving and i do it based on Project. I’ll have a base project folder (i.e. c:\Projects) and then in that i’ll have the project like “Goblin” then in that folder i would have a Max and Zbrush and Maps folder etc…
Just a suggestion. Everybody has their own system.
I know it has been a long time since you posted this, but it happens that I’m in the exact same situation and other than shortcuts i can’t find my projects nor my tools, would you mind telling me where to look at?