ZBrushCentral

Multiple tablets = pen & eraser flipped on one tablet

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I have a Cintiq and a regular Intuos 3 tablet on the same machine. No matter what I do, my pen tip will be stuck in “flipped mode” on one of the two tablets in ZBrush (and ZBrush only).

After some testing it seems like the first tablet I use after installing the wacom drivers will be seen by ZBrush as regular mode, while the other one will see the pen as flipped (tip is perma-stuck as eraser, and vice versa). However, the first tablet I used and my regular mouse will both act normally.

I’ve reproduced this a few times after installing and re-installing the Wacom drivers.

Any ideas on solving this would be great! Thanks :smiley:

#2

This is a strange problem as I never had it in this configuration. Did you deinstall your driver, reboot, download the last ones on wacom.com, réinstall then plug it?

#3

Just for good measure, I did all of those steps again, including unplugging the tablets, uninstalling, reinstalling, re-plugging.

i did discover something about which tablet will see the pen as flipped in ZBrush though. When I launch ZB it opens on my main display, if I drag it onto my Cintiq using my mouse and then use my pen on my Cintiq in ZBrush the pen acts normally. If I try to use my Intuous any point after this, the pen acts in flipped mode in ZB.

If, after launching ZB, I drag it onto the Cintiq using my pen on my Intuous (i use the Intuous vs a mouse for most navigation usually), the pen on the Intuous acts normally in ZB but the pen on the Cintiq acts in flipped mode.

This weird behavior does not happen in any other art applications with my tablets.

#4

then you mean that your problem always happen with one pen, the Cintiq one, not the intuos one? FYI, you can use the Intuos 3 pen on your Cintiq (or the opposite).
Did you check the wacom control panel settings as you have settings for both pens? I don’t think that the problem comes from here… but in case.

And shut down ZBrush, remove the cfg file (backup it first) in your ZBrush/ZStartup folder and restart ZBrush to see if something change.

#5

Yes, both the cintiq and intuos3 pens are identical, and both a re configured properly in the Wacom control panel. This problem occurs with both pens, and as I mentioned the issue only occurs in ZB, not in photoshop, Maya, painter, etc.

I’m not sure which .cfg file in the Zbrush/ZStartup directory you mean. I don’t see one in my root directory there, but I went ahead and re-ran my setup files and did a Repair installation and the problem still persists.

I appreciate your help so far, it’s just puzzling my brain why this is happening.

#6

Doing a repair won’t help on this problem I think. What you can do is to

  • backup your existing folder (if you added matcap, alphas, etc…)
  • Deactivate ZBrush
  • deinstall ZBrush
  • going in your Prgram files\Pixologic folder and manually deleting the remaining files.
  • reinstalling
  • reactivating

And then see what happens. If your problem persist, go in your C:\Program Files (x86)\Tablet\Wacom folder and run the PrefUtil.exe and remove the preferences.

I hope it will help!

#7

Well, I just tried all of the above, including wiping out the Wacom prefs and the problem still occurs. I’d have to think it’s an inherit issue with ZB and multiple tablets on the same machine since other programs don’t have the issue. :confused:

#8

I invite you to open a ticket on our Support Center (and link this thread in your message). Perhaps they will have better ideas than me! :slight_smile:

But I’m also having a Cintiq (12"), an intuos 4 and 3 + 1 bamboo pen&touch which I plugged on several computers at the same time or not, without any troubles (including several pens (art pen, default pen, aero, etc…)

#9

Interesting, I have had a similar yet reproducable problem on a 1 tablet setup.
Graphire3. ZBrush consiistently reads the first stroke as Zadd, so if I start with the eraser the pen becomes the eraser for the rest of the session.
Good job I dont use the eraser…

#10

i also have cintiq and a intuos3 and the same thing happened to me. When i drag the zbrush window over to the cintiq the pressure is inverted and it does zadd instead of zsub .

#11

I’ve yet to find a solution. :frowning:

Support left it as a wacom driver issue, yet this problem only happens inside of ZBrush. All of my other apps the pen works as intended on either the tablet or Cintiq.

#12

@jfitt: what OS are you using ? i’m using windows 7 64bit maybe Totyo can shed some light on his configuration to see if it’s OS related or not ?

#13

Yep, Win7 x64 here as well.

#14

im using vista 32x but got the same problem with my intuos4 tablet.
when i use the pen it acts as the opposit. zadd is zsub, zsub is zadd and the smooth brush is acting like a noise brush.

couldnt find it in the preffs for my tablet as well.

i want to solve this problem, sooo if anyone knows HOW TO… please post it here!

on the other side it might be a good idea of just using the back of the pen so you never have to replace you pen nips :wink:

#15

I have the same problem with my cintiq32 and intuos pro in 2020 june.
do you have solution now? thank u

#16

Had a similar issue. I have one intuos pro and one cintiq. If I’m using my cintiq I need to open the zbrush app using my cintiq otherwise zbrush will think my pen click is an eraser and not a click.

#17

Getting exactly the same issue with MobileStudio Pro and Intuos… Such a weird bug only Zbrush has it. Hope they fix it one day.

#18

jumping on this one because its super frustrating, and pretty amazing that its been a thing for 10 years

#19

Also adding in here. This I do not believe is a ZBrush issue. I am using a Huion H610Pro. This inverting of brush strokes was happening to me in Blender which I thought was a Blender issue so I got ZBrush. Now it’s happening in ZBrush. Not sure my tablet even has an eraser side to it so I’m not sure it’s even getting confused with that feature, just getting flipped for what appears to be no reason. Perhaps someday someone will figure this out.