Hey! So, I’ve blundered into a problem. I’ve managed to save a Zbrush project file that I don’t have enough ram to reopen. I have 16gb in my laptop. If someone has a minute, and alot of ram, to open my file, delete the main body mesh(I’ve already exported it as .obj) resave the .ZPR and send me it back to me. I would be ecstatic. Alternatively, if you know a way for me resolve this issue on my own, I’m all ears. Thanks ahead of time!
How large is your file? Have you tried to load the .zpr without undo history?
ZBrush is a 32-bit application. So it doesn’t matter how much RAM your system has, the OS won’t give more than 4 GB to ZBrush. That is not much of a restriction in most cases because your SubTools can still hit about 15-20 million polys (which is more data than a 4K displacement, texture or normal map could hold). But there are exceptions.
Regardless, if your computer can’t open it odds are nobody else will be able to either.
If you’re on Windows, a couple things to check are to ensure that the drive where ZBrush is keeping its scratch files (C by default) has at least 15% free space and has been kept defragmented. Defragmentation doesn’t work well if the drive has less than 15% free. A fragged drive can have lots of free space, but that space is broken into chunks too small for ZBrush to use efficiently. If your drive is an SSD then you should also make sure that TRIM is performed once a week. That’s automatic with Windows 8 but requires a special app from the SSD manufacturer if you’re on Vista or 7.
And as Doug Jones said, for ZPR files you can sometimes get to where you can load the file by disabling loading of the undo history. This is done using the Preferences >> Undo History sub-palette.
How big is the actual file and what operating system are you running?