regarding the loss of subdivisions when you re-import
I know Maya can (and will) re-order vertice IDs if the mesh was created first in zbrush and it is the first time export to maya…maybe also true for max.
Basically it (maya) is re-ordering to suits its own “logic”.
In order to retain your subdivision levels the vert ID must remain the same.
Aside from the software automatically re-ordering vert IDs you should avoid editing the mesh with operations such as spliting an edge or booleans or combining or exporting multiple objects in the same file.
Editing UVs or the position/translation of Verts will not affect the vert IDs…
meaning you could scale or rotate or translate your mesh and edit UVs and it will still re-import into your ztl.
Note: there are import options in Maya which I turn off to ensure no re-order, check what you need to uncheck in max. Mind you in maya, even after unchecking the software will still re-order if it sees fit…solution make sure your mesh is clean before you go too far, usually this means establishing a connection between the two programs via import export.
Regarding deleting edgeloops
There is and there isn’t, if you know what I mean…
You could remove edges using the retypo tools but for dense meshes or tricky typological edits I would say use the “GOMax” plugin found here at ZBC under the scripts utilities forum and edit your mesh in max.
Alternatively you could manually do this by exporting to max fix then import back to zb and append as a subtool to you orig model and use the project all feature, then use the zproject brush to clean up.
This way you can transfer the details and polypainting across to a new mesh (new typology).
Note: the new mesh must be relatively close in shape/volume to the source mesh (orig)… basically tranfer from source to target.
as keanu would say “whoa”
