ZBrushCentral

Placing rivets along curve. Spacing problem.

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi, I want to place some rivets along curve. But I have problem with rivet spacing in relation to curve resolution.
In image below in point a) I have nice curve resolution, but rivets are do dense
b) I set curve step to 4,5 to move them apart, but now curve is very low res. It is hard to place rivets in place.
Is there a way to get high res curve, but with bigger subtool spacing?

Attachments

CureStep.jpg

#2

Curve step works in conjunction with brush size…

You may need to adjust brush size:

Curve step = 3, Brush size = 33:

curve-step.jpg

#3

Thanks Thor. But now with small brush size the bolts are really small :frowning:

#4

If you don’t have too many rivets to place then there’s a fairly easy way of placing them all by hand:

  1. Select the InsertMesh rivet brush you want to use. Curve mode should be OFF.
  2. In the Stroke palette, go to the Inventory section and turn on ‘Record’.
  3. Draw out a rivet on the mesh. It doesn’t matter where you draw it, just draw it out to the size you want.
  4. Turn off Stroke>Inventory>Record.
  5. Undo the rivet placement if you want it somewhere else, then position the cursor over where you want a rivet.
  6. Press SHIFT+2 on the keyboard. This will place a rivet.

Repeat 5 & 6 to place all the rivets. You can move the mesh around as necessary, just make sure your cursor is over the spot where you want a rivet.

You could use a Curve as a guide: before using the InsertMesh brush, select the Standard Brush and turn on Curve mode in the Stroke palette. Then draw out a curve with a suitable Curve Step set. When you draw out a rivet in the usual way the curve will disappear while you’re drawing but when using the SHIFT+2 replay the curve will remain visible, so you can use the divisions as a guide.

#5

thx marcus_civis.
I ended up placing rivets with shift+1, but it is good to know about record thing.
I guess it would be nice feature for zbrush to have separated curve resolution from mesh spacing. This way Curve step would affect curve resolution, and new parameter ‘spacing’ would describe how ofter mesh is placed along curve.