ZBrushCentral

Possible to merge files in from a project?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hi,

I have a project which was already quite large (500MB .ZTL file), and when I used the UVMaster plugin to unwrap the various subtools I was working with, it naturally created all these clones of various tools. I forgot to remove them, saved my project (now over 1Gb!), and turned off my machine. Today I attempt to open up the scene and it won’t let me, I just keep getting an error saying “This action could not be completed due to insufficient system memory”. I understand this as ZBrush is still only a 32bit app running on a 32 bit version of Windows 7, so my 4Gb of RAM aren’t being fully used.

The question is this: Is there any way I can somehow remove the extra cloned tools in the ztl file before opening it in ZBrush? Or alternatively, just merge in the tools I need into another scene?

Any help or suggestions much appreciated!
Seán

#2

save only the .ztl not zpr.

#3

IMHO, if your going to save as a project file, it’s always a good idea to also save your work seperately as a ztool and with incremental files. Zbrush has built in save safeties to prevent corrupt saving, but nothing is perfect, as your case indicates. I don’t think it’s possible to extract elements from a .zpr file before you open it though. You might be out of luck in that respect.

Have a look in this thread, especially the last two posts and see if that solution works for you.

#4

I never had a problem like that. what are you saying is that your cloned tool is also a part of your subtool? I always using low res all and saving it before closing ZBrush, it will going to make your loading fast and at the same time it will also save you a disk space. I think there is no way your ztl for awhile until Subtool Master can choose the subtool you want just to load.

#5

Hi zber2, thanks for that link, unfortunately, I get the same result regardless. I’ve reverted to a previous version, losing an hour or twos work. I’ll be sure to clean out the project files in future before saving and also to save out separate tools. Pity about losing that work though!

NoobVee, no, they don’t get created as subtools to my main tool. When you “Clone as copy” using the unwrapper, that new tool gets put into the tool list. Unfortunately, when you save your project, all of the tools in that list are saved with it so the next time you open your project you have access to them. The problem is, I no longer need them, and forgot to clean them out of there before saving. Hence the large file size. That 1.1Gb file is only 285Mb without all of those tools.

#6

how many times I need to tell you that that if you save it as a ztl(then Load Tool) and not zpr(which will save everything including list of subtools, texture, matcaps, etc…), it will only save the subtools that are only merged in your ztool and not the the list of 2.5D. I think you also press the “R” button you that see in Tool Menu, it will discard any existing ZTool that you made.

#7

Yeah, the R tool doesn’t work very well for me, leaving a lot of unused tools behind. I know it’s supposed to clean them all out every time, but I’m finding it very buggy and leaving a lot behind. I’m saving out separate tools in future to prevent this from happening again. Thanks.

#8

The R button doesn’t delete the tools from the Tool palette, it simply reduces the number that show up.

You can actually effectively delete extra tools from the Tool palette by using the Tool>SubTool>Delete button. The last subtool will be replaced by the Polymesh3D Star, which will have a minimal effect on the project size.

#9

Hi Marcus, yes, that’s what I was getting, but several of the tools wouldn’t delete for me. The first few did delete and change to polymesh stars, but after a while, attempting to delete them did absolutely nothing. I’m surprised there isn’t a more efficient way to clean up a project.