Questions & Troubleshooting for ZBrush 4R8

[MealeaYing]

Spyndel!

I set that to 38 and got maybe 25% more space and everything is still readable!
That’s a serious improvement.
I could get even more working space if these new scroll areas would go away, and that brush stuff at the top that I dont need, but THANK YOU!
Now I gotta get it to see my wacom tablet and I will be back in business I think!

GRIN!!!

Are you talking about the new selector bar? Its settings are in Preferences >> Interface >> IMM Viewer. You can’t turn it off altogether (it’s way too useful, actually) but you can control where it appears relative to the canvas (1=top, 2=left, 3=bottom, 4=right). For most users today, the display is much wider than it is high. In that case you may prefer a left or right position so as not to lose vertical space from your canvas. This IS covered in the documentation, by the way.

As for your tablet, it may be necessary to uninstall your Wacom drivers and then install them again.
Failing that, you might have to talk to Wacom. ZBrush 4R8 SHOULD see your tablet (assuming it’s a Wacom) but we’ve seen a few driver issues lately, starting even before 4R8 launched.

[Spyndel]

That’s a serious improvement.
I could get even more working space if these new scroll areas would go away, and that brush stuff at the top that I dont need, but THANK YOU!

I’m still not entirely sure what these “scroll areas” at the sides are that are bothering you, but if you’ll forgive me, I took the liberty of illustrating some of the points on your screenshot you can use to reclaim that space. If you’re already aware of these, just ignore me:

1. The color palette on the left is pinned for some reason. It’s not there by default. You can unpin it via the button in the top right of that panel, reclaiming all that space for canvas.

2. The vertical arrow bars at the sides of the canvas can be clicked to hide/show the side panels, allotting more space to canvas.

3. Not sure what the “brush stuff at the top you dont need” is referring to, but if it’s the standard brush controls , you can use the buttons at the top right of the interface to cycle through a number of alternate layouts, which may be more to your liking—some are more minimalist than others.

Or, I thought you might be referring to the new IMM preview bar that appears at the top whenever a brush with IMM functions is selected. That can be disabled in Preferences> Interface > IMM Viewer > Auto Show Hide (read the ctrl-mouseover tooltip carefully–it’s not as simple as just switching the button off for some reason)

Finally, you can always create a custom UI with the minimum of whatever elements you think are necessary, with Preferences> Config > Enable Customize, then just ctrl-alt drag and drop elements wherever you please, exit customize mode, then save that UI out.

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[Edit] Aurick ninja’d me while I was writing this. I was going to quibble with him that it was possible to disable the IMM explorer bar, but now I see that that setting does not persist between program restarts even when you save config.

That’s annoying. I honestly dont care for it, because it seems to come up with the ZModeler brush, where it’s typically of limited use, eats up screen space and is just generally distracting. I would very much like to kill it with fire.

The setting doesn’t actually disable it but rather changes things so that it’s always there, even when a brush is selected that can’t make use of it. The selector is used with all IMM brushes, VDM brushes and multi-alpha brushes. It only shows up when such a brush is selected. The rest of the time it’s gone – unless you change the setting to make it always present.

[Spyndel]

@Artmaker

If you’re checking in here, make sure to read back through your posts to catch Aurick’s response.

[artmaker]

Thanks @Spyndel for pointing me to Aurick’s note. I would not have seen that (pasted below), but I wasn’t able to make (or find) a Umesh.

"… (with ZBrush closed) delete or rename your ZBrushData folder. When you restart ZBrush, this folder will be recreated with the default UI and other settings. See if that fixes things.

“…Also, I assume that you’re also checking the Tool pop-up window rather than just looking at the Tool palette in the Tray? The pop-up shows everything. The palette only shows a few items and may or may not display the new mesh.”

• Deleting the shared ZBrushData folder did not change the behavior as far as I can tell. (A new folder was recreated upon zbrush startup as Aurick described)
• Regarding looking in a “Toll Pop Up window” I’m not really sure. I was looking in the tool tray and can’t find any other tool related pop up.

During Make Boolean Mesh:

After Make Boolean Mesh (No UMesh tool visible. Looking in tool menu):

Thanks for any help.

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[aurick]

@artmaker:

See the illustration.

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[artmaker]

@Aurick,

Thanks, I did not know that.
But still not seeing a new Umesh being created after clicking Make Boolean Mesh:

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[MealeaYing]

|@Aurick (I assume!):
|
It was the drivers, I had problems instantly, the usual Win Tab error, but restarting its service didn’t work this time.
So I got the latest drivers (I have an Intuos 4 medium) from Wacom and installed them, this killed my tablet completely, so I uninstalled them completely and reverted to the drivers from I think Feburary and POOF! I’m back in gear.

I didn’t know its called the selector bar, but since I dont use IMM’s unless I make them my self, having them come up with ZModeler is sorta frustrating, that brush only has one, maybe I can delete it? I use ZModeler a lot. One way or another its eating my canvas and thus its going to be toast! There’s a lot of stuff in the documentation that means nothing to me till I have used it, and the result is that if I don’t know what something is, I cant look it up, kind of a catch 22. Anyway it was more of an issue prior to shrinking the text back to something resembling normal, now I have more than twice the amount of room I had before!

@Spyndel:
You will see two things in this screenshot, the scroll areas I dont need, and how much more space you have given me with that one simple fix. That one setting changed everything!
Thank you again.

Are those scroll areas removable?
When I want to scroll that stuff I move my mouse to the outside of my monitor and scroll, its perfect, this use of space is less than perfect and being greedy, I want it back!
HA!

Thank you both for the help!

EDIT: forgot the screenshot!

|

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[MealeaYing]

Oh, yes…
KILL IT WITH FIRE!

hehehe!
Thank you for that Spyndel!

[Ham_Sammich]

the whole thing is running like a top for me now (not a single crash so far!), with the exception of just 2 things:

regardless of what i have the sliders set to in the preferences, i can’t disable the quicksave feature.
it was the same for me in 4r7. it’s driving me bonkers… it’s such an interruption.
especially when working with really large files, considering how long it takes to save
and that it just saves whenever it likes. sometimes when i’m mid-stroke or projecting, etc.
often it’ll do a quick save, then just a few minutes later it’ll do it again- but then not again for an hour.
that and for whatever reason, zbrush suppresses my screensaver and won’t allow my display or computer to go to sleep when the program is open.

Set Preferences >> QuickSave >> Maximum Duration to a high value. 600 is the max, which would require 100 hours of continuous use before QuickSave happens. The Rest Duration slider kicks in when you switch to a different application. After 1 minutes of such rest, ZBrush will do a QuickSave. I recommend leaving that alone since it’s not interrupting you at that point and is potentially going to protect you from losing data. Don’t forget to Ctrl+Shift+I to save the settings or it will be forgotten with your next launch.

I have confirmed that the setting change is remembered with your Custom UI.

i’ll give it a go and see what happens. thanks!

[zber2]

Setting the IMM Viewer slider in Preferences > Interface > IMM Viewer to something other than 1 (top) does not save when the Config is saved. Every time ZBrush is launched, it reverts to 1. Good thing we have Macro.

[sulian]

Cannot install ZBrush 4R8, installation failed…

Did someone has the same problem ?

This is typically caused by a faulty installer. It can also happen if antivirus software decides to be overenthusiastic. Remember: 4R8 is a brand new program and a lot of the AV developers are going to take a while to add it to their safe lists. I recommend disabling your AV software (firewall doesn’t matter – only the virus scanning) and downloading the installer again. Leave it off through downloading, installing and activating.

[jubala]

Hi I am not seeing tranform 3d under the alpha section like Joseph Drust showed in the zbrushr8 demonstration Is it a new feature you guys didn’t add to 4r8? thanks

[LeoAMD]

After instilling Zbrush on another machine and encountering the same issue I had before with the right click navigation I have found a quick fix that doesn’t involve reinstalling wacom drivers.

Simply open “wacom tablet properties”

at the top where software is listed find Zbrush, click on it and then click on the “-” symbol at the side to delete the Zbrush properties.

Then open Zbrush and the problem should be fixed. You can then click the “+” symbol and add zbrush back to the software properties if you want to set up custom tablet controls for Zbrush

Hope this helps

[MealeaYing]

@ZBer:
I dislike this feature and I can confirm for you that its settings do not in fact save.
It looks like auto hide sort of works (for me).
Setting it to 3 puts it at the bottom, switching to another brush leaves where it was stuck over the canvas (a big part of my dislike of it).
Going into its preferences and toggling auto hide/show seems to clear that up.
If I want to look at IMM brushes I will hit the M key.
There is one these things called “Poly Sphere” in the ZModeler brush and I suspect its not supposed to be there. I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of it.

I’ve learned that the IMM Viewer can be turned off. You must have a brush selected that does not make use of it, such as the Standard brush. Then toggle the Preferences >> Interface >> IMM Viewer >> Auto Show/Hide setting.

The IMM Viewer settings do not currently save, so you may want to create a macro for the above steps. You can then create a hotkey for the macro so that when you start ZBrush you can just press the button and all will be how you want it.

[S-ed]

Greetings.
After clean install of 4r8 I’ve decided to check for updates, and seems update.ini has broken link (goes to 404), so ZUpgrader go nuts and throws an error.

SubPallete Popup bug still not fixed (enable -> disable, menus won’t came back).

[sulian]

I have downloaded the installer from Europe server and US server (with Firefox + DownThemAll), file size is 1 081 542 624 octets.

Kaspersky AV was disabled during installation.

[Spyndel]

There is one these things called “Poly Sphere” in the ZModeler brush and I suspect its not supposed to be there. I’m trying to figure out how to get rid of it.

This is also my main complaint–The IMM viewer is also attached to the Zmodeler brush by default, but 95% of the time when Im working with ZMod, it is not functioning as an IMM tool. So that bar ends up wiping out a significant bit of screen space in exchange for little utility other than the distracting default icon. And I have to reset that setting to hide it during every program session, because the setting doesn’t save.

I’m not much of a kit basher, but even when I do use IMM tools, I’ve never found the “M” key menu particularly cumbersome, though I see how people who work with IMM tools with hundreds of entires might.

Are those scroll areas removable?
When I want to scroll that stuff I move my mouse to the outside of my monitor and scroll, its perfect, this use of space is less than perfect and being greedy, I want it back!

I don’t know if they’re easily removable in themselves, but you’re an experienced enough user now, it’s time to start embracing Zbrush’s flexibility in creating custom interfaces that cater to your workflow and preferences. You can then minimize the need for elements that dont serve your purpose.

Most power users have custom UIs that cater to a specific purpose. This is the one I use for hard surface work, and I have others for sculpting, painting, etc. Since I work with my tablet in front of me and am right handed, the most efficient place to put frequently accessed functions is in the L shaped border on the right and at the bottom, which requires a minimum amount of hand travel time. This allows me to keep the right tool tray hidden most of the time, opened only when I need access to a less used function that isn’t easily accessed with a keyboard shortcut. It keeps the vast majority of the screen dedicated to the viewport:

It’s easy to build custom UIs in Zbrush. Go to preferences> Config> and enable customize UI. The you can ctrl-alt drag elements where you want them (and out of the nested menus at the top if you want to expose a function that isnt normally in the top layer of the UI. When done, un-press “enable customize”, and save that UI as a config file with pref > config> save UI. You can then load that UI on demand, or “store config” with it loaded to make it the default.

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[anigroove]

After using clipcurve my project turned into grey stripes. What happened here?
The problem is still there after re-opening.

It appears you have the new TransPose All SubTools option turned on in your Gizmo 3D. Turn on Move, Scale or Rotate so your Gizmo 3D is activated and make sure the icon all the way to the right is not activated. If it is activated you will see an icon that looks like three stacked rectangles with check marks next to each. Hold down CTRL+Shift and tap anywhere in the open document. Now click on the icon to turn it off. The icon will change from three stacks to just one.

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[jubala]

is there a way to get rid of icons on top of the screen like with the zmodler brush the zmodeler brush icon pos up and reduces the screen space. I perfer just using the m key thanks

I’ve learned that the IMM Viewer can be turned off. You must have a brush selected that does not make use of it, such as the Standard brush. Then toggle the Preferences >> Interface >> IMM Viewer >> Auto Show/Hide setting.

The IMM Viewer settings do not currently save, so you may want to create a macro for the above steps. You can then create a hotkey for the macro so that when you start ZBrush you can just press the button and all will be how you want it.

[zber2]

@MealeaYing Hi Mealea!

@ZBer:
I dislike this feature and I can confirm for you that its settings do not in fact save.
It looks like auto hide sort of works (for me).
Setting it to 3 puts it at the bottom, switching to another brush leaves where it was stuck over the canvas (a big part of my dislike of it).
Going into its preferences and toggling auto hide/show seems to clear that up.
If I want to look at IMM brushes I will hit the M key.

The problem is the "Auto Hide/Show doesn’t save with Config either. I recorded Macros of changing and turning things off that I don’t like, put them all into one Macro and have it run automatically at startup and Auto Hide/Show is one of them and I never have to worry about it.