ZBrushCentral

Scale Doesn't Match - ZTL to OBJ Import/Export, ZBrush to ZBrush (solution provided!)

ZBrush Usage Questions
#21

2002: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showpost.php?p=74454&postcount=10

2004: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=17566&highlight=.obj+scale

2005: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=24089&page=4&pp=15&highlight=.obj
(http://blood2oo1.atw.hu/obj/)

2007: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=46381&highlight=.obj+scale
http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=51044&highlight=.obj

2008: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=67067&highlight=.obj

2009: http://www.zbrushcentral.com/zbc/showthread.php?t=67067&highlight=.obj

#22

I’ve definitely seem the same behavior ZB <-> C4D, so you’re not alone. :smiley:

#23

Look guys and this is the last comment I will make on this so feel relieved.

I sincerely apologise that I went “off topic”.

Lets get serious here for a moment. My polemic, as stated by Kerwin is not to his liking but he agrees that the ownership issue is not an ownership matter and since comments of bugs were made, my statements stand and not only that, I totally defend that I took the matter to the heart of the problem and that is that the Pixologic people are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for most of this mess by creating a very sloppy program that has such great potential.

If I buy a car with a great engine and it good looks then find out that its wheels are square I should justifiably be annoyed and hence the strongest condemnation is totally OK by me.

Lets assume Photoshop suddenly made it impossible to re-open psd files without serious color shifts - hmmmm? would that be accepted by the community ? Absolutely NOT.
So lets get some perspective on this and put the blame where it belongs. It is a darn shame that Autodesk did not create a better Mudbox because I would jump ship immediately. We are caught by a monopoly and as such a serious and agressive attack on the lame attitude of a comapny that makes promisses and does not keep them, ships unfinished products and has one of the worst customer relations departments in the industry deserves every bit of viotriol that it gets.

Wheteher you like it or not I am not alone in this !

#24

i so love when trolls bring politics into an argument that has no need for them.
that being said, nothing’s perfect, things will be fixed, there are always workarounds, if you don’t like it then leave already.
oh yeah, and we’re all going to die anyway so none of this matters. lol

1 Like
#25

I also don’t care for the injection of irrelavent political POVs (insofar as the topic at hand is concerned–this is definitely NOT the topic nor forum to promote a political agenda–there are other more appropriate places for that) that really do have nothing to do with the topic at hand nor necessarily enhance your argument.:evil:

Don’t confuse my defense of your right to comment (on the topic at hand) with some sort of “anything goes” permission to provocation of political free-for-all. It may not be fashionable, but please check your inflamatory opinions (re: politics, religion, sexual orientation, etc.) at the door. No good will come of it. To the degree I defended your right to comment, you next post makes me regret it.:confused:

-K

#26

Everything is POLITICAL whether you like it or not!
So Kerwin and spaceboy. get a grip and don’t lecture me on what I may or may not say!
An allusion to obama liberalism is totally within the bounds of discussion considering your assertion that some things don’t belong in this forum.
So you are the thought police are you?
You check your righteous arrogance at the door !

ROFL!!!

Enough already.

#27

Please stay on topic. All political posts or attacks on each other are not permitted and have been deleted. If you have any concerns, please contact us through http://support.pixologic.com

1 Like
#28

I’ve been running some tests and there’s a very simple reason for what’s happening, as well as an equally simple way to get the results that you want.

If you export a model that has no SubTools, ZBrush will apply standard scaling to that model. But if you export a model that is a SubTool of another model, ZBrush will apply the scaling of the top-most SubTool.

So to get the results you want (on PC or Mac), here’s what you do:


  1. Retopologize and make an adaptive skin like normal.
  2. Select the original model and append your adaptive skin to it.
  3. Select the appended SubTool, and now export it.
Because your adaptive skin is a SubTool of the source model, ZBrush will use the scaling of the source model.

When you later import the model back into ZBrush, select the appended SubTool. (For example, if you created a mask, select the mask in your SubTool list.) Now import the new version of the OBJ. Provided that the point order hasn’t been changed, you’ll be good to go.

If you have changed the point order in the other program, you won’t be able to import the OBJ back into the original SubTool. In this case, you would have to do a standard import (for example, with the Polymesh3D tool selected). In this case it will initially use standard scaling because no association with another tool has yet been made. To make that association, select your original source model again and append the newly imported one to it. ZBrush will then recognize the relationship between the two models, and will scale the newly imported one to match.

Easy!

1 Like
#29

Thanks Aurick.

I was wondering what these guys were talking about. I’ve never seen this problem in my workflow…EVER. Half of the kids at my school have it happen all the time though. I can at least now give them the correct answer. Rather than telling them they are doing it wrong. I rarely have to say that when talking about Zbrush, and that is the beauty of the program. The only time I tell them they are doing it wrong, is on the artistic side, not the technical.

#30

Well, that explains pleanty. It was certainly driving us crazy. I’ll have to try this solution. Thanks Aurick!
-K

#31

we just ran into this problem too. specifically, we start with zspheres, adaptive skin, pm3d. export an obj, immediately import, and the scales don’t line up. tried making it a subtool as per auricks advice, didn’t work. as a test we tried it in zbrush2, and it DOES work there, so its definitely a v3 issue.

what did work though was clicking ‘unify’ within deformations before export. our theory is that zbrush doesn’t record the scale of an object until its either unified, or imported as an obj.

once we figured this out, we can do uv’s and whatnot in external packages fine, and have no problems.

I suspect this is why some people are having problems and not others; if you start a model in external software than the scale is fixed; if you start with zspheres the scale is ‘floating’.

hope that helps,

-matt

#32

If you make an object an adaptive skin, you don’t need to make it a pm3d. Making an object a pm3d is simply breaking the geometric calculation that allow you alter the object. Like converting a primitive in another package into an ePoly.

#33

Wow, I was reading through this thread having encountered this problem again and again and not really thinking that a solution would be found…when I try Auricks solution…it works!!!
Works like a dream!

I’m rather happy.

thanks Aurick and thanks to the OP too :smiley:

#34

I might be just missing something but I’m having that same scaling/position problems and this has nothing to do with retopologizing.

I’ve got a tool with 3 subtools…it’s a very basic test, not much detail at all. All three subtools were created originally in ZBrush and haven’t left it yet.

I export each subtool individually as an OBJ and then import them back in (at the same subdivision level), so basically nothing has been done yet…and the scales and positions are all out of wack.

None of these have been retopo’d…heck not much has been at all with this most basic test I’ve got.

Soooo…any other ideas or am I missing something?

Thanks,
Todd

p.s. I also tested the ‘top-most subtool scale’ theory by ripping the tool apart and putting it back together with another subtool on top and I get the exact same results in terms of scale and position being off.

p.s.s. logic would say this is an import problem since I can import all the OBJs into Maya and everything lines up like a champ. It’s just importing back into ZBrush that it all tanks.

UPDATE: Ok…it’s not the import that’s breaking it. It’s importing the OBJ meshes back into the Zbrush tool (for instance to load in UV’s…however we’re not getting that far yet). When I import each OBJ individually into ZBrush and then reassemble them into the full tool they assemble perfectly.

#35

toddworld - Yes it is probably Zbrush…but,

If they are only screwing up on the import back into the tool (UVs) then don’t worry about it.

store a morph target before you import (I always do…in case scale or position changes)

then import

switch morph (back to original)
then delete the MT

you’re all set. UV’s are there, object is in place, nothing explodes. All good.

Hope that helps.

To everyone else -

Unless you’re using Zspheres, always start in another package. That doesn’t mean that you have to build a box, export, import, blah blah blah. It just means…well, I have a cube, a sphere, a cylinder that I built in XSI. I imported the box, saved a new .ztl, called it “polycubeXSI”…rinse repeat for each type of object. Now when I want to start sculpting, i grab a box from XSI, or a sphere.

Anyway. All this does is set the scale of the object you’re working on. So when you’re importing and exporting like crazy, you know that if it is right in XSI (fill in with whatever package you want) then it will be right in Zbrush. The world coordinates won’t change, the scale won’t change…basically, you’re giving Zbrush (from the get-go) a standard SRT to work with.

So I hope that helps everyone else.

#36

goast…you’re my hero.

It appears to have worked perfectly.

Thanks a ton!
Todd

#37

Holy crap! That will teach me not to check up on my threads. Thanks Aurick!

#38

I havent read the whole thread but the solution for this is simple…

when appending the imported mesh just make sure the subtool at the top is selected and the scale should be fine.

#39

Nope

I’ve got a model that’s a single subtool ztool. If I export and import back into ZB the obj is slightly out both in scale and translation, no matter what order I load or append them.

At no point have any of my meshes been anywhere near a zsphere because I don’t use them.

#40

i was going back and forth between zbrush 3.1 and 3.5 and getting the same results… i was going back and forth because in 3.5 lazy brush is broken. its a zbrush issue plain and simple.