Is selecting faces a HUGE pain in the Arse in Zbrush or am i missing something? is there a function to select a face to hide unhide by just clicking on a face and hitting hide? or selecting one face without having to marquee it? face selection shouldn’t be this painfull. any info would be appreciated.
Hi
I shared the same feeling man
right now it’s a pain in the ars to select faces in dense polygon. and especially on non-grid-like surfaces like circle rings of faces like on the top part of a clinder.
I was hoping if someone can tell us if there is a better way to selct them (like clicking each poly individually to do the job)
…you don’t cilck! You Paint 
There is not the word brush in it? 
So just paint in Edit Mode + Ctrl ( the mask) some aeras
Inverse it !
You have your selection 
Pilou
Ps if you start a selection with Ctrl outside an object, mask will have the curent Alpha
Never know when you’ll learn something new. Thanks Frenchy, didn’t know you could mask using the alpha shape… so cool.
woah u’re right !
thanks !
totally forgot bout that …
just found that out under ‘masking’, ‘hidepts’ and ‘showpts’
that should do the trick
and …
assume in a situation, after u hid some mesh partially, and wanna further hide
somemore,
u will continue to paint the alpha on … but just inverse the selection again each time before u click ‘hidepts’. and so on … so on …
or else it will hide the ‘unpainted’ potion instead …
not an exactly ‘fastest method’ in my opinion but still convenient once u get used to it
Its also worth being aware of the existence of “point selection” mode, which makes face by face selection much easier in some situations. ZB currently only understands point geometry selction, unfortunately. I too look forward to the day when zb has true edge and face selection though. I think Id actually rather see edge selction first for creasing reasons.
yeah that would be the best
could you post an example of point selection? thanks for the replies this is really helpful, although it still seems like too much work when you should be able to click on a face and select it. i hope they fix this in later versions hint hint. thanks.
Certainly, but only since youre a chapel hill resident, as I am formerly =) When you are in edit mode with a 3d polymesh object, on the standard interface off on the right toolbar called “Pt. Selection” Or alternatively , Ctrl+SHIFT+P
When in point selection mode you only have to nab one point in a poly face, and it will hide/mask the entire poly, or any that are connected to that point…as opposed to the regular selection mode, in which you have to select all the points in a poly face for it to be selected. All the “selection” in zb as it were, is done by masking, hiding, and inverse masking/hide unmasked. It helps greatly if you assign specific poly groups in an outsie application, that way you can just go through and hide “groups” with a single click.
It would, however be nice to have a “mask by polygroup” function as well, which would make some things faster.
“It helps greatly if you assign specific poly groups in an outsie application”
what is the term for polygroup in say 3ds max? is it material ID? or smoothing group? this would help a ton if i could assign them in max. I have smoothing groups already assigned to the model but zbrush seems to ignore them. thanks again.
hi bingo,
I can’t see my signature as I write this but Svengali did write a nice little plugin called mask groups I think it is…I’ll recheck once I see my sig again. If not I’ll find the link for ya.
oops guess I had to remove it to make room for his other cool plugins… but here is the link to it.
It depends on the apllication youre using. Different approaches will acomplish it coming from different programs. You’ll just have to experiment importing different objects into ZB, and see what things it respects when you turn on the “frame” option to see the different coloured polygroups. Material ID would be one way to do it…some applications have "group, or “Combine” functions that would accomplish it too. And possibly assigning seperate UV groups on the same mesh too…though that might be problematic if youre going to be texturing in ZB
.
You can establish polygrouping in ZB too, using the hide and “group visible” functions, but as you already know, selection options may not be as flexible and efficient in ZB as much as some outside modellers.
What would the reason be, why the Selection marquee is not working? Any suggestions? The yellow circle with the lasso and marquee box shows up, but when trying to drag over the polysphere to select, it doesn’t do anything. The green selection box does not show up.