I always model a base mesh in external app and import then subdivide and add detail. Paint texture, job done.
I wanted to be one of the cool kids this time and just modelled in zBrush - never again!
Can’t create subdivisions, can’t create UV’s, zRemesher just loses all detail despite adaptive size being set high.
All this work lost - I have exported and fbx, will create a base mesh in Maya and redo all this stuff. What a waste of time.
Then I’m really wondering how you started your project because, no offense intended, I can’t help wonder if you didn’t overlook a few details when starting. ZBrush doesn’t necessarily behave like other tools so it’s easy to overlook some obvious details:
After that you can use the divide button to subdivide. I marked that as well, you just need to expand the Geometry section.
However… you also mentioned adaptive size? So you were able to divide? 
This is why it’s important to try and share as many details as you can, that might help others to find the cause of your problems. Just mentioning that things “don’t work” isn’t very descriptive because it gives us no information to work with.
See, changing the AdaptiveSize isn’t a guarantee for success. In fact, as far as I understand this setting, setting this too high can even have negative effects. So I can’t help wonder if that’s what happened on your end? Not to mention all the other settings you have at your disposal, what did you do with those?
On another note… “One of the cool kids?” 
The most important part here is to get your work done; you shouldn’t focus on how others are doing it but instead find the workflow that’s best suited for you. I know this may sound a bit cliché, sorry, but I’ve heard such comments one too many times (within the fields of 3D modelling but specifically digital audio); and it often indicates a flaw in the workflow somewhere.
Don’t try to mimic others. Instead, try to find a method of working that best suits you. As always: what works for me doesn’t have to work for you and vice versa.
But I can tell you one thing: ZBrush is perfectly capable to take a project from the start to the finish.
Hello @magilla
Sorry you’re having some trouble! This sounds mostly like some problems with your process, but I want to clarify a few points to rule out a technical issue.
What do you mean here? Does pressing the divide button not subdivide your mesh?
UVs really need to be created for a lower poly version of your mesh. UV Master will not perform well with higher poly meshes, and it would be difficult to work with your UVs with especially dense topology in any event. When you get to a stage in your work when you’re ready to start posing your mesh or creating and exporting textures for it, it is necessary to transition to a multi-resolution workflow with a low-ish poly base topology. This will require you to retopologize your mesh into a lower poly form, either manually or with ZRemesher, or some combination of the two. However…
ZRemesher is most often used to reduce or simplify the mesh’s polycount and topology. With the simplified geometry, loss of detail is expected. So you would generally use ZRemesher to create that low-ish poly base I was talking about, then you would subdivide it sufficiently to hold the incoming detail, and project the high res detail back onto your mesh using one of the various methods for doing this.
Then you would UV the base level topology, and create and export maps based on the high resolution detail at the higher subdivision levels. This applies both to polypaint color and sculpting detail.
Your work shouldn’t be lost! You just need to adjust your process slightly.
I am curious in what context you experienced the error message in your screenshot, however. Was this the result of trying to use UV master with a high resolution mesh?
I don’t know that using ZBrush makes you cool–although you can create really cool stuff with it! I hope you’re able to keep your cool here, and apply some of the things I’ve explained to see some of the things you can achieve in ZBrush.
Good luck and take care! 
thanks Shelluser,
“one of the cool kids” I sometimes forget that the internet is a humourless void, forgive my attempt at sarcasm.
to clarify I was not able to recreate lower subdivisions. The Adaptive Size I mention is a setting in zRemesher to maintain detail when the target poly count is lower than the original.
What ‘other settings’ are you referring too?
thanks Spyndel,
can’t recreate subdivisions - that was how I was trying to recreate a low poly mesh from the sculpt. The sculpt isn’t that high 180k but preferably would like a subdivision or two less for the base mesh and UV creation.
The model was started from a couple of primitives, merged with unified skin and zRemeshed heaps of times. I ran UV master a couple of times during the process and it worked fine, sadly just not any more.
The mesh is consistent quads and looks pretty good really, I can’t see any reason why these features shouldn’t work.
I have never heard of project undo - that looks exactly like what I was trying to do without knowing how to do it 
- thank you for the suggestion.
Oh, are you talking about the “reconstruct Subdivision” function in the Geometry palette? That is mostly ever only going to be effective on meshes that were created by subdividing up from low poly in ZBrush, have since had those subD levels deleted, and the topology unchanged.
To reduce the polycount for other meshes, you will need to retopologize, either with ZRemesher, or manually, or some combination of the two.
