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Z4R2 DynaMesh Add Sub And buttons

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey folks,

I have been using DynaMesh a bit now. The insert mesh brushes work well and allow you to Boolean an inserted mesh to create a negative space. This is great but I want more control. Insert a cube to be used as a pin, inside an limb for 3D print of a figure for example.

I wanted to use a mesh I position to create a Boolean Subtraction, rather than having to manually position the mesh with the MeshInsert Dot brush.

I noticed 3 buttons under the DyanMesh button, just below the resolution control. Labeled ‘ADD’ ‘SUB’ ‘AND’ when I hit ctrl to get info on them the info popup explains that each button works as a Boolean operation, for an inserted mesh. Sadly the buttons do not seem to toggle on or off. When I use the insert-mesh button in the Geometry palette, then press Sub or any of the 3 buttons, when pressed they all do the same 'ADD" operation.

Do these buttons work? and if so How. I really want to be able to insert a mesh of my choosing and be able to use it as a Boolean-Subtraction.

Any help would be great :wink:

thanks

-J-B0t

#2

after placing the mesh with the insert brush you and just switch to move and use the transpose tools to position the mesh before redynameshing.

#3

Hey folks,

While the mention method works to move the Subtraction mesh where its needed, it still requires the user to re-position the Subtraction mesh each time. Having to re-position the mesh each time could lead to inaccurate placement.

For example lets say you made a human character you wanted to print. After posing the mesh you needed to cut 2 limbs lets say crossing arms for it to be printed and cast. You could cut off the arms with the slice curve tool. Use group split to seperat the parts. then use close hole to make 2 new solid meshes. All within Zbrush. At this point you have your printable and castable parts. however you need to have a pin to connect the 2 parts and a pin hole that matches exactly. typically you would have to decimate and then export into another 3D app to do the boolean operations necessary to make the pin matching hole.

Now it seems you could stay in Zbrush. You can make your pin lets say a cube scale and position it where you need it. use duplicate to make a excact copy size and position. Merge down the cube and the arm then dynamesh to get a combined pin and arm. now all you need to do is use the copy of the pin on the body as a Subtract-dynamesh boolean and you would have your pin and matching guide-hole.

This is just one example. making custom nesting objects is another.

So far I have tried to use the toggles in the SubTool pallette, (the overlaping circle icons) nothing seems to work. That would be great if you could toggle how an object behaves for dynamesh by toggleing the ‘add’ ‘sub’ or ‘diffrence’ icons in the SubTool palette.

I hope I am properly explaining what I am looking to do. Its clear the MeshInsert Brush can do what I want to a certain dergree, so Zbrush is capable of doing it. I just want to figure out how maintain a subtool’s size and orientation to be used as a subtractive Dyanmesh boolean. The buttons seem to be there I just can’t figure out how to use them, or how to do it.

thanks
-J-B0t

#4

The sub button does not currently function as documented. We can look forward to that being fixed at some point.

You can ctrl-alt drag on the middle transpose circle in move mode to duplicate any mesh as a negative mesh.

If you Ctr-Alt click on the the middle circle to negative duplicate a mesh, then invert the mask that was automatically created, you can duplicate a mesh as a negative mesh in place, and move the original away with minimal (but not zero) offset.

Currently there is no way to force a standing mesh to become a negative mesh at will, without fiddling with it a bit.

But this is virgin functionality. At one point we didn’t have subtools, then, once we did, it required elaborate work-arounds to merge them. The point being I think you can expect to see improvements in usability over time.