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Zbrush project file size

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

I’m new to zbrush so maybe this is a simple question to answer. I’ve been working on a zbrush project for a week or so now its about 700mb. I just took the time to take a couple of the densest subtools and simplify them with decimation master. When I saved the project I had gone from a 12 million poly count to 4.5 million poly count. However upon saving the project the size had jumped to 977mb. I don’t understand why the size should go up after I decimate it.

I took my ztool (with all subtools) and exported it as a tool. I imported that into a new project which I saved. That came to 113mb.

So, it seems as if the majority of my file size is coming from somewhere other than the geometry. Can someone give me a clue as to how to make my file sizes smaller? What it making the files so big? Please advise. Thanks!!

#2

.zpr files hold onto all the data that you have. Having lower SubD levels that zbrush can compress to also helps with file size. So decimating the mesh, while lower the Tri count, was still probably higher than the lowest subD level in your previous mesh.

Inside the zpr you probably have extra tools and whatnot that you’ve been using, as well as alphas, etc. All of this is stored in the .zpr. Document size, etc is also stored.

.ztls are the way to go if smaller sized files are important to you. but you lose some other functions as well. A bit of give and take.