Macro Palette

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Macros

A macro is a recording of a short set of ZBrush commands, such as the menu choices you might make when setting up a favorite combination of stroke, brush, and alpha. The macro menu lets you easily define and reuse macros, and can automatically load your macros when you start ZBrush in the future. This means you can:

  • Create and reuse custom brushes by recording the alpha, sculpt setting, texture, etc.
  • Automate commonly used repetitive sequences of actions, for example to set various constant values before exporting or importing a model.
  • Apply exactly the same brush stroke or strokes to different parts of a model.


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Recording and Saving Macros

To record a macro, press the Record New Macro button. Once you've pressed this button, all actions you take until you stop the macro recording, will become part of the macro, and will 'play back' when the macro is used in the future.

To finish a macro press the End Macro Recording button. A Save File dialog will come up, and you can save the macro (as a text file) for later use. The macro will also appear in the Macro menu, under the same name as the filename you specified.

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Loading Macros Automatically

ZBrush has a special macro directory, ...\ZBRUSH\ZStartup\Macros, where ZBRUSH is the main ZBrush folder on your computer. When macros are saved in this folder, they will be loaded automatically every time ZBrush starts.

In addition, the Macros folder can hold subfolders that can also contain macros. This subfolders will appear as submenus in the Macro menu, allowing you to organize even quite large collections of macros.

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Controls

New Macro: Starts recording a macro. Once recording has been started, all actions will be recorded until End Macro Recording is pressed, at which time you'll be prompted to save the macro to a file.
End Macro Recording: Stops recording a macro, and prompts you to save the recorded commands to a file. The saved macro will immediately be available in the Macro menu.
If you save the macro in the special ...\ZBRUSH\Macros directory (where ZBRUSH is the ZBrush main directory), then that macro will be reloaded automatically whenever ZBrush starts, and will appear in the macro menu.
Reload All Macros: Reloads all macros from their text files. This can be used to force reloading of macros that have been edited in an external text editor.

In addition, the Macro menu may contain subdirectories containing macros; these will appear as submenus when they are loaded in the Macro menu.

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Predefined Macros

ZBrush 3 comes with several predefined brush macros (which appear in the Macro:Brush submenu). These give examples of one use of macros, and by looking in the Macros directory, you'll also see how the subdirectory structure defines the macro submenu structure.

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Tips

  • A macro will only record settings and commands that you make after you start recording it. Make sure to set all desired values when recording a macro (even if they are already at the desired value) so that they will be set when the macro is played back.
  • Macros are intended to be a quick way to automate simple and repetitious tasks. If you want to do more than macros permit, you might want to look at ZScripting.
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