Marker Palette
From ZBrush Info
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Introducing Markers
Markers are used to remember the position, orientation, and other properties of a 3D object on the ZBrush canvas. They can be placed using the Mark Object Position button in the Transform menu whenever a 3D object is on the canvas, and once placed, show up as a small square that appears in the canvas area whenever the cursor is close to the marker and Marker:Show is on. You may have multiple markers on the canvas.
Two markers close together on the canvas. The cursor is not visible in this screenshot, but is over the bottom right marker, which is highlighted to indicate it will be activated if the mouse is clicked.
When the marker square is clicked, a 3D tool is placed on the canvas at that marker position, and those properties of the original tool that are active in the Marker palette are transferred to the new 3D object. Note that (with Marker:Tool off) the new object does not have to be the same tool as the marker was originally placed for. For example, you can draw a cube, set a marker for it, clear the canvas, select the cone tool, and then click on the marker. You will end up with a cone in the same position and with the same orientation as the original cube.
A common use for markers is to assemble several 3D objects into a single mesh—the ZBrush equivalent of a Boolean union operation. See Multimarkers.
Marking Objects
To mark the active 3D object's position, click the Mark Object Position button. You'll see a marker move from the palette to the object, indicating that the marker has been set. Then, when you position the cursor near the marker, a square appears, indicating a marker position.
Using Markers
When you position the cursor over a marker position, the marker is highlighted, indicating that the marker will be used as the center of a 3D object if you click the marker. In addition, information about the marker's index number, tool, position, size and color appear in the note bar above the canvas.
Information displayed in the note bar when the cursor is near a marker.
When a marker is placed, it remembers as much information about the original object as possible. When a marker is clicked, it places the new object using only the information for which switches in the Marker palette are on. For example, if Marker:Material is on, then the new object will be given the material of the original object, and if that switch is off, the new object will have its own material assigned.
In the illustration below, the sphere was drawn first, then a marker was added, and then the marker position was used to draw the torus and cylinder concentrically with the sphere.
Deleting Markers
Use the Unmark Object Position button to remove a marker from the document. If the document contains only one marker, clicking the Unmark Object Position button will remove that marker. If the document contains more than one marker, follow this procedure:
- Determine which marker you want to remove.
- Use that marker to draw any 3D object. This tells ZBrush that this is the marker to remove.
- Click Unmark Object Position to delete the marker.
- If you like, use Undo (Ctrl+Z) to remove the object you drew in step 2.
Additional Information
- If you use a marker to draw with the Dot stroke type (use a single click), the tool also remembers any scaling you've applied to the object you used to place the marker. If you've created a drawing using scaled and rotated 3D objects, placing markers for each object, you can then re-create the drawing using different colored objects by undoing all the objects and using the Dot stroke type with the markers, changing colors as you go.
- You can set up to 256 markers in a document.
- Markers are saved with the document.
- Objects are not saved with the document, but you can take advantage of markers and ZBrush's Layers feature to replace custom objects after you've saved a document. For example, say you create a person's head and a hat, save each as a separate .ztl file, and then place the two objects on separate layers, applying markers to each. Later, you might decide you want to modify the hat. You can go back and clear the layer containing the hat, reload the object into that layer, place it at the original position using the marker, and then apply any transforms and/or editing you like.
- The Edit:Clear function (Ctrl+N) does not remove markers from the document.
- See the Preferences:Marker subpalette for options to set when using markers.
Controls
The Marker Palette contains controls for turning markers on and off and for enabling recall of various properties. ----
On/Off : Turns all markers on or off without deleting them.
Reorder: Reverses creation order of markers. When two markers occupy the same position, the most recently created will be selected when you click on the position. This permits you to selected the oldest marker.
Delete All: Deletes all markers in the file.
Show: When Show is off, there is no indication that you are near a marker, but when directly over it, it is highlighted.
Each Marker remembers all of the properties below, but only the items selected will be recalled.
Tool: Enables recall of the tool used to create the marked object. Click once on the marker to shift to the marked tool, then a second time to re-create the marked object.
Draw: Enables recall of the drawing mode used to create the marked object; for example ZAdd, ZCut.
Position: Enables recall of the position of the marked object.
Normal: Enables recall of the orientation of the marked object.
Color: Enables recall of the color of the marked object.
Material: Enables recall of the material of the marked object.
Texture: Enables recall of the texture of the marked object.
Further Links
Marker Master: A ZScript to make markers more powerful and easier to use.
