Preferences Palette
From ZBrush Info
About
The ZBrush Preferences palette contains controls that set overall application behavior. They are typically set to match your preferences or needs, and then left alone after that.
Preference settings are not saved automatically; for information on how to make your preferences the default for ZBrush, or on how to save and load individual preferences settings files, see the section on the Preferences:Config menu below.
Controls
Init ZBrush: Restores all palettes and document data to their default conditions. It does not affect colors or palette positions; only what is contained within those palettes. Since this clears all document data, as well as any customized tools and features, you should save your work beforehand. ZBrush will ask for confirmation before executing this command.
Config Subpalette
Config:Restore Custom UI: If you have defined AND SAVED a custom user interface, but then switched back to the standard interface with the Restore Standard UI button (or otherwise switched back to the standard UI; sometimes tutorial scripts will do this), the Restore Custom UI button restores your saved custom configuration.
Config:Restore Standard UI: If you have customized your user interface, this button allows you to easily switch back to the standard user interface. AS LONG AS YOU HAVE SAVED YOUR CUSTOMIZATIONS using the Store Config button, you can later go back to the custom UI with the Restore Custom UI button.
Load Ui: Allows you to load interface preferences from a saved file. This includes palette locations, window sizes, and Float Menu layouts. Holding down the Shift key when clicking this button allows you to load interface colors from a saved configuration file.
Save Ui: Saves your configuration preferences to a named file. This lets you create custom layouts for different kinds of work that you might do. For example, you could create one layout for modeling and another for texturing
Store Config: Saves all your configuration preferences as defaults in ZBrush's main Config file. These default will be automatically be loaded every time you start ZBrush.
Quick Info
Delay: Sets the time (in seconds) before the large thumbnail viewer pops up.
Preview Icon Size: Increases or decreases the size of the thumbnails.
Large Quick Info Text: Sets the font size in the pop-up help to be larger.
Preview Material On Mesh: Allows you to preview the effects of a material on your mesh by moving your cursor over materials in the material pop-up.
Hotkeys
Restore: Restores your hotkeys to their default settings.
Store: Saves your recently created hotkeys for use the next time you start ZBrush. If you close ZBrush without saving your hotkeys you will be prompted to save them.
Load: Load hotkeys that were saved by another users or for another project.
Save: Save hotkeys for different uses or to share with other users. For example, sculpting hotkeys vs texturing hotkeys.
Hotkeys are stored in the ZStartup\Hotkeys folder in a text file. Below is a sample of what a hotkey text file looks like:
//ZBrush Hotkeys [BRUSH:STANDARD,49] // 1 [BRUSH:MOVE,50] // 2 [BRUSH:CLAYTUBES,51] // 3
Interface Subpalette
In ZBrush 3, this subpalette has been rearranged for a better grouping of controls.
Interface:Buttons Size: Allows you to make ZBrush buttons (and other similar controls) larger or smaller, to make them easier to press or to display more at one time.
You'll need to restart ZBrush for this to take effect. Don't forget to press Preferences:Config:Store Config before restarting, so that any new interface changes are saved.
Interface:Popup Info: If this is on, then when you float your cursor over any ZBrush interface item, a popup appears displaying the name of the item and its shortcut key combination (if applicable). Holding the Ctrl key provides additional popup help information.
Interface:Large Popup: Displays the popup help text in a larger font size. Default is Off
Interface:Iconized: When on, palettes will be shown with icons across the top of the workspace. When off, the palettes will be represented by text, which takes up less vertical space.
Interface:Show Values: Causes all sliders to display their numeric values at all times. Slider names are moved to the right and truncated, if needed, for space. Default is On
Interface:Auto Collapse: If Auto Collapse is active, ZBrush attempts to keep all palettes within the visible vertical space of the left and right panels. If space is needed to accommodate a newly expanded palette, ZBrush automatically collapses other palettes. Default is Off.
If this button is off, then all palettes remain in their current states until you change them. To access palettes that have been pushed off the top or bottom of the screen, click and drag in any blank space within the panel. This will allow you to slide the panel up or down.
Interface:Left Tray/Right Tray: Allows only one palette at a time to be open in the corresponding panel. If another palette is opened, the currently open one will automatically collapse. Default is Off
Interface:Accelerated: Affects the speed at which the left and right panels will scroll up or down. When active, the scrolling moves faster as the scrolling distance increases. Default is On
Interface:Float Menu: When on, the ZBrush custom floating menu is shown; This is the customizable area around the ZBrush canvas.
Note: The float menu is normally turned off or on with the Tab key.
Interface:Colorize: Changes the tab color of a block of docked Float Menu items. To change the color of a block of items, click its tab and then click this button. The tab color will change to the active Main color.
Interface:Quick Menu: Momentarily displays the Quick Menu--a specialized menu that contains the most commonly needed interface items in one compact space. As soon as an item is selected or the cursor moves off of the Quick Menu, this menu disappears.
Note: You can also activate the Quick Menu from anywhere on the screen by pressing the spacebar. The menu will appear at the mouse location, making it unnecessary to even go to a palette for the most commonly used interface items.
Note: When the Stencil is active, spacebar will bring up the Coin Controller instead of the Quick Menu.
Interface:IconsUpdateDelay: Various icons in ZBrush update to show changes to the objects they represent; for example, 3D Polymesh tool thumbnails update to show sculpting done on the tool. Continually performing such updates would slow the program, so this option sets the number of seconds from the time an object is changed to the time the change appears in its icon.
Interface:Auto Pulldown: When on, ZBrush menus (palettes) will display automatically whenever the mouse passes over the menu title or icon. When off, the menu title must be clicked for the menu to display.
Interface:Show Alt Doc View: If enabled, you can split the ZBrush canvas into two alternate views; the alternate view can be opened by the gray bar that appears above the canvas area.
Interface:PulldownMenuOpacity: The pulldown menus (palettes) have an adjustable opacity, set with this slider.
Interface:DisabledItemsOpacity: Disabled items have a different opacity. The default settings make them almost invisible; increase this value if wish to more clearly see the text/icon of a disabled item.
Interface:Pulldown Border: Once activated, but pulldown palettes stay visible until the mouse moves a certain distance outside them. Increase this value if you find that the palettes are often disappearing when you don't want, as you move the mouse around, and decrease it if you find they are annoying difficult to close.
Interface:Notes Fade In-Out Time: Sets the amount of time (in seconds) it takes for popup and other types of notes to fade in or out. A value of 0 means notes appear and disappear instantly.
Interface:Document Fade: Sets the amount of time (in seconds) it takes for a newly chosen model to fade in and replace the previous model. A value of 0 means the change is instantaneous.
Custom UI
Custom UI:Enable Customize: Turn Enable Customize on to allow you customize your user interface by Ctrl-dragging controls. When UI customization is enabled, you can also create new menus and drag controls into them.
Custom UI:Create New Menu: Use this to create a new menu with the following steps:
1) Press Create New Menu.
2) Enter the name for the new menu into the dialog box that appears.
3) After entering the name, the new, empty menu will show up in the menu bar. In that menu, press the small circle in its top left corner to expand it into the tray area beside the canvas.
4) You can now Ctrl-drag other interface elements into the new menu in the tray.
In addition, you can create submenus in your custom menus by Ctrl-dragging the Preferences:Custom UI:Custom Submenu control into your new menu, and can name custom submenus by Ctrl-clicking on their names.
1) Press Create New Menu.
2) Enter the name for the new menu into the dialog box that appears.
3) After entering the name, the new, empty menu will show up in the menu bar. In that menu, press the small circle in its top left corner to expand it into the tray area beside the canvas.
4) You can now Ctrl-drag other interface elements into the new menu in the tray.
In addition, you can create submenus in your custom menus by Ctrl-dragging the Preferences:Custom UI:Custom Submenu control into your new menu, and can name custom submenus by Ctrl-clicking on their names.
Custom UI:UI Filler 11: ZBrush lays out custom menus by filling them left to right then top to bottom, similarly to the way we write on a page. You can Ctrl-drag this 'filler' control into a custom menu to lay out your controls more precisely. The filler will not be visible (it will appear as a plain menu background to the user), but ZBrush won't put any other controls in the area it occupies.
Custom UI:UI Filler 21: ZBrush lays out custom menus by filling them left to right then top to bottom, similarly to the way we write on a page. You can Ctrl-drag this 'filler' control into a custom menu to lay out your controls more precisely. The filler will not be visible (it will appear as a plain menu background to the user), but ZBrush won't put any other controls in the area it occupies.
Custom UI:UI Filler 31: ZBrush lays out custom menus by filling them left to right then top to bottom, similarly to the way we write on a page. You can Ctrl-drag this 'filler' control into a custom menu to lay out your controls more precisely. The filler will not be visible (it will appear as a plain menu background to the user), but ZBrush won't put any other controls in the area it occupies.
Custom UI:UI Filler 41: ZBrush lays out custom menus by filling them left to right then top to bottom, similarly to the way we write on a page. You can Ctrl-drag this 'filler' control into a custom menu to lay out your controls more precisely. The filler will not be visible (it will appear as a plain menu background to the user), but ZBrush won't put any other controls in the area it occupies.
Custom UI:UI Filler 22: ZBrush lays out custom menus by filling them left to right then top to bottom, similarly to the way we write on a page. You can Ctrl-drag this 'filler' control into a custom menu to lay out your controls more precisely. The filler will not be visible (it will appear as a plain menu background to the user), but ZBrush won't put any other controls in the area it occupies.
Icolors Palette
This section of the Preferences palette allows you to completely customize the ZBrush color scheme. Every interface element can be modified in this way, allowing you to suit the interface to your personal tastes.
To change any item color, simply select that color in the Color palette and then click the item’s color box in the IColors list. The interface will immediately update with that color so that you can see your changes. These boxes also serve as pickers: click and drag to any point on the canvas or interface to pick that color.
The purposes of most of these controls is apparent, or can be easily determined by floating the mouse over the control and holding the the Ctrl key to access popup help; make sure Preferences:Interface:Popup Info is on for the popup help to display. Below, we explain the less obvious aspects of the controls in this subpalette.
Highlight: Edges of interface buttons are defined by a highlight raised edge effect. Use this slider to control how strongly that effect is displayed. Range is 0 to 100. Default is 50.
Gradient: Interface buttons are drawn with a slight light-to-dark gradient from top to bottom; this slider determines the strength of the gradient. Range is -100 to 100 (negative values draw from dark to light). Default is 25.
Color-Related Sliders: These permit global color adjustments that affect all interface items.
Apply Adjustment: This finalizes slider adjustment by resetting the sliders to 0 without changing the colors of the interface, and so allows you choose a new base set of colors for the interface.
Icolors:Load UI Colors: Allows you to load a file (previously stored using Save UI Colors) to set the colors of the various UI elements.
Icolors:Save UI Colors: Allows you to save the UI color settings as a file. This file may then be loaded by you or other users using the Load UI Colors button.
Picker Subpalette
This sets a few properties that have to do with Picking. See the Picker Palette.
Sample Size: Defines the area sampled for all attributes set using the Picker palette.
Auto Front: New objects are drawn on the canvas at a depth of 0, making it easier to manipulate them without sliding out of sight behind the clipping plane. If this button is un-pressed, objects will be drawn on the clipping plane, instead. Default is On.
Note: The back clipping plane depth is calculated based on the canvas height and width.
Mem Subpalette
The Mem palette has to do with memory handling, which in turn affects performance. In particular, if your computer has a large amount of memory, you may want to increase some or all of these settings.
Compact Mem: This value represents the memory limit (in Megabytes) at which ZBrush will execute a Compacting Memory routine and begin writing to a special file on the hard disk instead of using RAM. After 5 seconds of inactivity or when switching to another application, ZBrush will automatically compact memory. Range is 32 to 1024. Default is 256
For optimal performance, this value should be set at or near the amount of RAM that is available to ZBrush. Setting it to a lower value will cause ZBrush to compact memory more often, slowing down your workflow. Setting it to a higher value will force ZBrush to only use the available RAM and never write data to the hard disk.
Doc Undo: Sets the minimum number of undos saved for document changes. If more undos are possible with the current amount of System memory, ZBrush will save them. If the minimum number is set high enough to use more than the available System memory, ZBrush will compact the memory and save the undos.
Tool Undo: Sets the minimum number of undos saved for tool changes. If more undos are possible with the current amount of System memory, ZBrush will save them. If the minimum number is set high enough to use more than the available System memory, ZBrush will compact the memory and save the undos.
MaxPolyPerMesh: Sets the larges number of polygons (in millions) ZBrush will allow before it issues a warning that the mesh is becoming to large. If you get such a warning but want to increase the number of polygons in your mesh, simply increase this value. Of course, more polygons demand a more powerful system.
Compact Now: Compacts memory immediately.
Marker Subpalette
Marker Radius: The maximum distance that your cursor can be from a marker before its indicator square disappears. See the Marker Palette.
Show Info: When on, a popup info box will appear shown info about a marker when your mouse is close to that marker.
ZSphere Subpalette
Zscript Subpalette
Also see the the ZScript Palette
Auto Record: When on (the default), automatically initiates a ZScript recording session when ZBrush is launched. The recorded script can be saved with the ZScript:End Rec button.
Importexport Subpalette
The ...Flip... and ...Switch... switches affect how 3D models are exported and imported, and are fully explained in their popup help. Use these if you find that the models you import or export come in upside down, flipped from side-to-side, etc.
Importexport:Import Polygroups: When Import Polygroups is active, any .obj file being imported will have its polygroups converted to ZBrush polygroups. If this is off, polygroup information will be discarded.
Importexport:Import Mat As Groups: Some 3D programs (Maya(R) is an example) allow .obj files to be saved with "material groups" information. (The name may vary depending on the application.) When Import Mat As Groups is active and an imported file contains material groups, those groups will be converted to polygroups after the file is imported.
The NormalMapFlip... switches affect normal map generation; use them if you find that normal maps you create do not have the proper orientation, or the normal coordinate system used by ZBrush does not correspond to that used in your external program. Fuller explanations are given in the popup help for these controls. These options affect normal map generation; they will not change normal maps that already exist.
Draw Subpalette
Max Brush Size: Sets the Maximum brush radius. SeeDraw Sizein the Draw Palette. Increase the size to cover very large areas. Range is 128 to 512. Default is 128.
Adots: Switches to 'dots mode' automatically when drawing or transforming large objects if the width or height of the active 3D object exceeds the amount set; this improves performance. Dots mode actually displays 3D objects as an unfilled polymesh; the name comes from an earlier version of ZBrush. Range is 1 to 10,000 pixols.
The following properties apply when Transform:Pf (polyframe draw mode) is on.
Note: Some of these options may not show up on 3D objects already on the canvas until the object is rotated or otherwise acted upon.
Grpc: When pressed and Dots mode is active, the 3D wireframe is shown with colors assigned to each group.
Pframe: Determines the opacity of the polyframe outlines when drawn. A value of 0 means that they are not visible, while 100 means that they appear as completely solid lines. Range is 0 to 100. Default is 50.
Pf Color: Click this box to set the color of the polyframe lines to the currently selected Main color. Like other pickers, you can drag from this box to any point in ZBrush.
Variable PFO: (variable polyframe opacity): Used to visualize the multiple subdivision levels you can work with in ZBrush. If on, polyframe borders at higher subdivision levels will be less emphasized than those at lower levels. Pf Antialiased: Determines whether polyframe lines are drawn with antialiasing, which makes them appear smoother.
PFill: The opacity of polygon surfaces when in polyframe mode.
PFGray: If on, polygroups are drawn as shades of gray, not in color.
PFillSat: Sets the saturation of colors used when polygroups are drawn.
The following three controls apply when viewing multi-subtool meshes using transparency.
Draw:MaxDepth: The MaxDepth preference is used in conjunction with the Transform:Activate switch (also called Transform:Transp.), which causes subtools to be partially or fully transparent in meshes composed of multiple subtools. MaxDepth acts as a sort of 'fog' or culling control; it determines a distance beyond which subtools will not show through closer surfaces. Increasing MaxDepth shows more of your scene, but may make it more confusing if there are many subtools behind one another.
Draw:ActiveOpc: The ActiveOpc preference is used in conjunction with the Transform:Activate switch (also called Transform:Transp.), which causes subtools to be partially or fully transparent in meshes composed of multiple subtools. ActiveOpc determines the opacity of the selected (active) subtool. Setting it to a higher value will emphasize the selected subtool.
Draw:InactiveOpc: The InactiveOpc preference is used in conjunction with the Transform:Activate switch (also called Transform:Transp.), which causes subtools to be partially or fully transparent in meshes composed of multiple subtools. InactiveOpc determines the opacity of the unselected (inactive) subtools. Setting it to a lower value will make it easier to identify the active subtool.
Tablet Subpalette
This section will be grayed out if a graphics tablet is not found on the computer.
Tablet:Use Tablet: When Use Tablet is on, the attached tabled will be enabled. When off, the tablet will be disabled.
Tablet:Size Sensitivity: Size Sensitivity sets the percent change of the brush size as the tablet pen moves from minimum to maximum pressure. Negative values mean the brush size will become smaller as pen pressure increases. If 0, the brush size will remain constant regardless of pen pressure.
Tablet:Z Sensitivity: If Z Sensitivity is nonzero, then increases in pressure on the tablet pen will increase the amount by which sculpting displaces geometry in or out. Higher values of the Z Sensitivity increase the maximum effect that pen pressure can have on geometry displacement.
If Z Sensitivity is zero, then sculpting will still occur as set by other controls such as ZAdd, but the depth of the sculpting will not be directly affected by the pressure of the tablet pen.
Tablet:Color Sensitivity: If Color Sensitivity is nonzero, then lighter pen pressures while drawing will cause a weaker application of the current primary color to the current brush stroke. Thus, as pen pressure increases, the painted color will change from pastel to its full intensity (as set by the color picker and other color controls). The value of this setting determines the maximum range of color intensities as the pressure on the pen varies from minimum to maximum.
If this setting is 0, then color will be drawn at a single intensity, determined by the other color-related controls in the ZBrush user interface.
Of course, this control will have an effect only if color painting is not currently disabled by other controls. (For example, one of Rgb or Mrgb must be activeto enable color painting.)
Tablet:Lazy Pressure: Lazy Pressure is the tablet intensity analog of LazyMouse. When it is at a value above 0, then the effective pressure used for drawing will be smoothed out by averaging it with intensity values over the most recent part of the stroke. The result is strokes that aren't as subject to blob effects from the pen jittering or slipping in the artist's hand.
In the right eyebrow, you can see a fairly abrupt transition from a thin to a thick eyebrow, where I couldn't change the pressure smoothly enough over the course of the stroke. With Lazy Pressure set to about 0.25 for the left eyebrow, this problem was eliminated. (Both eyebrows were drawn using the LazyMouse feature.)
You can also use this feature for some interesting other effects. For example, if you set LazyPressure at its maximum, and then draw a stroke at full pressure, the stroke painted onto the canvas will be light where it starts, and thicken very smoothly until it is at its maximum intensity.
Experiment with this setting to find what is best for you. Normally, you'll want it just high enough to eliminate undesirable variation in your strokes. Higher values will give you more smoothing, but conversely allow less fine control. At very high values, you'll want to practice for a bit to be able to 'plan out' your strokes and make use of the averaging over the previous part of the stroke.
Tablet:Tablet Imbed: Sets the percent change of imbedding from maximum to minimum pressure. Full pressure is imbed value set in Draw palette. Range is 0 to 100. Default is 0.75. Imbedding controls the z-depth at which tools draw; see Draw:Imbed for details.
Tablet:Color Gradient: Various of the drawing tools make use of Color Gradient. If it is nonzero, then as the pen pressure changes, the color being drawn with will change smoothly from between the primary and secondary colors. Full pressure is Main color. Minimum pressure is Secondary color. Range is 0 to 100. Default is 0.
Performance Subpalette
These options affect the performance of ZBrush.
MultiDraw, MultiRender: These switches should be set to off unless ZBrush is running on a multiprocessor system. In a multiprocessor system, MultiDraw on tells ZBrush to make use of more than one processor during normal drawing and editing, while MultiRender tells is to use more than one processor when doing Best renders. Leaving these off on a multiprocessor system may speed up the performance of programs other than ZBrush.
QuickAndDirtyEdit: Suppresses various rendering effects while 3D edit mode is on (i.e. when Transform:Edit is on), to speed up interaction with the model.
QTransThreshold1/QTransThreshold2/QEditThreshold: These three sliders set polygon counts, in millions, at which subdivision models will temporarily be displayed at lower subdivision levels while certain actions are taking place. This can speed interaction with high-poly-count meshes.
If the number of polygons being displayed in the mesh exceeds the threshold set in QTransThreshold1, then whenever the object is being moved, scaled, rotated, or sculpted, it will display only those polygons at the subdivision level one below the subdivision level at which it is being worked with (the setting in Tool:Geometry:Sdiv).
QThreshold2 is similar to QThreshold1 but reduces the display level two levels from the value in Tool:Geometry:SDiv.
QEditThreshold is similar to QThreshold1 but reduces the display level whenever you are in 3D edit mode, not just when manipulating an object while in 3D edit mode.Performance:Test Multithreading: Runs a test to see if ZBrush performance will benefit from enabling its multithreading code. This information can be useful to Technical Support if you are having difficulties with ZBrush.
Performance:H Priority: Sets ZBrush to run as a high-priority process. It's usually better to let ZBrush make this decision.
Performance:N Priority: Sets ZBrush to run as a normal-priority process. It's usually better to let ZBrush make this decision.
File Subpalette
Transform Subpalette
AutoPerspectiveScale: Controls how much perspective distortion is applied to a model.
Transpose Subpalette
These settings affect the appearance and behavior of the Transpose control elements visible when in transpose mode.
Transpose:Circles Radius: Sets the size of the yellow circles that show the midpoints and endpoints of the transpose control lines.
Transpose:3D: If on, the size of the circles indicating the endpoints and midpoint will be affected by their distance from the camera; they will be smaller they farther they are from the camera (viewer).
Transpose:Snap Max distance: When drawing the transpose control lines, the endpoints of the line snap to a surface under or near the mouse position. When the mouse is over the canvas background, this setting determines how far it can be from the model's surface, and still have a transpose endpoint snap to that surface.
Transpose:Rotation Steps: This setting defines the degrees that ZBrush will snap to while pressing shift and moving the end of Transpose's Action Line. If set to 10 the transpose line will snap to every 36 degrees of rotation.
Note: The following two settings apply any time a mask is applied to a model, not just in Transpose mode.
Transpose:Mask Blur Strength: When mask edges are blurred (by Ctrl-clicking on a masked area of the model), this determines how much blurring is actually done.
Transpose:Mask Sharpen Strength: When mask edges are sharpened (by Ctrl-clicking on a masked area of the model), this determines how much sharpening is actually done.
Misc Subpalette
Use ZFolders: If on, open/save dialogs will automatically start at the the default ZBrush folder for the tool/document/config file/etc. you are opening or saving. If off, the dialogs will come up pointing to the most recently used folder.
Generally, you'll leave this on if you want to organize most of your work within the document folders contained in the ZBrush application directory, and turn it off if you prefer project-based or another type of organization.
Misc:ActivePoints: Informational display only; the number of points in the active subtool of the current mesh.
Misc:Sub Tools: Informational display only; the number of subtools in the current mesh.
Misc:TotalPoints: Informational display only; the total number of points in the current mesh (including all subtools).
Utilities Subpalette
This presents various bits of information, and also a place to store a few ZScripted values.
Timing Info: When on, a window appears at the bottom of the screen that shows timing and other internal information. This information is useful to Technical Support when evaluating your installation.
The first five sliders are read-only; in order, they are:
View Tablet Pressure: Shows current tablet pressure.
View Keyboard Status: Shows numeric code for each keyboard key.
View Mouse H Position: Shows current horizontal position of mouse.
View Mouse V Position: Shows current vertical position of mouse.
View Window ID: Shows numeric ID code of the interface window under the cursor.
The last four sliders can be used by ZScripts to temporarily store values. Be cautious with this—other scripts may also be using these sliders. Memory blocks are usually a better place to hold ZScript data.
