Zbrush File Organization / Bloated Incremental File Sizes

jengy

Is there a way to reference separate Zbrush subtools as Tools in order to avoid bloating file size?
I often work incrementally to prevent losing work, but find that if I have an ZTool with lots of subtools, my file sizes are rather large. But I usually work on one thing (subtool) at a time once I hit the middle stage of my object.

nyx702

No you can't reference in external tools. There are some things you can do to decrease file size however: clearing masks, deleting morph targets, clearing polypaint, creating subD levels for dynameshes. 

kanga

Yeah I noticed that the project save (file) gets big fast. At a file size of greater than 5Gig the file will refuse to open, so now I have a standard project file saved in the ZProjects file folder that has the settings I like.  Its good for standard modelling and texturing and I just use the tool save which keeps the file size down. If I have a model with assets that make the tool size large I save the out as separate models, Like a character with a detailed weapon. Once I have the correct size for the rough asset I save it out as a separate tool so I can work on it further.

That seems to be the best solution at the moment, unless someone has a better one, I'd be galad to hear it.

Cheerio

CharacterCarl

In regards to keeping the file size of ZProjects down, I've found that turning off the saving of the Undo History helps a lot. You can do this in:
Preferences -> Undo History -> (Deactivate) Enable Saving.

As for regular ZTools I try to avoid layers unless really necessary as the file size increases whenever one is created (similar to creating a duplicate of the SubTool).

kanga

DerRazputin said:

In regards to keeping the file size of ZProjects down, I've found that turning off the saving of the Undo History helps a lot. You can do this in:
Preferences -> Undo History -> (Deactivate) Enable Saving.

As for regular ZTools I try to avoid layers unless really necessary as the file size increases whenever one is created (similar to creating a duplicate of the SubTool).

Good advice! Undo history off (sub tool only not a point), no layers and no morph targets.