Zbrush Smooth brush the old way
To use the smooth brush in zbrush 3.5 it seems you have to always hold down shift, while in the older versions you didnt have to. Instead you could select it and use it away like the standard brush or the the clay brush which is the way I prefer to use it.
Is there a way to get it back to the old way instead of having to hold down shift key just to get access to use it.
Thanks for any help!
Is there a way to get it back to the old way instead of having to hold down shift key just to get access to use it.
Thanks for any help!
Replies
Worth a shot i guess...
I have searched for a workaround but haven't found anything native to ZBrush. You can't even map a key to a smooth brush (I was thinking maybe caps lock) because the mapping just creates a toggle. For example if you map a key to "Smooth Stronger" then when you press that key it just toggles to "Smooth Stronger" from whatever other smooth brush you may have had previously selected. But it doesn't allow you to hold down that key and smooth with it. (which really wouldn't be any better than shift anyway unless that key was the caps lock, number lock, or scroll lock)
Kewop Decam made the good suggestion to map the smooth brush to one of the pen buttons but I haven't tried that because I find the pen buttons fiddly and wouldn't even want to try using the pen while holding one down. (yes I know I may be unskilled but think of someone wanting to steady their hand like the OP, in such a case having to hold down a button on the pen would be counterproductive to their desire for more stability).
My best workaround so far is to use "Microsoft Keyboard". It's a program that is part of Windows' accesibility features. I don't know if it's still in Vista or Windows 7 but it's definitely in XP (as long as you have the accessibility features installed which are part of the basic windows install if you select them) In any event when you have the Microsoft Keyboard application up you can press the buttons in it's window and it will send the keys to whatever application you have the focus on (Microsoft Keyboard doesn't take the focus away from another window when you click on it). When you press shift in the Microsoft Keyboard application it stays down so that you can select the key you want to capitalize. I just leave it in that state (shift down) and then I can smooth away happily in Zbrush without any other steps. The only problem with this is that if you want to rotate your model it will snap instead of moving smoothly because ZBrush also uses the shift state for snapping. So when you want to rotate your model to view it from another angle you have to click the shift key off in Microsoft Keyboard, rotate in Zbrush, and then switch the shift key back on in Microsoft Keyboard before you can smooth again. This is a pain in the behind of course but I haven't found any better solution.
I know this is a long post but I assume this workaround could be useful to someone who doesn't want to have to constantly use the shift button on the physical keyboard. Perhaps someone in a situation like the OP who has a broken arm, or someone with a shaking hand that they want to steady with their other hand or something. Plus I was hoping that someone would tell me how stupid I was being and tell me a much better way to do it.
So please forgive the long post in an old thread and if you do have a better way please share!