Getting ZTools to open in the right version of Zbush

dirigible

Hi, all. Here's a problem that's been driving me crazy recently.

I've had Zbrush for a while now, and I set up my file associations so that .ztl (ztools) will open in zbrush when I double click them in windows explorer. Basic stuff.

Now ZbrushR2 has come out, and I want .ztl's to open in R2. Unfortunately I now have two different Zbrush.exe's, and windows cannot tell the difference between them. Every time I try to do the whole "open with" thing in windows, it fails to notice that the new zbrush.exe isn't the same as the old zbrush.exe, so it doesn't bother updating.

My first solution was to rename r2 to "ZbrushNEW.exe". That's all well and good, and fixed my original problem, but it breaks goZ. GoZ looks for "zbrush.exe", so when I rename the r2 executable it can't find it.

So then I tried renaming the old zbrush to "ZbrushOLD.exe". But that doesn't make a difference. It's like "Zbrush.exe" is permanently linked to the old zbrush, in window's head, and there's nothing I can do.

Anyboday know a solution?

cryrid

Uninstall the old version. Once you've checked to make sure that your older projects are compatible with R2, there should be no reason to keep z4 around.

dirigible

I would, but I remember the r2 installation specifically telling me NOT to uninstall the old version.

Has anyone done this?

cryrid

"Upon first launching ZBrush 4R2 it will need to be activated. It is not necessary to deactivate or remove ZBrush 4 before installing version 4R2."

So it's not necessary to deactivate or remove Z4, but it doesn't matter to Z4R2 if you do. I removed 3.5 when 3.5R2 came along with no issue. As long as the projects and plugins you need still work with the new version (copy any layouts/etc you may have saved to the zstartup folder if you want to keep them in the new version)

Ace-Angel

You just need Z4 when you install Z4.2 and for the first startup, that's it.

You can safely delete afterwards...I keep personally mine in a compressed folder with a Registry file, just incase I need a quick setup for 4 without the lengthy installation.

dirigible

Thanks guys. It'd be nice if there was a more direct solution, but at least there's a way.

Ace-Angel

You could try contacting Pixo? Problem is, outside of programs from Autodesk, most software companies don't support the 'double click file to open' approach, especially in design...for...some reason.

So yeah, Pixo is your best chance, although they're too busy squashing bugs to focus on other things now.