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How to reverse visibility or do "delete visible"?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Im having trouble with polygroups. Stuff i have recently learned few things about.

Currently im playing with topology and polygroups to understund them better, and i have got to a point where i cant find way out. I have added several polygroups to my main model and now i would like to delete one of those polygroups. I have found button “delete hidden”, but the problem is, i cant find a way to hide those particular polygroup… When i click on it, its being hidden alright, but also all other polygroups are being hidden and only my main piece remains… So right now all i can achieve with ctrl+shift+click is:

a) hide everything but main piece
b) hide main piece and get only polygroups visible
c) hide everything but the particular polygroups i want to remove :slight_smile:

How do i hide particular single polygroup while not hiding other? Or how do i toggle visibility?

Attaching image. I want to remove the pinkish polygroup after playing with topology a bit. I dont need it there anymore, however i want to keep the nose :slight_smile: Please dont laugh, its nothing but a noob’s training ground, it have got helmet’s shape by wild accident :stuck_out_tongue:

Thanks in advance for any help

Attachments

topo.jpg

#2

You’ll want to familiarize yourself with the visibility functions on these pages:

http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/modeling-basics/polygroups/

http://docs.pixologic.com/user-guide/3d-modeling/modeling-basics/mesh-visibility/

#3

Thanks but it doesnt seem to work as writen in documentation:

Invert Your Current Group Selection
Press CTRL+SHIFT then click and drag outside of the mesh.

Simply doesnt work. More: it enters clipping tool.

Reverse visibility ***8211; Shift+Ctrl+Click & drag Background

Also doesnt work. (and also simply enters clipping tool)

One more thing i have noticed is that while the “nose” and the top polygroup behave differently than the “cheeck” ones. When i shift+ctrl+click on “nose” or top polygroup they are being the only polygroup shown on screen, and while i shift+ctrl+click the “cheeck” polygroup the main piece of the “helmet” is being shown as the only shown polygroup (without cheeck polygroup).

edit:
ok found a workaround:

I had to first ctrl+shift click in following order:

  • nose polygroup (to show as the only one)
  • nose polygroup (to hide it while showing rest)
  • top polygroup (to hide it aswell)
  • cheeck polygroup (to show it as the only one selected)
  • cheeck polygroup (to hide it while showing rest)

No idea why such a wierd order was required to hide this particular polygroup… Nose and top polygroups could be hidden by basically shift-ctrl-clicking them twice.

#4

It works. But your active selection brush (the brush active in shift+click mode) must be the default rectangular selection marquee tool. If your active selection brush is a clipping brush, that particular Shift+Ctrl-drag invert function won’t work and will instead bring up the clipping brush, probably because the clip brush overrides the “drag” component in that particular function. To be more precise, the command is actually “Ctrl+Shift+ Drag out marquee on empty canvas.”

The maneuver for deleting a polygroup is very simple:

  1. With a fully visible subtool, Ctrl+ Shift+Click directly on a polygroup to hide all but that polygroup.

  2. Ctrl Shift Click on it again to invert the visibility and unhide all but that polygroup.

  3. Select Tool> Geometry> Modify Topology> Delete Hidden.

That’s it.

#5

Ow, thanks, i will give it a try when im home :slight_smile:

#6

Reverse visibility (Invert visible poly groups to show hidden ones)- you have hidden some poly groups and have one visible but want to make the Visible ones hidden and the Hidden ones visible. Off on the blank part of your canvas away from your model simply hold the CTRL (command key if mac) and the shift key and drag out a small box should be green at this point still holding the keys now hold the ALT key box turns red now let go of all the keys and the mouse/pen and that hides what poly groups you had on the screen and shows the ones that were hidden.

Delete visible poly groups. best to delete hidden. 2 ways you can do this

  1. mask off the part or poly group you wish to keep so that it is grey and the part you wish to delete is not masked go into your tools menu and scroll down to visibility palette and hit hide point all the parts that were not masked are now hidden to bring them back later hit show point.

  2. To delete a poly group or unmasked part of your model do the above step or have just the part or poly group that you want to keep, visible, and the part you wish to delete, hidden, and go to the tool menu, geometry palette and then the Modify topology sub palette and hit the delete hidden button now the hidden part of your model is gone.

also if you want to split your model into a different sub tool use the 1st option or hide some poly groups that you want to split (i.e.: if you want to split the head from the body of your model then hide the body and have just the head visible) now go to the tool menu and the Sub Tool pallet and in the Split sub palette hit the split hidden. there is also a groups split which will split all poly groups that you have so just make sure your head of your model is one poly group while the body is another and it will split those without anything needing to be hidden. There are a few other options there as well to get you other things split.

3.From there you can also delete certain sub tools that you don’t want after splitting them by hitting the Delete button found in the tool menu/Sub tool palette.

I hope this helps as well ps. you might want to check out the many tutorials for beginners found here on ZB in the tutorial section they are free and made by the artists found here on ZBCentral. You might also find mine a bit helpful. For these things you could try my Objects tutorial and my Extracting tutorial found a bit later in my thread. You can find the link in my signature below for the tutorials.

Take care and have fun. I know my first time with ZB was crazy and sometimes a bit overwhelming but I have never looked back and never regretted it ever. Also still learning will always be I think and I hope :smiley: