Repeat To Similar Parts captures topology, color (polypaint), polygroup, and masking actions applied to a targeted mesh and transfers them to all other instances that share the same topology.
The Repeat To Parts feature relies on the Undo History Marker to identify and synchronize similar mesh components that have the same topology.
Repeat To Similar Parts requires target mesh components to be part of the same Subtool.
For example, suppose you have a collection of repeated screws merged into one Subtool. In that case, you can edit the topology of one instance and use Apply to Similar to apply the change to all other repeated instances. In addition to topology changes, this function also transfers polygroups and masks from one instance to all others. The Apply to Similar options (Groups, Color, Masking) determine whether or not these elements transfer to repeated components.
Repeat To Similar Parts is especially useful to edit instanced geometry shells created by IMM and Curve brushes.
1. Select an IMM brush from the brush library.
2. Draw a mixture of unique IMM brush components and multiple instances of the same component on a surface without active subdivisions.
At the end of step 2, ZBrush masks all other geometry except the inserted component after drawing an insert mesh.
3. Clear the Mask.
4. Open the Undo History timeline and tap the Marker (ribbon) icon to activate and store the relevant 3D positioning data at the current point on the timeline.
Step 4 describes creating an Undo History Marker. The Marker icon appears orange when the orange tick mark aligns with the point where the marker was stored. Scroll left and right in the Undo History timeline to find the active Marker.
5. Apply a Group, Color (polypaint), and / or Mask to one instance of a repeated component.
6. Tap Apply to Similar to transfer the changes from the selected example to all other repeated components.
Captures topology, color (polypaint), polygroup, and masking actions applied to a targeted mesh and transfers them to all other instances that share the same topology.
Apply to Similar relies on the Topology Only or the Precision options to determine which instanced components receive the data transfer.
This feature requires an active Undo History Marker for the Repeat To Similar Parts functions to work correctly.
When Groups is selected, the Apply to Similar function propagates the target mesh’s Polygroups to all instances of the same mesh topology.
When Color is selected, the Apply to Similar function propagates the target mesh’s polypaint data to all instances of the same mesh topology.
When Mask is selected, the Apply to Similar function propagates the target mesh’s masking data to all instances of the same mesh topology.
When active, this ignores Precision and applies the selected options to all parts having the same topology even if they have different shapes.
By default, Topology Only is disabled, and the Precision parameter determines which instanced components receive the data transfer.
Sets the maximum difference between source and target points expressed as a percentage of the bounding box.
This option becomes accessible when Topology Only is disabled.
ZBrush for iPad's Repeat to Similar parts works the same as in ZBrush desktop. Learn more in our external ZBrush Repeat to Similar parts documentation.