Polygroups Menu
Polygroup creation and editing options are offered in the Tool palette > Polygroups menu.
A polygroup is a colorized group ID that can be assigned to polygons. Polygroups can be isolated with modifier key selections to support efficiency in editing a contiguous surface.
Polygroups are visible when the Polyframe option is active in the right canvas toolbar.
Polygroup creation and editing options are offered in the Tool palette > Polygroups menu.
Learn more about polygroup options in this guide's Polygroups section.
Custom polygroups can be created with masking or selection features.
Create polygroups from a mask applied to a surface.
1. Select the MaskPen brush.
2. Hold Ctrl/Cmd and paint a mask shape on the model's surface.
Learn basic masking applications in this guide's Masking Essentials section.
3 . Open the Tool palette > Polygroups options.
4. Tap the Group Masked button to create a new polygroup.
The new polygroup is now the shape of the painted mask.
With a keyboard, press Ctrl/Cmd + W to create a polygroup from a masked surface.
Polygroup shapes are stored to the base subdivision-level topology. We recommend creating polygroups on a subtool at its lowest subdivision level. Polygroups created at higher subdivisions lose their shape when you adjust the subdivision slider.
Create polygroups with selection brushes by isolating portions of the model to which you wish to assign polygroups.
Learn basic selection brush workflow in this guide's Selection Brush Essentials section.
1 . Choose a selection brush from the left canvas Brushes library.
The above example demonstrates using the SelectLasso brush.
2. Hold Ctrl/Cmd + Shift and draw an additive selection over a portion of the surface.
3. Release pencil or touch pressure from the screen to apply the selection.
4. With a portion of the model visible, open Polygroups options in the Tool palette.
5. Tap Group Visible to create a polygroup from the visible selection.
Group Visible creates a new polygroup for the visible portions of the model. Where the model has no hidden surfaces, Group Visible assigns a single polygroup to the model.
5. Hold Ctrl/Cmd and tap the canvas to reset the model's visibility.
As described for polygroups created from masks, polygroup shapes are stored to the base subdivision-level topology. We recommend creating polygroups on subtools at its lowest subdivision level. Polygroups created at higher subdivisions lose their shape when when you adjust the subdivision slider.
Select polygroups by using the Ctrl/Cmd + Shift modifiers.
1. Activate the Polyframe option in the right canvas toolbar.
2. Hold Ctrl/Cmd + Shift and tap a polygroup to isolate the group surface.
SelectLasso offers a secondary feature to Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + tap on an edge to isolate a connected edge loop. This may affect your ability to successfully select a polygroup. For this reason, we recommend using the SelectRect brush to select polygroups.
3. Hold Ctrl/Cmd + Shift and tap on the canvas to reset model visibility.
Hold Ctrl/Cmd + Shift and tap a vertex point that is shared by multiple polygroups to select all groups at once.
ZBrush for iPad's polygroups functionality works the same as in ZBrush desktop. Learn more in our external ZBrush Polygroups documentation.