Hotkey Editor

From ZBrush Info

Download the Hotkey Editor here

Visit the ZBrushCentral Thread here

Contents 1 Installing ZScripts 2 Interface and Usage 3 Conflicts 4 Custom Items 5 Printing, Saving and Restoring Defaults

Installing ZScripts

1. Extract the zip file to anywhere on your computer.
2. Move the contents to the ZStartup/ ZPlugs directory. If your ZStartup directory does not have a ZPlugs folder, create it.
3. Launch ZBrush
4. The plugin will create a new sub menu called Hotkey Editor and two new buttons called HotKeyEdit and Uninstall

Interface and Usage

To launch the Hotkey Editor press the HotKeyEdit button located in the HotKey Editor subpalette of the ZPlugin palette.

The browser is divided into twenty-four tabs, making finding a particular interface item easy.

To enter a new hotkey, click on the hotkey box beside the item, then enter the new combination using the keyboard. Alternatively, click the X button to clear the hotkey. Hotkeys displayed in blue cannot be changed.

Once a new hotkey has been entered (or the existing one cleared), the Assign button will become available. To store the new hotkey, overwriting any existing use if there is one, click Assign. If you don’t wish to overwrite an existing hotkey, enter a new combination. Click the R button to restore the previously assigned hotkey.

Conflicts

If any conflicting hotkeys were detected on launch then the editor will open with the Conflicts tab showing and the conflicting items will be displayed.

As well as entering a new hotkey or clearing the existing one, the conflicting hotkey items can be added to an ‘Ignore List’ so that the editor will ignore them in future. Some shared assignments do not cause problems, or are essential for the feature to work properly, and so can be safely left as they are. In such cases, you can add them to the Ignore List by pressing the I button. If at any time you need to clear the Ignore List then press the Restore button.

Custom Items

Hotkeys can be assigned to most items that are present when ZBrush launches. For those items that are not available, the Custom tab provides a way to assign a hotkey.

Press the Select button on the Custom tab. Then navigate to the item you wish to create a hotkey for and, with the cursor over the button or switch, press the Alt key. The item will appear in the browser and you can assign a hotkey.

If selecting an item from the Alpha, Tool, Stroke, Material or Texture palettes, first select the item by clicking on the item and then place your cursor over the large thumbnail before pressing Alt. Selecting from the pop-ups will cause the wrong item to be selected.

You can use ZScripting and the Custom tab in the Hotkey Editor to create hotkeys that can put several actions into one press of the keyboard.

For example, Right now if I want to put a model in edit mode I do the following steps:

1. I drop out of Edit for the current tool
2. Clear the canvas if anything is on it
3. Draw it on the canvas
4. Go into Edit mode
5. and scale it to the size of the canvas

If I know those are my steps I can write a zscript to do them for me. I use the zscript to place a button in the interface with all those steps in it and then use the Hotkey Editor to assign a hotkey to it.

Below are the zscript commands for the steps I outlined above:

1. [IUnPress,Transform: Edit]
2. [IPress, Layer:Clear]
3. [CanvasClick,320,240,320,340]
4. [IPress,Transform: Edit]
5. [IClick,Transform:Move Edit]

Now, I just package those steps into a Routine that I can call from a button:

[RoutineDef, AutoDraw,

[IUnPress,Transform: Edit]

[IPress, Layer:Clear]

[CanvasClick,320,240,320,340]

[IPress,Transform: Edit]

[IClick,Transform:Move Edit]

]

Now I create the button:

[IButton,

Zplugin:Misc Utilities:AutoDraw,

"Automatically draws your model on the screen and places it in edit mode.",

[RoutineCall,AutoDraw]

,0

]

The final text file looks like this:

[RoutineDef,AutoDraw,

[IUnPress,Transform: Edit]

[IPress, Layer:Clear]

[CanvasClick,320,240,320,340]

[IPress,Transform: Edit]

[IClick,Transform:Move Edit]

]

[IButton,

Zplugin:Misc Utilities:AutoDraw,

"Automatically draws your model on the screen and places it in edit mode.",

[RoutineCall,AutoDraw]

,0

]

Once I have the button in the interface I can use the custom tab of the Hotkey Editor to map them to any key I want. In my case I mapped it to the F key. So now anytime I want to draw a model on the canvas I just press F!

Printing, Saving and Restoring Defaults

Once you have assigned any new hotkeys you can print out a list of all hotkeys and mouse actions by pressing the Print button. The list will open in your web browser from where it can be printed.

Be sure to press the Save All button before closing the Hotkey Editor, otherwise any new hotkeys will be lost! Depending on the type of hotkeys you have assigned, some may only be available after re-starting ZBrush. To clear all Hotkey Editor-assigned hotkeys (including Custom hotkeys), press the Uninstall button in the Hotkey Editor subpalette.