New Version – Zoo Tools Pro 2.6.5

In Zoo 2.6.5 we’ve made many Hive Auto-Rigger (Alpha) upgrades, added multi-folders to Alembic Assets added four new tools.

The new tools are Hive Export FBX, Hive Reference Model Skeleton, Channel Box Manager, and Replace Skin Joint Weights.

Hive has had more space-switching options included, switch IK/FK for timeline, and place pole vector sensibly. New space-switching has also been added to the Spine and FK components.

Zoo Renamer can now rename objects with varying names.

And this version includes many other bug fixes and improvements.

Enhancements: Hive Auto-Rigger
Hive Auto-rigger has had many upgrades and two new tools have been added.

More *space-switch* options have been added to *Hive rigs*.

Enhancements:
– New Hive tool added Hive Export FBX (see below)
– New Hive tool added Hive Reference Model Skeleton (see below)
– IK/FK switch for keys in timeline added on right-click animator menu.
– Place-Pole-Vector-Sensibly added with switching for timeline (right-click menus).
– FK and Spine components support space switching on each control.
– New space-switch icons added for (right-click menus)
– Space-switch right-click menus have been renamed for clarity.
– New look radio button style Guides – Skeleton – Rig – Polish buttons.
– Rig settings default to all controls being highlight selection off.
– Spine Component root rotation order has been changed to ZXY
– Leg component on all templates upgraded to reflect rotation-order defaults.
– Channel box attribute dividers added to arm and leg components for clarity.
– Channel box attributes keep consistent orders while building new rigs.
– Hive shelf button is now a drop-down menu showing Hive tools.
– Warning added to Maya 2019 and below while opening Hive is only 2020+ compatible

Bug Fixes:
– Selection Child Highlighting was not being applied to controls.
– Fixed UI failure when the current component side isn’t a symmetrical name ie. M.
– Toe Tip pivot could sometimes create with the pivot at an incorrect position.

New Tool: Hive Export FBX
Use the Hive Export FBX tool to save the skeleton/mesh and any blendshape animation of a Hive rig to game engines or programs such as:

– Unreal
– Unity
– Houdini
– 3dsMax
– Blender etc.

This tool strips out all the excess nodes and settings from a Hive rig, bakes the animation (if checked), and exports related meshes as FBX. After exporting, it reloads the current file.

Effortlessly export *rigs* to other programs.

New Tool: Hive Reference Model Skeleton
Hive Reference Model Skeleton references the model and skeleton into your Hive rig.

The tool exports the model and mesh of a Hive rig and saves it out as a .MA file; then it will delete the existing mesh and skeleton in the current scene and reference in the newly exported file. Finally the tool will reconnect the referenced file to a Hive rig in your scene.

Switch a *mesh/skeleton* in the scene to become *referenced*.

New Tool: Channel Box Manager
The Channel Box Manager gives you the ability to reorder attributes in the channel box and create new proxy attributes which are not available in Maya’s UI.

This tool also adds a handy Add Separator button to add title dividers to the Channel Box.

Add *divider labels* in the *channel box,* and *reorder attributes*.

*Proxy attributes* act as instanced *attributes*. The same *attribute* can be on multiple objects.

New Tool: Replace Skin Joint Weights
Replace Skin Joint Weights can be used to swap different skeletons between skin cluster/s.

Use the Zoo Renamer tool to name joint/s with an OLD_ or NEW_ prefix and replace joints between skin cluster/s, automatically.

Replace the *skinning* between a selection of *joints* or an entire *joint chain*.

Renamed Tools: Assorted
We’ve renamed many tools to avoid confusion; this change is mostly related to tools that use our Multi-Renderer shader format and it now distinguishes between tools that save as native Maya files (.MA / .MB).

– Maya Scenes is now Scenes Browser (.MA/.MB) with an icon change.
– Alembic Assets is now Alembic Assets (Multi-Renderer)
– Convert Renderer is now Convert Renderer (Multi-Renderer)
– Maya Shaders is now Shader Presets (.MA/.MB)
– Shader Presets is now Shader Presets (Multi-Renderer)
– Shader Manager is now Shader Manager (Multi-Renderer)
– Convert Shaders is now Convert Shaders (Multi-Renderer)

Enhancement: Alembic Assets Multi-Folder Support
Alembic Assets (previously Model Assets) now supports multi-folder assets.

*Alembic Assets* browser now supports *multi-folders*.

Enhancement: Shader Manager
Shader Manager now has collapsable titles (accordion) so sections can be minimized in the advanced mode.

*Shader Manager* with *divider toggles*.

Enhancement: Zoo Renamer
Zoo Renamer has added Force Rename which will rename nodes with differing names in numerical order.

Example:
pCube1 and pSphere2 can be renamed as object_01 and object_02

Constraints and now supported by the renamer.

*Force rename*, renames various names to be a single incremented name.

Enhancement: Rigging Misc
A button has been added to transfer follicles from one mesh to another.

Bug Fix: Randomize Shaders
Randomize Shaders with the Use Shaders setting now works correctly again, and it no longer errors when shaders have textures.

*Randomize Shaders* supports *textured shaders*.

Enhancement: Installer Upgrade
The Zoo installer now warns the users if the folder-path is too deep and also if users are using unicode characters in the install paths.

Enhancement: Uninstall
Uninstall Zoo Tools is now also found in the Developer Tools icon in the main ZooToolsPro shelf.

*Uninstall* is now in the shelf under *Developer Tools*.

Bug Fix: Browsers
If you delete folders on disk for browsers folder and then re-open a browser in the same session of Maya, there will no longer be an error.