Keys and gestures
B then two letters for brushes (B S T, B C B, B D S), S U I O sliders under the cursor, Alt for Zsub, Shift to smooth, free rotation with Shift to snap. Shortcuts
ZBrush alternative
Your ZBrush hands, a free app.
SculptForge is a free, open-source sculpting app that follows ZBrush's keys, gestures and palettes, so you can start sculpting instead of relearning. It brings your ZTools over, exchanges models with ZBrush through GoZ, and runs natively on Windows, macOS and Linux. No subscription, no account.
What works the way you expect
The defaults are ZBrush's. Where SculptForge had keys of its own, they're a preference you can switch on.
Masking and visibility
Ctrl to mask, Ctrl+Alt to erase, click to blur or sharpen, MaskLasso and MaskRect, Ctrl+Shift to hide and isolate polygroups, Ctrl+W to group. Masking
SubTools and levels
SubTools with Alt+click, subdivision levels on Ctrl+D, D and Shift+D, Reconstruct Subdiv, sculpt layers on any level, PolyFrame and QuickSave. SubTools
Remeshing
Voxel Remesh for DynaMesh-style blocking, QRemesh with guides for clean quad loops, and ProjectAll to carry the detail back. Retopology
Dynamic topology
Sculptris Pro-style detail where the brush goes: switch on Dynamic in the top shelf and set the Detail. Dynamic topology
VDM brushes and alphas
Vector displacement brushes with DragRect and DragDot, your own made from a VDM plane, plus alphas, strokes and a community brush gallery. Brushes
Polypaint, textures and baking
Polypaint with layers and blend modes, texture painting on UVs, and normal, displacement and AO bakes. Texture painting
Things ZBrush doesn't have
Native Linux, Send to Unreal built in, phone scanning to a sculptable mesh, and free built-in AI that makes a brush from a sentence or a model from a sketch. Features
Bring your ZTools over
ZBrush's .ZTL format is closed, so a free plug-in converts each ZTool once, inside ZBrush. The plug-in is new: if your ZBrush version trips it up, export OBJ or GoZ meanwhile and tell us.
1. Install the plug-in
Copy SculptForgeZToolExport.txt into ZBrush's ZStartup/ZPlugs64 folder and restart ZBrush.
2. Convert
ZPlugin > SculptForge > Convert ZTL, then pick your .ZTL. Each SubTool is written beside it.
3. Open it
Open the .ZTL in SculptForge: SubTools, names, polygroups, polypaint, mask and UVs come over.
Or use GoZ
Send single models back and forth with GoZ, or export OBJ or .GoZ from ZBrush's Tool palette. GoZ
SculptForge and ZBrush side by side
| SculptForge | ZBrush | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Subscription |
| Open source | GPL-3.0 | No |
| Linux | Native | No |
| ZBrush keys and gestures | By default | Yes |
| SubTools, levels, layers | Yes | Yes |
| DynaMesh / ZRemesher | Voxel Remesh / QRemesh | Yes |
| Sculptris Pro | Dynamic topology | Yes |
| Transpose line | Gizmo 3D on W E R | Yes |
| Send to Unreal | Built in | Plug-in |
| Image or text to 3D | Built in, free | No |
Honest answers
What's missing compared with ZBrush?
ZBrush has had more than twenty years of features, and SculptForge is young. There's no 2.5D canvas, no Transpose action line (the Gizmo 3D does that job), no stroke replay and no ZModeler yet. ZTools come over at their highest subdivision level, without sculpt layers or ZBrush materials, and .ZPR projects can't be converted. The Coming from ZBrush chapter lists every difference.
Is it really free for commercial work?
Yes. SculptForge is free under the GPL-3.0 and you own what you make. The licence covers the program, not your models.
Can I keep ZBrush and use both?
Yes. GoZ and the ZTool plug-in move models between them, and SculptForge doesn't change anything in ZBrush.
Does it run on Linux?
Natively, with .deb, .rpm and AppImage builds for x86_64 and ARM64. Sculpting on Linux
Try it with the keys you already know
Free for Windows 10 and 11, macOS 11 and later, and Linux.