ZTools Frequently Asked Questions

The Apply button is grayed out. What’s going on?

In ZTools, some adjustment modes need two or more paths to be selected and some need the selection to have a key object (After selecting, click one object and it gets a heavier highlight. That is the key object). When the requirements for a particular mode are satisfied, the Apply button will activate and you will see an highlight around the Apply button.

ZTools processes top-level objects. If a group has multiple objects in it, it is still regarded as one object. We adjust the depth of a group of objects as a single object. If the artwork you want to adjust is in a group, use Illustrator to enter isolation mode to adjust them. When in isolation mode, only the objects in the isolated group are available for editing so, if a selection key object is required for the mode you are using, it would have to be in the group as well.

The Apply button does not activate if ZTools does not have an activated license or if a trial activation has expired. You can check your license activation status by going to the Illustrator menu at Help > About SchemaGrafx plugins > ZTools. Your license information is displayed on this About page.

Please visit our ZTools How-to page to learn more about how ZTools plugin works.

Windows says the installer is unrecognized

Windows Defender warns you about newly downloaded files to keep your system safe. If the publisher is listed as John Webster it is from the SchemaGrafx development team and it is properly signed. You are safe to install your program.

You can always right-click the file and choose properties and then check the Digital Signatures tab to ensure that it is properly signed and traceable to Microsoft’s certificate.

I tried to activate the program but it says that all of my activations are used

The number of concurrent activations is limited. SchemaGrafx allows you to activate on two computers at once. Adobe generally allows two installations of Illustrator. This way you can use the plugin on both installed systems. If you must activate on an additional computer, deactivate a previously activated installation and try activation again.

If you purchase another license, you will have two more installation available.

The Selection Order button keeps changing to another mode

When the Selection Order mode is used, the plugin tracks every change to the selection to determine the order you want to arrange objects. On slower systems, this could take some processor time away from other tasks so, this mode cancels itself when you clear the current selection by clicking on the document or artboard without holding the shift key. This means that you may have to choose the Selection Order mode again to begin selection order processing.

Where is the Mac version?

The Windows version finished ahead of the Mac version. If you are interested in a Mac version, please let us know at our contact page.