Objects disappear

[EvelyneB]

Hi there,

I am working on a project on Showcase 2015 and some of my objets disappeared. It's not the first time, it happenend in 2 other projects of mine.

I imported a DWG and everything was fine, but when I started changing the materials and adding objects in alternatives, some random pieces disappeared. I closed Showcase, opened it again, and surprise: more pieces disappeared!!

I went back in my DWG, moved the missing objects and saved the file, went back to showcase and refreshed the DWG and they are still gone. 

Thing is, if I go in the organiser, they still exist, and when I select them, the moving handles appear at the exact place they should be. The objects are visible in the organiser (the eye is ON) but they are invisible in the project. If I press 'F' nothing happens...

They are copy/paste and all my objects in the project are EXACTLY the same. 

Why would random objects disappear, and is there a way to bring them back?

Thank you

[Christian_Garimberti]

Try this workflow on the disappearing object.
http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/general/keyframe-position-error/m-p/5157453#U5157453
Bye

[cikho]

this has happened to me a few times when i change/delete surface normals directly in showcase instead of inside the source program.
basically somehow showcase decides that those elements has to be deleted/not shown even if present and imported.

the only time i'vre tryed to get rid of the problem was actually to edit the a3s showcase file directly with the notepad.
but if the scene is too complex, it might be a mess even to open it with notepad..
it will need ages to open the file..

if you want to give it a try, first of all backup the a3s file and the folder, so whatever you do wrong you can always replace the damaged file with the original one saved in showcase.
right click the file, open with notepad.

press ctrl+f, or edit -> find..

search for "patch".
you will find 2 type of statements..

patches_deleted(1,2,3)
and
patches_reversed(1,2,3)

this is stated for every object, so if you know it happens to a specific object you can also try to find the object name and see if it has this statements somewhere in the code..

if present, delete these statements.

save the a3s and open with showcase

it might also be that you deleted an entire object with a different name, and if somehow another object with that name was created for error in the source program (happens to numbered objects because they always name the object with the first free number starting from 0).

in this case its more complex and you might screw the showcase file..ù

an easy way could be to completely rename the object involved in the source program, change the name of its features, change the layer, whatever it may somehow let showcase think that that object is still the same..

re import the file..

hard way:

look for the code "deleted_ids".

take the code which inside the "" then go back to the code ids="", go at the end of the code ad a | character right between the last word and the last " and paste what you attached from the deleted ids code.. deleted the empty deleted ids"" code..

this last one i'm quite sure it won't work, because showcase will miss a lot of informartions and therefore crash.. but at least you can check in the notepad wheter or not the objects you're missing have problems in the code..

also, concerning your post with scene lag, openening the showcase file with the notepad lets you understand how many things showcase writes in this file whenever you place something in the scene.. being materials, objects or whatever..

quite a long code ah? 😛

[EvelyneB]

Haha! Wow! That was a complete answer!

Thanks for the tips, I will take some time to go through notepad and try to find my answers!! Hopefuly, this won't take too much time :S

[EvelyneB]

I saw that one too, but my objects are not related to keyframes, so this won't work. 

But thanks anyway!

[clarker9]

Did you have any luck sorting out this problem?

I produced some really nice looking renders of a scene over the last few days (the scene has taken me hours to set up and assign materials to objects).I turned my machine on today to do some more renders of the same scene and most of the objects have disappeared exactly as you described, still in the organiser, but invisible.

Which way is best to get round this?

Thanks

[EvelyneB]

I did, but I don't know how... The objects reappeared without having to do anything. Try playing with your alternatives maybe.... That's the only thing I can think of that could have mattered...

[clarker9]

cikho, I don't suppose you know of any other ways to rectify this?? I've tried changing the source model, unfortunately to no avail, and also tried removing "patches_deleted" statements in notepad, but that seemed to remove even more models. 

DOn't suppose there is anything else I could try? Or do I have to re-import all "invisible models"and re-assign all their materials?

Thanks in advance!

[Christian_Garimberti]

I don't know if is the same issue, but I noticed that if you combine objects, and then duplicate the combined object, after closing and reopening the file, the duplicated objects are missing... Still in the organizer but without geometry.
Adding objects to alternatives, if you add the same object to 2 different alternatives, showcase create a new duplicate combined object... Maybe this is you problem.
Missing duplicate combined object I think is a showcase bug....
Anyone noticed this problem?
Bye

[cikho]

unfortunately i don't have much solutions in this case 😞 i can try and test a few things, but i'm quite busy during this week..

i remember this happening in one of my files, but honestly i have to find it..

christian, i never noticed this bug, but if i can i'll have a look at this also..

fro combined objects, you also mean showcase groups (organizer) or merged items?

[EvelyneB]

I did notice that the duplicates disapear in Showcase 2014, but since I'm on the 2015 version, it never happenend again. Unfortunately, with 2014, the only solution I found was to reimport the missing piece.

For the main issue, I think I found something. Try going in File/Add-in manager and uncheck the Stereo Custom option. Close the program, reopen your job and it should show you your missing pieces. If not, try removing the bumps in your meterials.... These are the two things I did that worked.

[Christian_Garimberti]

Unfortunately this happens also in 2015... and also with samples scene, just to test that is not my scene problem.

All the add-ins disabled....

1. open the scene and group some objects

2. duplicate grouped objects, saveas, close and reopen the scene end everything is OK

3. reopen the sample image to start with the original scene. group the objects and then combine the group.

4. duplicate combined object.

5. saveas, close and reopen the scene. the duplicate object are disappeared.

i'll try if creating more then 1 alternative with the same object can create the same bug.

Bye