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Maya 2016 - losing material connections on open (green materials)

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Message 1 of 113
Floggins
31536 Views, 112 Replies

Maya 2016 - losing material connections on open (green materials)

hey guys,

 

I see a few people with similar issues here, but not as bad as I seem to be having it.  Every time I close and reopen my .mb, my mesh seems to lose connection to all the materials.  Although not really, because I see them in the attributes, but my mesh just displays as green.  The only solution I've come up with so far is reassigning the materials.  Which as you can imagine, is horrible to have to do.

 

running Win 8.1 with no external plugins active.

 

thanks

112 REPLIES 112
Message 2 of 113
Floggins
in reply to: Floggins

so it would appear to be related to saving as an mb instead of an ma.  I tried the converting to an ma with no issues... so far.

Message 3 of 113
Floggins
in reply to: Floggins

nope. i was mistaken.  Seems like it's screwy while saving as .ma

Message 4 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: Floggins

hey stiltskin78,

 

Could I have a look at your scene file please? Could you send via dropbox or googleDrive or whatever is easiest for you?

thanks.

 

Message 5 of 113
Floggins
in reply to: syracoj

of course! I have to force it to happen again though.  I exported an FBX and continued work in maya 2015 with no issues.  After seeing your message I opened it in 2016 again and it's working.  So I saved a copy and I'm now trying to repro it... with no success so far.  As soon as it happens again, I'll post it here.

 

Thanks.

Message 6 of 113
cadyw
in reply to: Floggins

MUST fix!! I'm having the exact same issue. This is such a bad error. I am working with messy meshes that don't have good UVs, so reassigning textures basically isn't an option. Happening to me on Mac OS, 2016, .ma files. Happens if I quit and reopen Maya, and then reopen the file I was working on. I believe it doesn't happen if I just reopen files without quitting, but I'm not sure.

Message 7 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: cadyw

hey cadyw,

 

can you shoot me over a scene file please?

 

john.syracopoulos@autodesk.com

Message 8 of 113
joost
in reply to: syracoj

Hi there,

Having the same issue, turning on triangulate in the FBX export settings seems to cause the mesh to lose its materialconnections.

Will sent you some maya files before and after (triangulated) export.

 

greets,

Joost

Message 9 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: joost

hey joost,

 

will try the implied repro steps (fbx export option) and see if I can repro from scratch. If not, will take a look at your supplied scene files. Thanks!

 

Sorry for the slow reponse. Siggraph time frame always keeps us busy.

Message 10 of 113
Floggins
in reply to: syracoj

syracoj,

 

so I bumped into the issue again.  To play it safe, I've had Maya open with my scene for the past several weeks (actually, a month because I was on vacation), to be sure that it didn't happen again.  Had to shutdown my pc and reboot and then the problem came back.  I've tried both ma and mb with the same result.  The only way to fix it is by importing the exported FBX, but that messes up my master scene so it's not really a solution.

It's really strange because visually, all the materials are connected to the surfaces and textures, they just seem to require being reassigned.  But the problem is that selecting the surfaces for a material doesn't work... so clearly the connection is breaking somewhere.  I only have this problem in Windows.  On OSX it doesn't seem to happen.  I'll send you my scene when I get back to my PC.

Message 11 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: joost

not 100% sure but perhaps there is a reconnection happening/occuring with the export or impor.

Thing I noticed in one case was the difference between

 

connectAttr -force someObjShape.instObjGroups[0].objectGroups[0]  someObjShapeSG.dagSetMembers[0]; BAD (green mat)

and

connectAttr -f  someObjShape.instObjGroups[0]  someObjShapeSG.dagSetMembers[0]; GOOD

 

will look further into this.

Message 12 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: joost

hey joost,

 

which version of Maya are you using and whats the version of FBX?

FBX version can be found by selecting the info button next to the FBX plugin in the plugin manager.

You may be able to open the FBX options and grab it from there also.

Message 13 of 113
joost
in reply to: syracoj

hi syracoj,

Updated to Maya 2016 SP2 this week, so i just tried it again with the files i uploaded before and the materials are still losing their connections.

 

FBX File format Binary FBX 2014/2015 

FBX Plug-in version: 2016.1 Release (2355414)

 

greets,

Joost

Message 14 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: Floggins

does anyone here use bookmarking in the node editor or hypershade/graph?

if so, do you delete your bookmarks? We have found that in some cases, deleting bookmarks will delete the groupID's used for component shader assignment. You will not see this occur until the file has been saved then re-opened.

 

One lead so far. 

 

more to follow as it comes in.

Message 15 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: Floggins

@joost

@Floggins

 

hey guys,

looking at both your supplied scene files I can see clearly in your problematic scenes that your groupID nodes (responsible for detailing which components get assigned to which SG) are gone.

 

This is being caused by a couple potential culprits but I think you guys may be hitting it in other ways.

 

@joost

I tried your FBX export approach using the triangulation option and was unable to get it to corrupt the scene. But clearly, your supplied problematic scene is missing those groupID nodes. Going to look at the actual supplied FBX files.

 

 

What we know internally now is that if a bookmark is created in the node editor, on a scene that contains per-component material assignments, if that bookmark is deleted, then those material assignments groupID's will be deleted. This is catalogued internally in our defect database and I am pushing for this to be looked at. The real insiduous thing about this defect is that if your object is in view and you delete your objectID nodes the material assignment in view will look unchanged. Its not until you save, then reopen the scene that the shaders will be lost.

 

I have discovered also that deleting any hypershade view type node is doing the same thing (hyperview and/or hyperlayout nodes) and feel that this falls in the same catagory as the aforementioned.

 

It is known also that if per component shading is being applied while performing certain modeling operations (extrusions and bevel combined with combine's and extracts) that Maya will not always know which new faces to assigne which material. It is highly recomended to perform most of your per-component material assignments after modeling is complete.

 

To close, I am not totally convinced that this is the only problem. Siltskin, you told me you never use node editor bookmarks. Do you use anything similar for organizational purposes in the hypershade while you are working?

 

Im going to continue chipping away at this until for info regarding this issue comes to light. Please let me know if you guys also observe something else that could be useful.

Message 16 of 113
syracoj
in reply to: joost

joost, 

 

just took a look at both supplied fbx files (exported.fbx and exportedTriangulated.fbx)

neither of them, when imported into the scene, have any per-component shading. Both come in with just a single material assigned. I see no corruption from the imported fbx. Perhaps you are doing something to the scene once you import the .fbx file in and then save the scene as a mb/ma?

Message 17 of 113
Floggins
in reply to: syracoj

Not really, no.  I've never really used bookmarks, TBH (I know, shame on me).  But I definitely assign materials while modeling.  I find it easier to visualize what I'm shaping.

Message 18 of 113
joost
in reply to: syracoj

Hi, 

True, only the maya file is corrupted when I reopen it in Maya. I don't use bookmarks either.

For me, not using triangulate at the export or saving my maya scene before the export seems to be the work round.

Thanks for your hunting so far, greets<
Joost

Message 19 of 113
perid
in reply to: Floggins

Hi.

 

I'm people on my team have this same issue in Maya 2015 sp5 Win8.1

We save as .ma and have this issue even if we dont do a .fbx export.

We dont use bookmarks but do have a couple of external plugin's.

 

We're trying to isolate what is happening further,  we're moved to SP6  and are keeping a close eye on it...  This is a really nasty issue!

If SP6 does not resolve the issue - then we'll look at testing on Maya 2016 - but it sounds like other people are having the same issue here...

 

Just through I'd post as I've been reading up on this issue...

 

Cheers,

Pete.

 

 

Message 20 of 113
afrench87
in reply to: perid

Has this issue ever been fully resolved? I'm using SP2 and 2016 and I've been running into this error on several occasions.

In this case this just randomly happened a few hours into working with the file, everything is assigned a default lambert.

 

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