Transforms freeze

[Anonymous]

Just working along in a tutorial, my transforms stop working. Why?
Thanks.

[Steve_Curley]

Please be a little more specific - if you mean "my gizmo disappeared" then press "X". If not then tell us exactly what isn't working.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't disappear, it just stops working. I can change transforms, but none work.

[Steve_Curley]

Ok, what did you do to the object just before they stopped working? Some things, like a Path Constraint for example, replace the standard position controller so after you apply one you can't move the object on its own any more.
What happens if you save the scene at the point where you can't move anything, then close max, restart it and reopen the scene - can you then move things? If not then it's something which is being saved in the scene, so zip it and post it so we can have a look. Otherwise (it works after reopening it) I'm not sure. You have to be doing something, I just don't know what at the moment.

Oh, and which tutorial? One of those supplied with Max? Or an online one (link us to it please) at tell us at which point it stops working.

[Anonymous]

I am using the Intro to Character Rigging in the Character Animation tutorial. The section is Setting Up IK Solvers. I have no trouble defining the IK goals, but after I Select and Link the ankle bone to the toe bone,one of three things happen: 1) the joints come apart; the transforms freeze and I can't move any of the bones; or Max crashes.

When I use the Select and Link tool, I initially click on the ankle bone and drag to the toe bone and release it. I'm dragging from the child to the parent,so when the toe bone is moved, the heel is supposed to rise. I might be doing something wrong here.
Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I attached a screen shot of the crash, just after I applied the Select and Link tool to the ankle and toe bones.

[Steve_Curley]

There are two things there one being the transforms, the other being the crash.

IIRC - it's been a while since I did that tutorial - once you have the IK solver in place, you shouldn't be moving the bones, you move the goals, which causes the bones to follow appropriately.

The crash is something different, though it may be related. Which version of Max are you using - I'll try and run through that tutorial tomorrow (it's 10:30 pm here at the moment) and see what happens.

[Anonymous]

I'm running Max 2008. I am moving the transforms at the goals, not the bones.

[Steve_Curley]

Ok, I'll try it tomorrow. You may want to redo it up to the point before it crashes, save the scene, zip and post it here. At least we can see if it's something you did or if your max is playing up.

[Anonymous]

I'll do it a little later and have it too you before your morning.
Thanks.

[Anonymous]

I took the project, attached, up through building IKBall. The problem comes with applying the Select & Link tool, so I'll let you try it.
Thanks,
Richard

8459_0S8JrgYA6DPTxO903I8u.zip

[Steve_Curley]

Thanks for posting that.

I'm assuming that the scene was saved after completing "Create the second IK Chain:", point # 4 ("Name the IK chain IKBall")?

If so then I'm afraid there is something decidedly not right with your system. I loaded your scene, continued the tutorial beginning with the next operation "5. Use Select and Link to link IKAnkle to IKBall". This, and the remaining steps on that page of the tutorial up to, but not including, the "create a test animation" worked perfectly on my system. No freezing of transforms and no crashes.

Looks like a trouble-shooting job to work out why your system is crashing 😞

Attached the scene (to the point noted above) so you can try it

8474_uUGlZ8RMsrZRUbFbZPqH.zip

[Anonymous]

Thanks for taking the time to check it out. Could I be using the S&L tool wrong? I click on IKAnkle goal and then on the IKBall goal.

From what I gather, Autodesk offers no help. Other than uninstalling and reinstalling, do you have any suggestions on what I can do?
Thanks.

[Steve_Curley]

Even if you did use it incorrectly Max shouldn't crash. The rig might not work as intended, if at all, but it shouldn't crash. I'll have another play later on and see if I can crash it, though I'm doubtful I'll be able to manage it.
In the meantime, load up the scene I posted - does it work? Or does it crash? Also, could you post your system specs just in case anything looks borderline wrt the minimum specs for Max.
Oh, and does Max offer you the chance to submit a crash report or does it just do a fast exit to the desktop?

[Anonymous]

I presume that your file goes through step 4 of the "Creating the Second IK Chain". so all I had to do was apply the S&L. When I did, it crashed. I talked to someone at Autodesk and they tried to help, without success, even though they weren't supposed. Looks like I'll either return it or take a subscription. You would think the company would provide support for getting started properly. Do you think my graphics card is sufficient to handle Max?

My computer has:
GForce 8600 GT
Intel Core 2 Quad 2.4 GHz
3GB RAM
WIndows XP Pro
3D SMax 2008 Education Version 32-bit

Regards,
Richard

[Steve_Curley]

No - those are already done - "up to, but not including, the “create a test animation”". If you just load the scene, select the goal and rotate it, does it work?

The 8600 may be slightly limiting, but only when you get to large, polygon-heavy scenes. Unless the actual hardware is failing it shouldn't cause a crash (though anything is possible if the drivers aren't up to scratch).
3MB should be enough - certainly for that scene. Only likely to be a problem when rendering large-ish images. Unless the memory is failing, of course.
C2Q - shouldn't be any problem (better not be - I have one too 🙂 ) - unless the processor or mobo is playing up.

We're down to basic troubleshooting here - you need to try an eliminate what doesn't cause the problem. Got a spare grahics card you can try? spare RAM? Uninstall/reinstall can sometimes help (especially if it's Windows that's being reinstalled).

You should get 30 days free, though I'm not certain of the terms where the student version is concerned. The software itself is identical to the commercial version - only the license is different.

[Anonymous]

I found a place on the Autodesk site for per-incident support, and called. I was told that they were phasing that out, but since it was still on their site, they would try to resolve the problem. Making a long story, short, they couldn't solve it and since it was on a 2008 version, they weren't interested in doing anything about it. It crashed for the techie when he linked the S&L tool to the bone instead of the goal. He agreed that it should not be that touchy, but, too bad, it's not being supported to the degree of fixing bugs. I bought the software from an Internet sales company that doesn't know how to spell support, but tomorrow, I'll ask the online school if they have any suggestions, or if there will be an educational upgrade to 2009. So what I'm going to do is uninstall and reinstall, but not until Monday so I can get help with the authentication key if I need it. Anyway, it's nice having someone like you out in the ether who is willing to take the time to help us neophites get started.
Thanks,
Richard

[Anonymous]

Well, it seems to be working -- not because I consciously did something, but due probably to luck. When I talked to AD tech support, they suggested to change the graphics mode -- which I did, but didn't use Max in that mode. I don't know why. IE started hanging up so I went to Microsoft's site upgraded my XP Pro to SP3 and reset IE, and I remembered how to change the graphics mode, so I did that too. Vola! I went back to Max, to the tutorial, made the links and nothing broke. Then I did it by linking one goal to a bone, and vola, nothing broke again. Although I've worked on this most of the day and it's after 10pm, I feel like there was progress made.
Thanks.

[Steve_Curley]

I'm really pleased you found a solution. If IE was playing up then that suggests some kind of corruption in or damage to windows itself. The SP undoubtedly replaces a large number of system files, so in a way it's similar to reinstall of windows (not exactly, of course, but you get the idea). Max2008 was released long before XP-SP3 (AFAIK - I only installed XP because 2009 wouldn't install on Win 2k - i.e. very recently) so SP3 itself should not be required in order to run Max.