Alembic caches losing connection after move

[Parmenides]

I have a file with many alembic caches. They are kept in the project/cache/alembic folder. If I move the entire project to another computer to render, when I open the scene, all of the alembic caches are missing in the viewport but are still showing in the Outliner.  If I click on the file in the outliner and then go to attributes and try to update the cache (which is showing the correct location for the cache) it says "Alembic cache re-pathing is not supported" and it doesn't show up even though I am not really re-pathing.  

I can re-import the cache but I lose the textures, start point, weeding of un-needed items, etc.   I have tried this with two different outside computers and also tried it with a simple test project with one alembic file and I get the same issue when opening scenes that have been moved to another computer even though the correct project has been set.

I saw that others have had the problem but they just imported it again. I don't have that option when I send it somewhere where they can't do that.  https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/maya-forum/change-pc-alembic-missing/m-p/7357345#M46575 

Is there a workaround for this? Maybe something I am supposed to do before moving the project?  Thanks. 

[mspeer]

Hi

I have also seen this with a project sent to me.

Because of lazyness i saved the file as ASCII and edited the file path in the Maya file with a Text Editor, that worked fine. As this never happened again i did not spent more time on this.

Maybe i try this again when i have some spare time and see if there is an other solution .

[Parmenides]

Thanks. So I saved the file as ascii/.MA and opened it in a text editor but couldn't find a reason for the alembic files to not load. I also have 2 bifrost alembic files also but those load and render fine. I don't see why some load and some don't as the file path seems to be exactly the same. 

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

In the last line the string is empty (""):

setAttr ".fns" -type "stringArray" 1 ""  ;

add the file path there too, but without the double slash for relative path (".../cache..." instead of "...//cache...")

[Parmenides]

You got it. I filled in the double quotes as you suggested and it all the caches showed and and rendered correctly.  I closed and saved/reopened and it still worked. I had tried earlier without the // and it changed them back when I saved it.  Thanks!   Now to figure out why its doing it in the first place...

[mspeer]

Hi!

The first path can have double slashes // that's totally correct.

[rymerkm]

Hi, 

I'm having the exact same problem and I'm trying to follow your suggestions but I don't quite understand. Could you relay how to save the project and open up as a script in text editor? 

[Parmenides]

Hi, basically you need to do a reserve of your file but instead .mb you save it as .ma which creates a human readable text file instead of a binary file. It makes the file considerably larger but you can read it in any text editor.  

[rymerkm]

Thank you! I Downloaded sublime text and have fixed my files. This commission was largely alembic information so I appreciate your help!!!

[everyonediesfilms]

Why in gods name is this a problem in this day and age that a perfect copy of a project to a different drive can't repath properly. This is ridiculous. Why are the paths not relative. This is a HUGE problem for me and I can't find an easy way to fix it beyond editing a .MA file in notepad? For REAL? Am I missing something here?

[rconn]

Mate, I feel your pain. You are perfectly correct; this is the kind of thing that autodesk/maya is seriously deficient in..... the seemingly simplest, most logical issues, are, well ...... issues... and shouldn't be. 

[ashwithullal]

I have Edited the file in the text editor .It works lika a charm.Why do this keep happening ? how can i avoid the same in the future? Plz suggest....

[20016784]

I found this solution when I ran into the same issue. I really didn't want to mess with changing file types and code editing if I didn't have to. So I tried something else. I went into File>Project Window and down at the bottom under Custom Data Locations, I opened the file folder, then selected Cache>Alembic and clicked Select. Accepted the Project Window changes, and voila, everything was relinked. So I'm not sure what goes haywire, but relinking it directly in the file solved the issue.