Arnold/ BiFrost not Showing up in Maya 2018 Install

[Anonymous]

Hello,

I'm a new user and student working on a final project for my 3D modeling class. I'm running into a problem with Bifrost and Arnold. I'm working off of my second install and neither of these features are showing up in the menu tabs. In my first installation, Arnold was working but BIfrost wasn't. My instructor suggested I reinstall and I did, and now neither are showing up.

My first install was onto my C: drive. Everything worked and showed up for the first couple of months. Then out of nowhere error messages started to pop up when I used the IK example rig.

For my second install, I tried installing on my second hard drive but Bifrost still didn't show up in the menu.

My third try I reinstalled on my C: drive and Arnold and Bifrost said they were installed already on the installer window, but upon program launch they still did not appear.

Any suggestions? Much appreciated because my final is due in a week!

[Stephen.Blair]

Check Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager

You should see mtoa.mll (Arnold). 

Click the Loaded check box to load it.

Also, you should have 2018 Update 1 if you want to use Bifrost with Arnold

[mspeer]

Hi!

If the suggestions of @Stephen.Blair do not help:

1. Uninstall Maya (you may need to uninstall Bifrost and Arnold separately)

If all 3 are uninstalled, then

2. Re-install Maya including Bifrost and Arnold. Don't use the computer meanwhile, make sure the installation completes without interruption.

3. Reset your preferences.
Rename the folder prefs in folder 2018 to something like prefs_backup, or to reset everything, the folder 2018 to 2018_backup (or even the maya folder to maya_backup). Maya creates new folders (don't copy preferences from previous Maya versions). Detailed at:
https://knowledge.autodesk.com/support/maya/troubleshooting/caas/sfdcarticles/sfdcarticles/Reset-May...

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

I'm just checking in to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion that @Stephen.Blair and @mspeer provided work for you?

If so, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

[Anonymous]

Thanks! Arnold is now showing on my menu bar. I looked at the Bifrost plug-ins and loaded those too, but those still didn't make Bifrost pop up on my menu bar

[Anonymous]

Hi Sean,

I tried the first suggestion and it's partially working for me at the moment! But there's one other part where Bifrost is still iffy, so I'll wait until he responds to that. If that doesn't work i'll uninstall and reinstall again. Thanks!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Did you also try deleting your settings/preferences like @mspeer suggested?

[daitannguyen]

I found t  hat happening to me a lot whenever I download Maya. I recently found a solution to it.

After downloading Maya 2018 and the Bifrost and Arnold to its directed folder, it wouldn't show up as a menus tab on

top. What I did to fix it what clicking on the menu sets, where you can select model or rigging or animation, and then

clicked customize. On the third tab where it says all menus, I found Bifrost liquid and Arnold and double clicked it to

bring to the menus in menu set tab. That solved the problem for me. Hope it helps.