**bug** Duplicate special not working properly

[Anonymous]

Hey everyone,

Having some real issues duplicating type objects and it appears to be a bug (this issue does not arise in Maya 2017)

I have a Text object with extrusion turned off.

I need to duplicate this object but retain the ability to edit the text, so not an instance but a copy with all the input fields still available.

I go to Edit | Duplicate special (with options) See image for settings.

When i apply / Duplicate special it does a few strange things. First, it actually creates two copies, one with the object history deleted and one as a new object.

The new object (typeMesh2) has its own type input field as i need, but the extrusion has been re applied. 

We are publish a ton of content so we need the ability to make copies of text objects and edit these independently.

As i mentioned this issue did not happen in 2017. Has this featured been updated and theres a new way to achieve this now, or is this a bug with no current fix.

Really struggling with this one and would love some help.

Thanks

Nick.

[sean.heasley · Accepted solution]

Hi @Anonymous and welcome to the community!

Is your Maya 2018 up to date?

I just tried this with update 4 and had no issues.

If you aren't on update 4, please update and let me know if this issue still occurs for you!

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did the suggestion I provided on Friday 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]

Is there a bug in some versions of the 2018?

Was it fine in 2017?

Edited by
Discussion_Admin

[Anonymous]

Latest Maya, updated Mac OSX 10.13.6, a similar thing happening: 

Text is uneditable, most of its features are gone in the copy and/or duplicate. Extrude remains, but is not editable, either. 

[mspeer]

Hi!

No problem here in windows.

When using "Duplicate input graph" every node and connection will be duplicated and stays editable.

Please add more information, maybe it's a problem on MAC only.

If there should be indeed a problem on MAC, try copy/paste instead.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Just wanted to add as well that I just tried the same steps as @mspeer and had no issues.

Please let me know if that works for you or if it is indeed an issue specifically with Macs.

[Anonymous]

copy/paste creates exactly the same problem. I should have mentioned this in the first post. It was the first thing I tried.

I'm coming from 3ds Max, with its wonderful, easy, simple, can't go wrong duplication and shift-copy, and currently working on a Mac, hence the need to use Maya. 

Why is copying and duplication so contrived and convoluted in Maya? Is there something I'm missing about the entire workflow of Maya that means copy and duplication are fundamentally different from how they work in every other program on earth? 

This is my first time using Maya, and my first major issue with it, other than the hard wired mouse navigation "options" being hardwired. 

[Anonymous]

btw, Maya crashed during a subsequent effort to copy and paste a text object. Also. I sent the crash report.

Aside from the fact that there's a problem with whatever means of duplication I use, why is it so weird? I've tried every setting I can find and every different approach to duplication and copying and none have delivered an exact copy. 

How is it that a "normal" copy/paste or duplication is done in Maya, such that the subsequent object is EXACTLY the same as the one that's the source of the copy or duplication? 

Why is it difficult and not the default behaviour?

What am I missing about the Maya workflow that makes this fundamentally different from how every other app in the world treats duplication?

[Anonymous]

I can now consistently repeat the behaviour shown in the OP's post, and a range of other oddities, none of which are a correct duplication. Copy-> Paste is also not working correctly.

There are some quite serious bugs with the copy and paste system, even across relaunches of Maya and new empty scenes, and even after flushing the clipboard.

I'm starting with basic, empty scenes, text bevelling, reducing the default extrusion to one segment. But this is repeatable with the default text object without any changes to the settings.

I'm not working with anything complex.

[Anonymous]

possibly related text issues bug:

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Is your Maya 2018 on update 5? We need to clarify that so we know if this is an issue specifically to Macs because like @mspeer and I said above, doing this on Windows with Duplicate input graph enabled the issue does not occur.

As for your text issue in the video that may be due to the chinese characters. Does that happen as well if you are using English characters?

[mspeer]

Hi!

Please upload a scene-file after you used duplicate.

[Anonymous]

I'm running the latest incarnation of Mac OSX 10.13, with all updates. NOT Mojave. The one right before that. Mojave is a  bug riddled mess.

----------------

As to the video...

But it also a bug. Chinese characters don't usually do that. Most of the time they stay as one unit. Even in Maya this only happens some of the time, not all of the time. It is an indication that there's something inherently wrong with font and text handling in Maya, perhaps limited to Mac, but definitely in Maya.

Edited by
Discussion_Admin

[Anonymous]

It happens in a NEW SCENE.

It is utterly repeatable. 

 Edited by
Discussion_Admin

[mspeer]

Hi!

If duplicate does not work correct it will create a corrupted history, which could be verified even on an other system. So to check the saved result of the duplicate action i would not have needed a MAC.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't work.

Copy and Paste is also broken, as referenced above.

Duplicate does not work correctly.

I'm already validating the fact that the OP's complaint is valid.

I'll give you some more. In the bug fixes of the latest update, this gem:

Copy/Paste now working (as it seems to have been broken) for Maya LT.

So there is a known issue. And a possible point of entry to this. 

I've spent enough time on this issue. Text creation and its subsequent modelling and modification is my entry point to Maya. And this has happened right away, with a bunch of other odd behaviours, included the discussion of the clipboard buffer being retained between starts and closings of Maya.

That should be setting off enough alarm bells that anyone with even a vague understanding of how the clipboard works in Maya knows where to look for problems. Especially given this is something that received attention in the LT version of Maya in this build. 

Edited by
Discussion_Admin

[Anonymous]

If I’m wanted as a customer (and I presume, at this point, that I’m not) I’d expect/desire a little more comfort and explanation of the problems, not the immediate presumption that I must prove one of the many problems I’m seeing with anything and everything to do with copy, pasting and duplicating a text object.

2018.5 (Maya LT)

MAYA-94781 Copy & Paste not working

——————————

2018.2

MAYA-88136 MASH: Duplicating input graph breaks Type object

MAYA-87840 MASH: Duplicate excludes trails

=============================

2018.0x

MAYA-77408  Material assignment lost on duplicate as copy

MAYA-81295 Undo command with nodes that were duplicated with input connections leaves nodes behind

// I can confirm the following bug still exists in the current trial version of Maya. I’ve seen exactly this on several occasions during my attempts to gain an understanding of how Duplicate works/doesn’t work and how it’s supposed to function.

MAYA-83603 Duplicate object displays green

++++++++++++++++

Now, please, take a moment to consider that I found this forum post.

And then replied to this rather than start a new topic.

Also, I've said that this is completely repeatable, in a new scene, in the current trial download. 

And that I've found bug fixes that seem to suggest a possible lineage of problems with Duplication and Copy/Paste.

Now, please consider I am a new Maya user... using a Trial, trying to do text stuff in 3D, on a Mac. I'm currently investigating Cinema 4D and Modo, too.

Now... having digested that, consider this. Do I need to be told that everything in Maya will be alright? Do I need to know that Duplicate and Copy and Paste can work normally, and as expected? 

YES. And YES.

At this point I don't know that it can work. Or how it's supposed to work in Maya because I've never seen it work right. And it's causing me to question how Maya actually does work, to the point where it seems a bit impenetrable, kind of like how I see Modo, to some extent...

I'd like to say I'm using 2018.5, but I can't be sure because the Maya Trial version doesn't tell me which version I'm using. Not in the About menu item, either.

3 days ago I downloaded the trial from Autodesk's site and begun experimenting with text. I haven't done anything else with it. I'm trying to make 3D models of Chinese Chengyu to send into Unity.

Yet... if you're wondering, this happens exactly the same with English text using English fonts, in an empty, new scene, that's never touched a Chinese font.

I have some degree of loyalty and love for Autodesk, having been a user of 3ds Max way, way back in the day when it came with two huge printed manuals in a heavy box. That's the only reason I'm humouring the manner in which Maya has so far treated my efforts to get it to do what I want.

Should I bother trying to get at the apparent goodness of the nodes that seem to allow laying bevels and extrudes on selections?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrvzHLi4uI0

btw, how do I pull up the node view shown in the above video? I can't get anything that looks even remotely like it.

Or...

should I give up and head for Cinema 4D or a go buy a Windows workstation and get back into 3ds Max and the Modifier Stack????

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

When you launch Maya, as its loading it says "Opening Maya" at the bottom left corner of the splash art and it should says Maya 2018 or specifically 2018.5 if you are indeed on the latest update.

In your previous posts you only mentioned being on the latest version of Maya and what Mac OS version you were one which is why I wanted to 100% confirm you were on update 5.

I've been testing on my Mac and I'm positive you are not on update 5 because the MAYA-94781 issue you mentioned has been fixed with Update 5. I just tested across Windows and Mac with update 5 all of the duplicate options and copy paste via CTRL+C and CTRL+V and they all work as expected.

Also, you say that you can reproduce the original posters issue but if you are using Maya LT you can't have the Type tool which they are using since that is not included with LT. It is included and standard Maya and again the duplicate special or CTRL+C and CTRL+V options work fine there as well.

If you go here and log in with your Autodesk account you can navigate to Updates and Addons and download Update 5 which should resolve these issues for you.

[mspeer]

Hi!

1. The easy one, Node Editor from video:

Maya main menu: Windows -> Node Editor

- https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-23277302-6665-465F-8579-9BC734228F69

Dock and undock windows and panels:

- https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2018/ENU/?guid=GUID-67562106-21C8-4ADD-B315-297F94CC8B4C

2. This is mainly a user to user forum where users can help each other, it is not a bug report forum or intended for advanced technical support (even if some Autodesk employees answering questions here)

If you want to report a bug, i suggest:

In Maya main menu:
Help -> Speak Back -> Report a Problem

Without having a Mac or a scene-file to check, i can't help you further, sorry.