Can‘t open Scene!

[robin_zitt]

I have a scene that I can’t open. The Objects are displayed in the Outliner and then it gets stuck loading and Maya freezes.

The scene is relatively large compared to my other scenes and for some reason I was able to open it after I opened a smaller Scene. Now that doesn’t work anymore. 
I had no issues working in the scene before I closed it. I can still open any other Maya Scene (though they’re all smaller). 

I bet the scene will open just fine on any other Computer. 

[tkaap2]

From your few details, my (mostly-blind) guess is that it's getting stuck in the initial attempt to draw your large scene.  I'd try a couple of things.

1) Close Maya, rename your Maya prefs directory, reopen it, try to reload your scene.  This will reset your UI, and some UI elements can slow down file loading if they're attempting to update while the scene is being read in some circumstances.

2) Turn off the pref to load UI settings from the file (Prefs -> Interfact -> UI Elements -> Panel Configurations -> Restore saved layouts from file.  Try to load your scene.

3) If the Maya version you're working in has the Evaluation Manager, change the pref back to DG evaluation. (Prefs -> Animation -> Evaluation -> Evaluation mode: [Drop-down] DG.   Try to load your scene.

While Maya is hung, check your CPU usage.  It's useful to verify if Maya is frozen (working 100% of one CPU, but not returning) or hung (not working, but also not responding).

I've seen the symptom of "could work on the file, but not reload it" for a couple of types of scenes. 

1. Scenes that won't fit into system or GPU memory.  
2. Scenes with large deformed geometry that was cached in the original scene, but needs to be recomputed upon file reloading -- which is taking a long time and seems like forever.

If the files are .ma files, try copying and editing the file to remove some nodes and see if that loads differently/successfully.  Sometimes that can deliver a hint on what the problem is.

[robin_zitt]

Okay so here‘s an update: Nothing‘s working. 

As I expected the Scene opens just fine on any other (less ****ty) PC (I only tried Windows). 

I tried all of your solutions. Maya is indeed using 100% of my CPU (apparently “180%” whatever that means) and is not responding. I have to force quit it every time. 

Here some specs: 

I’m working in Maya 2019 Student License 

on a 2013 MacBookPro with 

8 GB CPU 

and 

256 MB GPU 

The scene is 5.3 MB

What should I do now? 

[tkaap2]

Okay, some of those details help.  I'm still guessing a bit blindly.  What kind of assets are in your scene -- modeling assets, rigs, effects?  Do you have a lot of construction history, deformers, dynamics (cloth, hair, MASH), etc?

It sounds like the file itself isn't holding much data, but that there is some part of the scene that requires evaluation when it's opened.  If I create a massively-dense sphere, but put a bend deformer on it, the mesh doesn't need to get stored in the scene -- it is just evaluated.  If I deleted the construction history and saved it, the file would be much larger, but it would likely open with less CPU usage. (And faster, as long as the disk is faster than the CPU computation would have been.)

Maya loads itself, initializes its UI (Outliner, shelves, etc), then tries to draw the viewport, which triggers evaluation of the construction history, which can indeed take a while.

It sounds like it's either hung infinitely on your Macbook, or it's taking inconveniently long (which are the same thing when you're trying to get work done).  I have a 6MB file that takes 15 seconds to open on a reasonably fast developer machine -- it would not be hard to make a scene that takes 15 minutes or longer while having a fairly small file size.  If I delete the construction history in my scene, the file becomes 2GB, but only takes 10 seconds to open.

So, let's focus on some steps to move forward.  Since you have an alternate computer that can open your file, you have some options.  Let's do some experiments to see which ones work and might give you pieces to work from more sustainably.  Make a copy of your original scene file. 

1. On the PC, open a copy of your scene delete the construction history.  Save it out, and try opening on the Macbook.  This might be a larger scene, but it may load more successfully.
2. On the PC, open a copy of your scene, and export pieces into smaller Maya scene files.  Try opening those on the Macbook.
3. If there are some part of your scene that you won't be editing, split those out into separate files and just reference them in. Save your file with those references unloaded by default, then you load them only when you need them instead of all in one giant evaluation at file load time.

If I'm wildly wrong and it's some kind of GPU issue, we can try other things.  I'm hoping it's not Mac specific, because that's not my specialty.

[mspeer]

HI!

"I bet the scene will open just fine on any other Computer."

- Just provide the scene-file, all suggestions will not help in case the scene is corrupted and can't be opened at all.

[z_fayed2YDUL]

Hey, so the exact same issue happened to me on my mac. I did give your experiment a go and tested the file on my PC and again it loaded till around 99% and then stopped. It is unfortunate because I did lose a big chunk of my work. 

I also wanted to clarify that I used the same maya versions (maya 2024) on both my pc and mac. I think this is a matter of the file maybe being corrupt but again I am not sure. 

[damaggio]

might be corrupted, yes.