Creating assemblyReference is too slow

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

My context is:
- Maya2016 sp6, Windows 10 x64
- I have a maya file main.ma which contains an assemblyReference node "seq_AR", and main.ma also contains many other nodes such as character models, xgen models, and etc.
- The value of attribute seq_AR.definition is seq_AD.ma
- seq_AD.ma contains an assemblyDefinition node under which there are many assemblyReference nodes. And each of these assemblyReference nodes points to another assemblyDefinition file.
- All assemblyDefinition nodes have the same representations: 'bbox', 'gpucache', None, and etc.
The representation 'bbox' points to a maya file which contains only a polygon cube.
The representation 'gpucache' points to an alembic file.
- The default active representation of all the assemblyDefinition nodes is 'gpucache'.
- The default active representation of all the assemblyReference nodes is 'gpucache'.

My problem:
Opening main.ma takes more than 2 hours, which is too long to be acceptable.

Here are some tests for debugging:
Test 1:
- I create a new empty scene
- Menu "Create" --> "Scene Assembly" --> "Assembly Reference". Select seq_AD.ma to set the definition file, then press button "Open". The node is created quickly.
- Rename the created assemblyReference node to "seq_AR".
- Saved the file to empty_with_AR.ma
- Reopen empty_with_AR.ma. It takes less than 10 min to open the file.

Test 2:
- I open main.ma, delete assemblyReference node "seq_AR". Now main.ma contains only many other nodes such as character models, xgen models, and etc.
- Saved as main_without_AR.ma
- Reopen main_without_AR.ma. It takes less than 20 min to open the file.

Test 3:
- I open main.ma, delete assemblyReference node "seq_AR". Now main.ma contains only many other nodes such as character models, xgen models, and etc.
- Menu "Create" --> "Scene Assembly" --> "Assembly Reference". Select seq_AD.ma to set the definition file, then press button "Open". It takes 2 hours to load seq_AD.ma! After that, the assemblyReference node is created.
- Rename the created assemblyReference node to "seq_AR". Now main.ma contains "seq_AR" and many other nodes such as character models, xgen models, and etc.
- Saved as main_new_AR.ma
- Reopen main_new_AR.ma. It takes 2 hours to open the file.

It's weird that, in Test 3, it takes 2 hours to load seq_AD.ma to create an assemblyReference when there are many other nodes in the scene.

And I have another idea: set the default active representation from "gpucache" to "bbox" or None. But I'm not sure whether this idea can solve my problem. Given that there are so many assemblyDefinition files and assemblyReference files, I have to take several days to switch the default active representation for these files. That's why I post this thread here at first.

Cheers
Yao

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Out of curiosity have you tried this on a newer version of Maya like 2017 or 2018?

Is there any change in the loading time?

If no, when you get a chance can you please zip and attach the scene file here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it? If the file is confidential or under NDA please send it to me in a private message instead of posting it here.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Just wanted to check in to see how things were going. Are you still having this issue?

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

[Anonymous]

Hi, 

Thanks for your reply.

I tested these files in Maya2018, here is the details:

- It takes 4 min to open empty_with_AR.ma 

- It takes 11 min to open main_without_AR.ma

- It takes 40 min to open main.ma(or main_new_AR.ma)

Openning main.ma still takes much more time than openning empty_with_AR.ma(4min) plus openning main_without_AR.ma(11min). So, in my opinion, this problem still exists in Maya2018. And I guess that it is Maya2018 runs faster than Maya2016 that takes 40 min to open main.ma in Maya2018, while it has to take 2 hours to open main.ma in Maya2016. 

BTW. My machine has 48G RAM, CPU 2.27G Hz(Cores: 8, logic processors: 16)

[Anonymous]

Hi, @sean.heasley

- I'm afraid that I can't use Maya2018 because my pipeline uses only Maya2016.

- I'm sorry but I'm not sure whether I can send the test scene to you, because 1) it is confidential , 2) it has tens of thousands of assemblyReference nodes, which is inconvenient to be deployed to another directory.

Is there any other information that I can provide for this problem?

Cheers

Yao

[sean.heasley]

Hi @Anonymous

Thanks for that information!

There isn't much more I can test without scene files but I understand that with them being so large it might not make much sense to spend the time sending them over and having me attempt to test them with the sheer amount of reference nodes.

That said, I'm going to pass this question along to our development team so they can look into this and determine if its an issue and/or if its related to the sheer size of your scenes.