Focus is not working

[Anonymous]

Hi , 

i've bought a new computer and installed Maya . 

When i am trying to focus on a object by press on "F" key on the keyboard the whole object is disappeared. 

its happen in every scene .

Tried to repair Maya - no change . 

Delete and install again - no change . 

Created new camera and then focus - no change .

I've installed an update from autodesk - no change . 

Please assist ! 

Thanks.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

1. Try a reset of 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...

2. Create a new scene, create a Polygon Cube and try focus again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks ! its working !

[george_stamenov]

That's not a good solution by far! 

What about if you have custom shelves, you would lose them all and spend hours to put them back together. 

Can someone come up with a better solution? 

[Anonymous]

This is a bug that Maya has been dragging along for many versions/years. Yet they just ignore the problem.

I agree with George below.. the only "solution" they provide is to basically delete your preferences. Which of course is not a viable solution.

[mspeer]

Hi!

It is not ignored and has already been fixed.

[Anonymous]

Where? What version of maya??

Certainly not 2018 as I’ve been struggling with this nightmare for two days! And then what valid fix have you got to propose? Other than deleting my preferences?!

[mspeer]

Hi!

I am currently not sure, but if i remember correct it has been fixed somewhere between Maya 2018.5 and Maya 2019.

Make sure that the value for Camera Fit Factor in Preferences is not too low (default is "0.95").

[george_stamenov]

Hey guys, 

I think I have figured it out but I am not in front of my computer atm. 

Will post the solution later. 

[Anonymous]

Right thanks but, once again, no solution whatsoever is provided.

“It had been fixed between 18.5 and 19”, that’s a very vague answer. I feel you’re not taking this seriously.

Furthermore like I said, we at Technicolor VFX use maya 2018. I’ve been struggling with this for two days and, as cg supervisor, it is a waste of my time.

If you are, as your title says, a mentor, you should be able to come up with some sort of solution no? I, as a maya mentor, as a user since 1998, found no other workaround than rebuilding my preferences. I ask, what kind of software requires you to delete your preferences in order to work!?

The fitFactor thing is different from the preferences window bug, and I had solved it by myself already.

[Anonymous]

Solution is:

- edit your userPrefs

- look for “fitFactor”

- set it to a value > 0 and <= 1

that is a real solution, no mocking around with reset transformations and default view which don’t work. 

Really this should come from autodesk, not from a user. 

[Anonymous]

@mspeer I thought you were an autodesk support agent, which is why I found your answer a little... unprofessional. 

If if you are just a user like me sorry!! And thanks for answering!

[mspeer]

Hi!

I am not an Autodesk employee, i am a "normal" user like others in this forum.

I don't understand what you mean with

"fitFactor thing is different from the preferences window bug"

as the Fit Factor is  the setting in Preferences i was talking about.

Preferences -> Settings -> Cameras -> View Fit -> Fit factor (which is defaultFitFactor)

However i checked back and it's fixed in Maya 2018.5 by using a hard coded min value of "0.01" for Fit Factor..

[Anonymous]

Yes thanks, like I said I mistook you for a support agent.

I found the fitFactor fix yesterday and the only way that prevents preferences Maya from resetting it to the faulty value of 0 is to set it manually in userPrefs.mel. Well, it seems to work for a while before the bug strikes back for no apparent reason! Maya style..

There is another very annoying bug with the preferences window that support are supposed to look into (but do nothing about as usual), I thought you were replying about that sry.

Thanks for your answer 🙂

[mspeer]

Hi!

You can try to add the defaultFitFactor with a custom value to your userSetup.mel

as this should override settings of Preferences when starting Maya.

[george_stamenov]

Try Crtl + Alt then while holding the keys Left mouse button, click and drag (like drawing a selection rectangle).

Then select an object and press F 

[Anonymous]

the solution i found , is to select the camera in the outliner, set the camera translate and rotate to zero and , freeze transform , delete history and center pivot , it works for me and the focus rework again. 

I hope it will help

[S-marcus.baretta]

This solution worked perfectly. I have had this problem for awhile, and its been super frustrating. I checked the cameras tab in preferences,  and found that my fit factor was only .01. After changing it back to .95 I could focus again. This is a much better option than resetting all your preferences.

[remdaroN]

I just wanted to say that I fixed my issue by resetting the perspective camera transformations.

Modify ---> Reset Transformations.

[mthanish]

This helped me. Thanks