MASH Placer node broken - 2018

[arcon76]

Maya 2018.2. The mash Placer node is broken when painting objects. Steps to reproduce as follows:

1. Select a number of objects & create an mash network (instancer).

2. Add a placer node, make a plane to paint on, add it to the Placer node as a Paint Mesh..

For a while it paints as expected using both Fixed and Random range, but after a while setting a Paint ID Random range has no effect, it will ignore the range and paint using all the objects, which renders the network useless. See attached scene. I'm not sure what causes it to break...

?

[mspeer]

Hi!

Sorry i can't reproduce this.

What is "a while"? Is it based on time or amount of objects you paint?

[arcon76]

If you open that scene you'll see painting by range ID doesn't work correctly.

With that scene it happened just after closing and opening the scene again, so pretty quick.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

It doesn't seem to be broken, but either is wrong, programming or explanation/documentation (especially in the videos from Ian Waters and @Roland.Reyer).

Random is not from Id0 to Id1, it's a range starting from Id0 + positive range value.

So if you want to paint only ID2 enter [2 and 0].

If you enter [2 and 2] it will paint ID's from 2 up to 4 (2+2).

Please report this problem (bug?) to Autodesk.
Help -> Speak Back -> Report a Problem

[arcon76]

Yup you were right... the guides were in fact incorrect... well that's pretty confusing lol.

[mickeal_alex]

Mash placer node has been broken for a while now, after placing an object and if u use the rotate manipulator in the Placer node, the axis aren't aligned to the axis, sometimes meshes will move away from the plane used to paint on when stick to paint meshes is on, the manipulator for move, scale, rotate, grows and shrinks base off camera rotation, u can't add or remove selection in the move, rotate or scale manipulator mode. Using this tool to place buildings and it's been great but these issues are really annoying.

[EricUjfalussy]

Just wrote about this in another thread, but it's still a big issue in Maya 2019 as well. Hoping to get an update soon on this! 

[Anonymous]

Same, posted a new topic.
"stick to paint Meshes" is disabled and I dont find a way to activate it.

[mYJHNP]

same issue, Stick to Paint Meshes is greyed out...can't find any documentation on why this might happen...