Maya 2016 - losing material connections on open (green materials)

[Floggins]

hey guys,

I see a few people with similar issues here, but not as bad as I seem to be having it.  Every time I close and reopen my .mb, my mesh seems to lose connection to all the materials.  Although not really, because I see them in the attributes, but my mesh just displays as green.  The only solution I've come up with so far is reassigning the materials.  Which as you can imagine, is horrible to have to do.

running Win 8.1 with no external plugins active.

thanks

[syracoj]

This is unfortunately one of those issues that can be triggered by a variety of factors. We have identified one architectural reason as to why this is occuring that needs to be addressed by us (the bookmark issue). 

In other cases where others seem to be hitting the issue with FBX, we have not been able to reproduce. This does not mean there is not a problem, it just means that with the data we have (usually scene files or submitted reproduction steps) we have not been able to recreate the problem from scratch on our side.

This may be multiple issues with the same symptom (loss of material).

It is also possible that users are hitting order of operation issues where material assignment does not remain preserved for whatever reason.

This issue has been known to occur when users accidentally duplicate (special) an object but forgot that their instancing option was turned on. Or when Users encorporate reference based workflows and create local assets by importing or merging in references that have or have had component material assignments applied to them.

There are several reasons as to why this issue may occur and unfortunately issues such as this take time to pinpoint precisely what the issue is. Naturally we need to identify it first before we can fix it. And then, we may only be fixing one portion of the problem. The same problem may repro another way.

[syracoj]

hello afrench87.

Can you send me this scene file? Im collecting them.

john.syracopoulos@autodesk.com

tnx

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I am also having this issue. Would be great if there would be a fix for this, per-component material assignments + fbx export seem to be related.

[syracoj]

I will be doing some more test coverage with the FBX & Maya problem. Exceptionally busy right now but it is on my 'to do list'.

[syracoj]

hey manny_n,

I revisited a earlier post here where there was a listed specific fbx export version named and even when I try with that version of Maya, and that version of FBX, with the same fbx settings (triangulation and FBX export 2014/2015) I was not able to repro the problem.

FBX workflows can be tricky in regards to the way a third party may be exporting FBX data out. For instance, if a file came via FBX out of Revit there is no guarantee that the defect in question is a fault of Maya. The Revit exporter could be doing something illegal. From a pure Maya FBX to Maya workflow approach I am not able to repro.

Can you provide me with specifics as to what you are doing please?

[Floggins]

my issues are only from Maya to Maya.  I opened up a Maya 2015 file in Maya 2016.  Everything was fine.  Worked, exported my FBX, saved and closed.  When I reopen the scene it was corrupt.  Unfortunately from that point on I re-imported the FBX to keep working on it without having to redo my UVs.  So I don't have the clean non-FBX version anymore.  I tried out/in via OBJ to make sure it wasn't and FBX thing, but that didn't fix it.

[Anonymous]

I am able to reproduce the issue now. I've got a Maya file, if objects within this scene are exported to FBX 2014/2015 and the file is saved again as Maya file and it is reopened certain objects will be green. This is quite unfortunate. Also, I don't think blaming other exporters for this particular bug is the right thing to do. As the files are imported correctly and only upon rexporting Maya messes things up. Besides that, nearly all exporting apps use the FBX SDK which is developed by Autodesk itself. I will send you the test file via email. This is 100% reproducable on a Windows 10 PC with Maya 2016 LT SP2

EDIT: just tested this again with exporting to OBJ instead of FBX and it actually does not corrupt the scene after saving and reloading. 

also tested it with FBX 2016 export, and this corrupts the scene, too.

[Anonymous]

This is happening to me as well, and also in LT. 2016 versions. It sucks when I have Color ID maps already assigned to something...and need to redo the whole mesh again.

So, it definitely has to do with the FBX export, because I didn't export anything else last night, but when I just opened it up today, the ONE thing I did export FBX, lost all its connections and has turned green....sigh...

Definitely something to do with FBX. I mean, I have a very simple mesh. 

[Anonymous]

OK. So, to properly debug this. I had two meshes, both with two different mats on the mesh. For the first test, I did NOT export to FBX, and closed and opened it THREE times. Nothing happened. I then took the back mesh and exported it using the Send to Unreal Selection with these FBX settings attached. The settings not shown are disabled. I then saved the scene. And close Maya 2016 by hitting the top right X. I then go to File, Open Scene and my project. AND BAM. Green Mesh in back. It really isn't that hard to replicate...

[afrench87]

I'm also able to replicate this, there is definitely something buggy about having two materials on one mesh and exporting to fbx. Here's another example with what I'm dealing with:

Just a simple mesh with two materials, exported as fbx. Closed Maya, went home, came back in the morning and it's missing connections. 

[syracoj]

hello afrench87,

Are you on Maya or MayaLT?

[afrench87]

Maya 2016 SP2

[syracoj]

ATTENTION MAYALT USERS

with a latest internal 2016 build QA has been able to repro the export problem. 

NOTE: I was not able to use the send to unreal approach but the export selection to FBX did repro the problem.

My steps were to simply:

-create two spheres

-component shade faces a new phong on both spheres (separate phongs)

-save the scene

-export the FBX selected (2014/2015 FBX type and Triangulate was on in the geometry section of the FBX settings)

-reopened the scene I saved (NOT the FBX files)

RESULT=one sphere has green material

So, this specific issue IS repro on our side. Will dig in to see if this is catalogued. I will double check but I believe THIS IS NOT occuring on Maya proper. <- but will definitely double check that.

So for the LT people on this thread...does this sound synced to what you guys are experiencing?

[syracoj]

and which platform afrench87.

[afrench87]

Windows 7 Professional 64-bit SP1 

[syracoj]

sigh...

and reproducible on windows as well. 

Seems to be the triangulate option which I believe was discovered and expressed earlier on this forum.

the scene is getting completely corrupted.

Sorry guys, in my earlier testing I focused on the FBX file that was exported. NOT the scene the FBX file came from.

Drawing this defect up and pushing the highest possible severity for it.

more info to follow in a bit.

[syracoj]

Can everyone please chime in to express the importance of:

1. Using the Triangulate FBX option (I will assume for game dev artists this is important)

and

2. Using the 2014/2015 FBX type option

Disregard #2. Its not relevant. This issue occurs even when the FBX type is set to 2016.

[afrench87]

I'm relatively new to game dev but I use the triangulate checkbox on export for most models when sending to a game engine. You will get the same result by using the triangulate function under Mesh but it's an extra step to remember for each model. 

As of now I don't believe Unreal supports FBX 2016 formats, just 2014/2015 not sure about Unity. 

I'm glad you were able to finally replicate the issue 

[Floggins]

@syracoj glad to you hear you got it!

As for triangulating on exporting, it's part of the steps listed by Unreal.  I have not tried without it, but I would imagine in a small amount of cases, having Unreal auto-triangulate (which it and other engines will do) could probably create some issues.

and PS, just for clarity sake - I've never used MayaLT.

[Floggins]

@afrench87 You don't want to triangulate in Maya though, it would be a nightmare re-working you scene like that.