Maya 2018 Losing UV layout when saving .mb files

[kevin_bayliss]

I have had this problem since upgrading to 2018. However I am just downloading the first update to see if it fixes this.

Self explanatory as the Title says above.

When saving my .mb file (after spending a lot of time laying out my UVs etc) Maya has been corrupting the UV layout somehow when I save the file as a .mb (what I usually save as)

This was happening when I first changed from 2017 to 2018 but I thought it was a corrupted file or something I was doing, so I took precautions and made sure that I deleted all history, performed a zero transforms and optimised scene to make sure all was clean (and did a poly clean up)

My UV's were all nicely laid out in the uv editor, and I then also exported some geometry as .obj files to take over to Zbrush etc.

Upon loading the model that was saved as an .mb file, the UVs are all corrupted and it's as though it 'forgot' to record some history (despite displaying the correct UV layout on saving). The OBJ files however, have correct UVs. Unfortunately this didn't help me because I also performed some mesh smoothing and subdividing when I exported the OBJ files, so I can't just import those as they are quite different to the original .mb file.

Is anyone aware of this? I have had the problem since using 2018 - but cannot find any way to re-trace the steps - it just seems to randomly destroy all of your UV layout work when it feels like it.

Thank you for any help.

[kevin_bayliss · Accepted solution]

It's ok I know I'm replying to 'myself here'

Anyway - 

it seems that this is a visual problem and it was an issue in previous versions of Maya, but has reared it's ugly head again.

If you get this problem, all you need to do is grab some UV's on the UV editor (belonging to the UV shells affected) and wiggle them around (move / transform them) and they SNAP into the correct positions they were in before saving. This will then stretch them away from the shell sometimes, so all you need to do is UNDO and then all of the shell will suddenly spring into the correct place. 

So either do that...

Or hassle the nice people at Autodesk to fix this issue! 😉

[sean.heasley]

Hi @kevin_bayliss and welcome to the community!

I'm glad you found a workaround so you can keep working away on your project!

However if you want to, I'd be happy to take a look at your project and see if I can help figure out what's causing this issue !

If you'd like, feel free to please zip and attach the project folder here or via dropbox/google drive or another file sharing program so I can take a look at it!

[mspeer]

Hi!

Make sure to select the right UV Set if you have more than one.

Please upload a scene-file that shows the problem.

[Anonymous]

Thank f**k for that! I almost picked up my entire computer to throw it out the building thinking it had undone alllll that work I stayed up doing last night!

Stupid sh**ting bug.... 

[kevin_bayliss]

I think if you just move a UV when the file loads in, the whole sets just
click into place - (sometimes) so often it is just an initial display
problem with the UVs when the file first loads back in.

Hope that helps - don't throw your PC out of the window just yet!

[c.wallace129]

I just got screwed over by this also.

Just learning maya spent an entire day quad drawing just the hair and another 1/2 edge selecting and figuring out a good uv layout.

Everything was finished saved and was proceding to the next part of the course.

I needed to adjust the vertex normals before painting in substance, I exported a fbx copy to do that.

When I returned to Maya to adjust the normals all my work ruined. No wiggling has gotten them back

One thing I noticed white working was that the visibility of cut lines just disappeared, now when I reopened the scene the mohawk mesh is cut along every uv face.

[Anonymous]

This is happening to me as well with multiple projects.  Once I save out the file and open Maya 2018 again, the UVs are all messed up.  I noticed that they are only affecting UVs for surfaces that contain multiple faces and only affect those faces (but consistently affect them.) One project I had to remap 6 times and it was a pain. "wiggling the UV" does not fix it. Please fix this Autodesk.

[Kloworks]

still this problem happen im maya LT 2019 
I spend hours UV unwrap after I save it my uv get messy !! 
some of it can fix but other not
... this is a serious problem 

[edward.sludden]

Just wanted to chime in and say its still happening in Maya 2019.2

Lost about 15 minutes of work. Interestingly, all my autosaves had the same issue which makes no sense!. It's as if the UV layout is somehow being saved independently of the scene save. Or, the layout is being corrupted the same way, independently of the loaded scene.

[Anonymous]

I've had the same problem but with saving a .ma file. 

I finished last night on a project, saved, left my office and went home. First thing this morning I was planning on opening, saving out the OBJs and render in KeyShot. The UVs to two of the most complex geometry are now completely spaghetti. I didn't move anything . . . I just opened the file.

I tried the wiggle thing but no luck. Any other help would be greatly appreciated!

[damaggio]

 probably you save the scene with history, clean scene before saving it.

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm having the exact same problem, but in Maya 2020. I tried the solution presented in the conversation, but sadly it didn't work for me in Maya 2020. Would you mind taking a look at my .mb file to see whats wrong with it or you maybe already know a solution to this problem and i could quickly fix it myself. I've never encountered this bug before in any other version of Maya, but a lot of bugs have occurred ever since i got Maya 2020. I've re-UV mapped the placement twice now and i can't seem figure out the issue on my own, i usually find it easily myself, but I'm completely in the dark with this one.

Pic: https://gyazo.com/557527be3915557702376cfa9b05ac7c

What you need to know: Uv mapping the object its fine, but as soon as I organised everything into one UV window (the main one) after having saved the progress I made, and then rebooting the program or just loading the file again, only SOME UV's deiced to part and scramble everywhere.

[Anonymous]

I ended up having to rebuild my UVs. From reading what others have posted and a co-worker said, I need to frequently Delete History on all objects . . . especially before I save. To Delete History, select all your objects, then go to:
Edit > Delete by Type > History.

[Anonymous]

Hi

Thanks for your reply. After some frustration, I worked out what the problem was in Maya 2020. Both to delete history from time to time, but also, make sure that no UV shells are overlapping each other. Back in the 2018 version, I was stupid and overlapped a lot of the same UV shells, because I thought that would save both space, but also the quality of the texture would be better. Now knowing why you shouldn't do that, I never had that problem. But on a model I was working on recently (whilst working in Maya 2020), there is this bug when overlapping UV's all of a sudden just bug out and start escaping the main UV set. This is one of the things I noticed in Maya 2020, because I've never stumbled upon this problem in 2018 Maya.

[Anonymous]

I'm using maya 2020 and scrolling through all the comments and trying everything that's being said, I'm still having this issue. I wiggled the UV's around, delete by type>history, everything, but the moment the file is saved and reopened by  me, the uv's are completely scattered around . I hope this bug gets solved soon, have wasted nights on this!

[Anonymous]

Before you save, make sure to select all objects and then "delete by type>history." That should work every time.

[20016784]

This is still an issue, and I've also tried all the suggestions here to no avail. It does not work. Every time I open the file, my UV unwrap mapping is destroyed. I have no idea what to do about it, either.

[20016784]

I tried a couple of things. The only thing that seems to work (fingers crossed) is to set up the UV shells the way I want them in terms of size and orientation, use the automated Layout UV function, and then manually moving the shells according to how I want them to be layed out. Skipping the Layout UV seems to be the issue, at least based on this evening's experimentation. Not sure why, though.

[Anonymous]

Maya 2022 - bug is still there...