Reference editor won't open and several other problems

[bmagner888]

The reference editor won't open. (I already cleared out my prefs, so that's not the solution.) I get this error:

//Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2018/scripts/startup/uiRes.mel line 107: displayString identifier "m_referenceEditorPanel.kExportSelectedNodes" does not exist.
I can do reference functions on objects in the outliner, but I need to be able to access nested references, so I need the reference editor.

Undo is sometimes off-- randomly.  Worst is when I don't find out until it's too late and have to throw out changes, or re-open a scene file that takes several minutes to load and then redo work.  I added the command to turn it on to the userSetup.mel but I don't know if that will solve the problem.

The viewport hangs a lot.  I enabled the legacy viewport through the .env file and this improved performance, but it still hangs a lot.  (hardware: gtx 1080, amd 2700, 32 gigs of ram)

Maya likes to think the "q" "w" "e" and "r" keys are stuck and wants to open marking menus instead of moving or rotating.  This is incredibly frustrating and it's killing my ability to animate or get into any kind of workflow.

Maya doesn't seem to be able to remember a global proc definition in the userSetup.mel.  This is a minor annoyance but it disrupts functionality of some custom shelf buttons.

Maya 2018 feels like three steps backwards in terms of basic functionality and workflow.   Some of these problems were there in 2015 and 2016, but they are worse now.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bmagner888

Have you tried deleting your settings/preferences and/or performing a clean uninstall/reinstall of Maya?

Issues like the Undo que randomly being turned off has been reported and is logged with our dev team but it's tough to test since there aren't any consistent repro steps for it.

For the reference issue, if you open a new blank scene does the same issue occur?  This is one where a reset of your prefs should solve this issue unless its only happening on a specific scene file.

For your viewport issue you'll want to check to see if your GPU driver is the same as our certified version.

You can find our certified hardware list here!

If it is not the same you'll want to uninstall your current GPU driver and install our certified driver which for your gtx 1080 our supported version is version 398.82 which you can find a download for here!

As for the keys getting stuck, this may be fixed as well by a reset of your Maya but if you could post steps to reproduce this issue that would make this much easier to log with our dev team for a fix!

If one or more of these posts helped answer your question, please click Accept as Solution on the posts that helped you so others in the community can find them easily.

Kudos are greatly appreciated. Everyone likes a thumbs up!

[bmagner888]

I've not reinstalled Maya, but I have deleted my entire prefs folder and restarted Maya, and tried to open the reference editor on a blank scene.  Same error.

"As for the keys getting stuck, this may be fixed as well by a reset of your Maya but if you could post steps to reproduce this issue that would make this much easier to log with our dev team for a fix!"
-This is am issue that has been persistent since Maya 2015 but seems to be worse with each subsequent version. Basically I hit "w" to switch to the move tool.  I drag in the viewport on the manipulator to attempt to move a control, instead I get a marking menu.  Same if i hit "e" to try to rotate.  In previous versions like 2016, I could get out of this predicament by rapidly cycling through the tool keys to shake Maya out of it, but Maya 2018 gets locked in this mode which makes animation impossible when it's acting up.

I'm working on an ambitious project and time is already my enemy.  I hate that stupid software issues are wasting valuable time in which I could be making more progress.  I've put a lot of energy into building a pipeline and system to allow myself to work quickly.  If I have to slow down because the software is garbage compared to previous versions, my goals become unattainable.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bmagner888

Sorry to hear that and I understand how frustrating issues like this can be especially when you're on the clock for production.

That said, I do think a clean uninstall may help solve some of these issues however I understand that's not an ideal suggestion when you're in the middle of production.

As for the freezing keys issue, I have seen a few reports confirming what you're saying however I personally have never had this issue and/or been able to reproduce it.

Again, I believe a driver change to our certified hardware is worth testing as you may see a noticeable improvement.

[sean.heasley]

Hi @bmagner888

I'm just checking in again to see if you need more help with this. Did any of the suggestions I provided yesterday work for you?

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

[Anonymous]

I had this problem yesterday, I tried renaming the presets folder as instructed but it didn't fix the problem. Coincidentally on my way home I ran into an old friend who works at Autodesk who told me I should just rename ALL the folders in that directory, so I did and that worked. 

[Anonymous]

This has been partially resolved.  Because of an error with the ReferenceEditor in a previous version of Maya (2015), I had copied and edited the "referenceEditorPanel.mel" to a custom scripts directory (so that the edited version was called without deleting or changing the original file).  When Maya 2018 was trying to open the UI, it was reading from the custom directory and failing.  So removing that mel file seems to have resolved that issue.  
The marking menu issue is still driving me crazy.  What's worse, is that you can change manipulator tools but when you left-click and drag in the viewport--expecting to move an object, you get a marking menu instead, which you've now dragged across and accidentally changed the settings for the move tool, and now it goes off axis in object mode if the object has non-uniform scale.  You have to keep resetting the tool and sometimes that doesn't resolve whatever you accidentally did to it.   This happens at my home computer and at most of the computers where I used to work.  This is a consistent issue.

[Anonymous]

Hello @sean.heasley ,

I have a somewhat similar issue with an editor. I've been working with the BOSS Editor, and suddenly, I started getting an error when I clicked on the editor.

Error reads:
# Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Bifrost/Maya2020/2.0.3.0/bifrost/scripts/menu_MakeBoss.mel line 106: AttributeError: file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Bifrost\Maya2020\2.0.3.0\bifrost\scripts\BossEditor.py line 167: 'unicode' object has no attribute 'node' #

I can go back to older versions of my file, it happens in the most recent ones, but eventually I found one where it didn't. However, when I continued working on that version, the error eventually came up.

Thank you in advance,

Fernanda