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A frustrating bug and an annoying workaround.

A frustrating bug and an annoying workaround.

Mechlai
Enthusiast Enthusiast
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Message 1 of 3

A frustrating bug and an annoying workaround.

Mechlai
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

This is a problem I've had for years. I am not looking for a solution, just reporting a bug and offering a solution to others.

 

Whenever I UV map one of my 3D models, there is a good chance the UVs will be broken when I open my saved .mb file later. The only solution I have found to work into my workflow is to export a .fbx file of anything I want to have saved with proper UVs since .mb has never been a reliable way to save freshly edited UV data. 

 

I have attached 2 files. The first is an un-edited copy of my latest .mb project with 2 layers showing my model with broken UVs. It is set up so that the geometry in these 2 layers each contain a set of UVs which overlap in the default UV space... Or they were supposed to...

 

The second file is the low poly chest exported as an .fbx before I saved my .mb file. 

 

If you delete the geometry that is visible by default in the .mb file and then re-import the .fbx into the scene, you can inspect the geometry on each of the 2 layers to see how it was set up before I saved my .mb file.

 

The only solution I have come across is to export, delete and re-import any mesh I finish UV mapping before I save my .mb file. Posting for awareness since I almost lost my work again due to this bug that has been popping up every now and then for years now.

 

Will include screenshots as well. 

 

Cheers community! Happy modeling. 

236 Views
2 Replies
Replies (2)
Message 2 of 3

Kahylan
Advisor
Advisor

Hi!

 

It's quite an interesting bug you have there. It seems that your UV history isn't stored right.

I acutally found another workaround by accident:

1) Select all your Objects in UV Shell Mode

2) Use the Modify -> Layout Command

3) Hit Control Z

For some reason this restored the UV layout you also had in your FBX on your broken model. Which would indicate that there are some history nodes that don't get loaded correctly on scene startup but when forced to recalculate actually work.

 

I have some other workaround suggestions you could try out that seem simpler than exporting and reimporting your model. The problem is, that no matter what I tried, I could not get your file to break the UV's while saving, so I couldn't try them out myself:

 

Save your file in .ma as long as it has any history on it. .ma is a more reliable format when it comes to history nodes, also it could give better insight as to why your bug happens, when it happens.

 

Once you are finished with your UV layout, select all your models and use the Edit-> Delete History command to get rid of faulty history nodes.

 

Maybe one of these methods will keep your UV's from breaking.

 

Also, I would like to mention, that in my 8 years of working with Maya, I never encountered this bug before and I've never heard my collegues mention it as well.

And fact that I couldn't reproduce it with a file that had done this before and the UV layout that I had restored with that workaround which for some reason was problematic for you, could mean that there is some sort of corruption in your Maya Program  that causes trouble while saving. Maybe uninstalling Maya properly, downloading the version you use again and reinstalling could fix this issue for good...

 

I hope it helps!

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Message 3 of 3

Mechlai
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for the tips. I'll keep those in mind on my next model. It can't be my installation or hardware though because I've been having this issue since 2010. I don't start/finish projects in Maya often, but I've had it in several versions across several pc builds and a laptop. Whatever it is, It's got to do with how I model lol. I've just made exporting/importing an fbx habit at this point.

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