Phantom nCloth history persists. Help please.

[lightstream]

Maya 2019. After weeks of sculpting and modeling, my bedding is complete. I have deleted all nCloth history, all document history, removed all nCloth nodes and colliders from the Outliner. There does not appear to be anything remaining to delete! But when I export this model as an FBX and re-import it into Maya, everything has gone back to it's pre-nCloth state. [See pics.] I have a client who needs this model as an FBX. I could really use some advice. Thanks.

[hamsterHamster]

Still, can you Export Selection with needed objects only to a new scene? Also, what do you see in the Node Editor for those selected objects, pick one, click on Input And Output Connections button.

[mspeer]

Hi!

There is a very simple solution.

Just use Edit -> Duplicate, this creates a copy based on the current state, without any history.

[lightstream]

here. is an example from the node editor

[lightstream]

Thanks for the suggestion. I thought this would be the perfect example of an obvious solution, but alas the duplicated items still carried the nodes the reply to hamster. So, when I exported them, the nCloth memory was still there. All I get is flat polys.

Then I tried deleting the shape nodes from the node editor [see pics], and that didn't help either. 

I gotta think this history has to be somewhere so that I can delete it.

[hamsterHamster]

You can export your models as OBJ files, which for sure will leave nothing besides meshes. Then import back into new scene, check smoothing and reapply shaders, export FBX.

[mspeer]

Hi!

Please try the following.

1. Edit -> Duplicate

2. Edit -> Delete All by Type -> History

3. File -> Optimize Scene Size

Here this works.

For further help, please provide a scene-file.

[lightstream]

I will try the OBJ work-around, but I would like to know why this is happening. Attaching the file:

[hamsterHamster]

Opens fine here. However, you have many extra shapes (intermediate objects) there, that are some leftovers from simulation/deformation. In the image you can see the green objects - those are the unhidden ones just for the comforter. I believe it is safe to delete them, just it will take some manual iteration through all ex-nCloth objects. I suspect those might be the cause of strange exports.

EDIT: Yes, basically, you select the BEDDING group and export selected as OBJ, it gets stripped of those intermediate shapes, just need to reassign the materials and soften the edges.

[lightstream]

I'm confused since when I open the .mb file, the green thing is not there and does not show up in the outliner. Is your preview from the .fbx or the .mb?

[hamsterHamster]

From .mb

Open the AttrEd for the conforter - you will see many output mesh nodes, where in Object Display section you will see the Intermediate Object flag.

Export as .obj the entire group - just tested, this is quickest way to get rid of those.

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

This is not the original scene with the nCloth files, because of this my steps will not work here.

The cause for the other shapes is based on how deformers work, you have one reference shape and one output shape and both are parented to the same transform node.

In the current provided scene simply delete all mesh/shape nodes that are not connected to a shader.

I am not sure why the FBX export prefers the hidden original shape, but for me this looks like a bug.

As suggested by @hamsterHamster  try an other export format like OBJ which takes the visible shape.

Please report this problem (bug?) to Autodesk.
In Maya main menu:
Help -> Speak Back -> Report a Problem

[lightstream]

That was it. Thanks. Will also report the bug.

[jen_steinkamp]

Select File->Optimize Scene Size->options
     Select Remove: Unknown nodes

Or if that did not work when you export files, try this:
Select one shape at a time
Select Windows->General Editors->Hypergraph: Connections
     Select the light grey node
     Hit delete
     Close the Connection window
Repeat for each shape