Please help me! Trouble loading project.

[Anonymous]

I am a student learning maya software for the first time.  Our first project was to create a building, and I decided to model the Tah Mahal.  I build the file the first time and realized I was saving the file in binary by mistake.  The file wouldn't load, so I decided to do over but make it better.  The second time the building turned out beautifully, but after I saved my file and closed the program, the file wouldn't load...again.  I was frustrated but I had my renders.  Our next project needed sand assets and I was told I could use my original and put a sand texture on the project and be finished.  I used this as an excuse to build my model again making it even better than the first two times.  I completed the project in its entirety, was really careful about the save method and soon learned that this file also would not load.  I've tried many things and still I cannot create a file that I can use.  I built the model by making half of the building and applying a mirror to it to fill out the other half.  the half built model is about 16mb in size while the complete file is 32.7.  Ive tried opening as import, opening scene, drag and drop but it always becomes trapped in an infinite load.  I can't believe that there is no solution.  I'm using the student version for class, but if I had to pay for this software I would be furious.  As it is I'm afraid to create to my full potential as I don't have time to spend hours on a scene that no one can even look at.  I'm attaching one of the files that is crucial to my assignments in hopes there is a way to fix this.

[mspeer]

Hi!

You should delete history if you don't need it anymore.

There are thousands of history nodes in your file, one small error and the whole scene can't be re-created. Even if it can be re-created it may need minutes or hours as Maya needs to repeat every single action you did to create the final scene.

[Anonymous]

I actually did that prior to the final save. Edit: delete by type: history. The other types didn't apply to my work, and to the best of my knowledge the op was successful- is there anything else? I also ensured the applied texture was off. Thank you for responding.

[mspeer]

Hi!

There are more than 20 nodes only booleans and here it hangs on one of them when trying to open the file, so no, history is not removed, at least not for all objects.

[Anonymous]

Okay so your response helped to save my life! Is there any way I can recover the completed form? I had closed the file after I thought I had deleted the history and I don’t know how to do anything with it now. I had an alternative version I had created to become a sandcastle, but I can successfully open this file now that I repeated the process. I believe that I did not have the object selected when deleting my history and that’s why the information was still there. Also what did you look at to determine this as the issue? I would like to know what to look for in the future so I can be self-sufficient. Thanks again!!

[mspeer]

Hi!

Sorry, it look like the completed object can't be re-covered.

To prevent data loss like this:

1. Do incremental saves (as often as suitable) and from time to time save or export in an additional format (like FBX or OBJ).

2. Delete history if not needed anymore (on single or all objects).

[Anonymous]

Great advice! I’ve been saving my project frequently. Because the finished building is symmetrical, I was only building half of the building. The loss can be pinpointed to the first save after I had applied mirror. I made several saves (manually) after this point, however none of these open. So is this something I can expect while working with complex objects until I delete my history? Thanks again for all of the advice! I’m learning so much from the community

[mspeer]

Hi!

OBJ might help you in future as it can't save complex networks, it's just a simple mesh export, suitable for saving a simple "final" geometry file.