Xgen collection doesn't load in scene

[Mickey-G]

After a good amount of time spent on xgen I increment saved and exited maya. Now when i open the scene my xgen collection and descriptions do not load. The nodes are still in the outliner, but the xgen window acts like there aren't any, and there's no sign of them in the viewport. 

How do i re-link the xgen files or make sure it loads correctly? The xgen files are still there in the xgen folder in my project which it's set to. I'm using maya 2018.3 win10.

Thanks for your help.

[Mickey-G]

After messing around and looking at the xgen error log, the problem is that there's no .xgen file there. Apparently when Maya Increments and saves (ctrl+alt+s) it doesn't save the xgen file! I linked the node to my previous .xgen file to see if it at least saved the work in the same file and it loads it when i reopen the scene, but it didn't save the work so the work is lost 😞

This is a bug right?! A "save as" and "increment and save" should save all the work just like a "save" does. Is there a place where suggestions can be made for future updates that I can post this? 

[Anonymous]

Hi, did you figure out how to resolve this issue as I have the same problem? I have 2x Xgen Collections in my scene but am only able to view 1x in the XGen editor. I have also been using increment and save but don't believe I used this when I created my 2nd hair collection/description?

[Mickey-G]

I ended up redoing the lost work. I don't know if there's a fix.

[Chtenelis]

Have the same problem..

[sephiresh]

i can't believe that after all this time there is no solution, i have the same problem.

[bahman_zarei7]

Hi,
I don't know if there is anyone still looking for solution or not, but I found a solution for this issue.
if you create a new xgen collection in the scene, xgen will load all the collections you have in the scene. then you can delete the new one and continue to work on your old collections.

[alexisrivera3d · Accepted solution]

I have been using XGen for a week and I found a solution for this, I recently had the same problem, Maya crashed and then it doesn't recognizes my XGen collection and description either, you have to open the XGen window and select "Import Collection or Description".

And after that, choose the Collection tab in the new popup window. Click on the folder icon and search your .xgen file located in your project folder -> scenes folder and it will import the XGen hair data.

Hope it helps!