Maya Station

Maya 2018 Update 2

Before the Christmas break Autodesk released Maya 2018 Update 2.  This release follows up to a big Update 1 that was released a few months earlier.  The release notes can be found here.  Downloads are available through the Autodesk Accounts Portal for current subscription users.

 

Cheers!

Nelson

 

 

 

Crash when loading scenes with displayPoints or type in mayapy

We have seen issues from customers who are attempting to load their scenes which contain type in mayapy that end up crashing.  These particular crashes seem to focus around the newer displayPoints node that are used in Maya.

A displayPoint node in Maya is a Utility Draw Node that is mainly used to display the Type pivot points in the .  Ultimately this crash tends to occur when the type tool is used as there is a UI draw call.

head over to our learning page for more details and workarounds.

 

 

Maya .NET hanging after the Microsoft Security and Quality Rollup for the .NET Framework KB 4040973

Microsoft recently released some security updates for Windows operating systems. I have got confirmation that the .NET update is causing Maya to hang on exit of the application.  This is only an issue for those folks who rely on .NET plugins in Maya.  KB4040973 is the update we identified.

This is currently affecting Maya 2017/2018 releases and we are already working on a solution for upcoming updates. The remedy at this point in time is to simply uninstall the security updates until a more permanent solution is determined. 

I will be posting more info here once the Updates become available.

 

Cheers!

Create a Tire Burnout using Maya Fluids

Awhile back I was met with a challenge from a customer to create a tire burnout effect using Maya fluids.  Below is the result I got after some trial and error.  While this may not work for every scenario it does allow a user who is stuck get going.  The video describe the process and attributes I used.  

I hope you enjoy it!

 

 

Maya 2018 BonusTools

Its been awhile since we posted to this blog.  Going forward I will be trying to update this more frequently with Maya release updates and issues we have hit along the way in an effort to make your lives easier.  

As a first post I thought it would good to make sure everyone is aware that Maya 2018 BonusTools  were recently released for you to enjoy.

https://apps.autodesk.com/en/Detail/Index?id=8115150172702393827&appLang=en&os=Win64

For those that are not aware of Maya BonusTools, it is a collection of useful scripts/plug-ins to make some everyday tasks a bit easier.  Please follow the link above to the Exchange store to get your copy.

Cheers!

 

How to prevent Maya writing a "requires" command for a plug-in

Do you wonder why error messages about some plug-in or other that Maya cannot find continue to appear when you load a scene? Do you wish you could force Maya to unload a plug-in when saving your scene so you can avoid having it load again with the scene file ?

The objective of this tutorial is help you understand why Maya might include a reference to a plug-in in a scene file, and how to prevent Maya from doing so.

To complete this tutorial, you will need Maya 2015 SP6 or Maya 2015 Ext1 & SP6 because this Service Pack release includes two new MEL commands : unknownPlugin and unknownNode; this tutorial demonstrates how to use both of them.

Mayatomr not available after uninstalling mental ray for Maya 2015 SP2 plug-in patch (windows-only)

If you uninstall the mental ray for Maya 2015 Service Pack 2 plug-in patch on Windows, and find that Mayatomr is no longer appearing in Maya, you can work around this issue by modifying the following file:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Modules\Maya\2015\mentalray.mod

And changing these lines from:

+ LOCALE:en_US mayatomr 3.12.1.12 <MENTALRAY_DIR>
+ LOCALE:zh_CN mayatomr 3.12.1.12 <MENTALRAY_DIR>
+ LOCALE:ja_JP mayatomr 3.12.1.12 <MENTALRAY_DIR>

to:

+ LOCALE:en_US mayatomr 3.12.1.12 C:\Program Files\Autodesk\mentalrayForMaya2015\
+ LOCALE:zh_CN mayatomr 3.12.1.12 C:\Program Files\Autodesk\mentalrayForMaya2015\
+ LOCALE:ja_JP mayatomr 3.12.1.12 C:\Program Files\Autodesk\mentalrayForMaya2015\

And re-starting Maya.

OpenSubdiv smooth Mesh Preview Crash

**Update. This issue has been resolved in Maya 2015 SP2**

Maya 2015 may crash turning on Smooth Mesh Preview (3 key) for some meshes if the Subdivision Method is OpenSubdiv.

To avoid the crash either delete or rename the UV Set named ‘map11’, or change the Subdivision Method to Maya Catmull-Clark.

1. Select the mesh
2. Open the UV Set Editor. Create UV’s ->UV Set Editor
3. Select  the UV Set named “map11”
4. Delete or Rename

or 

1. Select the mesh
2. Open the Attribute Editor for the mesh shape.
3. In the Smooth Mesh attributes change Subdivision Method to Maya Catmull-Clark

Thanks to QA for the tip on this!

Cheers!

Nelson

 

Maya 2014 SP4 and Maya 2014 Ext SP2

I wanted to apologize for website issues currently affecting our Maya users who are attempting to download the latest service pack.  To help ease some of the pains while we sort out our new support site I have provided direct links to each build.  

Windows:

http://download.autodesk.com/us/maya/Maya_2014_SP4/Autodesk_Maya_2014sp4_dlm.sfx.exe

Mac Os X:

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/Autodesk_Maya_2014sp4_English_Japanese_SimplifiedChinese_MAC_OSX.dmg

Linux:

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/Autodesk_Maya_2014sp4_English_Linux_64bit.gz

 

Folks with subscription access can get your extension service pack from the subscription site.

www.autodesk.com/subscription

 

Once again sorry for the troubles.

 

Cheers!

Nelson

 

 

 

Mac OS Mavericks [10.9] + Autodesk Products

via upandready.typepad.com

If you are planning on upgrading to Mac Os 10.9 please head over to the up and ready blog to get all the information needed o handle some of the licensing issue that may pop up.

Cheer!
Nelson