Maya Station

Chinese and Japanese language users getting HUD strings in English

We have been made aware of a regression issue with Maya 2014 SP2 which was posted a few weeks ago on www.autodesk.com.

The issues occurs only in Chinese and Japanese UI.  Users will notice that the HUD strings are in English instead of the localized language.  I have been told that this is addressed for future releases including the up and coming Maya 2014 extension release.  

If you cannot wait for that release we have provided zip files for Windows and Mac users to correct the issue today.

Here are the intructions: 

1. Download one for zip file for your O/S.
2. Extract zip file.
3. Add appropriate Japanese or Simplified Chinese version of initHUD.res.mel in following local installed path.
    
   • Win64 Default Path:
     • Japanese: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2014\resources\l10n\ja_JP\scripts\
     • S Chinese: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2014\resources\l10n\zh_CN\scripts\
   • MacOS Default Path:
     • Japanese: /Applications/Autodesk/maya2014/Maya.app/Contents/Resources/ja_JP.lproj/scripts/
     • S Chinese: /Applications/Autodesk/maya2014/Maya.app/Contents/Resources/zh_CN.lproj/scripts/
4. Launch Maya 2014 SP2.

Cheers!
Nelson

Download Win64_Maya2014SP2_Japanese_Simplified_Chinese

Download MacOS_maya2014SP2_Japanese_Simplified_Chinese

Use the Eye dropper outside of the Maya UI

Here is a small video showing a workaround to getting the eye dropper tool to pick a color outside of the Maya UI.

 

In short, if you wish to skip the video you can simply accomplish color picking outside of the UI by selecting the eye drop tool and left mouse click hold and move the mouse over to the color you wish to pick and release the mouse button.

Cheers!

 

Viewport 2.0 not refreshing with UV changes

There are some instances in Maya 2013 in which a user is modifying the UV of a particular mesh but viewport 2.0 is not updating as these changes occur. Image below shows viewport failing to register the changes made in the UV Texture Editor.  While this is a known issue with our development team we have a simple workarond that can be used.

 

 

While one method is to simply switch back to the default viewport it may not show some of the more advance features such as a normal maps unless you go into the shading network and re-map the texture to show up in default viewport.

The other option is to simply make some changes to the UV's in Viewport 2.0 and force the refresh of viewport 2.0.  in command line simply use the command below to reset the viewport.

ogs -reset

This can be added to a hotkey or even a shelf button for quicker access.

Cheers!

Nelson

When I move a joint, its parent changes orientation

You are trying to position joints in your scene with the Move tool, and you notice that Maya is changing the orientation of the selected joint's parent joint.

How to get Tkinter to run in Maya 2012 with Linux

Tkinter is a Python GUI package which operates on top of Tcl/Tk.  The Tkinter .so is included with Maya’s packaged Python folder. For users on Linux running distributions like Redhat Enterprise 6 or Fedora 14 you will notice that the default version of Tcl and Tk are 8.5.  Running any Tkinter call within Maya’s ui will automatically prompt an error:

from Tkinter import *
root = Tk()

# Error: TclError: Can't find a usable init.tcl in the following directories:
/usr/share/tcl8.4 /usr/aw/maya2011-x64/lib/tcl8.4 /usr/aw/lib/tcl8.4 /usr/aw/maya2011-x64/library /usr/aw/library /usr/aw/tcl8.4.13/library /usr/tcl8.4.13/library /usr/share/tcl8.4

You will notice Maya is pointing to a version Tcl which is not installed and looking for directories which are not on the system.

The reason this occurs is because we compile Maya on the lowest possible setup for compliance.  Maya 2012 is based on Redhat Enterprise 5.  This simply means that the default Tcl and Tk version on this distribution are 8.4.  Unfortunately, this information is hardcoded into the _tkinter.so file included in the Maya python "lib-dynload" folder. This cannot be changed. So your only option at this point is to install the 8.4 version of the app.

There is no need to remove your current Tcl or Tk versions and the 8.4 version can be installed without any issues.  You will need to source these based on your distribution and get the rpm’s installed and Maya will than grab the proper directories in /usr/lib.

Let’s now focus on some actual work.  Below is a sample script which will build a GUI window with a button to build a sphere.  You will notice I added some threading commands.  The reason for this is to make sure that the Maya UI is still available and updated without having to wait for the python UI to close before updating the viewport.

import maya.utils
import maya.cmds as mc
import Tkinter as tk
import threading

def makeSphere( radius ):
     print "WOW that Sphere is great!"
     mc.sphere( radius=radius )

def makeMySphere():
     maya.utils.executeInMainThreadWithResult( makeSphere, 5 )

def UI():
    app = tk.Tk()
    btnCube = tk.Button(app, text="Make a special Sphere", command=makeMySphere )
    btnCube.pack()
    app.mainloop()

class MyThread ( threading.Thread ):
     def run ( self ):
          UI()

MyThread().start()

I hope this is helpful for anyone using Tkinter on Linux.  Please remember this was only tested on Linux so I am not sure what the behaviour is like on Windows.

There are also other options for building python GUI’s.  We have details in the Maya devkit for pyQt and I have also seen folks use wxPython.

Cheers!

Nelson

How to install and use fonts on Linux

Every now and than we get requests from users who mention that they have installed True Type Font on Linux but Maya's Create text feature is not picking them up.

The main reason this occurs is because Maya only uses the Type 1 .PFA fonts.  These are postscript fonts. So to get TTF format to work you will need to get them converted.  There are a couple of tools to get this done.

The first option is simple but involves uploading your current TTF to a online server which converts them and makes it available for download.  

http://onlinefontconverter.com/

While this is easy to use I would use caution if the fonts you are converting were purchased.

The second option is to download a simple little application from  http://ttf2pt1.sourceforge.net/  which will allow to locally convert your TTF to PFA on your Linux box.

I have used this application plenty of times without many issues getting fonts converted.  I generally run a simple command like.

ttf2pt1 -e location_off.tff

This will convert the TTF and save the PFA into the same directory.  After that you simply need to copy the file into one of the following directories.

“/usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript”
“/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1”
“/usr/share/fonts/Type1”
“/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1”

Hope this helps!

 

 

Wacom tablet not working correctly in mouse mode

We are aware of UI clicking issues with Maya 2012 users running tablets that have been set to function in mouse mode instead of the default pen mode.  At the moment we have only seen reports of this problem from Windows users. 

While Maya 2011 did not have these tablet problems, Maya 2012 is running on a newer version of Qt which seems to have introduced this problem.

We are working on the issue with all the parties involved and hope to have it resolved in the near future. In the meantime if you are running into tablet issues in mouse mode please revert them back to pen mode in your Wacom tablet settings. 

Cheers!

Maya Viewport Technology Preview

This video is a technology preview. Autodesk wishes to caution you that this preview reflects technology research, and that actual events or results could differ materially from the preview. Also, this preview is not intended to be a promise or guarantee of future delivery of products, services or features but merely reflects technology research, which may change. Purchasing decisions should not be made based upon reliance on this preview. Autodesk does not assume any obligation to update any statements we make to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date of this technology preview.

 

 

The Maya 2011 file browser has disappeared !

On Windows, some information about the Maya 2011 File Browser and the Maya 2011 Color Picker is stored in the registry, not the userPrefs.mel file as you may expect.

For example, the position and size of the Maya File Browser are stored in the registry location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Autodesk\Maya\2011.5-x64\FileDialog (depending on the version it could also be in 2011, 2011.5, 2011-x64).

The syntax of 'pos' is @Point(xxx yyy), as illustrated:

If the situation arises where you can't see the Maya 2011 File Browser, you would check the value of the FileDialog key 'pos'. Try resetting this value to @Point(0 0) and then restart Maya.

Thanks to Nicolas Holst for the tip.

Owen

Export data from Maya 2011 to Alias Studio

Prior to Maya 2011 there was no easy way to export data from Maya to Alias Studio, as a .wire file, if you were using a 64 bit platform.

If you have installed a 64 bit version of Maya 2011, simply load the DCExport plugin from the Plug-in Manager, then choose the SPF_DCE from the list of file types in the Export options, as illustrated.