ReleaseNotes_Maya

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MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

VERSION 3
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
2000, Alias|Wavefront, a division of Silicon Graphics Limited.
Printed in U S A. All rights reserved.
The Maya 3 Documentation was created by: Steven Brooks, John Dila, Lisa Ford, Conan Hunter,
Claude Macri, Susan Park, Diane Ramey, Linda Rose, and Michael Stivers.
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CONTENTS
1 BASIC INTERFACE 1
General UI 2
Tips for using the Hypergraph 6
Hypergraph 7
2 ANIMATION 9
General Animation 10
Graph Editor 11
Path animation 12
Animation preview and playblast 13
3 CHARACTER SETUP 15
General Character Setup 16

Skeletons and Inverse Kinematics 16
Constraints 23
Deformers 25
TraX 31
Motion Capture & Device Editor 33
4 MAYA ARTISAN 35
5 DYNAMICS 37
6 NURBS MODELING 45
7 SUBDIVISION SURFACES 49

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CONTENTS
8 POLYGONS AND GAMES 51
General polygon and games 52

Texturing and coloring 58
NURBS To Polygons 60
Level of Detail 60
Blind Data 61
Polygonal API update/limitation 62
Games translators 63
9 RENDERING & PAINT TEXTURES TOOL 65
IPR Rendering 67
Particle software rendering 68
Texture mapping 70
Lighting and shadowing 72
Motion blur 74
Optical FX 76
Ray tracing 77
Miscellaneous software rendering 78
Rendering workflow issues 82
Hardware shading 83
Hypershade/Visor 85
Multilister, Connection Editor, & Attribute Editor 87
Cameras and views 87
Image planes 88
Convert to File Texture 90
Render Layers/Passes 91
Stand-alones 92
Paint Textures Tool 93

IV
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CONTENTS
10 MISCELLANEOUS 95
General Maya limitations & workarounds 96

AliasToMaya and MayaToAlias 103
Obj import 112
Maya NT 112
11 DOCUMENTATION 115
What’s updated in the documentation 116

Netscape errors 116
Documentation errors 117
12 MAYA CLOTH 119
13 MAYA FUR 129
14 MAYA PAINT EFFECTS 135
General Maya Paint Effects 136

Maya Paint Effects features 139
15 MAYA LIVE 147
General scene 148

Setup 149
Track 150
Solve 151
16 MAYA COMMANDS 153
MEL 154
ELF 157

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CONTENTS
17 FILE FORMATS 159
18 UTILITIES & PERIPHERALS 171
RIB Export 172

Anim Import/Export 173
imgcvt 174
19 DEVELOPER’S TOOL KIT 175
INDEX 183

VI
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MAYA RELEASE NOTES
Thank you for buying Maya—Alias|Wavefront’s award-winning computer

animation package. The following pages describe how to approach the Maya
documentation so you can learn and use your software most effectively.
Maya Release Notes lists limitations in the software and suggests
workarounds for them.
About the Maya documentation set

Whether you use Maya Unlimited, Maya Complete, or Maya Builder, you
receive a full set of documentation. Since Maya ties together several different
kinds of software, we’ve included many different books to describe how to
use it.
Where do I begin?
The following should help you decide where to start reading and learning
about Maya.
5 When you install Maya Complete, Maya Unlimited, or Maya Builder, see
one of the installation guides for guidance.
For example, see Installing Maya 3.0 on Windows NT if you’re installing Maya
Complete or Unlimited on an NT or Windows 2000 system.
Important
In response to customer requests, we’ve changed the licensing procedure
in Maya 3.0, Please read the installation instructions from cover to cover,
even if you have installed previous versions of Maya.
6 If you’ve used Maya before and want an overview of new features, see
What’s New in Maya 3.
This booklet provides a summary of new features across all modules.

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Next, you may want to review the Maya 3.0 Release Notes for brief
descriptions of limitations in the software and successful ways to work
around them.
7 If you’re a first-time Maya user, see Learning Maya for a comprehensive,
step-by-step tour of the Maya software before you read any other
documentation.
A CD included at the back of the book contains online documentation of the
tutorials as well as all required image and Maya support files. Additional
copies of this book are also available from your local technical bookstore.
The remaining documentation assumes that you have at least a working
familiarity with Maya, so it’s important to start with Learning Maya.
8 Now, you’re ready to move on to the Using Maya series.

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The Using Maya series

The Using Maya books describe how you can use Maya’s user interface to
create professional 3D graphics animations and visual effects. Each book is
devoted to a different area of the software.
The Using Maya series includes these books:
Essentials a guide to Maya’s user interface and basic tools. Using Maya: Essentials also
defines a number of concepts that are common to all of Maya. Using Maya:
Essentials was called Using Maya: Basics in previous releases.
NURBS describes Maya's spline modeling system and tells you how to get the most
Modeling out of it.
Polygonal describes how to interactively create, modify, and color polygonal models.
Modeling
Subdivision describes the enhanced subdivision surfaces modeling tools which are
Surfaces available only in Maya Unlimited.
Modeling
Character tells how to use Maya’s deformer, skeleton, skinning, constraint, and
Setup character features.
Animation describes Maya's basic animation software, which is based on keyframes and
motion paths. This book also provides information on motion capture and
introduces other Maya animation techniques, such as character setup.
Dynamics describes how to animate using natural forces. You can use dynamics to
make effects such as tumbling dice, waving flags, and exploding fireworks.
Rendering describes how to prepare for rendering, render a scene, and view your
rendered images. This book also describes how to create light, shadow, and
light effects, shade and texture surfaces, and paint textures. It also shows you
how to set up cameras and views and create a background. The information
in Using Maya: Rendering is arranged by production task.
The online book, Maya Reference: Rendering describes Maya’s rendering-
related menu options, attributes, and windows.

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Paint Effects describes how to use Paint Effects to paint real-time rendered strokes onto or
between 3D objects or onto a 2D canvas.
Cloth describes how to create and animate realistic clothing using Maya
Unlimited’s Cloth software. This book includes four tutorials to get you
started, as well as a complete user’s guide.
Fur describes how to use Maya Unlimited Fur to create realistic, self-shadowing
fur and short hair on multi-surface models.
Live describes how to use Live, Maya Unlimited’s automated match-moving tool.
You can use Live to match Maya scenes with live footage by reconstructing
3D locations and camera or object movement from a shot.

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The Maya Technical Library

When you’re ready to use Maya to its fullest potential, you’ll want to explore
the technical library. These documents tell how to use Maya’s powerful
command language and expressions. They also provide information that will
help you use Maya with other software packages.
Note
The books in the Maya Technical Library are not included in a printed
document set. However, html files for all of these documents are provided
on your product CD for online viewing. PDF files are also provided unless
otherwise specified.
MEL describes how to use the Maya Embedded Language (MEL) to enter
commands and write scripts.
MEL includes technical descriptions of the individual MEL commands.

Command MEL commands are provided in html format only, no PDF files are supplied.
Reference
Expressions describes how to use expressions to control attributes. Expressions are ideal
for controlling attributes that change incrementally, randomly, or
rhythmically over time. They are also useful for linking attributes between
different objects—where a change to one attribute affects the behavior of the
other.
DG Node is for technical users who want more information on the DG node attributes.
Reference The DG Node Reference is provided in html format only, no PDF files are supplied.
Maya File is for technical users with programming experience who want to either edit
Formats Maya files or write translators to or from the Maya file formats.
Maya describes how to use the Maya API to load, write, and edit plug-ins. This
Developer’s book includes instructions for creating your own plug-ins.
Tool Kit The Maya Developer’s Tool Kit also features on-line links to example plug-ins.
Maya is for people who are bringing data into Maya or exporting data to other
Translators software packages.

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Maya Game describes how to install and use Maya game translators. Information is
Translators provided for VRML2 and GE2, as well as the RTG file format. This book also
includes information on using the MDt API.
Rendering describes how to use command-line and stand-alone utilities that are part of
Utilities Maya, such as fcheck, as well as the options for the command line renderer.
Rendering Utilities was called Utilities in previous releases.
Using Maya’s online documentation

For your convenience, the Maya documentation is online in html format.
(This help requires version 4 or higher of either Netscape Communicator or
Internet Explorer.) We include the complete Maya Unlimited documentation
set, no matter what version of the software you have purchased.
Printing online books

To allow you to print copies of the documentation, we’ve provided PDF files
of most documents. These files require the Adobe Acrobat reader.
To print the online books, insert your Maya CD, navigate to the pdf
directory, and open library.pdf.
The Glossary
For 3.0, we’ve provided an online glossary so you can look up meanings of
words you encounter which are new or confusing.
Search tools
We’ve provided an enhanced Library search tool in Maya 3.0. You can use
the Library Search tool without installing the documentation files on a
server.
To access the Library Search tool, select Library Search from the main
Maya Library page. Searching this way provides you a with a broader search
scope—entering a word or text string searches all the Maya books.
A Book Search tool is also provided in the left frame of most books. Use this
tool look for an item in the book you are currently viewing.

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Online indexes
When you are viewing a specific book, you can access that book’s index. You
can also use the Global Index to view entries throughout the document set
(except the MEL Command Reference and the DG Node Reference.)
Using Maya’s printed documentation

A complete printed documentation set includes the following
documentation:
• Installing Maya — describes how to install and license your software
• Learning Maya — provides comprehensive step-by-step tutorials
• Maya Release Notes — lists limitations in the software and suggests
workarounds for them
• What’s New in Maya — describes the new features we’ve added for this
release
• Maya Quick Reference Card — a guide to Maya’s most frequently used
keyboard shortcuts. The Quick Reference Card also outlines the steps you
use to create your own hotkeys.
• Troubleshooting Rendered Images — a quick reference card to help you identify
problems with rendered images
• Books in the Using Maya series — as listed on page ix
• Maya Global Index for print —which provides page numbers for entries in the
printed document set. This book is different from the online index.
Printed documentation conventions

The printed documentation follows these conventions:
• MEL commands, program code, expressions, and error messages appear in
courier font:
This is computer code
• Items in cascading menus are identified by an arrow. For example, “select
Particles > Make Collide” means “select the Add Goal option from the Make
Collide menu.”
• Option windows are indicated by a box (❐) at the end of a menu item’s
name. Click this ❐ to open an item’s option window. For example, “Open
the Smooth options window (Polygons > Smooth - ❐).”

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xiv
138 BASIC INTERFACE
The following lists the basic interface software limitations and workarounds
for Maya 3.0.
The limitations and workarounds are grouped into the following categories.
Please see the specific category for a list of related limitations and
workarounds:
Notes Page
General UI 2
Tips for using the Hypergraph 6
Hypergraph 7

1
BASIC INTERFACE | 138

General UI
GENERAL UI
The following limitations and workarounds relate to general UI issues.
• Channel Box does not accept keypad 3 and 9 keys in CV edit mode — Page 3
• Color Value attribute for Paint Textures Tool limitation — Page 3
• Hotkeys disabled when using Attribute Editor in main window — Page 3
• Speeding up interactive performance on UNIX machines — Page 3
• Using the grid in perspective view — Page 3
• Tearing off menus with check boxes or radio buttons — Page 4
• Drag and drop nodes in the List of history operations window — Page 4
• Pop-up list boxes in the Channel Box on NT — Page 4
• Using the right-click pop-up menu in the Channel Box — Page 4
• Remapping the Enter key — Page 4
• Marking menus appear when using the left mouse button — Page 4
• Highlighting objects in Component Selection mode — Page 4
• Setting rotation and translation limits in the Channel Box — Page 5
• Using micro-sliders in the Channel Box — Page 5
• Using torn off panels in panel layouts — Page 5
• Creating different instances of tools on a shelf — Page 5
• Referenced files from previous versions of Maya — Page 6
• Edit option menu for mode selection disabled for tools — Page 6

2

General UI
Channel Box does not accept keypad 3 and 9 keys in CV edit mode
Limitation For Maya on IRIX, the Channel Box is unable to accept the keypad 3 and 9
keys in CV edit mode. 127199
Workaround Use the regular keyboard numeric keys.
Color Value attribute for Paint Textures Tool limitation

In the Paint Textures Tool options window (Lighting/Shading > Paint
Textures Tool - ❐) the Color Value color slider attribute is unlike other node
attributes in Maya—it may not accept an expression, be keyed, or be driven
by a key. You can, however, post a pop-up menu using the right mouse
button. Of the items displayed in this menu, only the Color Chooser item has
any effect. The rest of these items should be ignored as they will not change
the behavior of the color value. 130625
Hotkeys disabled when using Attribute Editor in main window

Limitation If you have the Attribute Editor open in the main window, and you click on
it, type in a new value, and then press Enter, the keyboard focus stays in the
Attribute Editor. This means your hotkeys will not work until you return
focus to the modeling window.
Workaround To get the focus back into the modeling window without changing anything
else, move the mouse over the window and click with the middle mouse
button. 107815
Speeding up interactive performance on UNIX machines

On UNIX machines, you can speed up Maya’s interactive performance by
closing or hiding the Attribute Editor when you are not using it. Motif can
be very slow to rebuild the widgets. 110578
Using the grid in perspective view

Limitation If you are working in non-default units, you may not see the grid in
perspective view when you first open a file. The problem is that the grid is
created at the wrong size. Zooming out will show it. 101401
Workaround Select Display > Grid ❐ and click the Reset button. Then on the view panel
select View > Default Home.

3

General UI
Tearing off menus with check boxes or radio buttons

Limitation If you tear off a menu that has check boxes or radio buttons and leave it
open, the check marks and buttons may not update. 67106
Workaround Close the menu, then reopen it
Drag and drop nodes in the List of history operations window

You can reorder Deformer nodes in the history of an object by dragging and
dropping them in the List of history operations window. Attempts to
reorder other kinds of nodes are ignored. 95997
Pop-up list boxes in the Channel Box on NT

On NT, pop-up list boxes in the Channel Box do not work with xmouse
emulation software.
Using the right-click pop-up menu in the Channel Box

Limitation In the Channel Box, the right-click pop-up menu may not always
appear.88098
Workaround You can access the menu using the menu bar at the top of the Channel Box.
The next time you start Maya, the menu will work correctly.
Remapping the Enter key

If you try to remap the Enter key in the Hotkeys window, Maya may behave
strangely.
Marking menus appear when using the left mouse button

Limitation Marking menus may appear unexpectedly when you use the left-mouse
button.
Workaround Press the q, w, e, or r hotkey.
Highlighting objects in Component Selection mode

Limitation Sometimes you cannot highlight objects in Component Selection mode.
Workaround Choose Initial Default from the selection set menu (beside the lock button)
on the status line.

4

General UI
Setting rotation and translation limits in the Channel Box

Limitation You cannot set rotation and translation limits in the Channel Box. 89483
Workaround Use the Attribute Editor. To set the limits of many objects at once, use the All
tab in the Attribute Spread Sheet (Window > General Editors > Attribute
Spread Sheet).
Using micro-sliders in the Channel Box

Limitation Micro-sliders do not work in Channel Box fields. When you use the Ctrl key
with mouse buttons, the micro-slider does not display.
Workaround Click on the field in the Channel Box and use the middle mouse button in
the 3D view to interactively change the value. (The cursor changes to a
double-arrow).
Using torn off panels in panel layouts

Limitation Panel layouts cannot use panels that have been torn off. If you select a panel
layout that includes a torn-off panel, Maya displays a warning that it cannot
use the panel. Any available panel is used instead.86444 For example, the
built-in Persp/Outliner panel layout usually places the Outliner in the left
pane and the Perspective view in the right pane. If you tear the Outliner off
into its own window, a warning is issued and another panel is put in place
of the Outliner.
Workaround Once you close the tear-off panel, it can be used by panel layouts that
include it.
Creating different instances of tools on a shelf

When you select some tools, like the Joint Tool, they appear in the sixth
space of the Minibar next to the Shelf. To create multiple instances of these
tools, drag the tool icon from the Minibar to the Shelf. To display the Tool
Settings window for these tools, double-click the tool icon on the shelf.
Different instances of the tools can have different settings.89293
For other tools, you use Ctl+Shift+Alt menu item selection on the menu item
to select a tool. This places a button on the Shelf with a MEL command to set
the specified tool to be the current tool. This does not create a separate
instance of a tool, even when you repeat it. Tools on the shelf have a
highlight around them when selected, buttons do not.

5

Tips for using the Hypergraph
Referenced files from previous versions of Maya

Limitation A referenced file can sometimes behave oddly if the file was created by an
earlier version of Maya (for example, when a Maya 2.5 or 3.0 scene
references a Maya 1.5 file).
Workaround To upgrade a referenced file to the current version of Maya, load the file into
the current version of Maya and resave it.
Edit option menu for mode selection disabled for tools

Option windows for tools and actions include an Edit option menu at the
top of the window that allows you to pick between tool and action modes.
Currently, only actions can be switched to tool mode. Therefore, for tools
(for example, Birail Surface Tool), the Edit option menu is disabled.
Limitation SUG# 91518 In the options dialog for Create Reference, the option Menu
labeled Prefixing has only one value, all nodes. Also, the Type option Menu
that appears in all the file option dialogs pertains to the default file type to
be used when performing the related operation.
This is somewhat confusing for read operations, such as Import, since
clicking on any file in the related file browser changes the type to that
detected for the file. However, if you type in the filename without first
clicking on the name in the browser, then Maya tries to read the file using
the file type specified, regardless of the actual file type. Certain file types
(such as obj) are not always 100% accurate in their file type identification, so
this provides the user with a simple override mechanism for the default
behavior.
TIPS FOR USING THE HYPERGRAPH

The following tips enable you to define an easier and faster workflow when
using the Hypergraph.
• Upstream and downstream connections — Page 7
• Selecting multiple nodes — Page 7
• Free-form layout mode — Page 7
• DG node display — Page 7
• Connection lines in the DAG view — Page 7

6

Hypergraph
• Improve performance when viewing large graphs — Page 7
Upstream and downstream connections

To show a shape’s upstream and downstream connections, select it before
you go to the DG view. It is not enough to select the transform parent.
Selecting multiple nodes

If you select multiple nodes in the DAG view, the DG graph containing all
selected nodes is displayed when you go to the DG view.
Free-form layout mode

In free-form layout mode, Maya saves layout information for any node you
directly drag or for a collection of nodes that you select and drag.
DG node display
The node type for a given DG node is displayed in the pop-up window only
during mouse-over feedback.
Connection lines in the DAG view

Connection lines in the DAG view may clip when you scroll one node out of
view. (This includes DG connections and IK handle joint span lines.)
Improve performance when viewing large graphs

To improve performance when viewing large graphs, DAG connections are
not drawn while the view changes.
HYPERGRAPH
The following limitations and workarounds relate to the Hypergraph.
• Hiding or collapsing shapes in the Hypergraph — Page 8
• Changing default Hypergraph colors — Page 8
• Deleting connections in the DG view of the Hypergraph — Page 8
• Using the IK Handle Tool in the Hypergraph — Page 8

7

Hypergraph
Hiding or collapsing shapes in the Hypergraph

Limitation A transform node displays the icon of its child shape when you hide or
collapse the shape. Depending on the order the graph was built in, the icon
may still occasionally show the transform icon, even if it has a shape child.
Workaround Use Graph > Rebuild to update the icon.
Changing default Hypergraph colors

Limitation If you change the default Hypergraph colors (Options > Customize UI >
Colors), some objects may lack contrast or appear to be invisible.
Workaround Select colors that contrast with the background or foreground colors.
Deleting connections in the DG view of the Hypergraph

Limitation Connections in the DG view can be deleted only when you single-select
them. You cannot delete a multiple selection of connections with a single
delete action.
Workaround Delete each connection individually while you are in the DG view.
Using the IK Handle Tool in the Hypergraph

The IK Handle Tool behaves differently in the Hypergraph than it does in a
model view. In a model view you can select the start joint and then select the
end joint to add an IK handle. However, in the Hypergraph after you select
the first joint you must hold down the Shift key to extend the selection for
the end joint. 57742

8
139 ANIMATION
The following lists the animation software limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Notes Page
General Animation 10
Graph Editor 11
Path animation 12
Animation preview and playblast 13

9
ANIMATION | 139
General Animation
GENERAL ANIMATION
The following limitations and workarounds apply to general animation
features.
• animationScriptNode's can cause extreme file bloat — Page 10
• Choice nodes do not work with compound attributes — Page 10
• Playblast uses $TEMP directory on NT — Page 10
• Options in option windows (Edit > Keys menu) disabled for current
characters — Page 11
• Copying animations — Page 11
animationScriptNode's can cause extreme file bloat

Limitation When you import a scene, that scene's animationScriptNode is imported and
then ignored forever. If you use a workflow with many imports, the excess
animationScriptNode's can cause extreme file bloat. 130690
Workaround In MEL: delete `ls “*animationScriptNode*”`;
Choice nodes do not work with compound attributes

Limitation Choice nodes do not work with compound attributes. For example, the
translate attribute cannot be connected to a choice node, but the individual
components can be connected to a choice node.123676
Workaround Connect the individual attributes to the choice node. For translate, connect
the tx, ty, and tz attributes separately.
Playblast uses $TEMP directory on NT

Limitation Playblast uses $TEMP directory on NT even if “Save To File” specifies a
different directory.128828
Workaround Make sure there is enough disk space to hold the playblast file in your
$TEMP directory.

10
ANIMATION | 139
Graph Editor
Options in option windows (Edit > Keys menu) disabled for current
characters
Limitation When a character is current, options in several option windows are disabled
since they default to the current character. The option windows affected are
the ones under the Edit > Keys menu item.129042
Workaround Set the current character to “None”.
Copying animations
Tip Have you been wondering how to paste animations of characters, skeletons,
and other objects from one scene to characters, skeletons or other objects in
another scene?
One way is to export and import animation using the animImportExport
plugin. However, if you copy an animation to the clipboard, it stays on the
clipboard when you do File > New and File > Open. This means you can
retrieve a scene with animation, select a character and copy the animation,
and then retrieve another scene (with the same character in it) and paste the
animation into it.
GRAPH EDITOR
The following limitations and workarounds relate to the Graph Editor.
• animCurve interpolations Spline and Clamped changes — Page 11
• Key tangents may become difficult to select — Page 12
animCurve interpolations Spline and Clamped changes

The animCurve interpolations Spline and Clamped changed in Maya 2.0.
While pre-2.0 files will still import properly and playback precisely as they
did before, subsequent setting of the tangent types on these pre-2.0
animCurves to “Spline” or “Clamped” could result in slightly different
interpolations. 104653

11
ANIMATION | 139
Path animation
Key tangents may become difficult to select

Limitation Key tangents may become difficult to select and/or manipulate when the
Graph Editor’s displays a view with an extreme vertical-to-horizontal ratio.
Workaround Using the Graph Editor’s Curves > Spreadsheet menu item, enter a new
value for the in- or out-tangent angle and invoke View >Frame Selected to
resume interactively editing the tangent. 109397
PATH ANIMATION
The following limitations and workarounds relate to path animation.
• Paths > Flow Path Object lattice limitation — Page 12
• Geometry popping out of flow lattice — Page 12
Paths > Flow Path Object lattice limitation

Limitation The lattice created from a Paths > Flow Path Object will ignore effects
introduced by any motion path orientation markers. 68704
Workaround To enhance the front, up, side twist of a path animation with flow, animate
the rotation of the flow lattice rather than using orientation markers for the
path animation.
Geometry popping out of flow lattice

Limitation If a transform object with several pieces of geometry grouped under it is
animated with path animation, and then flow is applied with the lattice
around the object option, occasionally some of the geometry may “pop out”
of the flow lattice. 89857
Workaround Select the base lattice of the flow’s FFD and scale it a little larger until the
geometry “pops back” inside the flow lattice.

12
ANIMATION | 139
Animation preview and playblast
ANIMATION PREVIEW AND PLAYBLAST

The following limitation and workaround relates to animation preview and
playblast.
• Playblast screen-grab limitation — Page 13
• Playblast of movie files with MVC2 compression now longer — Page 13
• Playblast escape limitation — Page 13
Playblast screen-grab limitation

Limitation Playblast creates a movie by screen-grabbing your animation one frame at a
time during playback. If you open the playblast option window and it
obscures the area where the screen will be grabbed, sometimes the first
frame of your movie displays part of the playblast option window. 88918
Workaround Make sure the playblast option window is not covering the area that will be
screen grabbed, or, save the settings in the playblast options window, close
the window, and then invoke playblast from the Window menu.
Playblast of movie files with MVC2 compression now longer

Limitation Using Windows > Playblast to generate movie files with the MVC2
Compression scheme (IRIX only) can take up to two times longer than with
previous versions of Maya. Resulting file size has also increased.
Workaround As this is a problem with MVC2 at the movie-library level (with IRIX 6.3 or
later), we recommend using an alternate compression scheme such as RLE.
Playblast escape limitation

Escape from playblast requires entire sound track to record.

13
ANIMATION | 139
Animation preview and playblast

14
140 CHARACTER SETUP
The following lists the character setup software limitations and

workarounds for Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Notes Page
General Character Setup 16
Skeletons and Inverse Kinematics 16
Constraints 23
Deformers 25
TraX 31
Motion Capture & Device Editor 33

15
CHARACTER SETUP | 140

General Character Setup
GENERAL CHARACTER SETUP

The following limitations and workarounds relate to general Character
Setup software.
• Locked attributes cannot be removed from characters. — Page 16
• Set Driven Key can’t be performed on attributes in a character set — Page 16
• Stand-alones using Maya Complete license can't read file with IK — Page 17
Locked attributes cannot be removed from characters.

Limitation Locked attributes cannot be removed from characters. Results may be
unpredicatable.132415
Workaround Unlock any locked attributes before removing them from the character.
Set Driven Key can’t be performed on attributes in a character set

Limitation Set Driven Key cannot be performed on attributes that are in a character
set.128240
Workaround Take the attribute out of the character by selecting the attribute in the
channel box and choosing Character > Remove From Character.
SKELETONS AND INVERSE KINEMATICS

The following limitations and workarounds relate to skeletons and inverse
kinematics software.
• Stand-alones using Maya Complete license can't read file with IK — Page 17
• Baked IK chain with animated joint rotations — Page 17
• Bake Simulation with Disable Implicit Control set may not disable IK —
Page 18
• Joint stiffness with IK limitation — Page 18
• Skeleton position may affect IK — Page 18
• Absolute/relative/component flags change joint position — Page 19
• jointOrient or rotateAxis values differ for joints or transforms — Page 19
• Default duplicate options and ikHandle do not work — Page 20

16

Skeletons and Inverse Kinematics
• mirrorJoint command may not work correctly — Page 20

• Automatic keyframing may generate extra keys for ikHandles — Page 20
• Enable IK Solvers or Disable Nodes > IK Solvers limitation — Page 20
• cycleCheck command may incorrectly report a cycle — Page 21
• Multiple Joint Tool options windows — Page 21
• Do not perform other operations when creating ikHandles — Page 22
• Editing IK spline handles from the command line — Page 22
• IK solver may interfere with a batch render — Page 22
• Mirroring joints limitation — Page 23
• Path animation timing incorrect using Curves > Rebuild Curve on path
curve — Page 23
Stand-alones using Maya Complete license can't read file with IK

Limitation Stand-alone apps using Maya Complete license can't read file with IK.
Specifically, if you try to read a file with IK using the devkit
“readAndWrite” app, you get an error about a failed connection and the ik
fails in the scene.130634
Workaround You must force KinSlice to load before the file is loaded. After the
MLibrary() call is made, add in some command that uses the KinSlice before
the call to MFileIO::open(). The following command works:
MGlobal::executeCommand( "ikSystemInfo -q qsh" );
Baked IK chain with animated joint rotations

Limitation If an IK chain with animated joint rotations is baked, the resulting animation
curves on the joint rotations will not be correct. 118478
Workaround 1 Connect an animCurveTT curve to the input of each of the animation curves
that are connected to the joints being baked. Each keyframe in the
animCurveTT curve should have the same value for both axes to avoid
warping time. After these curves are attached, the bakeSimulation should
work as expected.
2 Export the rotations as a mov file and import them back into Maya.

17

Bake Simulation with Disable Implicit Control set may not disable IK
Limitation Bake Simulation with Disable Implicit Control set may not disable IK if you
have keyframed the solverEnable attribute of an ikHandle.79973
Workaround When the Disable Implicit Control option is set, bakeSimulation will set the
solverEnable attribute for ikHandles to off after it bakes the simulation. If
you have keyframed the value, however, when you change to a different
time, the animCurve may set solverEnable back on and IK would override
the baked curves.
Joint stiffness with IK limitation

Limitation Using joint stiffness with IK is very difficult to control. 88538
Workaround The current joint stiffness algorithm works like a set of springs might work
on the joints. While it is easy to say how it works, it is very difficult to
control. The joint stiffness algorithm will change in a future release of Maya
and it will almost certainly be incompatible with the current algorithm. If
you use it and then upgrade to a later version of Maya, your scene’s
animation could change.
Skeleton position may affect IK

Limitation The initial position of your skeleton when you create an IK handle affects the
possible IK solutions. In fact, for some skeleton poses, IK may not work at
all.88653, 88354, 64807, and 54931
Workaround The position at which the IK handle is created is saved as the preferred angle
position. The IK solution works by stretching out or curling up the limb so
that it goes from its shortest length, through the preferred angle position, to
the longest length that it can reach. As it passes through these positions, it
bends the joints in the direction defined by the preferred angles. This means
that if you create an elbow joint with a slight bend to it, it will always bend
in that direction.
There are several positions that cause problems:
• If the limb is perfectly straight, the IK does not know which way the joints
should bend so it does not bend them at all. Just draw the limb with a slight
bend to it and you will avoid this problem.

18

• If the limb has no length, meaning that the start joint and end effector are
exactly on top of each other, the IK does not know which direction the limb
should be extended so it does not extend the limb at all. Just make sure that
there is some distance between the start joint and end effector and this will
not be a problem.
• Two limbs that appear to be identical may in fact have different preferred
angles. This will cause the IK to compute different solutions for them. You
can use the Set Preferred Angles item in the Skeletons menu to change the
preferred angles or the Assume Preferred Angles item in the same menu to
move the skeleton to its preferred angles. This would allow you to compare
the two skeletons.
Absolute/relative/component flags change joint position

Limitation Using the joint command with the -a/absolute, -r/relative, or -co/
component flags will change the position of the joint.87825
Workaround Use the -p/position flag to specify the position when you use any of the
-absolute, -relative, or -component flags. Alternatively, use the rotate
command to rotate the joint.
jointOrient or rotateAxis values differ for joints or transforms

Limitation The values you get from the jointOrient or rotateAxis attributes of a joint or
transform may be different than the values that were set.84994
Workaround Both the jointOrient and rotateAxis attributes store orientations, not XYZ
rotate values. There are many different XYZ values that all result in the same
orientation. When an XYZ value is set, it is stored internally as a change in
orientation. When the XYZ value is queried back out of the attribute, the
orientation is converted back into one of the many possible XYZ values and
returned.
As a simple example, if you use the attribute editor and set the rotateAxis
value to (370, 0, 0), you will immediately see the value (10, 0, 0). In more
interesting orientations, changing one number may cause all three values to
change.
For the technically inclined, the orientations are stored as quaternions. A
quaternion is a shorthand for a rotation matrix. By storing them as
quaternions, we gain some speed during refresh but the side effect is the one
described here.

19

Default duplicate options and ikHandle do not work

Limitation The default duplicate options will not successfully duplicate a skeletal limb
that is controlled by an ikHandle.89916
Workaround You must use the option “Duplicate Upstream Graph” in the duplicate
option box or the command line flag -un/upstreamNodes. For more
complicated situations, it may be better to duplicate just the skeleton and
then add a new ikHandle to control it.
mirrorJoint command may not work correctly

Limitation The mirrorJoint command may not work correctly if the joints being
mirrored have child objects that are not joints or end-effectors.84689
Workaround Reparent the child objects somewhere else, mirror the joint, duplicate the
child objects, and reparent them back to the old and new joints.
Automatic keyframing may generate extra keys for ikHandles

Limitation Automatic keyframing may generate extra keys for ikHandles if
solverEnable is off for the ikHandle.89585
Workaround If solverEnable is off but snapEnable is on for an ikHandle, the handle will
move to the position of the end-effector. This allows you to create an arm
skeleton with an IK handle, set solverEnable to off, rotate the shoulder joint,
and have the ikHandle snap to the wrist position. If auto keyframe is on, and
you already have an animCurve for the ikHandle translation, then the auto
keyframer will notice that the handle has moved and will generate more
keyframes for it.
Simply turn off snapEnable or auto keyframing to avoid the problem.
Enable IK Solvers or Disable Nodes > IK Solvers limitation

Limitation Using the Skeletons > Enable IK Solvers or the
Modify > Disable Nodes > IK Solvers menu items does not change the value
in solverEnable value of any ikHandle.85882
Workaround This is a feature, not a bug. There are two levels of control for IK solvers.
Each individual ikHandle has a solverEnable attribute. In addition, there is a
master flag for the entire IK system.

20

Think of the solverEnable attribute on an ikHandle as a light switch and the

flag for the IK system like the master circuit breaker for your house. If you
turn off the master circuit breaker, all of the lights go out whether their
switch is on or not. If you turn the master circuit breaker back on, you can
turn individual lights on and off.
The master switch is controlled with the -sol/solve flag to the iksystem
command or with the menu items Skeletons > Enable IK Solvers,
Modify > Disable Nodes > IK Solvers, or
Modify > Enable Nodes > IK Solvers. You can use this switch to easily
disable all the IK in the scene without modifying the controls that you have
set on individual ikHandles.
cycleCheck command may incorrectly report a cycle

Limitation The cycleCheck command may incorrectly report a cycle on an instanced
skeleton where some of the instances use IK.88897
Workaround You will have to examine the reported cycle yourself to determine if it is
truly a cycle or not. The evaluation time cycle checking will not report false
cycles.
Multiple Joint Tool options windows

Limitation If you have multiple copies of the Joint Tool in a tool shelf, the options
window may affect the wrong one.90561
Workaround The Joint Tool options window will affect the first tool for which the joint
options window is created. For example, if you have three different Joint
Tools on the shelf and you double-click on the first one to open the options
window, then select the second Joint Tool, the options window shows the
current properties for the second Joint Tool but any changes you make will
be made to the first Joint Tool.
Either do not create multiple Joint Tools, or close the options window and
re-open it when you want to change from one Joint Tool to another. This
limitation also affects the IK Handle Tool but you should not make multiple
copies of it. See the previous limitation.
Limitation If you try to use the multi-chain solver as the default solver for the IK
Handle Tool, it will revert to the rotate-plane solver when you restart Maya.

21

Workaround The multi-chain solver is not created by default. When Maya reads the
preferences, there is no multi-chain solver so it cannot use it as the default
solver and it reverts to the default solver: ikRPsolver. If you really want to
do this, add the command createNode ikMCsolver -n ikMCsolver to one of
Maya’s start-up scripts before it reads in the preferences.90562
Do not perform other operations when creating ikHandles

Limitation If you perform operations in the middle of creating an ikHandle with the IK
Handle Tool, create the ikHandle, and then undo, you will also undo the
operations that occurred between selecting the startJoint and the
endEffector.82830
If you enter the IK Handle Tool and select the start joint, select a command
such as delete nurbsSphere1; then select the end effector, the ikHandle will be
created. If you then undo once, it will undo all the way back to just after
selecting the start joint.
Workaround There is no real work around. Do not perform other operations while
creating ikHandles.
Editing IK spline handles from the command line

Limitation When editing IK spline handles from the command line, the state of the Root
On Curve attribute needs to be specified if the current value of Root On
Curve is false. This limitation does not apply to the UI. 85653
Workaround If Root On Curve is false, and you want to keep the value of this attribute
false, add the following flag when editing an IK spline handle:
- rootOnCurve false
This can be abbreviated as -roc false.
IK solver may interfere with a batch render

Limitation If you have IK handles in your scene that are not being animated, they
normally follow their end-effectors as the end-effectors move. However,
when a scene is first loaded into Maya, the IK solver will be invoked once
which can interfere with a batch render.
Workaround If you are not using these IK handles for animation (which is likely to be the
case), delete them. If you cannot delete them, turn off their SolverEnable
attribute.

22

Constraints
These IK handles would normally snap to the end-effector. When the scene
is first loaded into Maya, the IK handle is then incorrectly flagged to be
solved. If you are batch rendering, the handle gets moved to the end-effector
position as defined at the current time in the file, for example, frame 1. The
solver is then invoked at the frame being rendered; the limb tries to reach for
the frame 1 position of the end-effector. If solverEnable is off or if the IK
handle does not exist, this will not be a problem.
Mirroring joints limitation

Mirroring joints with hand-rotated axis does not work correctly.
Path animation timing incorrect using Curves > Rebuild Curve on path
curve
Limitation If you create a path animation with parameterization mode (non-Fraction
mode), using Curves > Rebuild Curve on the path curve messes up the
timing of the path animation.91465
Workaround Select the motion path node and use the Attribute Editor to turn on Fraction
mode. Use Curves > Rebuild Curve to rebuild the path curve, then
(optionally) turn Fraction mode for the motion path off again.
CONSTRAINTS
The following limitations and workarounds relate to Constraints software.
• Geometry constraints may have update problems — Page 23
• Aim, tangent, and normal constraints may have update issues — Page 24
• Tangent, normal, and geometry constraints can be slow — Page 25
Geometry constraints may have update problems

Limitation Geometry constraints may have update problems unless translateX,
translateY, and translateZ are all animated. 86469, 85976, 85588
Workaround This limitation stems from the fact that geometry constraints move the
constrained object to the “closest” point on the target geometry. If you only
animate some of the translate values, the others are unchanged from the
value that they had last time the geometry constraint was computed.

23

Constraints
For example, assume that you have a cone with a geometry constraint
keeping it on a sphere. Then you animate translateX of the cone. At frame 1,
the cone goes to the position on the sphere that is closest to (x1, y0, z0), call it
(x1c, y1c, z1c) for the constrained position. If you then jump to frame 9, the
translateX value is changed and the cone moves to the position on the sphere
closest to (x9, y1c, z1c). If, however, you had played all the frames from 1 to
9, when Maya got to frame 9, it would have gone to the position on the
sphere closest to (x9, y8c, z8c). These positions can be very different.
This has the most obvious effect during rendering. If you have split your
render up among many machines they may not get consistent positions for
the constrained object and it may appear to flicker or jiggle.
There are two possible workarounds:
• Use bakeResults or bakeSimulation on the translation of the constrained object.
• Animate all three translate values. Be careful because all three values should
be changing slightly every time, even if it is only by a very, very small
amount.
Aim, tangent, and normal constraints may have update issues

Limitation Aim, tangent, and normal constraints may have update issues if the
aimVector and the upVector are colinear or if worldUpType is None.
Workaround The way that these constraints work is to rotate the object so that the
aimVector points in the desired direction. Then, twist the object about the
aimVector so that the upVector points as closely as possible to the
worldUpVector.
If the aimVector and the upVector point in the same direction, then this
second rotation is impossible. No matter how the object is rotated about the
aimVector, the upVector will not get any closer to the worldUpVector.
This can be a useful effect since it allows the constrained object to aim in any
direction without ever flipping. It rotates by the least amount so that the
aimVector aims at the object and then it stops. However, it rotates from the
current position so if you do not evaluate the same sequence of frames every
time, you will not get the same answers. This can wreak havoc with your
rendering and it is best to avoid this situation.

24

Deformers
Tangent, normal, and geometry constraints can be slow

Workaround There is no direct work around to this problem. These three constraints all
need to compute the closest point on a surface to some other position. This is
a complex calculation and can be somewhat slow on large complex surfaces.
If you do not need the constraints for basic animation, disable the constraint
nodes and the scene may update as much as 25% faster.77142
DEFORMERS
The following limitations and workarounds relate to deformers software.
• Deformer set’s weight field for a subd surface vertex member blank — Page
26
• Wrap deformer sometimes tears a NURBS patched model — Page 26
• Wrap behaving unpredictably — Page 26
• Mirror skin weights may not be able to resolve mirroring — Page 26
• Isoparms used as wire deformers have problems with undo — Page 26
• Referenced construction history and adding deformers — Page 27
• Problems when referencing geometry into a scene and binding it — Page 27
• Nodes from referenced file added to a character — Page 27
• Wire with freeze geometry reload incorrectly if base wire moved — Page 27
• Snap mode affects transformed CVs — Page 28
• Adding a new influence object to a smooth skin — Page 28
• Changing the CV count of a deformed object downstream — Page 28
• Reading files containing wrap deformers can be slow — Page 28
• Binding objects and shapes limitation — Page 29
• Unpredictable results when changing an object’s topology upstream from a
deformation — Page 29
• Cannot snapshot lattice geometry — Page 30
• Sculpt deformation discontinuity — Page 30
• Bone lattice flexors limitation — Page 30
• Deformer on skin or referenced geometry without history — Page 30

25

Deformers
Deformer set’s weight field for a subd surface vertex member blank
Limitation The weight field for a subdivision surface vertex member of a deformer set
(cluster, skinCluster, or jointCluster) may sometimes appear blank, and
entering new weight values has no effect.133034
Workaround Pick the cluster handle or joint and select the cluster members by invoking
the Deform > Edit Membership Tool. The Component Editor will now
display and edit weight values
for the cluster members. If you now turn “off” List > Auto Update in the
Component Editor window, clicking the name of the component in the first
column of the table will identify the cluster member by selecting it in the
modeling views.
Wrap deformer sometimes tears a NURBS patched model

Limitation The wrap deformer sometimes tears a NURBS patched model.125218
Workaround Global stitch the patch model and then add the wrap deformer.
Wrap behaving unpredictably

Limitation If you modify the face or CV count of shapes used as wrap deformers, the
wrap behaves unpredictably.
Workaround Remove the shape as an influence object and then add it as an influence
object again. This will reset the data for the wrap so that it will work again.
Mirror skin weights may not be able to resolve mirroring

Limitation Mirror skin weights may not be able to resolve mirroring for influences or
joints that are very close to each other.132827
Workaround Temporarily move the joints to farther apart locations, do the mirror, then
move the joints back to their original locations.
Isoparms used as wire deformers have problems with undo

Limitation Isoparms used as wire deformers have problems with undo unless their
history is deleted before adding them as a wire deformer.130320
Workaround Delete the history on the curve created from the isoparm on the surface
before using it as a wire deformer.

26

Deformers
Referenced construction history and adding deformers

Limitation If you reference a shape into a scene and add deformers, the deformers are
placed in the construction history of the shape. If you subsequently modify
the construction history of the shape in its original file, those changes will
not be reflected in the referenced scene since the referenced construction
history will override the original file's construction history. Additionally,
modifications to the CV count in the original file will cause tweaks and
cluster weights in the referenced file to be misaligned.125429
Workaround Use the Advanced Deformer Placement “After” mode when adding the
deformer so the deformations in the referenced file go after the shape instead
of in its history.
Problems when referencing geometry into a scene and binding it

Limitation Referencing geometry into a scene and binding it has proven to be
problematic. In particular if the history or topology of the bound geometry
changes in the referenced file the referencing file may not properly reflect
the changes.127043
Workaround Where possible do the binding in the referenced file. If working without
history, forcing evaluation after opening the referencing scene may correct
the problems: do this with `dgdirty -a`. Historied shapes may need to have
some connections manually restored before dirtying the DG.
Nodes from referenced file added to a character

Limitation If nodes from a referenced file are added to a character, unloading the
reference will break the character. 133137
Workaround Create the characters in the files that will be referenced and save the files.
The files with characters can then be referenced.
Wire with freeze geometry reload incorrectly if base wire moved

Limitation If you have a wire deformer whose freezeGeometry attribute is turned on,
and you move a base wire relative to the deformed surface (ore vice versa),
the deformation’s behavior will change the next time the scene is loaded into
Maya. The default value for freezeGeometry is off.
This feature is purely a performance improvement technique for Maya 2.0/
2.5. You should not move their geometry relative to the base wire with
freeze geometry on. (Note that lattices do not have this problem.)77442

27

Deformers
Workaround Don’t use freezeGeometry on wire deformers if you plan to move the base
wire.
Snap mode affects transformed CVs

Limitation When in snap mode, translate, rotate, and scale of the CVs of a deformed
object behave unpredictably.
Workaround Use the Channel Box to set precise translation values for the CVs of
deformed objects.
Adding a new influence object to a smooth skin

Limitation If you add a new influence object to a smooth skin, it will not immediately
appear in the component editor.
Workaround Close the Component Editor and reopen it.
Changing the CV count of a deformed object downstream

Limitation If you change the CV count of a deformed object downstream (after) the
deformation, translate, rotate and scale of the CVs of the object may affect
the wrong CV. Examples of operations that would cause this problem are:
inserting or removing a knot on a NURBS surface, or deleting a polygon face
or vertex.
Workaround Disconnect the message attribute connection between the deformed shape
and the tweak node. To do this, select the shape and display its history in the
Hypergraph. You will see a connection between a tweak node and the shape.
Select the connection and press the Delete key to break the connection.
Reading files containing wrap deformers can be slow

Limitation The wrap deformer calculates a great deal of information for each deformed
CV when the file is read in. This computation can be time consuming.
Workaround Hide the surfaces that are deformed by the wrap. The wrap computation
will not be done during file read if the deformed surfaces are hidden.
However, the wrap computation will be done when the display of the
surfaces is toggled on.

28

Deformers
Binding objects and shapes limitation

Limitation If you bind an object as skin, and bind a shape that is in the construction
history of that object, you will get double transformations.
For example, revolve a curve and bind the curve as well as the revolved
surface. You will get double transformations since the surface is deformed
by the skeleton, plus the revolve is computing a new revolve based on the
curve’s deformation.
Workaround Delete or detach the construction history on the shape before binding.
Unpredictable results when changing an object’s topology upstream

from a deformation
Limitation Changing an object’s topology upstream from a deformation causes
unpredictable results. When you deform an object, Maya generates
references to some of the object’s components (CVs of NURBS curves or
surfaces, polygon vertices, or deformed lattice points).
There are several ways to change the topology (for instance, the number of
such components the object has) “upstream” of the deformations. For
example, the Rebuild Curve operation may change the number of CVs in a
curve, changing the sections or spans attributes of a makeNurbSphere node
may change the number of CVs in the resulting NURBS surface, and the
Polygons > Smooth operation can drastically change the number of polygon
vertices in the smoothed object. Unfortunately, Maya does not yet have a
way to communicate these changes to the nodes downstream in a way that
allows the “right thing” to happen.87894, and others
Workaround If the object being modified is being deformed: Remove the object from the
deformer’s deformation set, apply the topology-changing operation, and
then restore the modified object to the deformation set. If the deformation
was a cluster and you had edited the associated percentages, you must
repeat that step after changing the object’s topology.
If the object being modified is bound as skin to a skeleton: Detach it from the
skeleton (Skinning > Detach Skin), apply the topology-changing operation,
and then rebind the skin (Skinning > Bind Skin).
If the object being modified is a curve used as a wire curve (for instance, it is
the “influence object” for a wire deformation): Remove the curve from the
wire deformer, change its topology, and then add it back to the wire.

29

Deformers
Cannot snapshot lattice geometry

The Animated Snapshot feature does not work for lattice geometry. It does
work for any other type of geometry being deformed by a lattice.89520
Sculpt deformation discontinuity

Limitation Sculpt deformation has a discontinuity when the origin locator, sphere
center, and deforming point are exactly in a line.
Workaround Adjust your sculpting sphere and/or the locator to avoid this condition.
Bone lattice flexors limitation

Bone lattice flexors require at least five divisions in the T direction to see any
effect of the bicep or tricep attributes. 91209
Deformer on skin or referenced geometry without history

Limitation When you try to add a deformer or skin a referenced geometry without
history, the deformer command may fail with the error message: “Problems
occurred with dependency graph setup.”
Workaround To workaround the problem, history needs to be added to the geometry in
the referenced file. One way to do so is to open the file containing the
geometry, select the geometry, add a deformer and then immediately delete
the deformer. Now save the file and reopen the top-level file that references
it. Deformers and skinning will now work on the geometry.

30

TraX
TRAX
The following limitations and workarounds relate to TraX software.
• Splitting and expanding summary clips could crash Maya — Page 31
• Poses not displayed in Visor for root character — Page 31
• Clips in TraX that have the same start time or end time may jump — Page 31
• Reloading a reference with clips — Page 32
• Unable to create layered animation on top of a relative clip.132117 — Page
32
• Show Selected Types does not filter clip curves for characters — Page 32
• Redo after Undo of Duplicate Upstream Graph of IK limitation — Page 32
• Maya 2.0 and 2.5 files containing corrupted characters act unreliably — Page
32
Splitting and expanding summary clips could crash Maya

Limitation Maya may crash if you split a summary clip that contains blends when the
summary clip is expanded. 133267
Workaround Expand the summary clips, then split the clips.
Poses not displayed in Visor for root character

Limitation Poses created on a root character that has no attributes will not be displayed
in Visor for the root character.132894
Workaround Set your current character to a sub-character that contains attributes to get
Visor to display the pose. The pose will be applied to all sub-characters that
have attributes.
Clips in TraX that have the same start time or end time may jump
Limitation Clips in TraX that have the same start time or end time may jump when the
clip starts/ends if there is a blend between them.132670
Workaround Use “Merge” on the blended clips to create a single clip. Alternatively, create
a pose that corresponds to the start or end point of the blended clips, then
drag and drop the pose into Trax immediately before or after the blended
clips to force the character to keep the pose before or after.

31

TraX
Reloading a reference with clips

Limitation Reloading a reference with clips while the Clip Editor is open may crash
Maya.133153
Workaround Close the Clip Editor before reloading a reference.
Unable to create layered animation on top of a relative clip.132117

Workaround Merge the relative clip to replace the relative clip with an absolute clip, then
create the layered animation on top of the absolute clip.
Show Selected Types does not filter clip curves for characters
Limitation The Graph Editor menu item Show >Show Selected Types does not filter clip
curves for characters or clips in TraX.131846
Workaround To filter clip curves, activate the keys for the clip, then select the character
members, and filter the curves using the character nodes.
Redo after Undo of Duplicate Upstream Graph of IK limitation

Limitation Redo after Undo of Duplicate Upstream Graph of an IK character animated
by clips will fail.131540
Workaround Instead of using Redo, perform the Duplicate Upstream Graph operation
directly.
Maya 2.0 and 2.5 files containing corrupted characters act unreliably
Limitation Files from 2.0 and 2.5 containing corrupted characters will act unreliably
when creating clips. Specifically, if you create a character in 2.0 or 2.5 and
then use the Channel Box > Break Connection operation to remove the
connection between the character node and the attribute, the character node
will be partially corrupted. On such characters, Trax animation will not
work reliably. You can detect this situation if you select the character node
and look at its attributes in the Channel Box and in the Outliner. If the
number of attributes is the same in both, the character is okay. If the Channel
Box lists fewer items than the outliner, the character is corrupted.129596
Workaround Corrupted character nodes must be rebuilt from scratch. Delete the bad
character and create a new one.

32

Motion Capture & Device Editor
MOTION CAPTURE & DEVICE EDITOR

The following limitations and workarounds relate to motion capture and
device editor software.
• Creating multiple identical device attachments slows Maya — Page 33
• setInputDeviceMapping -view command doesn’t work — Page 33
Creating multiple identical device attachments slows Maya

Limitation It is possible to create multiple identical device attachments. During a large
motion capture, this can really slow Maya down. Also, because of the
previous limitation, removing one of them will remove all of them.61795
Workaround Do not create the same attachments multiple times. There is no workaround
to this problem.
setInputDeviceMapping -view command doesn’t work

The setInputDeviceMapping -view command doesn’t work. Device
coordinates are always aligned with the global axes.

33

Motion Capture & Device Editor

34
141 MAYA ARTISAN
The following lists Maya Artisan software limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
Notes Page
Color feedback in Artisan tools 36
Seam controls unavailable in the Attribute Editor 36
Undoing stitching and common edge selection 36
Sculpt in multiple camera views 36
Compensation mode and profile alignment with NURBS 36
Attribute Paint tool not working properly if selection modified 36
Flooded soft body weights shaded representation 36

35
MAYA ARTISAN | 141
Color feedback in Artisan tools

• Although they work the way they should, trimmed surfaces do not display
color feedback in Artisan tools.
• Degree 1 (linear) NURBS surfaces do not display proper color feedback in
Artisan weight painting tools.
Seam controls unavailable in the Attribute Editor

The Artisan Selection tool does not make seam controls available in the
Attribute Editor; it is possible to define hotkeys to set this control on or off.
Undoing stitching and common edge selection

In Artisan, undoing the stitching and common edge selection may cause the
selection to be maintained.
Sculpt in multiple camera views

When using Artisan to sculpt in multiple camera views, press the Alt key
after entering a different view in order for the cursor to follow.
Compensation mode and profile alignment with NURBS

When working with NURBS surfaces while using Artisan tools, if the
compensation mode is set to None and profile alignment to Up Vector, the
alignment is to the V direction instead.
Attribute Paint tool not working properly if selection modified

The Artisan Attribute Paint tool may not work properly if you modify the
selection while in the tool. Exit the tool, make the proper selection and re-
enter the tool for the proper behavior.
Flooded soft body weights shaded representation

When flooding soft body weights using the Artisan Attribute Paint tool, the
weight’s shaded representation may not update until the next refresh (for
example, move the camera).

36
142 DYNAMICS
The following lists dynamics software limitations and workarounds for

Maya 3.0:
Notes Page
Texture control of particle emission may fail intermittently 39
Shader glow on particles may flicker 39
Blobby surface inside edges not anti-aliased 39
Surface emission from a trimmed surface won’t reflect new holes 39
Surface emission from an animated boolean operation incorrect 39
Point and multipoint types w/line smoothing render differently 39
Rigid body keyframed passive to active resets incorrectly 40
Flow effects don't work in mm units 40
Limitation when passive rigid body parented to a hierarchy 40
Expression or keys on emit rate causes double evaluation 40
Color accumulation on Dell 610 and 410 systems 40
Expression on “active” attribute may cause evaluation failure 40
File referencing not supported for particle expressions 40
Fields and emitters don't convert particle positions 40

37
DYNAMICS | 142
Notes Page
Rigid bodies work only with default rotation order 41
Duplicate, Make Copy Soft option limitation 41
Transparent Blob is not transparent 41
Motion Blurred Streaked Particles have incorrect tail size 41
Particles may collide on creation 41
Rigid bodies only support the default rotation axis 41
Component Editor refresh limitation 41
Particle transform doesn't work with freeze transforms. 118558 42
Soft bodies and particles collide limitation 42
worldVelocity and aim direction 42
Rotate pivot and instancing 42
Hardware rendering with motion blur limitation 42
Rigid bodies with negative scales and non-zero pivot points 42
Duplicate upstream graph limitation 43
Identical rigid bodies may not collide 43
Rigid bodies do not recognize non-planar polygons 43
Copying a rigid body/rigid constraint systems 43
Revolve limitation when converting to rigid bodies 43

38
DYNAMICS | 142
Texture control of particle emission may fail intermittently

Workaround Save the file and re-load.132680
Shader glow on particles may flicker

Workaround 1. Increase the particle samples attribute on the render quality.
2. Increase the resolution parameter on the shader glow node. 89191
Blobby surface inside edges not anti-aliased

Limitation Inside edges of blobby surfaces seen through other blobby surfaces are not
anti-aliased
Workaround Increase Render Quality > particleSamples to 4 or 8 when very high quality
is desired. 91047
Surface emission from a trimmed surface won’t reflect new holes

Limitation With surface emission from a trimmed surface, if you add more trims or
untrim the surface, the emission won't reflect the new holes.108799
Workaround Bring up the geoConnector node associated with the emitter, and change the
tessellation value a little, for instance, from 200 to 201. This forces re-
tessellation, and the re-tessellation picks up the new trims correctly.
Surface emission from an animated boolean operation incorrect

Limitation If Particle A is emitting Particle B and Particle A has any animation on it,
either with fields or emission, the positions of the emitted Particle B particles
will not be correct if Particle A is hidden. 112439
Workaround Keep Particle A visible, but give it an opacity attribute with a value of 0.
Point and multipoint types w/line smoothing render differently

Workaround Add an opacity attribute to the particle shape. (This doesn't hurt if you are
turning geometry masking on, since all particles are transparent anyway.)
Tune the opacity value to get the look you want.114856

39
DYNAMICS | 142
Rigid body keyframed passive to active resets incorrectly

Limitation Rigid body keyframed passive to active resets incorrectly if you don't freeze
transform. 115101
Workaround Model your object first, select Modify -> Freeze Transformations, then set
active/passive keys, adding any fields as the last step.115101
Flow effects don't work in mm units

Workaround Use standard units.116858
Limitation when passive rigid body parented to a hierarchy

Limitation Passive rigid body parented to a hierarchy may not interact correctly with
active bodies and constraints
Workaround Put the same animation on the passive body, separate from the
hierarchy.118191
Expression or keys on emit rate causes double evaluation

Workaround Save the scene (leave the default startup cache preference on) and re-load.
The startup cache obviates the need for rrunup.120150
Color accumulation on Dell 610 and 410 systems

On Dell 610 and 410 systems, color accumulation may or may not work
correctly only if geometry masking is on.120185
Expression on “active” attribute may cause evaluation failure

Limitation Expression on “active” attribute may cause evaluation failure in rigid solver
Workaround Key the active attribute using the menu items provided for that
purpose.120298
File referencing not supported for particle expressions

Workaround Put your particle expressions in the main file. 125437
Fields and emitters don't convert particle positions

Limitation Fields and emitters don't convert particle positions for non-standard units
Workaround Use standard units. 127296

40
DYNAMICS | 142
Rigid bodies work only with default rotation order

Workaround Use default rotation order. 127469
Duplicate, Make Copy Soft option limitation

Limitation Duplicate, Make Copy Soft option loses assignments of multiple materials on
polygonal objects. You may not see the problem has occurred until you save
and reload the file. This problem does not occur with only a single material
on the polygonal object.129966
Workaround You must re-assign those materials or use the “Duplicate, Make Original
Soft” option.
Transparent Blob is not transparent

Transparent Blob is not transparent when its shader’s RtRefractColor is on
and ray tracer is off. 91048
Motion Blurred Streaked Particles have incorrect tail size

Workaround Use the new particle disk caching to create a particle disk cache before
hardware rendering.110930
Particles may collide on creation

Limitation Particles may collide on creation when surface emitter is also a collision
object.113259
Workaround Reverse the normal speed parameter of the surface emission.
Rigid bodies only support the default rotation axis

123513
Component Editor refresh limitation

Limitation The Component Editor is much faster, but it may not refresh automatically
after undo/redo or after external changes such as modifying vertices with a
scale tool. 128878
Workaround Select Load Components. This was an intentional change to bring about a
speed increase of several orders of magnitude in the editor.

41
DYNAMICS | 142
Particle transform doesn't work with freeze transforms. 118558
Soft bodies and particles collide limitation

Limitation Soft bodies and particles may not collide well with objects modeled using
large concave pieces of geometry (for example, the side of an outdoor
stairway).
Workaround Triangulate the geometry.
worldVelocity and aim direction

Limitation You cannot use the worldVelocity attribute as an aim direction for
instances.112888
Workaround Keep the particle transform as the identity and use the velocity attribute.
Rotate pivot and instancing

Limitation Instancing does not handle situations where the rotate pivot is not at the
origin.
Workaround See the script, createInstancerPivot.mel in the scripts/unsupported directory
(under the main Maya install directory). The script contains directions for
use.
Hardware rendering with motion blur limitation

Hardware rendering with motion blur works only if the multipass value is
set at least as high as the motion blur value.
Rigid bodies with negative scales and non-zero pivot points

Rigid bodies with negative scales and non-zero pivot points do not work
properly. Duplicating rigid bodies with negative scales can lead to this
situation.114691

42
DYNAMICS | 142
Duplicate upstream graph limitation

Limitation Duplicate upstream graph does not work with rigid bodies.114595
Workaround Duplicate upstream graph also duplicates the rigid solver. Most likely this is
not what you really want to do. If you just want a duplicate rigid body
running off the same solver, turn off input connections and upstream graph
checked then duplicate.
Use the Dynamic Relationship Editor to hook the rigid body up to any fields
(you can also duplicate fields, if that is what you want to do.) If you really
do want a second solver, you can make one at that point using the standard
workflow for that operation (see Using Maya: Dynamics for details).
Identical rigid bodies may not collide

Limitation Two identical rigid bodies on top of one another may not collide.
Workaround Scale, rotate, or translate one of the rigid bodies slightly.
Rigid bodies do not recognize non-planar polygons

Workaround Triangulate the non-planar polygons.
Copying a rigid body/rigid constraint systems

Limitation When copying a rigid body/rigid constraint system, the copied constraint
does not connect to the copied rigid body.
Workaround Turn on Duplicate Upstream Graph in the Edit > Duplicate options window.
Revolve limitation when converting to rigid bodies

Limitation Revolve can create an inside-out object when the surface is converted to a
rigid body.82320
Workaround Digitize the curve in clockwise direction, then select the curve and select
Surfaces > Revolve. Or select Edit Surfaces > Reverse Surfaces, then reverse
the U direction of the surface/generating curve.
To visually verify if the surface is inside-out, use single-sided lighting.
Toggle off Lighting > Two Sided Lighting and toggle on Shading > Smooth
Shading. The surface will appear dark if it is inside-out.

43
DYNAMICS | 142

44
143 NURBS MODELING
The following lists the NURBS modeling software limitations and

workarounds for Maya 3.0:
Notes Page
Snapshot command fails on the lattice 46
Sculpting a NURBS surface with more than 256 control points 46
NURBS surfaces and working with Artisan tools 46
Extend curve on surface may temporarily hang 46
NURBS primitive cone or cylinder with caps and trimming 46
NURBS surface blend renders incorrectly 46
Curve on surface using project curve or intersect surfaces with history 46
Global stitch and small parameter range 47
Uniform surface rebuild on a periodic surface 47

45
NURBS MODELING | 143
Snapshot command fails on the lattice
Sculpting a NURBS surface with more than 256 control points

When sculpting a NURBS surface with more than 256 control points in either
parametric direction, turn auto smoothing on to stop various inaccuracies.
You can also export and re-import the attribute map with the size set to a
value higher than the number of control points.
NURBS surfaces and working with Artisan tools

When working with NURBS surfaces in the Artisan tools, if the
compensation mode is set to None and profile alignment to Up Vector, the
alignment will be to the V direction instead.
Extend curve on surface may temporarily hang

Extend curve on surface may temporarily hang the system while editing the
extension distance.
NURBS primitive cone or cylinder with caps and trimming

If a NURBS primitive cone or cylinder with cap(s) are involved in a
trimming operation, they need to be created with the Extra Transformation
option set to on, or the surface for trim will only be selectable in the
outliner/hypergraph and not in the view.
NURBS surface blend renders incorrectly

Limitation At times, the result of NURBS surface blend will appear not to render
smoothly with the original surfaces.
Workaround Running stitchAndExplodeShell on the prompt line, with the surfaces in
question selected, may correct this situation.
Curve on surface using project curve or intersect surfaces with history

Limitation If a curve on surface has been created using project curve or intersect
surfaces with construction history enabled, performing delete components
on such curves before deleting construction history may create data loss
when saving into a file.
Workaround Delete construction history before deleting components.

46
Global stitch and small parameter range

Limitation If the parameter range on surfaces is small, there may be problems when
applying a global stitch to such surfaces.
Workaround Rebuild the surfaces to have a parameter range running from 0 to the
number of spans.
Uniform surface rebuild on a periodic surface

Performing uniform surface rebuild on a periodic surface will always
rebuild the surface to uniform in both direction, regardless of the setting for
the surface direction.

47

48
144 SUBDIVISION SURFACES
The following lists the Subdivision Surfaces software limitations and

Unexpected results with non-proportionally scaled Subdivision

surfaces
Limitation Subdivision surfaces with non-proportional scale and hierarchical edits may
note behave properly when a rotation is applied to the coarse mesh
components (including base).132504
Workaround Use Modify > Freeze Transformations with the scale option set to remove
the non-proportional scale from the object in question.
Subdivision surface in polygon proxy mode does not have shader

Limitation When the subdivision surface is in polygon proxy mode, the polygon does
not have an attached shader. 133082
Workaround You can assign the shader to the polygon manually if you need to see the
texture in the Texture View.

49
SUBDIVISION SURFACES | 144

50
145 POLYGONS AND GAMES
The following lists polygonal modeling and games software limitations for
Maya 3.0:
The polygonal modeling and games limitations and workarounds are
grouped in the following categories. Please see the specific category for a list
of related limitations and workarounds:
Notes Page
General polygon and games 52
Texturing and coloring 58
NURBS To Polygons 60
Level of Detail 60
Blind Data 61
Polygonal API update/limitation 62
Games translators 63

51
POLYGONS AND GAMES | 145

General polygon and games
GENERAL POLYGON AND GAMES

The following lists general polygon and games limitations and
workarounds:
• Polygonal faces disappear in shaded mode — Page 53
• cp attribute limitation — Page 53
• Subdivide and Move Components pick mask modes — Page 53
• Smart Command Settings hard to turn off — Page 54
• Losing animation tweaks — Page 54
• polySeparate command — Page 54
• Reducing polygonal surface can increase poly count — Page 54
• Effect of UV seams on polygonal surface being reduced — Page 54
• Split Polygon Tool does not split holes belonging to split faces — Page 55
• Bevel removes UV coordinates — Page 55
• Unexpected results with poly booleans if objects are not closed — Page 55
• Using booleans on large polygonal objects — Page 55
• Boolean, Reduce, and Bevel do not preserve color per vertex and component
level blind data info — Page 55
• Polygons > Smooth disturbs UV coordinates — Page 56
• Map UV Border may not find unique border with non-manifold geometry —
Page 56
• Unexpected results with Cleanup when applied to objects and instances
simultaneously — Page 56
• Unexpected results for deformed Poly object when later retrieved — Page 56
• Non-border edges, or non-manifold edges cannot be merged — Page 57
• Polygon edges limitation when mirroring hardness/softness — Page 57
• Can’t append to a non-boundary face — Page 57
• Selection: All Components sticks in vertex/face selection mode — Page 57
• Can’t select Polygons on Windows— graphics cards and driver versions
limitation — Page 57

52

Polygonal faces disappear in shaded mode

When you apply a “freeze transforms” operation on an object, the
“opposite” rendering option is automatically turned on. This means front-
faced polygons are culled when in back-face culling mode in 3D views.
When back-face culling is also on in the polygon display options, back-faced
polygons are also culled. If the object is not selected, all the polygonal faces
are culled in shaded mode display making it seem as though the object has
disappeared. 130733
cp attribute limitation
Limitation On polygonal objects, the cp attribute is supposed to represent the actual
position in local space of a vertex, while the pnts attribute represents the
tweak value (its offset relative to the rest position). 88037
The cp attribute is a compound attribute with child attributes named xv/yv/
zv. When you get the value of the parent attribute, Maya incorrectly returns
the same value as for the pnts attribute.
Workaround Use the xv/yv/zv child attributes individually instead of the entire cp
compound attribute.
For example:
polyCube; select -r pCube1.vtx[0] ; move -r .1 .1 .1;
getAttr pCube1.cp[0];
// Result: 0.1 0.1 0.1 //
getAttr pCube1.cp[0].xv;
// Result: -0.4 // Real X position (-.5 + .1)
Subdivide and Move Components pick mask modes

Limitation Polygons > Subdivide and Polygons > Move Components are driven from
the pick mask, not the current selection. For instance, if you select a face, but
the pick mask is set to Edge, Subdivide and Move Components will not
work and if you open the option window, the option window for Edges
displays. 106341
Also, if the pick mask is set to Vertex or UV, the Subdivide option window
will not open, since only faces and edges can be subdivided.
Workaround Make sure the pick mask corresponds to the selection.

53

Smart Command Settings hard to turn off

Limitation Smart Command Settings are difficult to turn off. In some cases if a tool has
used Smart Command settings, the selection mask or selection constraints
are not returned to normal when you exit the tool
Workaround After turning off Polygons > Tool Options > Smart Command Settings, you
must also select Uninstall Current Settings to delete any settings left on by
the last tool that was invoked.
Losing animation tweaks

Performing a “delete -history” on a polygonal object with animated vertex
tweaks will result in the loss of the animation on the tweaks. 91343
polySeparate command
Limitation The polySeparate command fails if the object is invisible.106417
The error message in this case can be misleading:
Warning: polySeparate works only on polygonal objects.
Workaround Make the object visible.
Reducing polygonal surface can increase poly count

Limitation Under certain circumstances, Edit Polygons > Reduce will increase the poly
count of the polygonal surface being reduced. This is because the polygonal
surface is triangulated before the reduction is done on the triangulated
surface.
Workaround Triangulate the object before performing the reduce operation.
Effect of UV seams on polygonal surface being reduced

Limitation If a polygonal surface has numerous UV seams on it and if the
Edit Polygons > Reduce operation is performed with the “UV Border Edges”
option toggled on, there is a good chance the object will not reduce at all,
since the reduction algorithm is attempting to maintain the UV borders
(seams) that are on the object.
Workaround If you don’t mind losing your UV seams, toggle the UV Border Edges option
off to successfully reduce your polygonal surface.

54

Split Polygon Tool does not split holes belonging to split faces
Limitation The Split Polygon Tool does not split holes belonging to faces that are split.
Any holes get assigned arbitrarily to one of the new faces produced, and
may not draw properly if not completely enclosed by the outer edge loop.
126907
Workaround Move the vertices of the holes to where you want them on the split faces.
Bevel removes UV coordinates

Limitation Edit Polygons > Bevel removes UV coordinates from the beveled object.
92860
Workaround Do your texturing/projection work after the bevel operation, rather than
before.
Unexpected results with poly booleans if objects are not closed

Limitation Boolean operations may sometimes not produce the expected results if the
original objects are not closed volumes, or if they contain nearly coincident
vertices. 116659, 120086, 128053
Workaround Before applying the boolean operation, fill any openings in the original
objects (for example, use Edit Polygons > Fill Hole), and use Merge Vertices
with a suitably small Distance to merge vertices that are effectively
coincident.
Using booleans on large polygonal objects

Limitation Using booleans on large polygonal objects is a memory intensive operation.
Maya can run out of memory if this operation is performed many times on
large polygonal objects. 112213
Workaround Keep the undo queue length small or flush the undo queue every now and
then when performing boolean operations on large polygonal objects.
Boolean, Reduce, and Bevel do not preserve color per vertex and
component level blind data info
Polygons >Boolean operations and Edit Polygons > Reduce and Bevel do not
preserve color per vertex or component level blind data information. 112832

55

Polygons > Smooth disturbs UV coordinates

Workaround Do your texturing/projection work after the smooth operation, rather than
before.121251
Map UV Border may not find unique border with non-manifold

geometry
Limitation Edit Polygons > Texture > Map UV Border may not be able to find a unique
border with non-manifold geometry. 124133
If you have a piece of non-manifold geometry, any particular UV may be in
more than one border/shell, so it does not uniquely determine a flat piece of
mesh to relax. Edit Polygons->Texture->Map UV Border will find a
boundary and map it, but you can't control which one it will get. 124133
Workaround Cut the UVs along the non-manifold edges to make sure that they're “flat”,
or use Polygons->Cleanup to eliminate the non-manifold areas first.
Unexpected results with Cleanup when applied to objects and

instances simultaneously
Limitation Polygons > Cleanup behaves unexpectedly when applied to an object and its
instances simultaneously. This usually occurs when Cleanup All Objects is
enabled. 117282
Workaround Cleanup only the original object; the instance will be cleaned up as well as a
result.
Unexpected results for deformed Poly object when later retrieved

Limitation A polygonal object that has been brought in from a referenced file and then
deformed may not look the same when later retrieved from the saved scene.
126927
Workaround In the referenced file, select one of the polygonal object's vertices and select
Edit Polygons > Move Component. This does not by itself actually move the
vertex (as long as you do not move the manipulator that then appears), but it
inserts suitable construction history to allow Maya to correctly interpret the
scene that references the object and then deforms it.

56

Note
The Move Component operation must be performed while Construction
History is toggled on, in order to introduce the needed
polyMoveComponent node into the object's construction history.
Non-border edges, or non-manifold edges cannot be merged

Limitation Non-border edges, or non-manifold edges cannot be merged using Merge
Edge Tool or Merge Multiple Edges. 127236
Workaround Use Merge Vertices on the corresponding vertices instead.
Polygon edges limitation when mirroring hardness/softness

Limitation Polygons >Mirror Geometry does not properly mirror the hardness/softness
of polygon edges.131091
Workaround Use Edit Polygons > Normals > Harden/Soften to control the edges after
mirroring.
Can’t append to a non-boundary face

Limitation Polygons > Append to Polygon Tool will not let you append to a non-
boundary face. 127916
Workaround If you want to append a face to a single non-boundary edge, use
Edit Polygons > Extrude Edge, then modify the new face as desired.
Selection: All Components sticks in vertex/face selection mode

Limitation Setting Selection: All Components on in the pick mask can get you stuck in
vertex/face selection mode. 129012
Workaround Use the right mouse button to choose the selection type. (Vertex, edge and
face selection are intended to be mutually exclusive, but there is no entry in
the component selection menus for vertex face selection.)
Can’t select Polygons on Windows— graphics cards and driver

versions limitation
Limitation On Windows machines with 3dlabs VX1 graphics cards running certain
driver versions in the 2.15-xxxx series, polygons cannot be selected. 132699

57

Texturing and coloring
Workaround If you encounter this problem, the environment variable

MAYA_NO_VERTEX_ARRAY_SELECT must be defined for object selection
on polygons to work. This enables an alternate (and slower) method that
does work properly on these cards.
TEXTURING AND COLORING

The following lists texturing and coloring limitations and workarounds:
• Layered texture file texture resolution display limitation — Page 58
• polyColorPerVertex -rem command incorrect when vertex/face component
selected — Page 58
• Best Plane texturing selection limitation — Page 58
• UV texture coordinates missing—display problem — Page 59
• Unexpected results in Texture View when scaling UVs — Page 59
• Changing polygonal topology affects shader assignments — Page 59
• Texture > Projections work on a per-object basis — Page 59
Layered texture file texture resolution display limitation

If you have a file texture as a layer in a layered texture, and a layer which is
just a color, toggling on or off the color layer results in a change in the
resolution used to display the file texture.131501
polyColorPerVertex -rem command incorrect when vertex/face

component selected
The command “polyColorPerVertex -rem” does not work correctly when a
vertex/face component is selected. You can only remove color per vertex for
an entire vertex (for instance, for all faces that share the vertex).131719
Best Plane texturing selection limitation

Limitation Selection does not work correctly in the Best Plane texturing tool.
When you are prompted to select faces, the selection mask is not set
correctly so that when you drag-select, vertices are selected. 114371
If faces are selected from two or more polygonal shapes, only the faces from
the first shape are actually textured. 114436

58

Texturing and coloring
Workaround • Either select all faces before invoking the tool, or set the selection mask
explicitly to Polygon.
• Use best plane fit on one shape at time. You can still use vertices from a
different shape to define the plane.
UV texture coordinates missing—display problem

Limitation Polygonal objects or portions of polygonal objects with no UV texture
coordinates appear “stippled” when viewed in hardware texture shading
mode (hotkey 6). 107249
Workaround Create new UV coordinates by selecting the faces of the object and using any
of the following tools in the Edit Polygons > Texture menu - Planar
Mapping, Cylindrical Mapping, Spherical Mapping, Create UVs Based on
Camera, Normalize UVs, Unitize UVs, and Best Plane Texturing. If you do
not want to create new uvs you can view the object properly by viewing it in
shaded mode.
Unexpected results in Texture View when scaling UVs

Limitation Scaling UVs of separate polygonal objects together in the Texture View
produces unexpected results. 125326
Workaround Work on the UVs of one object at a time.
Changing polygonal topology affects shader assignments

Limitation Changing the topology (number of faces) on a polygonal object by
modifying attribute values on history nodes connected to the object can
adversely affect shader assignments. This happens if the shader assignment
is done after the operation that modifies the topology, or at the component
(face) level (for instance, shaders assigned to portions of the object instead of
the entire object). 89579
Workaround Redo the shader assignment after the topological modifications have been
completed.
Texture > Projections work on a per-object basis

Limitation Edit Polygon >Texture > Projections only work properly on a single object at
a time. 114436

59

NURBS To Polygons
Workaround If you need to apply a projection to multiple polygonal objects in a single

step, combine the objects into one, apply the projection, and then separate
the parts back out. Otherwise, perform a projection on each object.
NURBS TO POLYGONS
The following lists NURBS To Polygons limitations and workarounds:
• NURBS To Poly interpretation failure — Page 60
• Fix Texture Warp does not work with NURBS to Poly conversion — Page 60
NURBS To Poly interpretation failure

NURBS To Poly interpretation fails on NULL input NURBS surface. If a
NURBS surface is converted into a polygonal object using NURBS To
Polygons functionality, and if the history of the NURBS surface is modified
to generate an invalid (Null) NURBS surface, the following warning message
displays:
Warning: nurbsTesselate1 (Nurbs Tesselate Node): invalid input NURBS surface.
and the NURBS To Polygons operation will not be successfully performed.
The resulting polygonal object will continue to be the last valid (computed)
polygonal surface that was visible. 103135
Fix Texture Warp does not work with NURBS to Poly conversion
NURBS to polygon conversion does not take the Fix Texture Warp attribute
(which produces a tessellation based on chord-length) into account.118718
LEVEL OF DETAIL
The following lists Level of Detail limitations and workarounds:
• Level of Detail doesn’t handle instances — Page 61
• Edit > Ungroup should not be used with Level of Detail — Page 61
• Duplicating a child of a Level Of Detail node fails — Page 61

60

Blind Data
Threshold values change if children of a level are reordered in

Hypergraph
Limitation If you reorder the children of a level of detail node from the Hypergraph, the
threshold values change unexpectedly. 126940
Workaround Use the outliner to reorder the children.
Level of Detail doesn’t handle instances

Limitation Instanced geometry will not be displayed consistently if it is added into a
Level of detail. 116575
Workaround Use only uninstanced geometry when creating levels of detail.
Edit > Ungroup should not be used with Level of Detail

Limitation If Edit > Ungroup is used with a level of detail node, then the LOD threshold
information will not be reset properly on Undo. 116577
Workaround Use Edit > LevelOfDetail > Ungroup to properly ungroup an lodGroup
node.
Duplicating a child of a Level Of Detail node fails

Workaround Duplicate the object before creating the level of detail, or ungroup the object
you want to duplicate, duplicate it, and then regroup the results.126894
BLIND DATA
The following lists Blind Data limitations and workarounds:
• Blind Data Editor coloring and querying limitations — Page 61
• Blind Data false coloring does not display — Page 62
• Blind Data Editor no longer opens in a panel — Page 62
• Blind Data Editor and saving new blind data types — Page 62
Blind Data Editor coloring and querying limitations

The Blind Data Editor will not properly handle false coloring and querying
of more than one blind data type with the Continuous type enabled. The
Blind Data Editor also will not handle combinations of Discrete Value

61

Polygonal API update/limitation
colors/queries (including unsigned color/query actions) and Discrete Range

colors/queries - if a specific value is required in combination with a range,
use that value for both the Min and Max in the discrete range section.
Blind Data false coloring does not display

Limitation Blind Data false coloring does not show up in lighting mode. 115914
Workaround Use Default Lights to see the Blind data false color.
Blind Data Editor no longer opens in a panel

Limitation If you saved your scene while the Blind Data Editor was open as a panel,
when you reload that scene you will get an error such as:
// Error: line 1068: Object not found: blindDataEditor //
No data from your scene has been lost, but the Blind Data Editor is no longer
open in a panel. 122132
Workaround Open the Blind data Editor as its own window, and close it. It will then be
available once again as a panel.
Blind Data Editor and saving new blind data types

Limitation Blind Data Editor sometimes gets confused about saving new blind data
types. 123009
Workaround If you are entering a new blind data type in the Blind Data Editor, and Save
does not save the new type, (and there is no error message indicating that
the type is invalid in some way, such as a duplicate id), select an existing
type, press Save, perform New again and enter the new type. The editor may
have been confused by an incomplete edit done earlier.
POLYGONAL API UPDATE/LIMITATION

The following lists polygonal API updates and limitations and workarounds:
• Poly API commands with out-of-range component index may crash — Page
63
• Update to MFnMesh::setFaceVertexColors() MFnMesh::setFaceVertexColor()
— Page 63

62

Games translators
Poly API commands with out-of-range component index may crash

Limitation MFnMesh::getFaceVertexColorIndex(), MItMeshPolygon::setIndex(),
MItMeshVertex::setIndex() and MItMeshEdge::setIndex() may crash if called
with an invalid (out-of-range) component index.132506
Update to MFnMesh::setFaceVertexColors()
MFnMesh::setFaceVertexColor()
Update MFnMesh::setFaceVertexColors() and MFnMesh::setFaceVertexColor() now
correctly treat supplied vertex indices as object-relative, as documented. In
earlier releases, the indices were incorrectly treated as face-relative.
Any plug-ins that had adjusted for the previous incorrect behavior need to
be updated now that the methods work as documented. 130673
GAMES TRANSLATORS
GE2 export (and imgcvt on IRIX) do not properly produce .bmp format
image files for converted textures.
Workaround Specify .sgi or .tif format instead, and convert the textures to .bmp off-
line.125639

63

Games translators

64
146 RENDERING & PAINT

TEXTURES TOOL
The following lists rendering software and Paint Textures Tool limitations
and workarounds for Maya 3.0:
The Rendering limitations and workarounds are grouped in the following
categories. Please see the specific category for a list of related limitations and
workarounds:
Note Page
IPR Rendering 67
Particle software rendering 68
Texture mapping 70
Lighting and shadowing 72
Motion blur 74
Optical FX 76
Ray tracing 77
Miscellaneous software rendering 78

Rendering workflow issues 82
Hardware shading 83
Hypershade/Visor 85
Multilister, Connection Editor, & Attribute Editor 87

65
RENDERING & PAINT TEXTURES TOOL | 146
Note Page
Cameras and views 87
Image planes 88
Convert to File Texture 90
Render Layers/Passes 91
Stand-alones 92
Paint Textures Tool 93

66

IPR Rendering
IPR RENDERING
The following lists IPR limitations and workarounds for Maya 3.0:
• General IPR limitations — Page 67
• Disappearing shadows correction — Page 67
• IPR image plane display options — Page 67
• Displaying menu items for IPR in Render View on IRIX vs. NT — Page 67
• Tuning 2D motion blur in IPR — Page 68
• Manual feedback from IPR — Page 68
General IPR limitations

• IPR does not support raytracing, 3d motion blur, or particles. None/111913
• IPR does not properly handle shadows on objects with a Use Background
material.113486
Disappearing shadows correction

Previously, IPR tuning may have resulted in the shadows disappearing. This
has been corrected.
IPR image plane display options

Limitation IPR doesn’t respect image plane display options. When updating, IPR
displays image plane in the background though the image plane is set to
none.
Workaround Delete the image plane.
Displaying menu items for IPR in Render View on IRIX vs. NT

When selecting items from the menu in the Render View to shift the
Attribute Editor’s focus, on IRIX, you shift-click with the left mouse button
and hold the Shift key to display and choose from the menu. On NT, you
shift-click with the left mouse button, but you do not have to hold the Shift
key to choose from the menu.

67

Particle software rendering
Tuning 2D motion blur in IPR

Limitation When tuning 2D motion blur in IPR, automatic updates are not always done
correctly. 114332
Workaround Tune an attribute of a material or light to force a correct update, or marquee
the tuning region to force an update.
Manual feedback from IPR

Limitation Manual updates are needed to get feedback from IPR when making changes
to:
• image planes NONE
• shadow maps due to light location changing, depth map resolution
changing, or the auto focus changing 108100
• tessellation.107191
Workaround Redo the IPR render after these changes (or select IPR > Update Shadow
Map).
PARTICLE SOFTWARE RENDERING

The following lists software rendering limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
• Particles, Dynamics, and Character Animation rendering — Page 68
• Transparent blobby surface rendering anti-aliasing problem — Page 69
• Particle age mapper predictability — Page 69
• Rendered image may not match interactive window display — Page 69
Particles, Dynamics, and Character Animation rendering

Limitation Cloud particles do not render their back sides. 88188
Workaround If you want this effect, render the particle as a Blobby Surface type.

68

Particle software rendering
Transparent blobby surface rendering anti-aliasing problem

Limitation With transparent blobby surface rendering, anti-aliasing may be poor, even
at the highest-quality settings. Such cases include intersecting transparent
blobby surfaces and transparent blobby surfaces behind transparent
geometry.91047
Workaround Increase the particle samples in Render Globals.
Particle age mapper predictability

Limitation Particle age mapper may not work predictably when you texture map color,
transparency, or incandescence to a particle cloud material. 85688
Workaround Turn on the particle’s Relative Age.
Rendered image may not match interactive window display

Limitation A rendered image may not match what is displayed in the interactive
window. This may be caused by different Dependency Graph solutions if
nodes are evaluated in a different order. The most common occurrences are:
renders that are divided among multiple machines produce inconsistent
results; an arbitrary frame within an animation range is rendered alone; or
rendering with motion blur produces different results than rendering
without motion blur. 89392,89741 and others
Scene elements which may produce undesirable render matching include:
• Any dependency graph cycle
• Animated nodeState on any node
• Animated transform limits
• The multi-chain IK solver
• Expressions that modify values based on a previous value. For example:
tx = tx + 1
• Expressions that conditionally set values. For example: if (ty > 5) tx = ty
• Expressions that execute commands (or create or delete Maya nodes). For
example: sphere
• Particle/softbody solutions (because of timestep changes)
• Geometry Constraint nodes (because they go to the point on the target
geometry that is closest to the current point)
• Any constraint where the sum of the target weights is zero

69

Texture mapping
• Aim, tangent, or normal constraint or lookAt nodes with the worldUpType

attribute set to None
• Aim, tangent, or normal constraint or lookAt nodes with the upVector co-
linear with the aimVector
• IK with an animated solverEnable value.
Workaround The renderer can invoke a MEL procedure just before you render a frame.
(You specify this script in the Render Globals > Render Options > PreRender
Mel text field.) You can use this procedure to force evaluation at the
intervening skipped frames.
To use a MEL script:

1 Put the MEL script (named preFrameProc.mel) in your Maya scripts directory.
2 Under Render Globals > Render Options, type preFrameProc in the
PreRender Mel field.
If motion blur is on, you may need to bake the animation.
TEXTURE MAPPING
The following lists texture mapping limitations and workarounds for Maya
3.0:
• Quadratic filtered texture slowing down the renderer — Page 71
• Higher order filters do not render correctly — Page 71
• Projection texture can swim over an animation — Page 71
• Environment maps and incorrect normals when surface is bump mapped —
Page 71
• Using “.” to delineate animated file texture names—limitation — Page 72
• Image files and displacement and bump mapping — Page 72

70

Texture mapping
Quadratic filtered texture slowing down the renderer

Limitation If a quadratic filtered texture is slowing down the renderer significantly,
make sure its File Texture > Filter value is not set to some small value close
to 0.90200
Workaround Specifying a filter value close to 0 defeats the purpose of quadratic filtering.
It is best to set the value close to 1. This reduces the rendering time, while
giving better image quality in most cases. If you feel the filter size must be
near zero, use another file texture filtering types.
Higher order filters do not render correctly

Limitation Higher order filters (Quadratic, Cubic, Quartic) do not render correctly with
bump mapping and environment mapping.111936
Workaround Change the filter type to Mipmap.
Projection texture can swim over an animation

Limitation Projection texture with useLocal, can swim over an animation.87670
Workaround Turn on Use Local on all upstream textures.
Environment maps and incorrect normals when surface is bump

mapped
Limitation Environment maps do not get correct normals if the surface is also bump
mapped.79231
Workaround A MEL procedure, called cnctBumpProjNormal.mel, solves this problem.
In the command window, type:
cnctBumpProjNormal MATERIALNAME
This MEL script connects the perturbed normal (what’s connected to the
material’s normal) to all nodes which require normals and are connected to
the material specified. Alternatively, you can correct this by attaching the
bump map’s outNormal to the environment map’s normalCamera attribute.

71

Lighting and shadowing
Using “.” to delineate animated file texture names—limitation

Limitation Using “.” to delineate animated file texture names, may cause the wrong
frame to be used for texture mapping.89169
Workaround Maya parsable, animated file textures should be of the form XXX.ext.###,
where XXX is the filename, ext is an optional file extension (sgi, tif, iff, and so
on), and ### is the frame number. In Maya 1.5/2.0/2.5, it is also possible to
use file textures of the form XXX.###.ext.
Image files and displacement and bump mapping

Limitation If an image file contains a mask channel, the mask channel is used for
displacement and bump mapping. If the mask channel is absent, the
luminance of the RGB is used to displace and/or bump map.
Workaround If you have an image file with a mask channel, but prefer to use the
luminance information as the alpha, turn on the Alpha Is Luminance
attribute (in the Color Balance section of the file texture’s Attribute Editor).
113643
LIGHTING AND SHADOWING

The following lists lighting and shadowing limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
• Shadowing from shadow depth maps may be inaccurate — Page 73
• Transparent objects cast shadows for shadow depth maps — Page 73
• Shadow quality can be very poor when using light fog — Page 73
• Software-rendered scene may appear too bright or washed out — Page 74
• Avoid instancing lights — Page 74

72

Lighting and shadowing
Shadowing from shadow depth maps may be inaccurate

Limitation For extremely large-scale units, the shadowing from shadow depth maps
may be inaccurate due to the incorrect scale of the near and far clipping
planes of the shadow render.NA
Workaround The following example shows you how to manually set the near and far
clipping planes of the shadow depth map render (it assumes you have a
shadow casting light called lightShape):
setAttr lightShape.useDmapAutoClipping 0;
setAttr lightShape.dmapFarClipPlane 10000;
setAttr lightShape.dmapNearClipPlane 0.01;
where the first line turns off the automatic generation of near/far clipping
planes, and the last two lines let you set the near/far clipping plane values
appropriately.
Transparent objects cast shadows for shadow depth maps

Limitation Transparent objects cast shadows for shadow depth maps (unlike PA/
Studio). 90374
Workaround If you do not want transparent objects to cast shadows, turn off the object’s
shadow flag in its Attribute Editor.
Shadow quality can be very poor when using light fog

Limitation Shadow quality can be very poor when you use light fog. 90414
Workaround This may be because your coneAngle is much larger than the region of
interest, and use dmap auto focus is turned on. When use dmap auto focus is on,
the renderer computes the smallest angle to obtain the highest precision on
the shadow of interesting objects. But when light fog is turned on, the angle
must be as large as the light coneAngle.
Turn off that attribute, then adjust the dmap focus accordingly to fit the scene
you are interested in.

73

Motion blur
Software-rendered scene may appear too bright or washed out

Limitation A software-rendered scene may appear too bright, or look washed
out.NONE, more of a warning
Workaround By default, Point and Spot lights have no decay. Open the light’s Attribute
Editor and change the Decay Rate, or use Maya’s Decay Regions (for spot
lights only) to control the decay.
Avoid instancing lights

Limitation Avoid instancing lights. This is particularly important for shadow depth
maps and light fog. 87756, 87685, 86131, 78618
Workaround Copy the lights instead of instancing. For light fog, make sure that light fog
is duplicated independently of the light because when you duplicate a light,
its light fog is not duplicated with it.
MOTION BLUR
The following lists motion blur limitations and workarounds for Maya 3.0:
• General motion blur limitations — Page 74
• Motion blur with elongated objects may cause artifacts — Page 75
• 2D motion blur artifacts can occur when... — Page 76
• blur2d stand-alone does not support frame names — Page 76
General motion blur limitations

• Motion blur does not work with particles. 61991,39568,89242
• When you have a light illuminating a moving object, the object’s shadow
does not blur correctly.
• When you have a moving spot light that illuminates a surface, the spot
light’s beam moving across the surface does not blur.
• Motion blur is not rendered in raytraced reflections and refractions.45341,
103874

74

Motion blur
Motion blur with elongated objects may cause artifacts

Limitation Motion blur with elongated objects that penetrate the camera’s near clipping
plane may cause artifacts. This has been dramatically improved. 89933,
113321
Workaround Increase the tessellation of the object until the artifacts are gone.

75

Optical FX
2D motion blur artifacts can occur when...

Limitation 2D motion blur can cause artifacts when rendering in scenes with fog, or
solid objects in front of transparent ones,109797 or if the background color is
not black. 113370
Workaround There are three possible workarounds:
• Take out transparent objects, fog, glow, and background color from the
scene. Render the 2D blur and composite those elements back into the scene.
• Set the Smooth Value to 0. In the command line, this is -m 0. This solution is
to skip the smooth-mask operation. The image may look more aliased as a
result.
• Turn on Smooth Color. In the command line, this is -r 1. This solution uses a
different smoothing algorithm. The image may look more blurry as a result.
blur2d stand-alone does not support frame names

Limitation The Maya 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 blur2d stand-alone does not support frame names
with padding when blurring an animation sequence.
Workaround There are three possible workarounds:
• Write a shell script to process each frame, one at a time.
• Blur the animation sequence using the Maya render (interactive or batch),
which calls the stand-alone for each frame.
• Use a padding of 1 or no padding on the image names.
OPTICAL FX
Shader Glow, Light Glow, and Light Fog limitations
• Shader Glow and Light Glow attributes cannot be texture mapped, but they
can be animated.65338,80459
• Light Glow and Light Fog are not rendered in raytraced reflections and
refractions.79241

76

Ray tracing
RAY TRACING
The following lists ray tracing limitations and workarounds for Maya 3.0:
• Raytracing and background color—if ray hits nothing or is terminated —
Page 77
• Raytracing and background color—if reflection (or refraction) off — Page 77
Raytracing and background color—if ray hits nothing or is terminated

Limitation During raytracing, if a ray hits nothing, or a ray is terminated due to the
reflection or refraction limits, the default behavior is to return the camera’s
background color.
Workaround If this is not the desired behavior, the camera’s background color can be
ignored under such circumstances by setting the following environment
variable:
MAYA_RENDERER_RT_BACKGROUND_COLOR 0
To learn how to set an environment variable, see Using Maya: Essentials.
Raytracing and background color—if reflection (or refraction) off

Limitation Related to the above release note, when an object’s reflection (or refraction)
flag is not turned on but the object is set to be reflective in the material, the
object’s reflection will not be the background color (it will be black).NONE,
more of a warning
Workaround Turn on the object’s reflection/refraction.

77

Miscellaneous software rendering
MISCELLANEOUS SOFTWARE RENDERING

The following lists miscellaneous software rendering limitations and
• Feature-based displacement mapping limitation — Page 78
• Shadow color has no effect on surfaces — Page 78
• Input and output of Cineon format images incorrect on NT — Page 79
• Multiple instances of a polygonal object with multiple shading groups can
crash Maya’s renderer — Page 79
• Renaming batch rendering Maya files — Page 79
• Cycles in a render node network cause the renderer to loop — Page 79
• Turn Modify Extension on when using a value less than one — Page 80
• Background color in the camera cannot be texture mapped — Page 80
• Do not type commands in command line window while wait cursor is
displayed — Page 80
• Do not rename lightLinker1 and renderPartition nodes — Page 80
• Partitioned polyset with Switch utilities and StudioPaint textures — Page 80
• rgbToHsv node output attribute names corrected — Page 81
• Bump mapping Stencil textures — Page 81
• Batch rendering—IPR and multi-threading limitation — Page 81
Feature-based displacement mapping limitation

Reference objects do not work for feature-based displacement mapping
feature when using subdivision surfaces.127226
Shadow color has no effect on surfaces

Shadow color has no effect on surfaces assigned to a useBackground
shader.100830

78

Input and output of Cineon format images incorrect on NT

Limitation Input and output of Cineon format images is not handled correctly in the NT
version of Maya 2.0/2.5/3.0 by default. 113795
Workaround Set the following environment variables:
WF_IMF_CIN_CORRECTION=both
WF_IMF_CIN_WHITE_POINT=685
To learn how to set an environment variable, see Using Maya: Essentials.
Multiple instances of a polygonal object with multiple shading groups

can crash Maya’s renderer
Limitation Maya’s renderer may crash in cases with multiple instances of a polygonal
object that contains multiple shading group assignments (for example, a
polygon that has faces containing different shading groups).
Workaround Instead of instancing the polygon, duplicate it.
Renaming batch rendering Maya files

Limitation If you select Render > Batch Render and save to the same file as your
original file, this operation is equivalent to selecting File > Export All. This
has implications for referenced files, because Export All collapses all
referenced files into a single Maya file.91040
Workaround Rename your batch rendering Maya file to anything other than the original
file name. This should occur very rarely in Maya 2.0/2.5/3.0, because the
Save/Render window defaults to your project’s render directory instead of
your scenes directory.
Cycles in a render node network cause the renderer to loop

Limitation Cycles in a render node network cause the renderer to loop forever. A cycle
is when two or more nodes mutually depend on each other for their
information. NONE, more of a warning/suggestion
Workaround Do not construct a render node network with cycles. If you create a cycling
render node network accidentally, break one or more of the cycles using the
Connection Editor before you render.

79

Turn Modify Extension on when using a value less than one

Limitation When using a value less than one for By Frame in the Render Globals
window, make sure the Modify Extension option is turned on. Otherwise,
many frames will appear to be missing when they are just being
overwritten.76770
Workaround Turn on Modify Extension in the Render Globals window.
Background color in the camera cannot be texture mapped

Limitation The background color in the camera cannot be texture mapped. NONE,
more of a warning/suggestion
Workaround If a procedural background is needed, use an image plane instead.
Do not type commands in command line window while wait cursor is

displayed
Do not type commands into the command line window while the wait cursor
is displayed during rendering in the interactive package. You may delete
objects the renderer needs.77601
Do not rename lightLinker1 and renderPartition nodes

There are a few nodes which are global to rendering and hard-coded. These
are very difficult to see in the UI, but they do exist. The nodes include:
lightLinker1 and renderPartition. We recommend that you do not rename
them. 90474
Partitioned polyset with Switch utilities and StudioPaint textures

Limitation If you use a Switch Utility node or import StudioPaint textures for a Maya
partitioned polyset, the polyset will disappear if the views are set to one of
the Smooth Shade or Flat Shade modes.97815
Workaround Use the Wireframe mode for polysets.

80

rgbToHsv node output attribute names corrected

Update The rgbToHsv node had a few of its output attribute names corrected, as
follows:
outHsvR is now outHsvH
outHsvG is now outHsvS
outHsvB is now outHsvV
All old Maya ASCII (.ma) or binary (.mb) files will still load and work as
expected. However, if you have written your own Mel scripts which
explicitly refer to the old attribute names, you must update them to use the
new names instead. 90836
Bump mapping Stencil textures

Limitation You must make manual, explicit connections to bump map Stencil textures.
101942
Workaround Bump map the texture, then manually connect the bumpValue to the stencil
outAlpha.
Batch rendering—IPR and multi-threading limitation

Batch rendering does not work properly when IPR mode and multi-
threading is specified (for example, “Render -ipr -n 8 MAYA_FILE” may
crash). 111275

81

Rendering workflow issues
RENDERING WORKFLOW ISSUES

The following lists rendering workflow issues for Maya 3.0:
• Render View > File > Save Image incorrect file type choices — Page 82
• Display Render Tessellation does not display displacement mapping — Page
82
• Light-linking with plug-in lights — Page 82
• Light Linking Editor and deleting lights — Page 82
• Break Connection on Environment Fog does not delete fog — Page 83
Render View > File > Save Image incorrect file type choices
Render View > File > Save Image offers incorrect file type choices. Image
files will always be saved as IFF format. 86894
Display Render Tessellation does not display displacement mapping

Limitation Display Render Tessellation (you can turn this on in a NURBS surface’s
Attribute Editor) does not display displacement mapping.None
Workaround In the main Maya window, select Shading > Displacement to Polygon to
preview the effect of your tessellation and displacement together, then
discard the generated polygon object when you are finished previewing.
Light-linking with plug-in lights

There are some problems involving light-linking with plug-in lights:
• They do not appear in the Light-linking Editor or Relationship Editor.
• The query option to the lightLink command does not work for plug-in lights.
This results in Lights > Select Objects Illuminated by Light and
Lights > Select Lights Illuminating Objects failing.
Light Linking Editor and deleting lights

Limitation The Light Linking Editor sometimes gets confused when you delete lights
while using it. You may see error messages such as: “Error: No object
matches name: directionalLight1” after deleting a light. Also, the display of
which lights are selected can be incorrect after undoing a light’s deletion.
Workaround Deselect everything in a modeling view to clear the editor.

82

Hardware shading
Break Connection on Environment Fog does not delete fog

Limitation If you have turned on Environment Fog in the Render Globals window, and
try to turn it off later using right-mouse button Break Connection, the fog
remains. 113324
Workaround Find the Environment Fog material in Hypershade and delete it.
HARDWARE SHADING
The following lists hardware shading limitations and workarounds for Maya
3.0:
• Hardware shading in views—file texture and transparency — Page 83
• Projected textures or 3D texture placement on NURBS — Page 84
• Mapped 3D texture on polygonal object — Page 84
• Plug-ins and unpredictable results in hardware shading — Page 84
• General plug-in limitations — Page 84
• Default texture resolution issues — Page 84
• Texture transparency issues — Page 85
• Interactive texture placements on projected polygons — Page 85
Hardware shading in views—file texture and transparency

Limitation Hardware shading in the modeling views (when Hardware Texturing is
turned on) will use the alpha channel of a file texture’s image to drive
transparency in the display. The software renderer does not behave in this
manner.113151
Workaround For software rendering, you must connect a 3-channel (RGB) image to the
transparency attribute of the material (or reverse the alpha channel of an
image and connect it to each of the red/green/blue transparency sub-
channels).

83

Hardware shading
Projected textures or 3D texture placement on NURBS

Limitation Projected textures or 3D texture placement on NURBS surfaces may not
reflect the correct placement in the views after you transform the
shapes.90071
Workaround Make an insignificant change to any of the texture’s parameters to force a
proper update after the transformation.
Mapped 3D texture on polygonal object

If a polygonal object has a mapped 3D texture then hardware texturing
requires that the surface have a regular grid of unique UVs between 0 and 1
for sampling the texture over the surface.90134, 82516
Plug-ins and unpredictable results in hardware shading

Texture maps are only created for plug-in shaders, plug-in textures, utility
nodes (for example, Gamma or Layered Shader), and those nodes mapped to
the built-in materials. Any textures mapped to other material attributes (for
example, Diffuse or Default Color) are not supported or may produce
unpredictable results in hardware shading.84102
General plug-in limitations

• Plug-in shaders and textures are supported when you use Hardware
Texturing. When you use Smooth Shade All mode, only the attributes of the
following specific names are used: diffuse, hardwareColor, color,
transparency, incandescence, specularColor, shininess.NONE
• An ambient light will be used to compute the lighting for a plug-in shader
when you use Hardware Texturing.
• If a surface does not have an associated shading group or materialInfo node,
it will appear dark green in color when you use Smooth Shade All mode.
Default texture resolution issues

Default texture resolution issues (which can be modified by switching
quality in the material’s Attribute Editor in Maya 2.0/2.5/3.0) include the
following limitations: 84770, 85086

84

Hypershade/Visor
• The 2D file texture attempts to use the full resolution (rounded to a base 2
number) of the file, but some configurations of texture placement will result
in the use of a 64x64 hardware texture (for example, if you set the Coverage
to less than one this occurs).
• All 2D procedural textures are represented by a 64x64 swatch.
• All 3D textures are represented by a 32x32 swatch, but a dynamic attribute
named resolution may be added to configure this setting.
Texture transparency issues

Texture transparency limitations include the following: 64018
• Only file textures with mask are supported by hardware transparency, and
this file texture must be mapped to the material’s Color attribute. However,
when you use a 64x64 configuration, the mask is ignored. This can occur in
the following situations: when one of Invert, Mirror, or Stagger is turned on,
or when Texture Quality is not the default setting.
• If there is a texture mapped to the material’s Transparency attribute, a
random sample from the texture will be used for the transparency of the
entire surface.
Interactive texture placements on projected polygons
Interactive texture placements on projected polygons do not display

properly when Hardware Texturing is turned on in a modeling view. 97615
HYPERSHADE/VISOR
The following lists Hypershade/Visor limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
• Cannot unload plug-in shaders after you open Visor — Page 86
• Reading binary files on different platforms — Page 86
• Shading group not automatically deleted in Hypershade — Page 86
• Deleting nodes in the view using Ctrl-D — Page 86
• Deleting a remapRamp node On SGI NT machines (320s/540s) — Page 86

85

Hypershade/Visor
Cannot unload plug-in shaders after you open Visor

Limitation You cannot unload plug-in shaders after you open Visor, because Visor
creates one of each type of rendering node to show an icon representing
what a new one would look like.111006
Workaround Restart Maya.
Reading binary files on different platforms

When you use Hypershade, a binary file is created in which custom icons
you create for your nodes are stored (see the Grab Swatch to Hypershade
and Visor button description in Maya Reference: Rendering). The binary file,
(whose name is derived from the name of your scene file plus the .icon
extension) can only be read if you run Maya on the same type of processor
(SGI MIPS or Intel) as when you created the file. If you try to open a scene
that was created on another platform, a warning is displayed and the .icon
file will be ignored.108993
Shading group not automatically deleted in Hypershade

Limitation If you delete a material in Hypershade, its shading group is not
automatically deleted, and objects assigned to the deleted material will not
be rendered unless you assign another material to the object. None
Workaround If you have objects that are not being rendered, graph their rendering node
networks, and make sure they have a material connected to them. Render
Diagnostics (select Render > Render Diagnostics) also warns you if you have
objects that are not assigned to a material.
Deleting nodes in the view using Ctrl-D

Limitation When you delete nodes in the modeling view using Ctrl-D, not all of the
attributes of lights or materials are duplicated. 90303
Workaround In Hypershade, select Edit > Duplicate.
Deleting a remapRamp node On SGI NT machines (320s/540s)

Limitation On SGI NT machines (320s/540s), deleting a remapRamp node in
Hypershade can cause Maya to crash.
Workaround Please install version 4.1.4 of the graphics driver.

86

Multilister, Connection Editor, & Attribute Editor
MULTILISTER, CONNECTION EDITOR, & ATTRIBUTE EDITOR

The following lists Multilister, Connection Editor, and Attribute Editor
limitations and workarounds for Maya 3.0:
• Shading group not connected to material — Page 87
• Disconnected attributes lose original values — Page 87
Shading group not connected to material

Limitation In the Multilister, all the connections to a shading group can be deleted,
leaving the shading group without a material. A large “X” is displayed in
the Multilister swatch. It is not advisable to leave a shading group in this
state as subsequent software renders will behave unpredictably. NONE
Workaround Attach a material to the shading group if the “X” appears in the swatch, or
delete the shading group.
Disconnected attributes lose original values

When an attribute is connected, the original value of that attribute is lost.
Once that connection is disconnected, the original value is not recoverable.
The attribute is reset to its default in these cases. 81303
CAMERAS AND VIEWS

The following lists camera and views rendering limitations and
• Look Through Selected — Page 87
• Manipulator undo and two- or three-node cameras — Page 88
• View fit problems with joints — Page 88
• Problems if camera not proportionally scaled — Page 88
• Resolution Gate and Film Gate incorrectly display — Page 88
Look Through Selected

Look Through Selected can produce unexpected results if the camera is
duplicated, the scene is saved, or manipulators are then used. 57789, 58050,
65960, 83090

87

Image planes
Manipulator undo and two- or three-node cameras

Manipulator undo does not work for two- or three-node cameras. 87107
View fit problems with joints

View fit has problems with some joints, where it will zoom out too far.79982
Problems if camera not proportionally scaled

Problems exist if the camera is not proportionally scaled. The view and
render will be skewed and manipulation may result in odd behavior. 88480
Resolution Gate and Film Gate incorrectly display

Limitation Resolution Gate and Film Gate may not correctly display with non-standard
Film Fit Offsets, when Film Fit is set to Vertical or Fill. 105454
Workaround The Horizontal setting works correctly.
IMAGE PLANES
The following lists image planes limitations and workarounds for Maya 3.0:
• Procedural texture image type — Page 88
• Image plane not connected to a camera displays black swatch — Page 88
• Color Gain and Color Offset image plane attributes do not display correctly
on SGI O2 — Page 89
• Readable movie file formats in image planes — Page 90
Procedural texture image type

The (procedural) texture image type cannot be displayed in hardware. 77135
Image plane not connected to a camera displays black swatch

If an image plane is not connected to a camera, its swatch appears black.
Once connected to a camera, the swatch will function properly. 88239

88

Image planes
Color Gain and Color Offset image plane attributes do not display
correctly on SGI O2
The Color Gain and Color Offset image plane attributes, when set to
anything other than their defaults, do not display correctly on an SGI O2. All
other computers display these attributes properly. 89433

89

Convert to File Texture
Readable movie file formats in image planes

Limitation Not all movie file formats are readable in Maya’s image planes. 113677
Workaround On NT: Only .avi files are accepted. On IRIX: Only .mov (quicktime) and sgi
movie files (uncompressed or using RLE, RLE24, JPEG, MVC1, or MVC2
compression) are accepted.
CONVERT TO FILE TEXTURE

The following lists the Convert to File Texture limitations and workarounds
for Maya 3.0:
• Convert to File Texture does not support Fix Texture Warp — Page 90
• Convert to File Texture and polygons — Page 90
• Convert to File Texture and Layered Shader — Page 90
Convert to File Texture does not support Fix Texture Warp

Convert to File Texture does not support Fix Texture Warp. If the surface
uses Fix Texture Warp, it is ignored when converting the material. 97611
Convert to File Texture and polygons

For Convert to File Texture to work properly for polygonal objects, the
polygons must have (UV) values, and unique (UV) values across the surface.
Otherwise, the result may not be what you expected. 97611
Convert to File Texture and Layered Shader

Limitation You cannot use Convert to File Texture on materials that are a layer of a
Layered Shader. 112389, 110701
Workaround Disconnect the material from the Layered Shader, do the conversion, and
then reconnect the resulting file texture to the Layered Shader.

90

Render Layers/Passes
RENDER LAYERS/PASSES
The following lists the Render Layers/Passes limitations and workarounds
for Maya 3.0:
• Hardware Render Buffer will not render particles successfully — Page 91
• Cannot change the color of objects in a Render Layer — Page 91
• Assigning objects to Render Layers through the Relationship editor — Page
91
• Scenes with Fur give unexpected results when using Render Layers — Page
91
Hardware Render Buffer will not render particles successfully

Limitation Render Sequence will not render particles successfully if the Render Passes
and “Motion Blur” options (found in the Multi-Pass Render Options section
of the Hardware Render Buffer Attribute section) are equivalent integers.
For example, if Render Passes is set to 3 and Motion Blur is set to 3,
hardware particle rendering will not work. 133249
Workaround Set them to non-equivalent values or to use the Disk Cache option
(Solvers > Create Particle Disk Cache).
Cannot change the color of objects in a Render Layer

You cannot change the color of objects in a Render Layer. Changing the color
swatch in the Render Layer Bar will have no effect.132106
Assigning objects to Render Layers through the Relationship editor

Limitation Assigning objects to Render Layers via the Relationship editor is not
recommended since you may inadvertently assign an object without it's
transform. 129410
Workaround Use the Render Layer Bar to assign objects to layers.
Limitation Scenes with Fur give unexpected results when using Render Layers
When using Render Layers, scenes with Fur will give unexpected results.
129583
Workaround Turn off Enable Fur and render the Fur as a separate pass.

91

Stand-alones
STAND-ALONES
The following lists stand-alone rendering limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
• Dispatcher render options format — Page 92
• Dispatching rendering on IRIX CPU usage — Page 92
• makebot stand-alone no longer available — Page 92
Dispatcher render options format

Limitation Dispatcher (available on the UNIX platform only) can crash if you do not put
render options within quotation marks. 85179
Workaround In the dispatch_maya_render command, make sure to enclose any Maya
options you use, including Maya’s batch renderer options within double
quotes.
Dispatching rendering on IRIX CPU usage

Limitation By default, when you dispatch a render (on IRIX only) it only uses one CPU.
Workaround Edit the default command in the Submit Job window. In the dispatcher
Submit Job window, by default the command field includes something
similar to the following:
dispatch_maya_render # 400 10 -proj /u/elvis/maya/projects/
Rene/ /usr/tmp/junk.mb
To change the number of CPUs, edit the command to read:
dispatch_maya_render # 400 10 -n numberOfCpus -proj/u/elvis/
maya/projects/Rene/ /usr/tmp/junk.mb
where numberOfCpus is the number of CPUs to use for the render.
For example: -n 2 means use 2 cpus on the machines, and -n 0 means use
all CPUs on the machines.
makebot stand-alone no longer available

The makebot stand-alone is no longer available. It has been replaced by a
makebot command accessible through the script window. 129161

92

Paint Textures Tool
PAINT TEXTURES TOOL

The following lists the Paint Textures Tool software limitations and
• Painting around pole of NURBS sphere — Page 93
• Saving a scene with a new name — Page 93
• Painting file textures in a layered texture or complex shading setup — Page
94
• Flooding with polygonal faces selected — Page 94
• Artifacts in hardware render — Page 94
• Painting on non-file textures — Page 94
• Changing texture placement parameters — Page 94
Painting around pole of NURBS sphere

Limitation Painting around the pole of a NURBS sphere leaves unpainted triangles in
Projective Paint mode.128114
Workaround Use UV Texture Paint mode, or convert the sphere to polygons.
Saving a scene with a new name

Limitation When you save a scene containing painted textures with a new name, the
textures do not get re-saved with that new scene name until you have re-
entered the Paint Textures Tool and displayed each of the painted attributes.
If you do not do this, the textures remain saved with the earlier scene name.
If the earlier scene is then repainted, the textures for the later scene are
overwritten.128999
Workaround If you change the scene name, re-enter the Paint Textures Tool and display
each of the painted attributes. Ideally, save the scene with the new name
before painting the textures.

93

Paint Textures Tool
Painting file textures in a layered texture or complex shading setup

Limitation It is not currently possible to directly paint on the textures in layered texture,
or other complex shading setup.129000
Workaround Assign a regular shader and paint the textures as required. Then re-assign
the required shading network, and drag and drop the painted texture (single
surface) or switch node (multiple surfaces) onto the required attributes.
Flooding with polygonal faces selected

Limitation When polygonal faces are selected (rather than the entire mesh), flooding the
surface will still flood the entire mesh.131304
Workaround Use a large brush to quickly paint over the selected faces instead.
Artifacts in hardware render

Depending on your hardware, textures over a certain size (typically 512 or
1024) have to be scaled down for display purposes. In these cases, darker
pixels may appear where there are seams in the UV mesh. These do NOT
affect the software render.132082
Painting on non-file textures

Limitation It is not currently possible to paint directly on a non-file texture (for
example, a checkerboard).132612
Workaround To paint on non-file textures, first convert them to file textures
(Hypershade > Edit > Convert to File Texture).
Changing texture placement parameters

Limitation Changing texture placement parameters such as scale and rotation, and then
re-entering the Paint Textures Tool can give unexpected results when
painting.132618
Workaround Complete the texture painting before editing the texture placement, or use
Convert to File Texture to continue painting on a texture whose texture
placement has been changed.

94
147 MISCELLANEOUS
The following lists miscellaneous software limitations and workarounds for

Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Notes Pages
General Maya limitations & workarounds 96
AliasToMaya and MayaToAlias 103
Obj import 112
Maya NT 112

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MISCELLANEOUS | 147
General Maya limitations & workarounds
GENERAL MAYA LIMITATIONS & WORKAROUNDS

The following limitations and workarounds relate to general Maya issues:
• 32 bit BMP files — Page 97
• Maya may be unstable with dynamic compound-compound attributes —
Page 97
• WinTab Device (Tablet) attachments not supported on NT — Page 97
• Opening Maya Complete or Unlimited scenes using Maya Builder license —
Page 97
• Duplicated objects not assigned to a duplicate layer — Page 98
• Preferences may be corrupt or irretrievable if disk overflows — Page 98
• Transforms added to channels of duplicated transform node — Page 98
• listRelatives -p command changed in 3.0 — Page 98
• Using StudioPaint 9.5 with Maya 3.0 — Page 99
• Problem with online help search engine—IRIX Netscape 4.0x — Page 99
• Script filters don’t invoke filterChanged callback — Page 99
• Freeze transform tip — Page 99
• Maya leaves UNIX shell key repeat turned off — Page 100
• Maya uninstalls incorrectly — Page 100
• Marquee component selection in shaded mode — Page 100
• Editing shading group connections manually — Page 100
• NURBS surface does not appear when rendering — Page 100
• Double transformation when objects parented with history — Page 101
• Tip—Y-up is the preferred way of working in Maya — Page 101
• Revolved surface limitation — Page 101
• Transform with multiple surfaces — Page 101
• Cycle checking may miss a cycle — Page 101
• Loss of shader assignment for polygonal objects — Page 102
• Edit > Duplicate does not work on isoparms — Page 102
• Tooltip windows limitation — Page 102
• IRIX Netscape limitation — Page 102
• IRIX: Maya causes the Xsgi process to use a lot of memory — Page 102
• Maya 3.0 does not read previous version’s windowPrefs.mel — Page 102
• Lighting problems on Diamond FireGL video cards — Page 103

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MISCELLANEOUS | 147
32 bit BMP files

Limitation 32 bit BMP files are not supported by Maya.127790
Workaround Use imgcvt to convert the image to iff.
Maya may be unstable with dynamic compound-compound

attributes
Limitation Maya may be unstable with dynamic compound-compound attributes, such
as compound attributes with compound children. These types of dynamic
attributes should be avoided if at all possible.
Workaround If compound-compounds must be used, creating the child as a multi or as a
known-size attribute (a double2, for example) is most likely to work
properly. 131620
WinTab Device (Tablet) attachments not supported on NT

WinTab Device (Tablet) attachments are not supported on NT. The wintab
device will show up in the device list, but can not make any attachments to
the channels. 118220
Opening Maya Complete or Unlimited scenes using Maya Builder

license
Limitation If you run Maya using a license for Maya Builder then open a scene that
contains nodes that are restricted by licensing to Maya Complete or Maya
Unlimited, you may see warnings of the form:
// Warning: file: …/30Sectest.ma line 63: Unrecognized node
type 'something'; preserving node information during this
session. //
These warnings can be safely ignored. All information in the Maya Complete
or Unlimited nodes will be properly imported into Maya Builder and written
out again correctly when the scene is saved.
If these licensed nodes came from an Unlimited plug-in (for instance, Maya
Cloth or Maya Fur) when the scene is written out again by Maya Builder (or
Maya Complete) the scene file forgets that it needs Maya Cloth or Maya Fur
to load properly. 129691
Workaround Load the Maya Cloth or Maya Fur plug-ins manually in Maya Unlimited
before loading the scene file.

97
MISCELLANEOUS | 147
Duplicated objects not assigned to a duplicate layer

Limitation When duplicating objects with the upstream option set, the options in the
layer creation option box (RMB on layer bar New Layer, or Options in layer
editor) are respected.
If the Assign to Current Layer option is specified, the duplicated objects will
not be assigned to a duplicate layer, but will instead be assigned to whatever
layer is current. The layer itself will still be duplicated in this case but will
remain empty.120170
Preferences may be corrupt or irretrievable if disk overflows

Limitation Maya does not properly detect if you are out of space if your disk overflows
while Maya is saving preferences. If this occurs, your preferences may
become corrupt or irretrievable. 131781
Workaround Ensure that your hard drive has space available to save your Maya
preference files. If the disk runs out of space, free up some space before
exiting the Maya application.
Transforms added to channels of duplicated transform node

Limitation If the pivot point of an object is changed from its default value, duplicating
multiple copies of that object results in additional transforms to the channels
of the duplicated transform node. However, the resulting position,
orientation and the pivots of the duplicated objects will be correct. 132125
Workaround To avoid these extra transforms, the duplicate command should be invoked
with No of copies set to 1. The hotkey g can then be used as many times as
needed.
listRelatives -p command changed in 3.0

The behavior of the listRelatives -p command has changed in 3.0 when the
argument is a component of a DAG node. In previous releases, the parent of
the dag node would be returned. In 3.0, the DAG node the component
belongs to is returned.
This change was made so that when a component of a transform node such
as its pivots are selected, “listRelatives -p” returns the transform and not its
parent. This also makes it easier to extract the name of an object from its
components instead of using string manipulation functions. 132109

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MISCELLANEOUS | 147
Using StudioPaint 9.5 with Maya 3.0

For StudioPaint 9.5 to work correctly with Maya 3.0, you must set the
ALIAS_SP_MAYA_VERSION environment variable to 3.0.
Problem with online help search engine—IRIX Netscape 4.0x

Limitation Sometimes the fonts in the Java applets are unreadable in some versions of
Netscape 4.0x. The letters appear to run into each other. The problem occurs
when Netscape is set to autostart by the desktop.
Workaround If the Save Windows & Desks option (in Toolchest > Desktop >
Customize > Windows) is set to Explicitly (the default):
1 Quit Netscape.
2 Open Toolchest > Desktop > Customize > Windows
3 Click Set Home Session
4 Click Close in the Window Settings window, and log out and log in again.
If the Save Windows & Desks option is set to Continuously in the

Window Setting:
Close any Netscape window before you log out from your account.
The next time you login, Netscape will not be in autostart mode for that
session.
Script filters don’t invoke filterChanged callback

Limitation Script filters don’t invoke filterChanged callbacks when script changes.
For example, if you create an item filter like this: 68460
itemFilter -byScript userScript filter1;
If you modify the script, you will not be informed that the filter has changed.
Workaround Reassign the same script to the filter to trigger the workaround.
itemFilter -edit -byScript userScript filter1
Freeze transform tip

Tip Perform a freeze transform before executing operations such as stitch, align,
attach, sculpt, wire, and wrinkle, or delete history before doing freeze. 84869

99
MISCELLANEOUS | 147
Maya leaves UNIX shell key repeat turned off

Limitation Occasionally, Maya will leave your UNIX shell key repeat turned off.90625
Workaround Use the xset UNIX command to turn it back on:
xset r on
Maya uninstalls incorrectly

Limitation If you uninstall Maya on IRIX, the bin, icon, lib, and scripts directories are
incorrectly left inside the /usr/aw/maya3.0 dir.
Workaround If you uninstall Maya, to ensure that all files have been removed, you may
have to manually remove a few files and directories.110146
Marquee component selection in shaded mode

In shaded mode, a marquee selection will select all components inside the
selection rectangle, even if they happen to be hidden by the shaded surface.
In other words, shaded selection behaves the same as wireframe selection for
components.87281
Editing shading group connections manually

Limitation It is not recommended that you manually try and edit the shading group
connections.87734
Workaround Instead, always use the higher level interfaces like Hypershade and shading
groups editor to ensure the connections do not become inconsistent which
will result in the surface not appearing when rendered.
NURBS surface does not appear when rendering

If a NURBS surface is disconnected from its shading group it will continue
to be drawn in shaded mode but will not appear when rendering. This is
different from polygon objects which will not appear in shaded mode in this
situation.91595

100
MISCELLANEOUS | 147
Double transformation when objects parented with history

Limitation When an object is parented with its construction history the output surface
may get a double transformation when the group is moved.88229
Workaround To fix this toggle the inhertsTransform flag (on the surface) to off. This stops
the surface from inheriting the group’s transformation and fixes the
problem. Note: the group command automatically detects and toggles this
flag in these situations but the parent command does not.
Tip—Y-up is the preferred way of working in Maya

Tip Switching between Y-up and Z-up may not convert cameras properly and
should only be done on a new scene in 4-view display mode.88346
Revolved surface limitation

Limitation If a revolved surface is grouped with its input curve then transforming the
resulting group will change the shape of the revolved surface since the
revolve node’s pivot will not be transformed.88630
Workaround This can be avoided by not grouping the curve with the surface or by
creating a locator under the group and connecting its position to the revolve
node’s pivot.
Transform with multiple surfaces

If a transform has multiple surfaces under it the shape node may have to be
selected in the outliner for commands like makeLive to work properly.88684
Cycle checking may miss a cycle

Limitation The cycle checking that happens during attribute evaluation may miss a
cycle in which incoming connections on a DAG node form a cycle that
includes any of the worldspace attributes on its child nodes.89713
Workaround cycleCheck NODE can be used to detect these cycles if you suspect this to be
the case.

101
MISCELLANEOUS | 147
Loss of shader assignment for polygonal objects

Limitation While dealing with polygonal objects, deleting dag nodes that are part of the
history of the polygon could lead to the loss of shader assignment. This
happens only when materials have been assigned to faces (as opposed to the
whole object). The result would be that all the faces of the polygon will end
up in the default shading group and material assignment will have to be
redone.90050
Edit > Duplicate does not work on isoparms

Workaround Use Edit Curves > Duplicate Surface Curves instead.90494
Tooltip windows limitation

Limitation Tooltip windows that overlap the following views are known to cause a
redraw of the view data. Model views, Graph Editor, Dope Sheet and
Hypergraph. This redraw may be noticeable for very large scenes.103938
Workaround Avoid the redraw by disabling Tooltips with the Help >Popup Help menu
item.
IRIX Netscape limitation

IRIX: Maya will attempt to execute another copy of Netscape if you are
running a version of that is not found in your Unix $PATH environment
variable. Use the Unix shell command “which netscape” to determine if the
Netscape you are running is in your $PATH. See your Unix System
Administrator for more information on Unix shells, commands and
environment variables. 85577
IRIX: Maya causes the Xsgi process to use a lot of memory

IRIX: Maya causes the Xsgi process to use large amounts memory. This is
not an indication of leaking memory but rather a reflection of the amount of
user interface components created in the application. This is most noticeable
when numerous Maya windows are opened or if you continuously create
and destroy custom windows. 94433
Maya 3.0 does not read previous version’s windowPrefs.mel

Maya 3.0 will not read the previous version’s windowPrefs.mel file as the
window sizes have changed for some of the windows. If Maya recognized
the old preferences, it could hide new functionality. 110665

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AliasToMaya and MayaToAlias
Lighting problems on Diamond FireGL video cards

On Diamond FireGL 4000 video cards, crashes have been experienced with
all lighting enabled, and four or more lights. Diamond does not have a fix
for this crash at this time; However, the crash seems dependent on the
position and orientation of lights. Moving or rotating some lights may keep
Maya from crashing if hardware lighting is required.
ALIASTOMAYA AND MAYATOALIAS

The following limitations and workarounds relate to AliasToMaya &
MayaToAlias issues:
• Harmless Maya error message (line #) — Page 104
• Wire files converted using AliasToMaya translator load slowly — Page 104
• Importing PA wire files into Maya — Page 105
• PA radius of renderSphere different — Page 105
• PA shader color and texture mapping conversion — Page 105
• PA light fog noise factor imported to Maya — Page 105
• PA/Maya motion blur differences — Page 105
• Maya issues errors on PA curves — Page 105
• Maya environment fog different from PA’s — Page 105
• PA’s non-exclusive lights turned on in Maya — Page 106
• PA area lights replaced by point lights when converting to Maya — Page 106
• Aim-constraint/orientation-constraint not connected to object — Page 106
• Unnecessary multiple connections to shading engine — Page 106
• AliasToMaya introduces DG cycles for spot lights after conversion — Page
106
• PA near/far clipping planes multiplied — Page 107
• Imported wire/iges/dxf file deleted after import — Page 107
• Maya turns PA textures on when converted — Page 107
• Optical light effect scaled if light has been scaled — Page 107
• PA to Maya curve-on-surface conversion problem — Page 108
• PA Glow Effects animation limitation — Page 108
• MayaToAlias exports transform even if it is an intermediate object — Page
108
• Triangulate faces with holes — Page 108

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• PA aim constraints have different axes — Page 108

• PA faces become trimmed surfaces — Page 109
• PA Layers not translated, though objects on all layers are — Page 109
• srand(seed) replaced by rand(seed) when translated into Maya — Page 109
• Instanced objects may lose shading assignments when deformed by clusters
— Page 109
• PA animation curve limitation — Page 109
• Maya file browser limitation — Page 110
• Losing converted ASCII files — Page 110
• Lost camera animation color — Page 110
• Texture mapped onto color in PA becomes image planes on all renderable
cameras — Page 110
• Lights in PA that have shadow produce depth map shadows in Maya —
Page 110
• Light glow transfer not perfect between PA and Maya — Page 111
• PA lightsource shader becomes a lambert shader in Maya — Page 111
• Layered shader created in Maya for layered PA shaders — Page 111
• PA image plane placement — Page 111
• Backdrop image and texture on background color in PA conversion
limitation — Page 111
• Losing animation sequence number during conversion — Page 112
• PA start/end mode in render globals conversion limitation — Page 112
Harmless Maya error message (line #)

After you bring a wire file into Maya, if you see Maya giving an error
message such as:
Error: line #: A child attribute of ‘node’ is locked and cannot be modified.
It could be that at line #, Maya tries to set a value on an attribute of “node”
but this attribute is already animated. This kind of error is harmless.80292
Wire files converted using AliasToMaya translator load slowly

Limitation Wire files converted using the AliasToMaya translator may load much
slower than native Maya files.89337
Workaround It is recommended that these files be written out as native Maya files for
faster file loading.

104
MISCELLANEOUS | 147
Importing PA wire files into Maya

Limitation When importing PA wire files into Maya the up-axis information will not be
imported.
Workaround The up axis will need to be set in Maya after the file has been
imported.87897
PA radius of renderSphere different

In Maya, the radius of the renderSphere, which is created if the point light has
glow or halo or fog, is set to the one-tenth of the light radius from PA.89371
PA shader color and texture mapping conversion

In PA, if the shader color is both modified and texture-mapped, only the
texture-mapped part will be converted to Maya; the color modification will
be lost. In Maya, the color of the shader would be solely determined by the
texture.89371
PA light fog noise factor imported to Maya

Limitation In PA, if the light fog has noise, this noise factor will be brought over to
Maya.
Workaround You need to apply certain textures to the fog shader to achieve the same
look.89371
PA/Maya motion blur differences

In PA, if motion blur on an animated camera is turned on, it automatically
turns on motion blur for every object in the scene. When this scene is
translated to Maya, the same effect can only be achieved by manually
turning on the motion blur flag on every object.89749
Maya issues errors on PA curves

For PA curves which have their number of spans as “-1”, Maya will issue
errors when reading these curves. These errors are not harmful to the
reading of the rest of the file.90084
Maya environment fog different from PA’s

Workaround Try adjusting the intensity of the ambient light associated with the
environment fog or the density of the fog to get the desired result.90140

105
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PA’s non-exclusive lights turned on in Maya

Limitation If you have a non-exclusive light in PA which is turned off but has its glow
turned on, when you bring it over to Maya, this light will turned on
instead.90141
Workaround To simulate the same effect, i.e, to have a glow-only light, you could make
this light exclusive so that it does not illuminate anything.
PA area lights replaced by point lights when converting to Maya

During conversion, PA area lights are replaced by point lights. This changes
the lighting results since area light illuminates one direction only and point
light illuminates all directions.89696
Aim-constraint/orientation-constraint not connected to object

If an object is already orientation-constrained and AliasToMaya finds
another aim-constraint being applied on this object, this aim-constraint will
not be connected to the object. Similarly, if an object is already aim-
constrained and AliasToMaya finds another orientation-constraint being
applied on this object, this orientation-constraint will not be connected to the
object.
Unnecessary multiple connections to shading engine

If several objects share the same shader which has displacement texture,
AliasToMaya may make the connection from the displacement shader to the
shading engine multiple times unnecessarily. Maya will give a warning on
every repeated connection but these warnings are harmless.90084
AliasToMaya introduces DG cycles for spot lights after conversion

AliasToMaya introduces DG cycles for spot lights after they are converted
from wire to Maya - AliasToMaya has to use aim constraints to match Maya
spot lights with their PA counterparts and the way the constraint parameters
are calculated introduces DG cycles. These cycles are harmless.90201

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PA near/far clipping planes multiplied

Limitation In PA if some transform node above the camera has scale, when the camera
is converted into Maya, the near/far clipping planes are multiplied by this
scale and the view through the camera can look quite different in
Maya.90231
Workaround Divide the near/far clipping plane values with this scale value.
Imported wire/iges/dxf file deleted after import

When Maya imports a wire/iges/dxf file, it creates a Maya ASCII file under
“/usr/tmp”, reads it in, and deletes it. Please check to see if you have the
“write” permission in “/usr/tmp”. Maya also creates a small “.mel” file in
your “/usr/tmp” and leaves it there. Please delete it if you do not need this
file.90456
Maya turns PA textures on when converted

Limitation If you have a texture which has been turned OFF in PA, when you convert it
to Maya, it is turned ON. 90501
Workaround In order to simulate it being turned off, you need to open the attribute editor
for the shader, find the attribute which the texture is applied on, click on the
arrow which indicates connection from the texture to the shader with the
RMB, and mark that connection as “Ignore”. The shader name, attribute
name, and the texture name are displayed in a warning message during the
conversion from wire file to Maya.
Optical light effect scaled if light has been scaled

Limitation If your light has optical effect such as glow, halo, and lens flare, when you
convert that light to Maya, the optical effect of your light in Maya is scaled if
the light has been scaled. There could be a performance penalty incurred
when calculating the visibility for the optical effect. 90505
Workaround You need to scale the light to (1,1,1) for maximum efficiency before
rendering.

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PA to Maya curve-on-surface conversion problem

If your curve-on-surface in PA is not converted to Maya, re-generate it by re-
projecting or re-intersecting the curves/surfaces if the curve-on-surface was
created using projection or intersection.
If your curve-on-surface was drawn onto the surface in PA, convert it to a
3D curve, bring the 3D curve into Maya, and project it onto the surface to re-
generate the curve-on-surface.90536
PA Glow Effects animation limitation

If your light in PA has one of its Glow Effects parameter animated, you need
to turn on your glow/halo/lens flare to avoid an error message in Maya.
For example, if your light glow is off and one of the glow parameters is
animated, Maya complains:
Error: file... line #: The destination attribute cannot be found.
This is because at line #, Maya tries to animate an opticalFX node which is
only created if your glow/halo/lens flare is ON. However, this error
message is harmless.90713
MayaToAlias exports transform even if it is an intermediate object

Limitation MayaToAlias exports a transform even if it is marked as an intermediate
object. If some shape is parented under this transform in Maya, this shape is
invisible. But when the shape is exported to a wire file, it becomes
visible.90377
Workaround Delete this shape in PA if it is not useful.
Triangulate faces with holes

If you want to export a Maya mesh to a wire file and this mesh contains a
face which has hole(s) in it, you need to triangulate this face first.90380
PA aim constraints have different axes

In PA, if the aim constraints on one object have different axes, when they
come into Maya, they will share the same axis—the one used by the first aim
constraint on your object.

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PA faces become trimmed surfaces

PA faces become trimmed surfaces when brought into Maya. Sometimes, the
trimmed surface may look different than the original face.
PA Layers not translated, though objects on all layers are

The following entity types are not translated from PA to Maya: Construction
history, Dynamics objects, Blind data.
srand(seed) replaced by rand(seed) when translated into Maya

Limitation If you use function srand(seed) in your expression, it will be replaced by
rand(seed) when the expression is translated to Maya.
Workaround Please replace “rand(seed)” with “rand(1)” if you want a random number
from 0 to 1. If you do want to change the seed of the random number in the
expression, please use the “seed” function which is available in Maya.
Instanced objects may lose shading assignments when deformed by

clusters
Limitation The instanced objects may lose their shading assignment if these objects are
deformed by clusters. The original object (which the instanced objects are
instanced from) has the correct shading assignment.
Workaround Re-assign the shader to those instanced objects which are deformed by
clusters.
PA animation curve limitation

Limitation If your animation curve in PA has tangent type as “smooth”, when this
curve is brought over to Maya, Maya produces a slightly different smooth
curve from the one in PA. So your animation value would only be exactly
the same on the key-frames but the interpolated values would be slightly
different. In Maya graph editor, you will see that Maya does not reproduce
the smooth tangents of Alias the same way.
Workaround If you want to maintain the curve tangents from PA to Maya, you could set
the tangent type to “fixed” in PA instead of “Smooth” so that you will get
the exact tangent values in Maya.

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Maya file browser limitation

Limitation Maya file browser only recognizes wire files with versions number 7.0 and
higher. But the AliasToMaya translator can convert wire files with lower
version numbers.
Workaround Set the file type manually in the Maya file browser.
Losing converted ASCII files

Limitation If you load the wire file directly in Maya, you will lose the converted ASCII
file which is temporarily saved in your “/usr/tmp” directory.
Workaround Use AliasToMaya as a stand-alone application and generate the Maya ASCII
file for reading.
Lost camera animation color

The color of the PA environment is set on the renderable cameras in Maya.
The animation on this color is lost since the color attribute of the renderable
camera can not be animated.
Texture mapped onto color in PA becomes image planes on all

renderable cameras
Limitation The texture mapped onto the color of the PA environment becomes image
planes on all the renderable cameras. The size of this image plane is not
necessarily correct.
Workaround Adjust its size to get the desired result.
Lights in PA that have shadow produce depth map shadows in Maya

All lights cast shadows using depth maps in Maya. PA only displays
shadow maps for spotlights. When converting, any lights in PA that have
shadow turned on results in those lights producing depth map shadows in
Maya.

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Light glow transfer not perfect between PA and Maya

Limitation The transfer of light glow is not perfect between PA and Maya. The two
main components are the light intensity and light decay. If your PA light
intensity is 1.0 and light decay is 0, then you do not need to be concerned.
Workaround To get a perfect match between PA and Maya light glows, just adjust your
Maya glow intensity to:
glow_intensity = original_glow_intensity * light_intensity / decay
where decay is:
• 1 if no decay
• light_decay if decay is 1
• light_decay**2 if decay is 2
• light_decay**3 if decay is 3
PA lightsource shader becomes a lambert shader in Maya

PA lightsource shader becomes a lambert shader in Maya with its
incandescence set to its color value. All other attributes are 0’s.
Layered shader created in Maya for layered PA shaders

If several shaders in PA are layered on an object, a layered shader is created
explicitly in Maya for these shaders.
PA image plane placement

For PA image plane placement to correctly convert, set the Persp window in
PA to the same resolution as the default render resolution, and also choose
Screen as the image space type.
Backdrop image and texture on background color in PA conversion

limitation
Both the backdrop image and the texture on the background color in the PA
environment are converted to image planes on the renderable cameras. The
depth of the image plane for the backdrop image is set to 90% of the far
clipping plane. The depth of the image plane for the background color
texture is set to 95% of the far clipping plane.

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Obj import
Losing animation sequence number during conversion

The animation sequence number appended to the end of the image filename
in PA could be lost in Maya during the translation.
PA start/end mode in render globals conversion limitation

The start/end mode in the render globals does not translate properly into
Maya, as Maya has no such mode. In this mode, the start and end frames,
when transferred to Maya, may end up very different from the range in PA.
OBJ IMPORT
The following limitation and workaround relates to Obj import:
.obj suffix on obj filename necessary

Limitation You need a “.obj” suffix on the filename for Maya to recognize it as an obj
file.
Workaround Append .obj to the end of the filename.
MAYA NT
The following limitations and workarounds relate to Maya NT issues:
• Pop-ups do not work with xmouse emulation software — Page 112
• Browsing for texture images—button missing — Page 113
• Intellimouse limitation — Page 113
Pop-ups do not work with xmouse emulation software

Maya NT pop-up list boxes in the Channel Box do not work with xmouse
emulation software.

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Maya NT
Browsing for texture images—button missing

Limitation When you browse for texture images using the Maya NT file browser, there
is no button for previewing the image.
Workaround Highlight the image in the File Open dialog box and click with the right
mouse button, selecting Open from the pop-up menu. This launches fcheck
and allows you to preview the image.
Intellimouse limitation
Microsoft Intellimouse is not supported.

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Maya NT

114
148 DOCUMENTATION
The following lists documentation limitations and workarounds for

Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Notes Pages
What’s updated in the documentation 116
Netscape errors 116
Documentation errors 117

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DOCUMENTATION | 148
What’s updated in the documentation
WHAT’S UPDATED IN THE DOCUMENTATION

Current Maya 3.0 features are described in the following books:
• What’s New in Maya 3.0
• Maya 3.0 Release Notes
The remaining documentation, including the Global Index, was not reprinted
for Maya 2.5, and is current as of Maya 2.0. The What’s New in Maya 2.5
contains an index to help you locate information on new features.
NETSCAPE ERRORS
The following limitations and workarounds relate to on-line documentation
processes.
Back button won't go to Library page

Limitation When you display a Using Maya book, the Back button does not go back to
the Library page.
Workaround Click the Library button.
Tabs don't always refresh

Limitation The tabs in the left frame of the Using Maya books don't always refresh
when you click them.
Workaround Update to Netscape 4.7, or click Reload to refresh the tab display.

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Documentation errors
Netscape errors to the console

Limitation Netscape errors to the console when using Maya help are usually a result of
an improperly installed version of Netscape or multiple installed versions.
Common error messages are:
usage: xprop [-options ...] [[format [dformat]] atom]
or
Can’t find Lock file!
Workaround Make sure the shell command which netscape returns the intended version. If
not, modify your PATH environment variable so the intended version is
correctly located.
doBrowserHelp does not properly invoke HTML pages on NT

Limitation If Netscape is your configured HTML browser, doBrowserHelp does not
properly invoke HTML pages from the Maya > Help menu.
Workaround Use Internet Explorer as the default browser.
Closing search window can hang Netscape

Limitation Netscape 4.7 sometimes hangs when you close the search window.131361
Workaround Use Internet Explorer Browser on Windows NT. On IRIX, kill the Netscape
process and restart it.
DOCUMENTATION ERRORS
The following lists errors found in the documentation for Maya 3.0:
Using Maya: Character Setup—new web sites

Using Maya: Character Setup mentions some web sites useful for learning
more about the character setup process. The addresses of two of these sites
have now changed.
Alias|Wavefront’s site, formerly www.aw.sgi.com, is now
www.aliaswavefront.com.
Lumis3D has changed to HIGHEND3D, and instead of going to
www.lumis3D.com, you should now go to www.highend3d.com.

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Documentation errors
Using Maya: Essentials—incorrect path

Page 447 of the printed Using Maya: Essentials manual has an incorrect
directory path.
Under the instructions “To script paint,” step 1, the script directory paths
should be:
~username/maya/3.0/scripts (IRIX)
drive:\WINNT\Profiles\username\maya\3.0\scripts (NT)
drive:\Documents and Settings\username\maya\3.0\scripts (Windows 2000)

118
149 MAYA CLOTH
The following lists Maya Cloth software limitations for Maya3.0.
Note Page
Changing resolution of cloth affects texture or modeling edits 121
Setting the .doSimulation attribute on solver causes problems 121
Cascading Solvers 121
Simulation Stops When Screen Saver Starts 121
Cloth initial state may be lost when using referenced files 121
Skin penetrating cloth 122
Incorrect normals cause solving problems 122
Panels must have closed curves 122
No command to delete drag control 122
Cache not deleted when adding/deleting constraints 122

Dynamics fields require greater magnitude 123
Need two curves to make panel 123
Extreme edits — Page 123 123
Cloth and button constraints don’t work in cloth objects 123
Disabling cache affects playback 123
Unloading/reloading Maya Cloth 123

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Note Page
Changing solver scale resets initial state 124
Positioning curves for texture placement 124
cpSolver command requires selection list 124
Changing solver’s start frame 125
Saving with current frame not at solver start frame 125
Undoing with Fit to Surface 125
Garment’s initial position not restored 125
Using same curves in several panels 125
Cannot transfer garments in batch mode 126
Transferring garment between solvers loses mesh constraint 126
Drag control may spin on axis 126
Tutorials moved 126
Concave faces may cause simulation problems 126
Cache not imported into the scene 126
Create mesh constraints at solver start frame 127
Interactive simulation requires visible window 127
Delete Cache may not work 127
Cloth stops solving or hot keys and marking menus lost 127
Pre Maya 2.0 garments/caches may not load across platforms 127
Cache info not saved out during batch rendering (NT only) 128
Improper mesh constraint changes halt Solver 128

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Changing resolution of cloth affects texture or modeling edits

Limitation If a garment has texture or modeling nodes added downstream as a result of
tweaks or edits made to the mesh, they may have to be reapplied if the
resolution of the garment is changed.
Workaround Use the default texture coordinates on the garment or reapply the edits after
the resolution is changed.
Setting the .doSimulation attribute on solver causes problems

Limitation Do not set the internal attribute “.doSimulation” to start/stop the solver.
Workaround To start a local simulation from a mel script, use the command:
performCloth startSimulation
For simulation during playback, simply playback the animation with the
correct simulation start frame set on the solver.
Cascading Solvers
Limitation If solvers are cascaded (the cloth output of one solver is used as a collision
object for another solver) and the downstream solver has frame samples set
to a value greater than one, then the computation of the cloth collisions may
not be correct.
Workaround If frame samples on the downstream solver is greater than one, make sure
the upstream solver solves first or the data from the first solver is cached.
Simulation Stops When Screen Saver Starts

Limitation If cloth is simulated interactively, the simulation will stop when the
screensaver triggers.
Workaround Disable the screensaver when simulating interactively. Alternatively, set the
screensaver timeout to a time longer than the anticipated simulation time.
Cloth initial state may be lost when using referenced files

Limitation When using referenced files, the cloth initial state may be lost.
Workaround In the file you want to reference, save the initial state into a cache file. After
you load the referenced file, load its associated cache file.

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Skin penetrating cloth

Limitation Collision object (skin) can interpenetrate the cloth.
Workaround Interpenetration occurs when the triangle size of the cloth mesh is large
compared to the collision object mesh size. Using finer resolution on the
cloth mesh corrects the problem in most cases. You can also increase the
collision object Offset attribute to avoid interpenetration. In cases where
intersection occurs when the collision object has a thin cross-section, reduce
the collision object Depth attribute.
Incorrect normals cause solving problems

Limitation Tessellated geometry needs correctly oriented normals. If the normals are
not all consistently pointing outward, the cloth simulation will not solve
correctly and parts of the collision object may be ignored.
Workaround Orient the normals correctly. If the object has already been selected as a
collision object, you must disconnect it from the solver using Cloth >
Modeling > Remove Collision Object, reverse the normals, and select it as a
collision object using Cloth > Create Collision Object.
Panels must have closed curves

Limitation If you open the closed set of curves that define a panel, the panel does not
tessellate anymore. This can happen if you accidentally move only one of the
control vertices at the end of the curve.
Workaround Close the curves again by moving the control vertex back to where it was.
You can undo the vertex move, or you can use curve snap to align it with the
last control vertex of the next curve. Then select the stitcher node connected
to the broken panel and enter a new resolution value. It does not need to be
a different value; this simply causes the panel to be rebuilt.
No command to delete drag control

Limitation There is no command to delete a drag control.
Workaround To delete the drag control, select the shuttle. Use the up arrow to select the
parent transform and press the Backspace key.
Cache not deleted when adding/deleting constraints

Limitation When you add or delete constraints, the cache is not automatically deleted.
Workaround Delete the cache manually using Cloth > Simulation > Delete Cache.

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Dynamics fields require greater magnitude

Limitation Using dynamics fields with cloth requires much greater magnitudes than
you would use with particles.
Workaround Try setting magnitude to a value between 100 and 5000. Cloth has strong
spring forces that hold the cloth together. Any force must match that
strength in order to have any visible affect.
Need two curves to make panel

Limitation Panels require more than one curve.
Workaround Do not make panels from one single closed loop curve. Use at least two
curves.
Extreme edits
Limitation If you modify the panel curves or resolution an extreme amount with Fit to
Surface turned on, you can cause Maya to crash.
Workaround If you need to make an extreme edit, make it in a few successive steps.
Cloth and button constraints don’t work in cloth objects

Limitation Cloth constraints and button constraints do not work in cloth objects (cloth
created from mesh objects).
Workaround For these types of constraints, use cloth garments created from panels.
Disabling cache affects playback

Limitation After disabling the cache, the scene may not play back more than once.
Workaround Turn on Enable Cache. Save the file and reload it.
Unloading/reloading Maya Cloth

Limitation If you unload and reload the Maya Cloth plug-in, Maya crashes when you
use the Cloth marking menu.
Workaround Exit Maya and restart after you have unloaded the plug-in.

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Changing solver scale resets initial state

Limitation Changing the solver scale may cause the initial state of the cloth to be reset.
It may also cause the placement of mesh constraints to be invalid.
Workaround Save a Maya ASCII file. Edit the file as follows:
After the line:
createNode cpClothSolver -n "cpSolver1"
Add the line:
setAttr ".ss" 2;
Where 2 is the value of the solver scale.
Positioning curves for texture placement

Limitation When positioning curves to get correct texture placement on cloth garments,
if any of the curves are duplicated with translational, rotational, or scale
offset, the texture map assignment gives unexpected results.
Workaround After duplicating curves, select the topmost transform and select Modify >
Freeze Transformations. This sets the translation, rotation, and scale to
default and corrects the texture map assignment.
cpSolver command requires selection list

Limitation The cpSolver command does not look at command-line object names when
using most of its options. It looks only at what is in the selection list.
Workaround First select the objects you want the cpSolver command to operate on. Then
execute the cpSolver command.
Thickness affected by Solver Scale

Limitation The property’s Thickness attribute is affected by the Solver Scale attribute. If
the Solver Scale is set to 2, then the Thickness will be half as large.
Workaround Increase the Thickness attribute as needed. However, use caution because
values larger than 3 or 4 do not give good results.

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Changing solver’s start frame

Limitation When changing the solver’s start frame, the solver may not start simulating
at the correct frame.
Workaround After changing the solver’s start frame, rewind to the start frame and delete
the cache (even if you don’t have one). This resets the solver so it starts
simulating at the correct frame.
Saving with current frame not at solver start frame

Limitation When saving a cloth scene with the current frame at some time other than
the solver start frame, the current positions of cloth objects will not be saved
to disk. When you load this scene again, the cloth objects will return to their
initial positions.
Workaround Save a cache file with your scene. When this scene is loaded into Maya, the
solver will use the cache file to restore the cloth objects to their positions for
the current frame.
Undoing with Fit to Surface

Limitation If you remove a panel from a garment that has the cpStitcher attribute Fit To
Surface turned on, undoing that operation does not restore the cloth
positions if those cloth positions were the result of a previous sub-assembly
seaming.
Workaround Do not undo.
Garment’s initial position not restored

Limitation If you delete a cloth object or make edits to the stitched garment that cause it
to be regenerated such as editing a panel curve or changing a resolution,
undoing that operation does not restore the garment’s initial positions or
cache data.
Workaround Do not undo those operations.
Using same curves in several panels

Limitation Cannot use all of the same curves in more than one panel.
Workaround Copy or instance these curves first before making separate panels.

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Cannot transfer garments in batch mode

Limitation You cannot use the transfer garment command in batch mode (cpSolver -e -t).
This may give unexpected results or cause Maya to crash.
Workaround Run this command using the Maya user interface.
Transferring garment between solvers loses mesh constraint

Limitation If you transfer a garment from one solver to another, you lose your mesh
constraints.
Workaround Transferring garments does not transfer the cloth collision objects, which the
mesh constraints need to connect to. You must recreate the mesh constraints
again. Select the cloth vertices (or curves) and the new collision objects, and
select Constraints > Mesh.
Drag control may spin on axis

Limitation When moving or rotating the end locator on the drag control, the shuttle
may spin on its axis in an unpredictable manner.
Workaround In these cases, select only one cloth vertex. This prevents the cloth from
becoming twisted.
Tutorials moved
Update Tutorials and example data are now in maya2.5/extras/cloth directory. Prior to
2.0, this data was in the projects directory.
Concave faces may cause simulation problems

Limitation If your collision object is a mesh object that is not already triangulated, any
concave faces may cause problems with the simulation.
Workaround Triangulate your polygonal surface before making it a cloth collision object.
Cache not imported into the scene

Limitation If you import or reference cloth scenes with cache files, the cache is not
imported into the scene.
Workaround You cannot have two scene files that share the same cache file. When
importing, copy the cache file to a new name. After importing, load the
cache file. Avoid referencing scenes with cloth.

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Create mesh constraints at solver start frame

Limitation If mesh constraints are not created when time is at the solver start frame, bad
simulations can result.
Workaround Either make the mesh constraint at the solver start frame, or make sure that
you set the current time to the solver start frame when you delete cache.
Interactive simulation requires visible window

Interactive simulation requires Maya window to be visible.
Delete Cache may not work

Limitation If a cloth mesh that has nodes between the solver and the mesh is selected,
Delete Cache may not work.
Workaround If there is only one solver in the scene, select Simulation > Delete Cache with
nothing selected. If there is more than one solver in the scene, select the
desired solver, and select Simulation > Delete Cache.
Cloth stops solving or hot keys and marking menus lost

Limitation After simulating cloth with mesh constraints, if you change the collision
offset or depth on the collision object that the mesh constraint is attached to,
cloth stops solving. On NT, you may lose your hot key capability and
marking menus.
Workaround Open the file with mesh constraints and do not simulate. Change the
collision offset or depth. Save the file and reopen it. If you lose your hot keys
or marking menus, save your file and restart Maya.
Pre Maya 2.0 garments/caches may not load across platforms

Limitation Garments and their caches generated before the 2.0 release may not load
correctly on both IRIX and NT platforms.
Workaround Set the stitcher resolution of the garment to its current value. This
retessellates the garment so you can load it across platforms. You must
regenerate any cache relating to the original tessellation.

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Cache info not saved out during batch rendering (NT only)
On NT, if you save a Maya file with cloth simulations and cache, Maya saves
both the scene file and the cache file in the current project’s “Scenes”
directory. However, if you first solve the scene, and then render the scene
from the interface (Render > (save) Batch Render), Maya will save a copy of
the scene file in the current project’s “Render” directory, (this is correct) but
will not save a copy of the cache in the “Render” directory (this is not
correct).
Improper mesh constraint changes halt Solver

If the collision object is removed and added again when the collision offset
or depth is changed, the mesh constraints that tie a garment to the collision
object are not properly updated. As a result, the Solver halts.

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150 MAYA FUR
The following lists Maya Fur software limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
Note Page
Loading references with Fur using Load Reference in Reference Editor 131
Fur fails to render with referenced files 131
Referencing scenes with linked rotation fur attractors 131
Rendering fur after baking the color attribute into a texture 131
Rendering fur in scenes with two cameras with the same name 131
Using spotlight penumbras and drop-off with fur shadowing 132
Rendering fur behind transparent geometry 132
Color feedback does not work on polygons 132
Rendering Fur with linked lights 132
Render Layers does not work for Fur 132
Advanced Fur Rendering ignores Render Globals range 132
Fur does not render at all if the camera is scaled negatively 132
Large shadow maps can cause Fur to run out of swap space 133
Fur does not support Field Rendering 133

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Note Page
Fur does not render correctly in the orthographic views 133
Motion Blur—fur render crashes if geometry visibility keyframed 133
Degree 1 NURBS surfaces tessellate extremely highly 133
Trimmed surfaces don't tessellate consistently in Fur 133
Fur doesn't work with 16 bit/channel file formats 133

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Loading references with Fur using Load Reference in Reference Editor

Limitation Loading references containing Fur using Load Reference in the Reference
Editor causes Maya to crash. 132949
Workaround Save the referencing file (with the reference unloaded) as an ascii file, and
edit the line which refers to the referenced Fur scene, changing the final 1 to
a 0. Typically, this appears in the first five to ten lines of the scene file.
For example, if the referenced Fur scene is called 'myFurryScene', change:
file -r -rpr 'myFurryScene' -dr 1
to
file -r -rpr 'myFurryScene' -dr 0
Fur fails to render with referenced files

Limitation Fur will fail to render with referenced files if the Use Namespaces option is
turned on in the Create Reference options window. This option adds a colon
to the filename of the referenced objects. 132980
Workaround Do not turn on the Use Namespaces option when referencing files to be used
with Fur.
Referencing scenes with linked rotation fur attractors

Scenes with fur attractors with linked rotations will not work properly with
file referencing. 113791
Rendering fur after baking the color attribute into a texture

Limitation When rendering fur, once the color attribute is baked into a texture, the
render produces images using that texture, even if the “Ignore when
rendering” option is chosen. 113391
Workaround Remove the map(s) from the attribute under the Details section in the
Attribute Editor for the fur description.
Rendering fur in scenes with two cameras with the same name
Limitation If there are two cameras with the same name in your scene, the fur may not
render. 109267
Workaround Make sure all camera shapes have unique names.

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Using spotlight penumbras and drop-off with fur shadowing

Although fur shadow maps can be used with spotlight penumbras and
drop-off, the fur shadows are not affected by these values, so there is no fall-
off to the fur shadow. The fur shadows may look too sharp at the edges.
108224
Rendering fur behind transparent geometry

Limitation The fur render ignores the hairs behind any transparent geometry. 100049
Workaround Render in layers and composite.
Color feedback does not work on polygons

Color feedback in the Paint Fur Attributes tool does not work on polygons.
125446
Rendering Fur with linked lights

Limitation If a light is linked to a non-furry piece of geometry, Maya Fur still uses the
light for any fur in the scene. 114671
Workaround Hide the lights which you do not want to affect Fur, then create the fur files
using the Advanced Fur Rendering window.
Show the lights again and render with Read Fur Files turned on.
Render Layers does not work for Fur

Limitation If a furry object is assigned to a Render Layer which is set to be not
renderable, the fur will still get rendered. 132073
Workaround Use Display Layers, or hide the surface instead.
Advanced Fur Rendering ignores Render Globals range

Advanced Fur Rendering takes the frame from the timeslider, not from
Render Globals. 131467
Fur does not render at all if the camera is scaled negatively

Fur cannot be rendered with a negatively scaled camera.131466

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Large shadow maps can cause Fur to run out of swap space
Limitation Using large shadow maps with Fur can use a very large amount of memory,
and potentially cause Fur to run out of swap space.122313
Workaround Add more swap space, decrease the size of the shadow map, or reduce the
Hairs/Pixel for Shadow Map Rendering in Fur Globals.
Fur does not support Field Rendering

Limitation If Field Rendering is turned on in Maya, Fur will ignore it and render
frames. 120469
Workaround Render with the By Frame value set to 0.5, and interlace in a compositing
package.
Fur does not render correctly in the orthographic views

Fur renders at an incorrect size in the orthographic views. 120099
Motion Blur—fur render crashes if geometry visibility keyframed

Limitation If motion blur is turned on, and the visibility of an object is keyframed, fur
will crash. 120047
Workaround Instead of keyframing visibility, scale the object to zero.
Degree 1 NURBS surfaces tessellate extremely highly

Limitation Degree 1 NURBS surfaces produce extremely heavy geometry when
tessellated for Fur, thus taking longer to process and producing large
intermediate files. 118812
Workaround Convert the geometry to polygons.
Trimmed surfaces don't tessellate consistently in Fur

Limitation Animated trimmed surfaces can tessellate differently from frame to frame,
causing Fur to appear to crawl over the surface. 118259
Workaround Avoid the use of animated trimmed surfaces with Fur. Convert to polygons
if possible.
Fur doesn't work with 16 bit/channel file formats

Fur only supports 8 bit/channel file formats.115677

133
MAYA FUR | 150

134
151 MAYA PAINT EFFECTS
The following lists Maya Paint Effects software limitations and workarounds
for Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Note Page
General Maya Paint Effects 136
Maya Paint Effects features 139

135
MAYA PAINT EFFECTS | 151

General Maya Paint Effects
GENERAL MAYA PAINT EFFECTS

The following limitations and workarounds relate to general Paint Effects
issues:
• Argument list to Paint Effects brush runTime & create functions has changed
— Page 136
• Can only paint on NURBS, ground plane, image planes — Page 136
• If there is no geometry, strokes will not cast shadows — Page 137
• No rendering on fields — Page 137
• Rendering with strange outlines around objects — Page 137
• Painting in Orthogonal windows not fully functional — Page 137
• Cannot texture map the color attributes — Page 137
• There is only a one-stroke buffer for fast undo — Page 138
• Cannot link lights to strokes — Page 138
• Hide glow source may not work correctly when rendering Paint Effects
strokes — Page 138
• A stroke’s sample density should not be animated when rendering with
motion blur — Page 138
• Paint Effects tubes and strokes will not shadow light glows — Page 138
• 100-surface limit per single stroke — Page 138
• Paint Effects strokes will not render in ray traced reflections, refractions or
shadows — Page 139
• Paint Effects strokes will not render behind transparent objects — Page 139
Argument list to Paint Effects brush runTime & create functions has
changed
If you have custom brush functions, you should modify them to match the
prototype functions “paintCreateFunc.mel” and “paintRuntimeFunc.mel” .
In particular, the twist argument is now 3 floats rather than a single float.
Can only paint on NURBS, ground plane, image planes

There is no polygon or subdivision surface support at this time.

136

If there is no geometry, strokes will not cast shadows

Limitation Due to the way the Maya Renderer optimizes the scene, if there is no
geometry in a spot light’s frustum (or on one side of a point light source), a
shadow cast is not performed. If there is no shadow cast, then Paint Effects
particles cannot cast shadows into that shadow map.
Workaround Make sure there is some lightweight piece of geometry where you want the
light to cast shadows. Create a shadow casting object further away from the
light than the Paint Effects strokes, and turn that object’s Render Stats >
Primary Visibility off in the Attribute Editor.
No rendering on fields
Limitation Paint Effects does not render on fields.
Workaround Render the Paint Effects at full resolution with a By Frame of 0.5 then use a
compositing package to interlace the full frames.
Rendering with strange outlines around objects

Limitation Paint Effects can render with strange, single pixel-wide outlines around
objects.
Workaround Open the Attribute Editor for the Camera, under Output Settings, select
Depth and then choose Furthest Visible Depth under Depth Type.
Painting in Orthogonal windows not fully functional

Limitation There are some artifacts and errors when not painting in a perspective
window.
Workaround Paint in the perspective window.
Cannot texture map the color attributes

Limitation Do not use standard Maya textures on Brush Attributes. Although you can
assign textures using the connection window or the right mouse button pull-
down in the Attribute Editor, assigned textures are not respected.
Workaround Use the Paint Effects textures in the brush Attribute Editor under Shading >
Texturing.

137

There is only a one-stroke buffer for fast undo

The last stroke you painted is kept aside from the buffer until another stroke
is drawn. This allows us to very quickly undo your last stroke. For the Paint
Scene mode, undoing any more strokes requires that the entire buffer be re-
drawn, and this is time consuming (thereby destroying interactivity). So,
while you can undo all the way back to the beginning of your session, you
will have to force the redraw of the buffer once you have undone to your
desired level. For the canvas mode, there is only the one level of undo
possible. Use Canvas > Save to checkpoint your work.
Cannot link lights to strokes

Limitation The default light list/set is currently used to light the particles.
Workaround Make all lights you do not wish to shine on paint effects strokes exclusively
linked to the objects in your scene.
Hide glow source may not work correctly when rendering Paint Effects
strokes
Limitation The strokes may be hidden by the hidden, glowing geometry, or may paint
over the glow when they should appear behind the glow.
Workaround Composite the strokes with the glow if the visibility is not being properly
resolved.
A stroke’s sample density should not be animated when rendering

with motion blur
Motion blur requires a consistent number of samples when sampling the
stroke.
Paint Effects tubes and strokes will not shadow light glows
Limitation The shadowing of light glow is calculated before the Paint Effects strokes are
rendered.
Workaround Use a small object with shaderglow, or a paint effects glow.
100-surface limit per single stroke

There is a limit of 100 surfaces per stroke. A single stroke can span 100
separate surfaces before you need to create a new stroke.

138

Maya Paint Effects features
Paint Effects strokes will not render in ray traced reflections, refractions
or shadows
Limitation Paint Effects uses a depth buffer based rendering scheme for speed and thus
Paint Effects strokes cannot be raytraced.
Workaround Render the reflected or refracted view into an image plane or texture map
image and apply that to the object in the raytraced scene.
Paint Effects strokes will not render behind transparent objects

If you need to do this, render the strokes separately from the transparent
object and composite the results, or turn on transparency based depth.
MAYA PAINT EFFECTS FEATURES

The following limitations and workarounds relate to Maya Paint Effects
feature issues:
• Fog added scene, strokes appear to render in front of everything — Page 141
• Resizing Paint Effects view or Rolling in Canvas mode can cause stroke
problems — Page 141
• Save Canvas After Every Stroke (Auto Save) not updating hardware texture
view (NT only) — Page 141
• Paint Effects panel can have an image out of sync with modeling window —
Page 141
• Paint Effects panel damaged by another window — Page 142
• Mouse release lost if Alt-tumbling or Alt-panning and mouse release occurs
outside of Maya window — Page 142
• Stroke curves not highlighted when selected in shaded mode in modeling
view — Page 142
• Backspace does not perform a Delete Active in the Paint Effects panel —
Page 142
• Changing resolution of an image in canvas mode does not scale the image —
Page 142
• Strokes on shadowed side rendering as if illuminated — Page 142
• The stroke command does not journal completely — Page 143

139

• The stroke is partially visible even when MaxClip value is 0.0 — Page 143
• Paint on view plane in the modeling view does not work — Page 143
• The alpha plane appears fully white in Paint Scene mode — Page 143
• Closing Rendering or Visor folder causes Paint Effects panel refresh — Page
143
• Save Canvas After Every Stroke does not update after undo — Page 143
• If Apply Fog In Post is selected, fog will not appear in IPR — Page 144
• Strokes appear in shaded mode when viewed in a window with an image
plane — Page 144
• Start Time and End Time on a brush in seconds, not frames — Page 144
• Strokes continue to cast shadows in IPR even though they are no longer
rendered by IPR — Page 144
• Brush presets not showing up in my Visor (NT only) — Page 144
• Selecting Only Render Strokes and deselecting Enable Stroke Render renders
nothing — Page 144
• Turning on a brush’s Screen Space Width makes strokes with tubes too small
— Page 145
• Popping on strokes near edge of frame when rendering animations with
wide angle of view — Page 145
• Refresh in Paint Effects panel seems to continuously update as you tumble
in another window — Page 145
• Brushes are behaving oddly — Page 145
• Save Snapshot does not append the .iff extension automatically — Page 146
• Light Depth Map Shadows limitation — Page 146

140

Fog added scene, strokes appear to render in front of everything

Limitation Fog has been added to the scene, and now the strokes appear to render in
front of everything.
Workaround The Z buffer provided by most renderers has one depth value per pixel.
Often this means that the depth of the closest visible surface is stored in that
one depth value. When fog is present in the case of Maya’s renderer, the
depth is reset to some far value by default. Open the Camera’s Attribute
Editor, under Output Settings, select Depth and then choose Furthest Visible
Depth under Depth Type. Or, turn on Transparency Based Depth and set the
threshold low enough so that objects which are more transparent than the
threshold do not modify the depth values.
Resizing Paint Effects view or Rolling in Canvas mode can cause stroke
problems
Limitation Resizing Paint Effects view or Rolling in Canvas mode can cause strokes to
draw in the wrong place.
Workaround Force a refresh of the particle paint buffer if this occurs (Resolution > Full).
Save Canvas After Every Stroke (Auto Save) not updating hardware
texture view (NT only)
Limitation Save Canvas After Every Stroke (Auto Save) does not update the hardware
texture view.
Workaround This problem is limited to some NT machines due to their graphics boards.
Change the texture’s Hardware Texturing > Texture Quality (in the object’s
shader Attribute Editor) to anything other than the default and the update
will work as expected.
Paint Effects panel can have an image out of sync with modeling
window
Limitation The refresh of the Paint Effects panel is not always being forced when it is
out of sync.
Workaround Hold the ALT key down and use your mouse to tumble the view just
slightly. This will cause a refresh which should sync up the views.
Alternatively, select Resolution > Full.

141

Paint Effects panel damaged by another window

Limitation The Paint Effects panel has a damaged region where another window was
on top of it during a refresh.
Workaround To fix this, you should cause another refresh with the damaging window not
on top of or covering the Paint Effects panel.
Mouse release lost if Alt-tumbling or Alt-panning and mouse release

occurs outside of Maya window
Limitation Mouse release is sometimes lost if Alt-tumbling or Alt-panning and the
mouse release occurs outside of the Maya window.
Workaround Move mouse back into Paint Effects window and press and release the Alt
key again.
Stroke curves not highlighted when selected in shaded mode in

modeling view
Stroke curves do not highlight when selected when in shaded mode in the
modeling view. This is because we attempt to display strokes in the color in
which they will render.
Backspace does not perform a Delete Active in the Paint Effects panel
Limitation Backspace does not perform a Delete Active in the Paint Effects panel.
Workaround Move the cursor into another Maya window, or use the Edit menu.
Changing resolution of an image in canvas mode does not scale the

image
Changing resolution of an image in canvas mode does not scale the image. It
is not possible to scale an image once it is imported.
Strokes on shadowed side rendering as if illuminated

Limitation Paint Effects strokes are rendering as if they are illuminated even though
they are on a shadowed side of an object.
Workaround Set Illumination > Translucence to 0 in order for it to take the shading into
account, and/or increase the backShadow level on the brush.

142

The stroke command does not journal completely

The stroke command echoed to the script editor does not have all the
information required to completely reproduce the stroke.
The stroke is partially visible even when MaxClip value is 0.0

Limitation The stroke is partially visible even when the stroke’s End Bounds > MaxClip
value is set to 0.0.
Workaround Key frame the stroke to be invisible until the start frame of the End Bounds >
Max Clip animation.
Paint on view plane in the modeling view does not work

Limitation Even though the preview brush stamp cursor will appear to be painting on
the view plane, it is easy to see that it is really just painting on the ground
plane.
Workaround Paint only on the view plane in the Paint Effects panel. Paint Effects strokes
will not display on the view plane in the modeling view either, but instead
will appear between 0 and 1. When the scene is rendered, the strokes will
render on the view plane correctly.
The alpha plane appears fully white in Paint Scene mode

The alpha plane appears fully white in the Paint Effects panel while in Paint
Scene mode. The alpha plane displays incorrectly in the Paint Effects panel
due to how Open GL gives us the alpha buffer. The final render will have a
correct alpha.
Closing Rendering or Visor folder causes Paint Effects panel refresh

Doing a render, an IPR render, or closing a Visor folder causes the Paint
Effects panel to refresh.
Save Canvas After Every Stroke does not update after undo
Save Canvas After Every Stroke (Auto Save) does not update after an undo.
However, it will update again after the next stroke you draw.

143

If Apply Fog In Post is selected, fog will not appear in IPR

Limitation If Render Globals > Render Options > Apply Fog In Post is selected, fog will
not appear in IPR. The fog post process has not been added to IPR.
Workaround Turn this option off to display fog in IPR.
Strokes appear in shaded mode when viewed in a window with an

image plane
Strokes appear in shaded mode when viewed in a window with an image
plane.
Start Time and End Time on a brush in seconds, not frames

Start Time and End Time on a brush (Flow Animation) are in seconds, not
frames.
Strokes continue to cast shadows in IPR even though they are no

longer rendered by IPR
Paint Effects strokes do not render in IPR, but the change they make to the
shadow map is remembered.
Brush presets not showing up in my Visor (NT only)

Limitation The brush presets are not showing up in my Visor on NT even though the
path name appears correct.
Workaround Visor requires forward slashes (’/’) in the path names in order to resolve the
path properly. Check that your MAYA_LOCATION environment variable
(right click on the NT desktop icon My Computer > Properties >
Environment) is entered with forward slashes, and not back-slashes (the NT
standard).
Selecting Only Render Strokes and deselecting Enable Stroke Render

renders nothing
In Render Globals, selecting Only Render Strokes and deselecting Enable
Stroke Render will render nothing.

144

Turning on a brush’s Screen Space Width makes strokes with tubes too
small
Limitation Turning on a brush’s Brush Profile > Screen Space Width makes strokes with
tubes too small.
Workaround Make the canvas scale equal to the scene scale, and then scale down the
widths of the tubes, flowers and leaves to the desired levels.
Popping on strokes near edge of frame when rendering animations

with wide angle of view
Limitation There is some popping on strokes near the edge of frame when rendering
animations with a wide angle of view.
Workaround Try increasing the stamp density. The transparency should also be increased
to compensate. Stamp positions along a tube are defined relative to the
worldspace distance from the previous stamp, but when you clip the portion
of a stroke behind the view, this can cause the stamps on the stroke in front
of the camera to shift. If this doesn’t work, perhaps you have a problem with
the texture twisting. The space gas brushes have a problem in that the
texture is mapped in eyespace and will twist about certain viewpoints. This
can be improved by making the map method 3D Tube (double the vscale to
compensate) and possibly increasing the stroke flatness. Alternatively, the
brushstart map method may work better, although it will look different, and
will require that you tweak the placement.
Refresh in Paint Effects panel seems to continuously update as you

tumble in another window
The Paint Effects panel is maintaining focus even though it appears you are
tumbling in another window. To fix this behavior, click in the modeling
window to make certain it has the focus and not the Paint Effects panel.
Brushes are behaving oddly

Limitation Brushes are behaving oddly: no leaves, rendering black even when well lit,
and so on.
Workaround Check the settings for the pressure mappings on the stroke. In many cases,
erroneous pressure values or pressure settings enabled when there is only
mouse input can cause the stroke to render in unexpected ways.

145

Save Snapshot does not append the .iff extension automatically

Limitation Paint Effects Paint > Save Snapshot does not append the .iff extension
automatically.
Workaround Type the name of the image file you are saving with the .iff extension.
Light Depth Map Shadows limitation

Mid dist maps are not supported: turn off Use Mid Dist Map and tweak bias.
Also, Auto Focus can miss paint effects strokes: turn it off and adjust Width
Focus.

146
152 MAYA LIVE
The following lists Maya Live software limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Note Page
General scene 148
Setup 149
Track 150
Solve 151

147
MAYA LIVE | 152

General scene
GENERAL SCENE
The following limitations and workarounds relate to general scene issues.
• Errors if you open a file before loading Live plug-in — Page 148
• Unexpected results when solving for a camera without tracking data — Page
148
• Unloading Live — Page 148
• Incompatibility with previous versions — Page 148
• Resizing Live window — Page 149
• Save changes prompt — Page 149
Errors if you open a file before loading Live plug-in
Limitation If you open a Live file before loading the Live plug-in you get errors. 131273
Workaround Load MayaLive plug-in before starting work in Live.
Unexpected results when solving for a camera without tracking data
Limitation Trying to solve for a camera without any tracking data may cause
unexpected results on IRIX. 131360
Workaround Make sure you have valid track data first.
Unloading Live
Limitation Maya may terminate if you use the Plug-in Manager to unload Live.
Workaround Quit and restart Maya without loading Live.
Incompatibility with previous versions
Limitation Live 1.0 and 1.5 scenes are not compatible with the version 2.0 or higher
software. In particular, the image plane may be incorrectly sized.
Workaround Import the track points from your original scene into a new scene using the
following instructions.
To export track points into a new scene:

1 Open the old version file in Live 2.0 or higher.
2 Make sure the Live menu set is selected.
3 Choose Track > Export Track Points.

148
MAYA LIVE | 152

Setup
4 Browse to a temporary directory and enter the name tracked.points.

5 Note the settings you have in the Setup and Solve control panels, including
any constraints.
6 Choose Scene > New MatchMove.
7 In the Setup control panel, load the same image sequence and reset the
Filmback and other fields as needed.
8 Choose Track > Import Track Points and browse to the file tracked.points
you just created.
9 Reset the constraints as before.
Resizing Live window
Limitation Some Live functionality goes out of view when you resize the window to a
smaller dimension.
Workaround Use Live in its full screen display for all options to be accessible.
Save changes prompt
Choosing Scene > New Matchmove sometimes prompts you to save
changes—even if you have not made any changes in the scene.
SETUP
The following limitations and workarounds relate to setup issues.
• Display of Softimage image files — Page 149
• Refresh of Render Globals — Page 150
• Image plane streaks — Page 150
Display of Softimage image files
Limitation If the Use Cache check box is turned off, Softimage image files that lack the
.pic extension will not display.
Workaround Do one the following: rename images to include .pic extension, convert to
another format, or turn on the Use Cache check box on the Setup Cache
control panel.

149
MAYA LIVE | 152

Track
Refresh of Render Globals

Limitation Clicking Copy to Render Globals does not immediately update the Maya
Render Globals window.
Workaround Close and reopen the Render Globals window.
Image plane streaks
Limitation Occasionally, images do not display correctly on the image plane and the
pixels on the right side of the image appear as streaks.
Workaround This problem occurs when there is not enough texture memory on the
machine. Open the Setup Cache control panel and choose None in the
Texture Method parameter.
TRACK
The following limitations and workarounds relate to track issues.
• Deleting track points — Page 150
• Manipulating track boxes — Page 150
• Message from positioning track boxes — Page 150
• Refresh of track point names — Page 151
• Deselected Track Box Tool — Page 151
Deleting track points
Limitation If you undo the deletion of a track point that was used in a solution, only the
associated 3D locator reappears.
Workaround Choose Edit > Undo again to bring back the track point.
Manipulating track boxes
You may have difficulty selecting and resizing track boxes in the
pointCenteredCamera view panel.
Message from positioning track boxes
Limitation When you position a track box, the following message appears in the Script
Editor:
// Undo: dragTrackedPoint_doDrag //.
Workaround Ignore the message.

150
MAYA LIVE | 152

Solve
Refresh of track point names

Limitation When you change the name of a track point or a survey constraint in the
control panel, the label name does not change in the view panels.
Workaround Wait for the next time the view panels refresh.
Deselected Track Box Tool
Limitation Saving your scene deselects the Track Box Tool.
Workaround Re-select the Track Box tool if you want to drag a point.
Ready-to-Solve bar remains red
Limitation When you prepare to solve for object motion (using the As Object checkbox),
the Ready-to-Solve indicators in the Track Summary may remain red. This
occurs because the Ready-to-Solve indicators are based on camera solvability.
Workaround Ignore the red indicators and continue with the Solve task.
Track point appears offset
For O2 systems, the track point appears offset in the shotCamera view.
608526 [james]
SOLVE
The following limitations and workarounds relate to solve issues.
• Ready-to-Solve bar remains red — Page 151
• Track point appears offset — Page 151
• Undo of Start, Continue, or Refine — Page 151
• Root Frame solver failure — Page 152
• Playblast frame range — Page 152
• Survey constraint Variance fields — Page 152
Undo of Start, Continue, or Refine
Limitation Errors occur if you undo the Start, Continue, or Refine step.
Workaround Delete the resulting solution instead of choosing Edit > Undo.

151
MAYA LIVE | 152

Solve
Root Frame solver failure

Limitation Occasionally, the Root Frame solver fails and the following message appears
in the Script Editor:
// Error; // Exception. //
// Error; // Solve Failed. //
Workaround Click Solve or Start again and the solver will work.
Playblast frame range
Limitation The Playblast button on the Solve control panel plays the entire frame range
rather than the frames specified in the Solve control panel.
Workaround Select the frame range in the Time Slider bar instead.
Survey constraint Variance fields
Limitation The solver performs poorly if you enter a value of zero in any of the survey
constraint Variance fields.
Workaround Avoid entering zero in the survey constraint Variance fields.

152
153 MAYA COMMANDS
The following lists the Maya commands limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0.
workarounds:
Note Page
MEL 154
ELF 157

153
MAYA COMMANDS | 153

MEL
MEL
The following limitations and workarounds relate to MEL.
• Help command won’t work with commands defined in plug-ins — Page 154
• MEL array limitation — Page 154
• MEL vector expressions limitation — Page 155
• MEL syntax error — Page 155
• Locally scoped procedure definitions cannot be forwarded — Page 155
• Scripts with infinite loops — Page 156
• Assigning string attributes to strings limitation — Page 156
• Splitting strings tip — Page 156
• Sourcing MEL scripts with unterminated C-Style comment — Page 156
Help command won’t work with commands defined in plug-ins

Limitation The help command will not work with commands defined in plug-ins until
those plug-ins are loaded into the system.87926
Workaround Load the plug-in before using help.
MEL array limitation

When a MEL array is specified using the {} notation then the type of the
array is inferred from the first argument in the array. Therefore, an array
declared with an integer as its first argument will generate a warning if a
float value is specified later. These values will be converted to integers. Here
is an example:90404
float $arr[] = { 1, 2.5 };
// Warning: Casting from float to int may result in a loss of precision. //
print($arr[0] + “ “ + $arr[1] + “\n”);
1 2
Note that the value of the second element in $arr is 2, not 2.5 as expected.

154
MAYA COMMANDS | 153

MEL
MEL vector expressions limitation

Limitation MEL vector expressions need to be enclosed in ()’s when calling Maya
commands or else a syntax error will be generated.88983
Workaround Use ()’s like this:
move ($delta.x) ($delta.y) ($delta.z);
print ($delta.x);
MEL syntax error

Limitation If you type a line like this into the command window:66975
sphere // Create a sphere
You get a syntax error since the ‘;’ is tacked on after the // and is thus
ignored.
Workaround Explicitly put the ‘;’ into statements that you are putting a comment beside.
Locally scoped procedure definitions cannot be forwarded

Limitation MEL does not allow you to forward reference locally scoped procedures.
65606
Workaround Locally scoped procedure definitions must appear before they are called. For
example, in a file called noForwardRef.mel, define the local procedures
before they are referenced.
proc myLocalProc() {
print “In myLocalProc()\n” ;
}
proc anotherLocalProc() {
print “In anotherLocalProc()\n” ;
myLocalProc;
}
global proc noForwardRef() {
print “Calling anotherLocalProc()\n” ;
anotherLocalProc;
}

155
MAYA COMMANDS | 153

MEL
Scripts with infinite loops

Limitation If you write a script that has an infinite loop in it (usually within a while
statement), there is no way to interrupt it without stopping Maya from the
Task Manager on NT or from the unix shell on IRIX (kill -2).101552
Workaround Before writing scripts make sure you save any data you were working on.
Assigning string attributes to strings limitation

Limitation MEL does not support assigning string attributes to strings in statements
like: 88701
string $str = foo.str
Workaround Use this instead:
string $str = ‘getAttr foo.str‘;
Splitting strings tip

In MEL scripts, do not split strings across lines without using a line
continuation character ‘\’. 112683
For example:
button -label “Make
a sphere”;
is incorrect. However,
button -label “Make \
a sphere”;
is correct.
Sourcing MEL scripts with unterminated C-Style comment

Limitation Sourcing a MEL script that has an unterminated C-Style comment (/*
comment */) will cause Maya to go into an infinite loop and must be killed
by the operating system.109804
Workaround Use C++-Style comments (// comment) instead of C-Style comments or
ensure that.

156
MAYA COMMANDS | 153

ELF
ELF
The following limitations and workarounds relate to ELF.
• Menu bar layouts not visible — Page 157
• Deleting menu items from tear-off menu on Maya (NT) — Page 157
Menu bar layouts not visible

Limitation Menu bar layouts are not visible until a child control is added.
Workaround Create the menu bar layout and children and then show the window.
Deleting menu items from tear-off menu on Maya (NT)

Deleting a menu item from a menu that has been torn off will cause Maya
NT to crash. 99511

157
MAYA COMMANDS | 153

ELF

158
154 FILE FORMATS
The following lists file formats software limitations and workarounds for
Maya 3.0:
Note Page
Maya 3.0 not compatible with StudioPaint 9.1 161
mayaAscii and mayaBinary file formats preserve information 161
Ambiguous references to objects contained in a file 161
Problems importing and referencing the same file with the same prefix 161
Avoid using the same renaming prefix when referencing files 162
Cannot remove more than one referenced file in a single operation 162
Wait cursor may display after loading files 162
Sets on .obj files imported into Maya considered shading groups 162
Export selection and sets limitation 163
Nodes not properly saved within a referenced MEL script 163

Maya always activates default render resolution and quality 163
Added connections to reference files 164
Working units changed when using File > Open Scene 164
Expressions and back-quoted commands limitation 164
IRIX and NT characters mean different things 164
File browser in Maya (IRIX only) does not update dynamically 165

159
FILE FORMATS | 154
Note Page
Namespace or name-clash mechanisms limitation 165
Hypergraph layouts of objects from referenced files ignored 165
Partial or relative paths can be used with referenced files 165
Naming rules when importing or referencing files 166
Error when saving and exporting files 166
Changing project options using the workspace command 166
Older Alias products cannot read Maya’s TIFF 4.0. 166
Maya can crash when unloading plug-ins 167
File commands saved from the menu bar 167
Using StudioPaint with Maya 167
Renaming .ma files to .mel files and sourcing may give errors 167
File names with quotation marks cause problems 167
Renaming prefix limitation 168
Use -rpr or -ns flags for files without legal identifier characters 168
Namespace errors 168
-moveNamespace flag for namespace command not implemented 168
Environment variable MAYA_PROJECT limitation 168
Problems when loading scenes using Fur without a plug-in 169

160
FILE FORMATS | 154
Maya 3.0 not compatible with StudioPaint 9.1

Limitation Maya 3.0 is not compatible with StudioPaint 9.1 but is compatible with
StudioPaint 9.5.129222
mayaAscii and mayaBinary file formats preserve information

Limitation The mayaAscii and mayaBinary file formats are the only ones that preserve
all the information contained within your scene. Setting the output format
for an export using the Export Options box will change your default export
format for the current and subsequent export operations. If you set the
output format to something other then mayaAscii or mayaBinary and export
using that format and then quit without saving the entire file then you can
lose data.90902
Workaround Always check the export type in the export file browser to ensure you are
writing the file using the expected file format.
Ambiguous references to objects contained in a file

Limitation Importing a file into the same scene multiple times using the default
renaming prefix will result in ambiguous references to the objects contained
within that file. Note that importing a file multiple times into the same scene
can happen indirectly if a file being referenced or imported imports that
scene. 80335
Workaround Use namespaces when referencing files. Alternatively, you can ensure that
you assign unique rename prefixes to files that will be imported multiple
times. You can do this by going to the File >Import options box or by using
the -renamingPrefix flag on the file command in the Script Editor.
Problems importing and referencing the same file with the same prefix
Limitation There are problems with importing and referencing the same file with the
same prefix. If the file is referenced and then imported then all is well.
However, if the file is imported and then referenced, there are ambiguities in
object names.111650
Another variation of this same limitation occurs when you create a node in
your main scene and then reference a file that creates a node with the exact
same name.
Workaround Use namespaces when importing or referencing files. Alternatively, you can
either reference the file before importing it or change the renaming prefix
between importing and referencing.

161
FILE FORMATS | 154
Avoid using the same renaming prefix when referencing files

Limitation When referencing a file that references other files, avoid using the same
renaming prefix used in the file being referenced. If the same renaming
prefix is used, the resulting file may contain errors. 113916
Workaround Use namespaces since they do not have this problem, or use unique
renaming prefixes.
Cannot remove more than one referenced file in a single operation

Limitation You cannot remove more than one referenced file in a single operation. If
you select more than one referenced file in the reference editor and try to
remove them all, nothing happens. 98015
Workaround Remove the referenced files one at a time.
Wait cursor may display after loading files

Limitation After loading a file, a wait cursor may come up and Maya will use all
available CPU cycles for a long time (several minutes at least). This problem
seems to occur in files that have IK and dependency loops.
Workaround The ideal work around is to find and remove the dependency loop. These
loops may be difficult to find. For example, A may be translated by a
pointConstraint B that uses target C that has a parent D that is rotated by an
expression E that has an input from F that is constrained to G which is a
child of A. One hint is to look for expressions that have outputs to attributes
on many different nodes.
Sets on .obj files imported into Maya considered shading groups

Limitation All sets on .obj files imported into Maya are considered shading groups. This
means that adjustment of an object’s rendering groups within Maya causes
simultaneous modification of the membership of the sets that were imported
from the .obj file.
Workaround In 3Design, create a partition containing the sets whose membership you
wish to preserve. Or in Maya, for each .obj file set whose membership you
wish to preserve, select the contents of the set and create a new set.

162
FILE FORMATS | 154
Export selection and sets limitation

Limitation When using export selection, any sets that contain the selected objects will
not be exported.89818
Workaround To preserve any sets that contain the selected objects, you must also
manually add the corresponding set nodes to the selection list.
For example, to export two spheres (named nurbsSphere1 and nurbSphere2)
contained in a set named set1, use the “select -ne” command to add set1 to
the selection list before exporting:
select nurbsSphere1 nurbsSphere2;
select -tgl -ne set1;
Nodes not properly saved within a referenced MEL script

Limitation Any connections made between nodes created within a referenced MEL
script and nodes in the current scene will not be saved properly.85911
A typical example is to reference a MEL script with the following code:
{
createNode transform -n “foo”;
}
After referencing this script, any connections made to “foo” will not be
saved properly in the main scene.
Workaround The cause of this problem is that referenced MEL scripts are always sourced
after the main file is read. In the above example, any connections to “foo”
will be written in the main file, so that when the scene is read back in, in
these connections will fail (since the MEL script hasn’t been sourced yet to
create “foo”). A work-around in this case is to setup any needed connections
within the MEL script itself.
Maya always activates default render resolution and quality

Limitation Maya cannot save a render quality or render resolution from a referenced
file as being the active resolution or quality. Maya will always activate the
default render resolution and quality.87098
Workaround Manually toggle the active resolution after the file is read to re-select the
correct resolution and quality.

163
FILE FORMATS | 154
Added connections to reference files

Limitation Any connections added to a file that is used as a reference will take
precedence over connections made in the referencing file. To restore the
connections in the referencing file, the referenced connections must be
broken, and the attributes reconnected in the referencing file. For example, if
animation is added to a file after it is referenced, any animation on those
attributes in the referencing file will no longer be displayed.87207
Workaround To restore the animation from the referencing file, without changing the
referenced file, the connections to the animation curves in the referenced file
must be broken and new connections made to the animation curves in the
referencing file. Then the file should be saved. As a general rule, you should
try to avoid changes of this type once a file has been referenced.
Working units changed when using File > Open Scene

Limitation When a file is read using File > Open the working units (mm, degrees, etc)
are changed to those specified in that file.68091
Workaround If you want to avoid having the working units changed, use File > Import to
read the file.
Expressions and back-quoted commands limitation

Limitation If a referenced or imported file contains expressions and the expressions
contain back-quoted commands, then the part in back-quotes will not have
any node names prefixed properly.87063
Workaround Use namespaces when referencing or importing files. Alternatively, you can
modify your expressions to not use MEL commands or back-quoted
expressions. C style expressions such as “foo.x = 0.5” are treated correctly in
references and the nodes will be correctly renamed. However, MEL style
commands such as “setAttr foo.x 0.5” will not work correctly.
IRIX and NT characters mean different things

Limitation The character “:” on IRIX and “;” on NT have special meaning in file names
and should not be used as part of a file name. 67262
Workaround Avoid using the characters “:” or “;” in file names.

164
FILE FORMATS | 154
File browser in Maya (IRIX only) does not update dynamically

Limitation The file browser in Maya does not update dynamically. If files are moved or
renamed through a shell, the updates will not be available until the browser
changes directories or is closed and reopened.63178
Workaround Change to a different directory and change back or close and reopen the file
browser.
Namespace or name-clash mechanisms limitation

Limitation When creating a reference in the current scene, and this reference in turn
contains a referenced MEL script, the namespace or name-clash mechanisms
will not be applied to any node names referred to in the script. This can
cause problems if the MEL script relies on explicit names that are contained
in the referenced file.78772
Workaround Try to create MEL scripts that do not dependent on the actual naming of
nodes contained in the scene.
Hypergraph layouts of objects from referenced files ignored

Limitation The Hypergraph layouts of objects from referenced files are ignored when
the file is referenced.
Workaround Make any adjustments to the layout of the objects in the referencing file.
Partial or relative paths can be used with referenced files

When Maya attempts to read in a scene that has references to files that are
unresolved, it posts a file dialog that lets you search for the missing file.
Pressing Cancel does not cancel the read operation for the entire scene but
instead cancels the read operation for the referenced file that could not be
found. The rest of the scene will continue to be read.91112 (part II)

165
FILE FORMATS | 154
Naming rules when importing or referencing files

Limitation When you import or reference a file, the same naming rules apply to the
renaming prefix as to regular node names. If Maya detects any illegal
characters in the renaming prefix, it strips out the bad characters. If you
typed in the renaming prefix explicitly, Maya warns you that it has removed
some illegal characters. If the renaming prefix is the default file name and
the file name contains illegal characters, they are removed silently.82498
Workaround Before importing or referencing a file, make sure that the renaming prefix
contains no invalid characters.
Error when saving and exporting files

Limitation If a file is saved and then a file with the same name is exported using a
different type, attempting to open the exported file will result in an
error.91333
Workaround Manually set the type of the file to be read in or do a File > New Scene first.
Changing project options using the workspace command

Limitation When you change any project options using the workspace command, you
must use the -s flag before the changes will be saved. Background processes,
such as the Batch Renderer, use the saved values when searching for or
saving files. If you do not use the -s flag, Maya will display the following
error message when you render:
//Warning: Image file cannot be output.Check the file
permissions//
Older Alias products cannot read Maya’s TIFF 4.0.

Limitation Older Alias products (including Studio), cannot read Maya’s TIFF 4.0.
This is because these products still support the LZW compression scheme
from the TIFF 4.0 format. This format was superseded in 1988 by TIFF 5.0,
which uses a modified LZW encoding scheme.
Workaround Use ComposerLite to convert your files to be un-compressed.

166
FILE FORMATS | 154
Maya can crash when unloading plug-ins

Limitation Maya can crash if a plug-in is unloaded and a script that calls that plug-in is
executed.56250
Workaround Do not unload plug-ins unless you are sure that they are not longer used by
Maya.
File commands saved from the menu bar

Limitation File commands saved from the menu bar to the shelf do not save all of their
settings from the option windows. 86307
Workaround Type the complete command in the script window and drag it to the shelf.
Using StudioPaint with Maya

Limitation If you are using StudioPaint with Maya, and you change your current
project in Maya, StudioPaint will not see the change until you save your
Maya preferences. 96664
Workaround Select File > Save Preferences from the main menu bar after changing your
current project.
Renaming .ma files to .mel files and sourcing may give errors
Limitation MEL scripts are not mayaAscii files and mayaAscii files are not MEL scripts.
If you rename a .ma file to a .mel file and source it, you may get errors.
Alternatively, if you rename a .mel script to be a .ma file and open it, you
may get errors or even crash Maya. Maya does special things while reading
files to improve performance and not all commands are compatible with
this. 98727
Workaround Treat mayaAscii files as if they were data files and not MEL scripts.
File names with quotation marks cause problems

Limitation Maya will generally have problems with file names that have quotation
mark characters in their names. For example: TheQuoted”Word”.ma. 98727
Workaround Rename the file with single quotes or some other character in place of the
double quotes. For example: TheQuoted’Word’.ma.

167
FILE FORMATS | 154
Renaming prefix limitation

Limitation When referencing a file using a renaming prefix that in turn references a file
using a namespace, the outer renaming prefix will be turned into a
namespace instead. 103445
Workaround Use namespaces for all your file references.
Use -rpr or -ns flags for files without legal identifier characters
Limitation You cannot reference or import a file from the command line whose name
contains no legal identifier characters (like “12345.ma”) unless you explicitly
use the -rpr or -ns flags. 108073
Workaround Use the -rpr or -ns flags explicitly.
Namespace errors
Limitation If you explicitly set your current namespace to something other than the root
namespace and then import or reference a file, you may get errors. 100374
and 113597
Workaround Make sure you are in the root namespace before importing or referencing
files. To ensure this, use the command: namespace -set “:”;
-moveNamespace flag for namespace command not implemented

Limitation The -moveNamespace flag for the namespace command is currently not
implemented. It will be supported in a future version of Maya. 112671
Workaround Create a new namespace, and move the nodes from one namespace the
other. Or, move the contents of the namespace, delete it, create another with
the same name in the appropriate place.
Environment variable MAYA_PROJECT limitation

Limitation If you set the environment variable MAYA_PROJECT either in your
Maya.env file or in the environment, its value will override the current
project saved in your preferences and Maya will start with the current
project set to the value of MAYA_PROJECT. 113074
Workaround Do not set MAYA_PROJECT unless you want this behavior.

168
FILE FORMATS | 154
Problems when loading scenes using Fur without a plug-in

Limitation If you load scene that uses Fur and you do not have the plug-in or do not
have a license for the plug-in, the information that the scene requires the
plug-in may get lost. 113851
Workaround Run Maya on a machine that does have a license for the plug-in, load the
plug-in manually with the plug-in manager, then load the scene. When you
save it, the requires information will be restored.
In the options dialog associated with “Create Reference”, the optionMenu
labelled “Prefixing” has only one value. That is “all nodes”. Also, the “Type”
optionMenu that appears in all the file option dialogs pertains to the default
file type to be used when performing the related operation. This is
somewhat confusing for read operations such as Import since clicking on
any file in the related file browser will change the type to the type detected
in the file. However, if the user simply types in the name of the file without
first clicking on the file in the browser, then Maya will attempt to read the
file using the file type specified regardless of the actual type of the file.
Certain file types (such as obj) are not always 100% accurate in their file type
identification so this provides the user with a simply override mechanism
for the default behavior. (Bug 91518)

169
FILE FORMATS | 154

170
155 UTILITIES & PERIPHERALS
The following lists limitations and workarounds for Maya 3.0 utilities and
peripherals.
workarounds:
Note Page
RIB Export 172
Anim Import/Export 173
imgcvt 174

171
UTILITIES & PERIPHERALS | 155

RIB Export
RIB EXPORT
The following limitations and workarounds relate to Rib Export.
• Not all Maya objects are converted by RIB plug-in — Page 172
• Maya light decays and RenderMan default settings — Page 172
• Maya’s ambient lights are not well represented in RenderMan — Page 172
• Warnings for scene written to RIB with disabled motion blur — Page 173
Not all Maya objects are converted by RIB plug-in

Not all Maya objects are converted by the RIB plug-in. Most notably,
textures and particles are not converted. However, cameras, lights, geometry
and their animation are translated correctly. A very simple algorithm maps
Maya’s lambert, phong, and blinn shaders to their RenderMan equivalents
and copies the color attribute. If a texture is mapped to the shader in Maya,
then the resulting RenderMan color will be indeterminate. Also note that this
version of the plug-in does not support per-face shading groups, thus
shaders assigned to specific faces will not be converted, and those faces will
be white when rendered by RenderMan.
Maya light decays and RenderMan default settings

Limitation RenderMan’s lights all have a decay of 2, which may cause illumination
mismatches in lighting if you have your light’s decay set to anything other
than 2 in Maya.
Workaround Set all Maya light decays to 2.
Maya’s ambient lights are not well represented in RenderMan

Limitation Maya’s ambient lights are not well represented in RenderMan and will tend
to wash out the RenderMan rendered scene once translated.86690
Workaround Reduce the intensity of your ambient lights before translation, remove them
altogether, or set the ambient shade parameter to 0 in Maya to better match
the RenderMan look.

172

Anim Import/Export
Warnings for scene written to RIB with disabled motion blur

Limitation If a scene is written to RIB with motion blur disabled, when that file is
rendered by RenderMan it will generate warnings of the form: “R07005
Premature RiMotionEnd”.
Workaround These can be safely ignored. This problem will be corrected in a future Maya
release.
ANIM IMPORT/EXPORT
The following limitations and workarounds relate to Anim Import/Export.
• Anim curves with Spline or Clamped tangents created before V 2.0 — Page
173
• animCurve’s weighted/non-weighted tangents setting not preserved —
Page 173
Anim curves with Spline or Clamped tangents created before V 2.0

Limitation Animation curves with Spline or Clamped tangents that were created prior
to Maya 2.0 may exhibit slightly different interpolations when exported and
re-imported using the animImportExport plug-in. 132435, dup of below
Workaround Change the tangents to be of type Fixed before exporting.
animCurve’s weighted/non-weighted tangents setting not preserved

Limitation An animCurve’s weighted/non-weighted tangents setting is not preserved
when animation is imported through the animImportExport plug-in. 112215
Workaround The setting for new animCurves created on import is consistent with the
Keys: Weighted Tangents option in the Animation Preferences window.
Either change the setting on a per-curve basis after import (using the Curves
menu in the Graph Editor), or export animCurves with weighted tangents
separately from those with non-weighted tangents, making sure the
Preference is set appropriately for each import operation.

173

imgcvt
IMGCVT
The following limitations and workarounds relate to imgcvt:
• imgcvt .gif, AUI, EPS, JPG and BMP files read only — Page 174
• 32 bit BMP files are not supported by Maya127790 — Page 174
imgcvt .gif, AUI, EPS, JPG and BMP files read only
The imgcvt utility does not support the writing of the following image files:
.gif, AUI, EPS, JPG and BMP. It currently writes out Maya .iff files but calls
them .gif files.
32 bit BMP files are not supported by Maya127790

Use imgcvt to convert the image to iff.

174
156 DEVELOPER’S TOOL KIT
The following lists limitations and workarounds for the Developer’s Tool
Kit. We also recommend that you read the Maya API Developers Manual and
“What’s New in API and Developer’s Tool Kit” in the Maya Developers Tool
Kit online documentation before attempting a major project using your new
software.
Note Page
Upgrading Maya 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5 plug-ins 177
Upgrading Maya 2.0 plug-ins using MFnLightDataAttribute 177
MFnNurbsSurface::isFlipNorm() limitation 177
MFnPlugin::deregisterAll() removed 177
API plugs and dependencies hierarchy limitation 177
MItMeshPolygon limitation 178
OBJ files need “.obj” extension 178
MSyntax::makeFlagMultiUse() limitation 178
Batch rendering scenes with plug-ins 178
New version of MFnMesh::addPolygon() method 179
MItSurfaceCV limitation 179
MPxGeometryData.h on IRIX 179

175
DEVELOPER’S TOOL KIT | 156
Note Page
MFnMesh::getConnectedSetsAndMembers limitations 180
Cannot add or remove menu items from a torn off menu 180
Linking plug-ins on IRIX 180
MIPSpro v7.2 C++ compiler warning message 180
loadPlugin command restriction 181
Unloading and reloading plug-in 181
Auto-loading plug-ins with Maya Live 181
NT compiler requirement
To build Maya plug-ins, your NT system must have the Microsoft Visual
C++ compiler versions 6.0 installed.
IRIX compiler requirement

To build Maya plug-ins, your IRIX system must have a MIPSpro C++
compiler installed. The compiler version must be 7.2.1 or higher, and we
highly recommend upgrading to version 7.3.1.1m. Additionally, plug-ins
for Maya 3.0 must be built on IRIX 6.5. Plug-ins built on IRIX 6.2, 6.3 or
6.4 will normally crash or behave improperly if loaded into Maya 3.0.

176
Upgrading Maya 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5 plug-ins

Limitation Versions of plug-ins for Maya 1.0, 1.5, and 2.5 need to be recompiled with
Maya 3.0 for them to load and work properly.
Workaround Re-compile your plug-ins with Maya 3.0. See “What’s New in API and
Developer’s Tool Kit” in the Maya Developers Tool Kit online documentation
for complete instructions. 132550 (assigned to docs)
Upgrading Maya 2.0 plug-ins using MFnLightDataAttribute

Limitation Source code changes in Maya 2.5 API class MFnLightDataAttribute.
Workaround Upgrade the source code for your Maya 2.0 plug-ins that utilize the API
methods MFnLightDataAttribute::create() and
MFnLightDataAttribute::setDefault() because a new argument has been
added to the function signatures.
This primarily effects surface shader plug-ins and light plug-ins that have
been written as well as source code examples delivered in the Developers
Tool Kit.
MFnNurbsSurface::isFlipNorm() limitation
Limitation The method MFnNurbsSurface::isFlipNorm() can be used only on trimmed
surfaces.
Workaround Use the method MFnNurbsSurface::isTrimmedSurface() in your code to
detect if the surface is trimmed before using the method.
MFnPlugin::deregisterAll() removed
Limitation The MFnPlugin::deregisterAll() method has been removed.
Workaround Use the various “deregister” methods available in MFnPlugin.
API plugs and dependencies hierarchy limitation

Limitation The API does not support hierarchies of plugs and their dependencies in a
single dependency node. Dirty propagation works correctly across
connections between nodes, but not between internal attributes on a user-
defined node made with MPxNode.
Workaround Use the method attributeAffects() to “flatten hierarchies” when declaring
their affects behavior between all inputs and outputs on your node.

177
MItMeshPolygon limitation
Limitation MItMeshPolygon::getArea does not work in World Space. The Object Space
area is always returned.
Workaround Use MItMeshPolygon::getTriangles to get the triangles in World Space; then
calculate the areas of the triangles and sum them
OBJ files need “.obj” extension

Limitation Wavefront OBJ files need the .obj extension to be recognized automatically
when the File > Open Scene Import option is set to Best Guess.
Workaround Set the Import option to OBJ to import a file without the .obj extension.
MSyntax::makeFlagMultiUse() limitation
Limitation The method MSyntax::makeFlagMultiUse() currently has no effect.
Workaround In a future release of Maya, related methods will be exposed on MSyntax
which will make it possible to use the method.
Batch rendering scenes with plug-ins

Limitation If you have a Maya scene that uses two (or more) plug-ins, both of which fail
in their “initializePlugin” method (due to a missing license for example), and
both plug-ins require one of the libraries OpenMayaUI, OpenMayaAnim or
OpenMayaFX, when attempting to batch render the scene Maya may
produce a fatal error.
Workaround Manually add the following lines at the end of your userPrefs.mel file.
dynamicLoad OpenMayaUI
dynamicLoad OpenMayaAnim
dynamicLoad OpenMayaFX

178
New version of MFnMesh::addPolygon() method

Limitation There is a new version of the MFnMesh::addPolygon() method which
produces the same results as the ::create() methods. The old signature is
obsolete.
Workaround Use the new function signature for the method:
MObject MFnMesh::addPolygon( const MPointArray &
vertexArray, bool mergeVertices = true, double
pointTolerance = kMFnMeshPointTolerance, MObject
parentOrOwner = MObject::kNullObj, MStatus * ReturnStatus =
NULL );
MItSurfaceCV limitation
Limitation The NURBS surface CV iterator, MItSurfaceCV, will ignore the useURows
argument if a non-null component argument is passed into either the
constructor or reset methods. In this case the iteration will occur in the order
that the CVs occur in the component.
Workaround The useURows flag will only be used if the iteration is to occur over the
entire surface and hence no components or a NULL component are
specified.
MPxGeometryData.h on IRIX
Limitation When compiling with the file MPxGeometryData.h on IRIX you will see the
following warnings:
“MPxGeometryData &MPxGeometryData::operator=(const
MPxGeometryData&)” does not match “MPxData::operator=”
-- virtual function override intended?
virtual MPxGeometryData& operator =( const MPxGeometryData&
) = 0;
Workaround You can safely ignore these harmless warnings.

179
MFnMesh::getConnectedSetsAndMembers limitations
Limitation The method MFnMesh::getConnectedSetsAndMembers will fail if the
function set is initialized with an MObject of type kMeshData. This means it
cannot be used in the compute function of a user-defined node on a input
mesh attribute.
Workaround Initialize MFnMesh with either a DAG path or the mesh shape node of type
kMesh.
Cannot add or remove menu items from a torn off menu

Limitation Menu items cannot be added to or removed from a menu that has been torn
off (Maya may produce a fatal error).
Workaround Do not add/remove items from a menu that has been torn off, or make sure
that if menu items need to be added or removed dynamically, the menu
cannot be torn off. To do this, set the tearoff flag for the menu to false.
Linking plug-ins on IRIX

When linking plug-ins, use the compiler flag -no_transitive_link. If you do
not, the linker will display warning messages, such as:
ld32: WARNING 85: definition of symbolName in
libOpenMaya.so preempts that definition in libShared.so.
In addition, using -no_transitive_link greatly decreases the amount of time it
takes to complete the link. The Makefile in the example plug-in directory
demonstrates a method for doing this.
MIPSpro v7.2 C++ compiler warning message

Limitation If you are using the MIPSpro v7.2 C++ compiler to build plug-ins, you will
see the following warning:
“/usr/include/X11/Xlib.h”, line 2069: warning(3322):
omission of explicit type is nonstandard (“int” assumed)
extern XSetTransientForHint(
when compiling files that include the X windows headers.
Workaround To suppress these, add the flag -woff 3322 to the compile lines in your
Makefiles. The Makefile for the example plug-ins demonstrates a method for
doing this.

180
loadPlugin command restriction

Limitation Do not include the loadPlugin command in the same script that uses the
contents of a user-defined command plug-in. This is because the MEL parser
parses the entire script before executing any of it. When the script is parsed,
the loadPlugin command will not yet have registered the command, therefore
MEL will not be able to parse it. 56391
Workaround Use one script to load the plug-in and another to use the command it
registers. Alternatively, you can use MEL’s eval statement to wrap the call to
the new command. This will delay MEL’s parsing of the command until
runtime and allow the script to be parsed correctly.
Unloading and reloading plug-in

Limitation If a plug-in command is called from an expression or a MEL procedure, and
after the expression or procedure has been parsed, the plug-in is unloaded
(or unloaded and then reloaded), Maya may produce a fatal error if the
expression is triggered or the procedure is re-executed. When MEL parses
the expression or procedure, it saves a pointer to the doIt method of the
plug-in command. The value of this pointer is not normally recalculated, so
if the plug-in is unloaded or reloaded at a different location, the pointer is no
longer valid. 89334
Workaround Enclose the call to the plug-in command in a MEL eval statement. This forces
MEL to compile the statement each time the expression is evaluated or the
procedure is run. If the plug-in has been unloaded this is detected and an
error results. If the plug-in has been reloaded, the new location of the doIt
method is computed during the recompile.
Auto-loading plug-ins with Maya Live

Limitation If you have two or more Maya Unlimited plug-ins marked for autoload and
one of these is Maya Live, Maya may encounter a fatal error on startup if
you attempt to render or launch Maya on a system that only has a Maya
Complete license.
Workaround Edit your prefs file .../maya/2.5/userPrefs.mel and delete the three lines
that look like:
if ( !catch(‘loadPlugin "mayalive"‘) ) {
pluginInfo -edit -autoload true "mayalive";
}

181

182
INDEX
A documentation 115
errors 117
inverse kinematics 16
AliasToMaya 95 updated 116
ANIMATION
Animation Dynamics 37 L
copying 11
Level of Detail 60
Graph Editor 11
path 12 E Live 147
playblast 13
preview 13 Edit option menu 6
API Enter key 4 M
plug-ins 175
Marking menus 4
polygonal 51
Artisan 35 F Maya NT 95
MayaToAlias 95
color feedback 36
file formats 159 menus, tear off 4
free-form layout mode 7 micro-sliders, in Channel Box 5
B Fur 129 modeling
NURBS 45
Blind Data limitations 61 polygonal 51
G Subdivision Surfaces 49
motion capture 33
C games translators 51
Graph Editor 11
multiple nodes, selecting 7
Cloth 119 graphs, large
improve performance 7
collapsing shapes
in Hypergraph 8 grid
N
coloring polygons 58 perspective view 3 Netscape
commands 153 errors 116
Component Selection mode 4 Netscape errors 117
H new web sites 117
Hypergraph NURBS 45
D collapsing shapes in 8 NURBS To Polygons 51, 60
DAG view deleting connections 8
connection lines 7 IK Handle Tool 8
deformers 25
O
Developers Tool Kit 175
device editor 33
I Obj import 95
DG node display 7 instances

doBrowserHelp 117 using different shelf tools 5
interface 1

183
INDEX
P U
Paint Effects 135 UI 1
panels, tear off 5 UNIX
path interactive performance 3
Animation 12 upstream and downstream
peripherals 171 connections 7
playblast 13 user interface 1
plug-ins API 175 utilities 171
polygonal API 51
polygons
games 51 X
preview xmouse emulation software 4
Animation 13
R
referenced files 6
rendering 65
reorder Deformer nodes 4
rotation and translation limits 5
S
skeletons 16
Subdivision Surfaces 49
T
tear off menus 4
tear off panels 5
texturing polygons 58
Trax 31

184

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book Page 1 Tuesday, May 30, 2000 9:41 AM

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

ALIAS|WAVEFRONT ■ 210 KING STREET EAST ■ TORONTO, CANADA M5A 1J7

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

General Character Setup 16

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

8 POLYGONS AND GAMES 51

General polygon and games 52

9 RENDERING & PAINT TEXTURES TOOL 65

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

General Maya limitations & workarounds 96

What’s updated in the documentation 116

12 MAYA CLOTH 119

13 MAYA FUR 129

14 MAYA PAINT EFFECTS 135

General Maya Paint Effects 136

15 MAYA LIVE 147

General scene 148

16 MAYA COMMANDS 153

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

17 FILE FORMATS 159

18 UTILITIES & PERIPHERALS 171

RIB Export 172

19 DEVELOPER’S TOOL KIT 175

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

MAYA RELEASE NOTES

Thank you for buying Maya—Alias|Wavefront’s award-winning computer

About the Maya documentation set

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

The Using Maya series

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

The Maya Technical Library

MEL includes technical descriptions of the individual MEL commands.

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

Using Maya’s online documentation

Printing online books

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

Using Maya’s printed documentation

Printed documentation conventions

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

138 BASIC INTERFACE

Tips for using the Hypergraph 6

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

BASIC INTERFACE | 138

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

BASIC INTERFACE | 138

Color Value attribute for Paint Textures Tool limitation

Hotkeys disabled when using Attribute Editor in main window

Speeding up interactive performance on UNIX machines

Using the grid in perspective view

MAYA 3.0 RELEASE NOTES

BASIC INTERFACE | 138

Tearing off menus with check boxes or radio buttons

Drag and drop nodes in the List of history operations window

Pop-up list boxes in the Channel Box on NT

Using the right-click pop-up menu in the Channel Box

Remapping the Enter key

Marking menus appear when using the left mouse button

Highlighting objects in Component Selection mode