Errors

Ubuntu Linux: Maya does not run because of missing user executables

Maya requires some commands to run like sed.

On the recommended OS CentOS it is located in the executable path for users /usr/bin.

On Ubuntu it is located in the system executable path /bin only.

In this case Maya prints these messages and exits:

sed: Command not found.

-batch: Command not found.

To solve the issue, please create/edit the file RR\render_apps\_setenv\all\maya__inhouse.rrEnv

Add the line

PATH= <PATH>;/bin

Maya 2017 crashes with reference models

If you use scenes with the old legacy render layer system and import them as reference models into scenes with the new render setup, then Maya will crash.

Flipped Camera

If you are using Z-up in your Maya preferences, then you should set Z-up on the farm as well.

Otherwise it could happen that the camera flips.

Please copy your userPrefs.mel from

C:\Documents and Settings\[User]\My Documents\maya\2011-x64\prefs\

[RR]/render_apps/renderer_prefs/maya/win_x64/2011-x64/prefs/

[RR]/render_apps/renderer_prefs/maya/win_x32/2011-x64/prefs/

Hair

This is a report from a customer regarding hair issues in Maya:

Issue:

There is a bug within Maya hair that even on static hair systems hair simulations are triggered when maya is run in batch. I have written a work around script that sets the start frame of the hair simulations to be the same as the start frame. This works fine, however the start frame of the packet will not match the start frame of the render globals. This script is called when the render scene is opened via API callback.

ie If a render is set to render from frames 100 - 200 my script will set the start times to 100.

However the packet start might be 120 - 130 and frames 100 - 120 will simulate. Essentially I need a method to query the packet start/end from within maya. defaultRenderGlobals will not give the correct range.

Details of the bug we are encountering can be found at:

http://area.autodesk.com/forum/autodesk-maya/lighting---rendering/eliminate-hair-run-up-on-batch-render/

Possible solutions:

There are two possibilities:

1) See

RR\render_apps\_config\additional\3D02__Maya2009__MelOnce.cfg

RR\render_apps\_config\3D02__Maya2008__CreateRenderMi.cfg

Those render configs use a mel script to execute maya commands.

You can write your own render script.

2) Or you have to edit the config file that tell Maya Batch what do to.

This one is for rendering with Mental Ray.

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\rendererDesc\mrRenderer.xml

There you could add your command to the start frame change.

Then you have to make sure the new file gets distributed before rendering.

You can add a command to your RR maya setenv file RR\render_apps\_setenv\win\maya.bat.

"%rrBin%rrCopy.exe" -oo -os "\\fileserver\share\...\mrRenderer.xml" "C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2010\bin\rendererDesc\mrRenderer.xml"

Unable to locate valid MAYA_APP_DIR

If you get the message "Unable to locate valid MAYA_APP_DIR", then please check if Windows UAC is disabled.

mRay animation detection

It can happen that you have a scene that does not render any animation.

For example animation on the transform of the Image Based Lighting node.

Please try to turn off "Optimize animation detection".

(window "Render Settings", tab "Options", group "Translation" )

MtoA: "is not a unique name. Cannot remove alias"

Those warnings mean that the custom AOV data in the Maya scene file is incomplete (AOV aliases are missing for some custom AOVs; the aliases are user-friendly descriptive names).

There's a discussion of one such case here:

http://wp.me/p2TBho-dB

And here's a thread on the MtoA mailing list about it:

https://groups.google.com/a/solidangle.com/forum/#!searchin/mtoa/alias/mtoa/bhzD4AvxgeA/y6PyhIBG1e0J

This post has a script one user wrote to fix his scenes:

https://groups.google.com/a/solidangle.com/d/msg/mtoa/Rnkd3jjGmRI/0nDpKqyrcdQJ

There's an MtoA ticket here:

https://trac.solidangle.com/mtoa/ticket/2127

Depending on the scene, the scene may render fine. Other scenes don't render properly because all the AOV definitions are messed up.

"The SynColor package is not installed"

We do not know how this error appears.

There is either one Maya 2017 version which has created broken config files. Or created an old version of the file that the updated Maya version was unable to load.

The complete error is

Error: The transforms path found in the configuration file does not exist: C:/RR_localdata/renderer_prefs/maya/win_x64/2017/prefs/synColorConfig.xml

Error: The SynColor package is not installed: C:\ProgramData\Autodesk\Synergy\SynColor\2017

To fix this issue, we will create a working file and place it into RR that it will be copied over to all clients.

Please copy the file synColorConfig.xml from the error message into the folder [RR]\render_apps\renderer_prefs\maya\win_x64\2017\prefs\

Edit the file.

It should be missing the node "TransformsHome" and should state version 1.0 (SynColorConfig version="1.0").

Change the

into

Add a new line after the line

<AutoConfigure

and add this to the new line: