Why does Maya 2015 crash when opening %temp% crashes?

daniellooartist

I have been using Maya 2015 for some time and the rate at which it crashes is astronomically high compared to the previous versions I have used (2012). I'm no stranger to going into the temp folder and resurrecting my file but 99% of the time the temp file itself crashes when opening. I can however open the file with Maya 2012 but I have a ton of scripting errors.

I can conclude 2 things. Whatever fragment of data is causing Maya to crash is something that is written to a save file, and it's some piece of data that 2015 reacts to differently than 2012. 2012 will report an error while 2015 will outright crash when reopening it. I have a VERY difficult time believing that it's something different every time because most of the time Maya crashes when doing something arbitrary like smooth previewing a mesh or selecting faces which are commands that have zero reason to be written to a save file.

I don't mind re-saving it with 2012 but I feel like I'll loose sleep if I don't understand what's actually happening. I've posted a script of a problem that happened with my last model. I tried to combined 2 UV shells but they would not combined. I merged the vertices so that it would become a single edge but that didn't work. I attempted to smooth preview the mesh to see if it smoothed funny which crashed it. I've copied some parts of the error message I felt was useful (most of it's repetition for each object). I can't make heads or tales of it to be honest but I hope it's useful.

commandPort -securityWarning -name commandportDefault;
// Error: Could not open command port commandportDefault because that name is in use. //
file -i "C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma";
// Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 5: Unknown Maya file version: 2015. //
// Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 131: The mesh 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0006:pCubeShape10' has no '.sdt' attribute. //
// Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 131: setAttr: No object matches name: .sdt //
// Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 132: The mesh 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0006:pCubeShape10' has no '.ugsdt' attribute. //
// Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 132: setAttr: No object matches name: .ugsdt //
// Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 263: The mesh 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0006:pCubeShape10' has no '.vnm' attribute. //
Error: file: C:/Users/SpiffyDee/AppData/Local/Temp/SpiffyDee.20150601.0007.ma line 3014497: Invalid flag '-ch' //
// File read in 15 seconds.
// Warning: The node 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_defaultLayer' still clashed with a node in the main scene. Renaming to 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0007_defaultLayer'. //
// Warning: Edits on 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_defaultLayer' may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes. //
// Warning: The node 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_defaultRenderLayer' still clashed with a node in the main scene. Renaming to 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0007_defaultRenderLayer'. //
// Warning: Edits on 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_defaultRenderLayer' may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes. //
// Warning: The node 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_layerManager' still clashed with a node in the main scene. Renaming to 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0007_layerManager'. //
// Warning: Edits on 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_layerManager' may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes. //
// Warning: The node 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_renderLayerManager' still clashed with a node in the main scene. Renaming to 'SpiffyDee_20150601_0007_renderLayerManager'. //
// Warning: Edits on 'SpiffyDee.20150601.0007_renderLayerManager' may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes. //
// Warning: Can't perform SpiffyDee_20150601_0006:polyPlanarProj2 on selection //
// Warning: Errors have occurred while reading this scene that may result in data loss.
Please check the Script Editor for details. //
// Error: Error reading file. //

Bartalon

It's tough to really pinpoint crashes since Maya can crash for a multitude of reasons.

I know I reverted back to 2013 from 2015 after experiencing several crashes after deleting history with smooth preview enabled. Sometimes it's not possible to know the "why" of a crash but instead just find a way to recover your files and move on. If you can duplicate the crash after performing a specific action you can find ways of avoiding it in the future.

If your dump file is still crashing when you try to open it, try to import the file into a fresh scene instead of opening it outright. That often does the trick.

daniellooartist

I feel like i keep doing something specific that provokes it each time this happens. I've gotten the following error before.

"defaultRenderLayer' may have been lost as a result of renaming. We strongly recommend the use of Namespaces to resolve Name Clashes."

I know what namespace means in the context of object oriented programming but no clue what it means in Maya terms.

throttlekitty

In Maya, no two things in a scene can have the same name; bone, layer, object, whatever. Namespaces helps when you're importing to your scene, say two different rigged characters that use the same bone names. (I add _ly when naming layers and _gp for groups, lifehack woooh)

It *shouldn't* ever bring something in with a taken name, it either tosses it into the new namespace or adds a number to the end. I was going to suggest digging around the .ma in notepad++, but Bartalon's suggestion is better.

daniellooartist

Thanks for the information. I thought the Autodesk knowledge base was talking about something different when it gave a description of the namespace editor. I ended up doing what Bartalon said. I just can't help but think I'm doing something wrong if this keeps happening. After looking at my temp folder I average 8 crashes an hour. It's possibly only 4 per hour since I attempt to open up the crashed version in hopes I roll that 1% chance it won't completely corrupt and save out another temp.

throttlekitty

Hard to say. I've never encountered this. Assuming that those name clashes are actually a/the problem, what are you doing in you routine to make that happen? Importing scenes? Any notable plugins or scripts that may be doing the same, or automating some creation process?

Bartalon

Eight crashes per hour seems pretty excessive. I'm [un]lucky to get a few crashes per month, but then again I use Maya 2013 which I would argue is one of the most stable versions.

I feel like with your crash rate you should at least be able to recognize a pattern that is leading to the crashes and establish a workaround or MEL script to avoid the problem altogether. Example: Maya 2015 would often crash if I deleted history while in smooth preview, so I made a MEL script to un-smooth first, then delete history all in the same hotkey. Crashing stopped.