Maya 2008 Crashing
 

I have a more general question than specific. How often do you guys crash maya. I have used Maya 7 and 2008 and have had issues with system crashes. It seems more and more often with 2008. I just don't know if that is becuase I'm getting better and making more complex things.

I have used a variety of software that gets pretty math intensive and have know good programs that have been "crashy".

I'm running a Dell Optiplex that was recommended to me by my bro who does IT for a major engineering firm. It is a DuoCore 6600 with 2.4 GHz and 3 GB of Ram. The video is a Radeon X1650.

Like I said, I know some things just get crashy. Am I different!

I haven't found Maya crashing very much really, only when I muck up some script and running infinite loops, but just modelling, animation, etc wise mine has been fairly stable.

My PC's specs are nowhere near as fast as yours, I used to have some problems with Maya 7 but 2008 seems to be working very nicely at the moment.

Chris

To be honest I dont really get that many problems unless I'm trying to so something silly and havent taken precautions (like running a simulation with silly high poly counts, ramping up fluids resolution to something daft etc etc. And thats on both my laptop and my desktop PC (thats a very similar sepc to yours)

on the PC.., i thought it my graphics card?? i seem to have problems after merging a lot verts after using the edge loop tool.., which seems to leave a lot of orphan verts.., the computer hangs for a while.., like its having RAM trouble.., so i delete the history as much as possible when doing this procedure.., (something Kurt does in one of his tuts, he mentioned the same problem i think but dont quote me.., not sure if it was 2008 though??)

and if i delete the edge loop.., all the verts are still there and i have to delete them too..,


ut on the Mac.., never, it purrs

Mirek is that a grumble about maya crashing or the insert edge loop tool? I never have a problem with it, it never slows my PC down and ive never had a crash using it.

And with it leaving edges after youve deleted it, well if you just delete and edge you still have to go back and delete the verts, if youve added the edge loop and done like it, just hit ctrl+Z, saves a lot of work.

Mirek I'm not having a go, in simply asking a question, the thread is about maya crashing, you posted about the insert edge loop tool slowing down your PC and leaving lots of verts about, and then when you delete the edge it leaves verts there....

Yes you were saying what happens with your PC, I was saying what happens with mine, and I said how you might get round not having to delete a lot of verts.

As for your first and second paragraphs, well thats quite a thing to say and judge people by.

if you select an edge loop or edges and just hit delete , you will get the verts left over and it's always been that way in Maya even prior to 2008.To delete the verts along with edges/edgeloops you have to use the delete edge/vert tool, a shortcut on the shelf solves that issue.

ah.., now i see :) live and learn.., goes to show.., we all need a little help from our friends :)

i seem to have misunderstood.., sorry about that steve :)

Well that was interest. Anyways, I have a post in the WIP section labeled hockey goalie. That is all I am working with right now, and although some of the geometry is a bit complex, my system keeps crashing, especially when I try to do a quick render. I am also having issues when I render where it won't render but a few frames, then tell me I am complete. Its is pretty frustrating and I was wondering if I am just missing a simple setup issue.

thats a hardware issue.., you need a new motherboard, graphics card and RAM. (processor too, sorry about the bad news) if you want to continue to use maya with its full potential.., i used to just delete the frame it stopped at.., then continued from there.., until the render was finished.

M:)

had the same problem for a long time.., and by the looks of when you registered here.., so have you :(

vest get on to it.., if it started recently it is DEFINITELY a hardware problem., IMHO

A hardware faliure causing the crashes is rather unlikely, in my opinion, its probaly just the geometry thats stressing the computer too much.

When you say that quick rendering cuases a crash, is it actually a crash with a BSoD or an error message, or did the computer become unresponsive?

You could try a couple of things, Importing the scene into a new scene and then trying to render, or render from the command line so that you minimise the system resources as it might be running out of RAM.

how do you render from the command line??? let be guess

render; ()


?? just a guess

once the command is started.., can one turn off the maya and let it render.., i know its possible and would be good on the processor

If you dont want to go in to the technicalities of it all, set up your render settings in maya save it and close it.

Find the file right click and then you should see render, click that and off it goes.

Theres plenty of tutorials online about command line rendering, essentially you dont have maya open at all.

thats all i need.., thanks Steve :)

Thanks guys. I don't think it is hardware. My system is setup for Maya and the like. I do a ton of Photoshop with HUUUUGE file24x36 inches at high resolution. I think it is likely related to my geometry. I am just surprised that Maya just crashes, instead of giving you an error message.

I'll try the rendering outside of Maya. Thanks for that advice.

Maya's a programme that will eat up any system resource if you give it half a chance. Are you on 32 bit or 64? Just that if Maya crashes in a render it usualy that I've hit the Max RAM for a 32 bit system, which I then just get a straight crash.

You can also lower the RAM requirements by making maya write the textures to HDD rarther than hold it in the RAM when rendering by going to the file nodes of the textures and checking use cache.

Usefull tip gster. Does it cause a large increase in render times?

gubar

Ive not compared them tbh, but if you render without maya being open (either right clicking or comand line rendering) it does speed up the render time quite a bit, also lowering the RAM requirement will let you squeeze out every last bit that your syetem can muster for say, paint FX hair, or any other RAM intensive task at rendertime, that might otherwise cause a crash.

For example if I try to render with SSS some 2048 maps for a character, hair generated using paint FX and a hair system with maya open i'll crash right off the bat as it maxes it out the RAM. If I cache the textures and then render form the cmd line or right click with no other programmes open it will render it out, which is a good thing! Other than that I would probably just render in passes the lower the system demand (do the character sepperate and then a hair pass over the top, which gives grater control over the look in compositing)

Ok, I see what you mean. Certainly when I create my master scene containing all the scenes I'm working on just now it's good to know this - cheers.

You mention rendering without maya open, by right clicking - what are you right clicking? The scene file?

cheers

gubar

yup, there should be an option that says render, just click that and off it goes.

Ok see it now thanks, guess you just save the scene as you want it rendered (select your camera in the viewport, finalize all settings) then just close maya and render from there.

Cheers for the tip.

gubar