Major headache with file linking into Max2009

[tricky]

Hi all.

I really thought these problems had gone away 2 or 3 years ago, but they seem to have started occuring quite regularly and its really causing us major problems with our pipeline (which we've had for many years).

We model in Autodesk Architecture 2009 64bit and file link into Max 2009 64bit. We get to a certain point within a scheme where updating the file link brings in an 'exploded' model, and the red flag remains red. Resaving and trying again doesn't help.

It basically means that we need to start again with a new scene and start retexturing and UVWmapping etc.

Anyone have a solution? I am not sure why this seems to have resurfaced. The problem used to be related to running 32bit autocad and 64bit max, but once we moved to 64bit versions of each, it went away. Why it has come back is anyone's guess. It is seriosly as though Autodesk themselves have released a bomb/virus to force us to upgrade to version 2010 of there products in the hope that the problems are resolved (which we refuse to do).

[tricky]

Quite an old thread, but the same problem has surfaced again. Anyone share this problem or have a solution? All our systems are 64bit.

[dlparisi]

I too have had problems relinking objects that have their history maintained in AutoCAD. When I BREP them (which makes them into just plain solids) it fixes it, sometimes. Usually I just select everything in Acad and do a brep just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

[jacksc02]

Tricky,
Does the problem go away if you use a different DWG format (ie. ACAD2004) ??

[tricky]

I too have had problems relinking objects that have their history maintained in AutoCAD. When I BREP them (which makes them into just plain solids) it fixes it, sometimes. Usually I just select everything in Acad and do a brep just to make sure I'm not missing anything.

Does BREP relate to AEC objects? We don't use those - just plain old solid modelling and blocks.

[tricky]

Tricky,
Does the problem go away if you use a different DWG format (ie. ACAD2004) ??

Not tried that. Will give it a try.

[dlparisi]

No, just regular ACIS solids. I think acad started in 2009 to retain history for solids but I'm not sure. Basically it lets you edit the elements of a union, subtraction, extrusion, etc after the fact. You can easily tell if history is on for an object by just selecting it - if all of the corners get a grip there's no history. Otherwise you'll get various grips depending on how the solid was created, which you can then edit if you like. BTW you can also just turn off use history somewhere for all new objects - I just don't remember where that is.

[tricky]

No, just regular ACIS solids. I think acad started in 2009 to retain history for solids but I'm not sure. Basically it lets you edit the elements of a union, subtraction, extrusion, etc after the fact. You can easily tell if history is on for an object by just selecting it - if all of the corners get a grip there's no history. Otherwise you'll get various grips depending on how the solid was created, which you can then edit if you like. BTW you can also just turn off use history somewhere for all new objects - I just don't remember where that is.

I see. I will gve that a try. Thankyou.

[dlparisi]

I just had another drawing give me some real headaches with file linking: BREPing it didn't help, no luck with partial drawings either trying to find some problematic solid. Nothing seemed to work. The DWG would link fine though as a new link (rather than reload) so I started to rebuild the scene file. I intended to load both the old link and the new one in at the same time so I could copy modifiers, materials, etc. so temporarily I had had both loaded in the file link manager. On a whim, since I had tried everything else I could think of, I then tried reloading the problematic linked DWG - and it WORKED!!! I have no idea why but it seems to be just fine now. I deleted the new linked dwg and am back to the scene the way it was before (no lost modifiers, materials, etc) and I can even update that file link without problems. I have no idea if this will work on all problems but it's something to try for future headaches.

[jacksc02]

Im just having this issue with max2010.... very annoying!

[dlparisi]

Any luck resolving it?

[jacksc02]

nope, just rebuilt the whole scene

[pnel77]

It basically means that we need to start again with a new scene and start retexturing and UVWmapping etc.

There's your problem - when you've got a UVW Map modifier applied to objects in your scene and you try to reload, max struggles to apply that existing modifier to newly imported objects.
This causes the weird scaling and exploding objects...
Only way around this is to switch over to real world texture coordinates which cancels out the use of the UVW Map modifier.

[DanielBrew]

Have any of you tried audit command in Autocad?
I had a similar problem with a filelinked drawing recently. After auditing and fixing 20 errors the problem when away.

[dlparisi]

Auditing works some times, not others. It's usually the first thing I try followed by recover, purging, brep'ing, etc. One problem I've noticed with auditing though is that it doesn't always completely rid the drawing of all the troublesome entities, but simply hides some in a hidden layer ($audit-Bad-layer or something like that). That layer is only visible if you try to purge the drawing and if you do purge that layer the troublesome entities reappear in the drawing even though they were supposedly removed before. You can audit again and purge, in an endless loop and they'll never go away. Like I said though, auditing a dwg will some times allow the drawing to relink so "hiding" the bad entities in a hidden layer does do something though.