After unhiding: layer is duplicated and fused into one! Help!

[ajz3d]

I'm detailing a surface layer with LiveClay. I have used SurfHide to hide unnecessary parts of the layer, so they do not obscure my view while manipulating the model. After sculpting I used Voxels->Unhide all to reveal all hidden parts of the layer, but it seems that the layer have somehow duplicated itself and merged into one (see picture)!

Please help!

[ajz3d]

I had to revert to one of my last incremental saves and redo LC sculpting from scratch.

The problem persists (I reproduced it again - I think it's scene dependant), so I'm very afraid to hide parts of the layer with SurfHide tool. I sculpt with the whole layer visible now and it really hits the performance while manipulating the model, as well as makes it hard to reach areas like armpits and other places obscured by geometry.

Oh, two more things:

- I did memory cleanup as well as surface cleanup, but that didn't help.

- Perhaps that's unimportant, but: after converting the layer to surface for the first time, I've used some LC tools as well as standard surface tools, but experienced problems. So I converted the layer back to voxels and fixed those errors just to go back to surface afterwards. From this point I've been using only LC tools (this was also the time I checked if the problem persists -> by using SurfHide to hide part of the model, sculpt something on it, then unhide all. And it did persist, as said earlier in my post).

- I couldn't reproduce the problem on a clean scene with a default sphere. Still, I didn't have too much time to thoroughly test it.

I'll be very thankful for any advice on this matter. Anything that would put me on the right tracks towards solving the problem. It's critical.

[wave of light]

I had a similar 'duplicate sculpt on the same layer' issue when using BETA4. I had to:

1. Export the layer out as using the 'save volume to 3b' (right mouse menu on any layer in the Voxel room)
   
2. Opened that 3b file up on it's own.
   
3. From the Voxels drop down menu - selected 'Delete Hidden'
   
4. Then 'clean surface'
   
5. Then 'clean up memory'
   
6. Then I reimported it back into the original 3b file
   

After that I didn't see any issues with duplicates.

This was using BETA5.

Ricky.

[ajz3d]

Thank you Ricky! Thank you! It worked!

Following your advice, what I did is:

1. First, I checked if a simple Delete Hidden operation would solve the problem. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
   
2. So, I exported the layer to 3b volume and performed everything you said, but Cleanup Surface destroyed most of the sculpted details (it reduced the mesh by almost 2 million polygons). I couldn't afford loosing several hours of work, so I reloaded my exported layer, again - Deleted Hidden part of the volume and did the Memory Cleanup, ignoring Surface Cleanup completely.
   
3. Imported the scene and retried the whole SurfHide/LC sculpt/Unhide All procedure.
   
4. I held my thumbs.
   

AND IT WORKED! Or at least it works for now.

I will keep an eye on this though and check from time to time if my layer hasn't been duplicated again.

Thank you again, Ricky. You saved my bacon!

[wave of light]

Don't thank me mate... thank Digman, it was his insight and bug thrashing Skype sessions that nailed that one.

But it shouldn't be happening in BETA5 or BETA 6, so make sure you have the latest BETA.

[ajz3d]

Thanks to you both then!

I work on BETA5.

I would install BETA6, but I've read about the crashes, so I think I'm just going to sit through it until next version surfaces. Or at least until I finish this model.

[wave of light]

BETA6 has just been released and I think Andrew is about to update the download link to fix 'cuda smoothing' errors.

[ajz3d]

I have installed it. The temptation was far too strong for me to resist.