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urgent question, please help


popwfx
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Hi,

I'm new to retopo, and find myself in a jam. Hopefully someone here can help. I spent most of the other day manually retopoing a 69,000 poly hires figure in 3DCoat expecting to finish it today, and I saved the .3b project expecting it to all be there when I load it up, but when I loaded it up today, I couldn't see the polys I manually created - only the grey reference mesh of my figure.

Doesn't saving the project save the half done retopo polys so you can continue later on? Don't tell me I needed to manually export the polys out as a separate step? They gotta be there somewhere - the timestamp of the .3b file is correct from the save.

Please help and point me in the right direction, I may consider self harm if I have lost all that day or two of work (as I have to finish this by monday) :(

thanks for your help. :)

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Hi,

I'm new to retopo, and find myself in a jam. Hopefully someone here can help. I spent most of the other day manually retopoing a 69,000 poly hires figure in 3DCoat expecting to finish it today, and I saved the .3b project expecting it to all be there when I load it up, but when I loaded it up today, I couldn't see the polys I manually created - only the grey reference mesh of my figure.

Doesn't saving the project save the half done retopo polys so you can continue later on? Don't tell me I needed to manually export the polys out as a separate step? They gotta be there somewhere - the timestamp of the .3b file is correct from the save.

Please help and point me in the right direction, I may consider self harm if I have lost all that day or two of work (as I have to finish this by monday) :(

thanks for your help. :)

Can you show a screen grab? I'm thinking the layer visibility is just turned off or something. I've not had anything like that happen.
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Can you show a screen grab? I'm thinking the layer visibility is just turned off or something. I've not had anything like that happen.

The .3b file says saved at 5:07pm Fri and I'm using 3.505A

I'm at a loss... There used to be all the manual quads I created all over her face and ears and halfway down her chest on Fri when I saved it??

thanks for your help

post-2650-0-10376000-1298779029_thumb.jp

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The .3b file says saved at 5:07pm Fri and I'm using 3.505A

I'm at a loss... There used to be all the manual quads I created all over her face and ears and halfway down her chest on Fri when I saved it??

thanks for your help

post-2650-0-10376000-1298779029_thumb.jp

Any ideas anyone? I just bought Adam Gibson's retopo LW training video thinking it might help me now and I'm wading through it, but the audio's distorting in it a lot, he keeps undoing and wandering, and even his cell phone rings in the videos - lol! Not something you want to hear when trying to learn in a jam... So any thoughts on what happened or if my retopo mesh is still recoverable or if this is a bug would be appreciated.

Thanks :)

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Hi!

Yes it should have saved your retopo polys, I'm very curious why it would not have done so upon saving. Can you run a test with that build, and the newest build with just a few polys on each, to compare?

Make sure that options.xml is deleted between uses of each build, as this can cause corruption and weird issues will result.

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Hi!

Yes it should have saved your retopo polys, I'm very curious why it would not have done so upon saving. Can you run a test with that build, and the newest build with just a few polys on each, to compare?

Make sure that options.xml is deleted between uses of each build, as this can cause corruption and weird issues will result.

Can you explain more about the options file? Where is it and don't the new builds install over the old ones fine or should I be completely uninstalling 3dcoat in between updates?

I haven't changed any/many settings in the app from the factory install so i don't think its that. Ill try the new build (assuming 3.505a is not the latest)... Not sure what my work computer's 3dc version is - it would be pretty close within the last week or two. Istarted this on another computer and am at home finishing this on the weekend. Maybe i saved the .3b file in a later version ? Could that be my problem?

I'll try the test quickly, but i was hoping to recover from this file because i need to figure out if i have to start over to get done in time.... :blink:

Thanks for your help with this, I assumed it was me being not super intimate with 3dc's interface, but it's looking more like a bug?....

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If you turn off symmetry do you see them?

nope that makes no difference. Also, clicking on the select all faces button in the Groups menu does not select or show any of the polygons I created over several hours the other day.

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Hi!

Yes it should have saved your retopo polys, I'm very curious why it would not have done so upon saving. Can you run a test with that build, and the newest build with just a few polys on each, to compare?

Make sure that options.xml is deleted between uses of each build, as this can cause corruption and weird issues will result.

Here'e the quick test in the same version 3.505A on the same machine and it works. I will find out what build is on my work machine and see if that to this causes the problem and will try it with the latest build as well.

post-2650-0-85877800-1298786832_thumb.jp

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So the options.xml file, if you're on windows, should be in:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\My Documents\3D-CoatV3

You can install 3DC over another installation of 3DC, I generally don't recommend doing this so that you can run both in case you have any bugs or weird things you wish to quickly test out. That said, the Options.xml (and all the preference files in this same folder) are not new or replaced and contain information for whatever the last build ran, was. What can happen is that information for a build from X version, can sometimes not work, or worse, in Y version. So what is generally best to do is to delete the Options.xml file.

One possibility is that you may need to run as admin if you're on Vista or Win 7. Sometimes this helps with such issues.

What OS are you on BTW?

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Thanks for your help with this, I assumed it was me being not super intimate with 3dc's interface, but it's looking more like a bug?....

NP, I don't think it's you. I think it's leaning toward a bug, but we'll figure it out together. :)

One issue I see that comes up, but that of course Haikalle and you already singled out... Is that if you create retopo polys on the characters right side, they will not show up on the characters left side. This is because symmetry in 3DC works from the left and projects to the right (from +X to -X axis). I mention this only as a note for future reference. Even I still do this now and again!

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So the options.xml file, if you're on windows, should be in:

C:\Documents and Settings\YOURUSERNAME\My Documents\3D-CoatV3

You can install 3DC over another installation of 3DC, I generally don't recommend doing this so that you can run both in case you have any bugs or weird things you wish to quickly test out. That said, the Options.xml (and all the preference files in this same folder) are not new or replaced and contain information for whatever the last build ran, was. What can happen is that information for a build from X version, can sometimes not work, or worse, in Y version. So what is generally best to do is to delete the Options.xml file.

One possibility is that you may need to run as admin if you're on Vista or Win 7. Sometimes this helps with such issues.

What OS are you on BTW?

Hi again,

I'm running Win7 x64 (though I do have a license for it on my Mac but did not try it on that version).

Thanks!! it works now. I followed what you said and it's fine now. Here's what I did:

  • rename Options.xml file to options.old for 3.505A
  • install newest 3.513A
  • load the same .3b file and it worked:

post-2650-0-84567400-1298788626_thumb.jp

So nevermind loading it - it seems to be a bug loading files between builds or as you said an Options.xml issue between builds??

Maybe I should have bought your videos instead! ;) I only bought the Gibson ones from your site because they were on your site and seemed to be slightly more LWy workflow that I was after.

Appreciate the help!! :drinks:

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Hi again,

I'm running Win7 x64 (though I do have a license for it on my Mac but did not try it on that version).

Thanks!! it works now. I followed what you said and it's fine now. Here's what I did:

  • rename Options.xml file to options.old for 3.505A
  • install newest 3.513A
  • load the same .3b file and it worked:

post-2650-0-84567400-1298788626_thumb.jp

So nevermind loading it - it seems to be a bug loading files between builds or as you said an Options.xml issue between builds??

Maybe I should have bought your videos instead! ;) I only bought the Gibson ones from your site because they were on your site and seemed to be slightly more LWy workflow that I was after.

Appreciate the help!! :drinks:

So, did you get your work back, or did you have to start over?
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So, did you get your work back, or did you have to start over?

The file was fine and I got my work back thanks :)

Turns out that loading a file saved in 3.512B in 3.505 makes the polys disappear. Loading that same file into 3.513 made the polys reappear. Up and until yesterday I wasn't really paying too much attention to the minor builds, figuring they were obscure bugs or performance fixes. This shows I need to pay more attention - especially if working on multiple locations with the same content....

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I'm glad you solved this problem photonvfx, now an advice: Please lower the mirror snapping value to ~50, some tri in nose area may be because of this.

Thanks for the tip michalis! :)

I actually don't have any tris in the nose (tho the flow isn't ideal), but I was wondering why the 2-click Quad tool snapped to triangles sometimes unless I zoomed in. Not sure how the snapping value got that high?? is that the default?

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Awesome man! That is very good to hear it is OK now. :)

What michalis said is totally spot on, having the symmetry snapping high will cause issues. The problem is that the default is actually that high. First thing I always do is turn it wayyy down. Around 40 or so seems to be a good sweet spot.

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Awesome man! That is very good to hear it is OK now. :)

What michalis said is totally spot on, having the symmetry snapping high will cause issues. The problem is that the default is actually that high. First thing I always do is turn it wayyy down. Around 40 or so seems to be a good sweet spot.

Thanks again for the help and tips! I appreciate your assistance helping me learn and debug solutions... :)

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It could be good if you will send me Options.old and 3B file to reproduce and fix the problem.

I am at support@3d-coat.com

I am not at the computer I have that on, but will try and source that and send it through later tonight. thanks for looking into this if you think it is necessary :)

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