I have a DA that fractures a mesh in Maya. It all works fine until I reduce the amount of pieces. If I increase them by bumping up the point count then it seems to update fine.
However if I reduce the amount, it will sometimes keep the old pieces around. Resetting the asset does nothing.
The frustrating thing is that it doesn't always do it either. Just after a few random adjustments.

I'm using Maya 2016 and Houdini 14.0.361.

Another odd thing is that when I reduce, it will sometimes create an “emptyPart” node which gives the following error in Maya:
// Warning: file: CProgram Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/scripts/startup/assignSG.mel line 104: Cannot add the following items to the set since the set has restrictions on membership: emptyPart //
// Warning: file: CProgram Files/Autodesk/Maya2016/scripts/startup/assignSG.mel line 104: None of the items can be added to the set //

This shows up any time I reduce, but it doesn't always coincide with a break in the sync.

Are you using the “Auto Sync” option? That might be the cause of the problem. Try turning the option off, and manually trigger a sync.

Since each of the pieces needs its own mesh nodes, the sync has to create and delete nodes when the number of pieces change. There are some moments where Maya assume DAG nodes to not change. So when sync is triggered automatically, it's possible that the sync happens one of those moment. This could mess up some Maya internal state.

This is also why the auto sync option is still off by default, even though it seems convenient. Perhaps I should change the label to say “(experimental)”.

Hm, I think I can reproduce this problem. It seems to only happen in Maya 2016. This seems to happen when using the new Viewport 2.0. If I switch to the legacy viewport, the problem doesn't seem to happen. I'll need to investigate some more.

Is it just me, or is the updating of the timeline broken in houdini engine maya 2016, linux, 14.0.361…?
the same (simple) asset works fine in 2015

josh3light
Is it just me, or is the updating of the timeline broken in houdini engine maya 2016, linux, 14.0.361…?
the same (simple) asset works fine in 2015

Yeah, I'm aware of the problem. I'm trying to look for a solution. This is because the evaluation mechanism has been changed in Maya 2016. However, for now, you could workaround the issue by switching back to the old way. This can be changed in the Preferences -> Animation, and under “Evaluation Mode”, select “DG”.

josh3light
Is it just me, or is the updating of the timeline broken in houdini engine maya 2016, linux, 14.0.361…?
the same (simple) asset works fine in 2015

I just managed to fix the timeline updating issue in Maya 2016. Since I missed tonight's build, the fix should be in Monday's build (14.0.371).

Unfortunately, this didn't fix the sync problem with Viewport 2.0 though.