'Connect to existing joints' not working with latest Beta? [Solved]

[Andy]

I was using the Beta from this link Release mGear 4.0.0 Beta 1 · mgear-dev/mgear4 · GitHub last updated on June 7th.

The new “Connect to existing joints” feature is great!

Today I got the latest release files from here GitHub - mgear-dev/mgear4: mGear v.4.x.x (python 3 ready) https://mgear4.readthedocs.io

This is the first time I’ve gotten files directly from the repo so maybe I missed a step, but when I updated the files the ‘Connect to existing joints’ feature stopped working.

Connect Joints

On the changelist it does say changes were made to the existing joint connection feature after June 7th

The only difference I noticed was a Connect to existing joints checkbox in the Guide’s main settings, which is checked by default.

Is this a bug or did I do something wrong?

[JaschaW]

Hey @Andy,

When you deleted the rig from the scene, take a look and see if the mgear_matrixConstraint nodes are left behind? Those nodes get left behind in the scene if you leave the skeleton as well. Try deleting them, and then building again to see if that works?

[Andy]

Hi Jascha!

In that example it was actually a fresh scene that a rig hadn’t been built in yet.

Just to be sure I double checked my original scene and the joints don’t show any matrix constraints in the Node Editor, just a straight joint hierarchy with a Bind Pose node.

So I start with that fresh scene that just has a joint hierarchy and a skinned mesh. I import a guide template and build the rig with the June 7th Beta. The joints connect. Then I closed Maya without saving. I replace the mGear module files with the latest from repo and reopen the fresh scene with only joints. I import the guides and build. But the joints don’t connect this time.

Here’s what’s built:

There’s no matrix constraints on any of the original joints, but the new joints under jnt_org all have constraints.

I swap the mGear module files by downloading mgear4-master.zip from github. I grab the files from mgear4-master\release and drop them in Documents\maya\modules.

If I reverse the process (close Maya, put the old mGear module files back, reopen the joints-only scene/import guides and build) everything works as expected again.

I’m using Maya 2020. Thanks for your help!

[JaschaW]

Hey there @Andy,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation here!

From your screen shot that you have provided, the joint names are different. The one that mgear generates, all seem to have the ending of “C”, that leads me to believe that maybe the naming rules are messing with this. I know that @Miquel added in a new feature for the naming rules that you could give both the controls and the joints separate naming rules.

What you could do is load in the latest version of mgear and import your guide into the scene, then with your guide top node selected, update your guide:

This will ensure that you have all the latest attributes and settings. Then in your main settings of your guide, update the naming rules to match what you need.

I hope that helps!

[Andy]

Awesome, it looks like that was it.

I think I built the guides in 3.7 and everything just worked when I initially tried the Beta. I didn’t even realize there was a guide updater! Thanks again!