Hi,
When I select the CAT Motion Editor, often it totally freezes 3ds Max which I have to use Task Manager to Exit the program. This seems to only happen on larger scenes ie high poly character with cloth simulation of shirt and pants and skin wrap for the shoes. The file sizes range from about 75 - 400MB. I use Vista and Max 2010 64bit. Has anyone come across this before? Is there a work around? Generally I have found CAT very stable but this problem keeps cropping up.

Thank you,

Theo

I’m getting this too, it’s most annoying. The CAT Motion Editor box doesn’t display properly and Max hangs with the CPU working at 25% and I have to quit with Task Manager.
I must remember to always save before opening CAT Motion.
It usually works after restarting Max, but happens after using Max for a while.

Have you tried to delete the CATMotion Layer and create a new one instead? Does this fix the problem?

My CAT demoreel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfq-4VoeAPU

Deleting CatMotion doesn’t seem to help. Deleting then creating a new CatMotion layer shows up the problem. The best work around I know so far is to save, exit and restart 3ds Max once the CatMotion layer is created.

Theo

I am experiencing the same issues with 2010 64. The workaround I found was to go to a wireframe, Top view to begin my CAT Motion session. Once the display is solid, you can navigate to other views.

Rodd McLaughlin
Idyll Hands Imagery, Inc.

I have seen this issue for a long time. What I found that seems to work is to always start your animation stack with the cat motion layer first never after the abs layer. Once you add your cat motion layer you can then add on your other layers.

Never mind I just tested it out and I got a crash so that is not it. Sorry if I gave you false hope.

Now I remember I had to put my mesh in wire frame or hide my mesh so I just see the bones.

Samab’s work around with this issue really works well for me.
1. save project
2. add cat motion layer
3 close max
4 re open max
5.open cat motion editor
6. Get back to work

Now I also found this to help as well
1. stand on head in corner for half hour
2. jump around in circle 5 times while singing your countries anthem

This is becoming a real problem now. This is my first attemt at using CAT in production, up until now I’v only really played with it. I have a scene with 7 characters, 5 humans ans 2 quadraped animals. CAT Motion simply will not work in this scene, no matter what I do. It’s totlay unusable.
I can add a CAT Motion layer and get a default, on the spot walk cycle. If I press the paw button to alter the settings, I just get a corrupted window and Max freezes. The only way out is Ctrl-Alt-Delete.
Adding rigging or extra parts has a similar effect. I was thinking that Far Star was being a bit harsh with his “CAT Sucks” rants, but I’m starting to sway to that opinion having tried to use it in a real production.

Hi Samab,

What makes CATmotion freeze are the modifiers or textures on your character. Skin tends not to freeze CATmotion but when you have additional modifiers such as morpher, skin morph, cloth plus any high res textures and / or your character’s mesh is high res. The best workaround I have found is to temporarily disable the modifiers on top of skin as well as removing the textures by applying a simple single colour material to your character before using CATmotion. Also, as you have suggested, saving and restarting 3ds Max helps as well. It is as if there is a major memory leak - but I don’t know. CATmotion does not seem to freeze 3ds Max 2009 but unfortunately I have already switched my work-flow over to 2010.

Theo