* how do you like the release?

One of the most notable maya iteration, especially the interface section. It’s something I was really looking forward since maya 2009. I really liked the new additions in scripting, the syntax hilighting, the autocomplete and best of all the pymel. It’s really really nice. Performance wise, faster in most cases, slower on some areas. Glad to see that this release fixed my hypershade swatch rendering issue.

* are you having any problems?

Some areas like the hotbox and context menu, they feel slower than previous maya versions. The hypershade is slow if not very slow. Loading the hypershade takes a couple of seconds or so, this only happen once every maya launch. Previous maya versions loads hypershade instantly even on first launch.

Text field focus issues in the attribute editor and channel box. When I try to update a value or just by clicking on a text field, hitting enter/return will not lose the focus, it just leaves the field active. So hitting a hotkey will type the character instead of executing the function. It remains active until I click on the viewport, previous maya version does not show any sign of this issue.

* what would you like to see in the future?

Performance - The 64bit support for OSX is an excellent move. Waiting for a 64bit support for the PC. Looking forward for a fully threaded maya 2012, at the lowest level using the best multithreding method / technique available. Bad multithreading implementation is like a car that each wheel runs on its own separate engine.

Interface - The QT implementation is an excellent move, but please optimize screen space as much as possible, especially the vertical screen space. I believe it is a screen real state. There are some unnecessary gaps between ui elements. Some QT elements like the rollout tabs are several pixels higher compared to the old UI (see sim.on’s post for best example), to mention one. As a UI designer, I am keen to simple, clean and polished interface, measuring errors at pixel level and am greatly influenced by apple design principle. The dark theme is fine and is great, but not always the best, if we could at least adjust the brightness of the interface. Please make the font consistent across the UI Elements.

Overall, this release is not far from being one of the best it only lacks the solid feel.

Best regards,

- max

setup: WinXP and Win 7, tried on both 32bit and 64bit machines. certified quadro fx GPU.

I found my destiny... Serious.

Maya 2011 seems to be a fairly nice update.
new ui color and window docking is a plus (although with the addition of specific window docking I now find myself wanting all or most windows and panels dockable. Maybe this is possible with qt app?)
Having some issues as well. I hope Someone here can shed some light on for me.
1.when I try to launch transfer maps I receive this error>
// Error: file: C:/Program Files/Autodesk/Maya2011/scripts/others/performSurfaceSampling.mel line 2356: Value is out of range: 0
any ideas?
2.my tool settings window no longer cycles through the interface with channel box, and attribute editor.
I can live with the tool settings problem.....but the transfer maps is an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE.
PLEASE HELP.

Sorry for second post but I think its necessary.
When using the hotbox to create a camera I receive a camera in my scene.
When using the menu to create a camera through options box, I receive transfer maps window that is labeled “create camera options”. see attachment image.

	Attachment

windows vista X64

Maya needs to be certified on more low end hardware, not just professional high end hardware.

I’m having problems importing my hotkeys from Maya 2010.

I’ve copied…
- userHotkeys.mel
- userNamedCommands.mel
- userRuntimeCommands.mel
from my working 2010 prefs to 2011 and after starting Maya, the hotkey editor only shows 6 things in the user category....there should be around 50.
Although they are missing from the list, the hotkeys are still mapped to their respective commands, and some appear to work, but most error out with “Cannot find procedure”.

Does anyone have a solution/workaround for this? It’s making my head hurt trying to figure out where the problem lies.

I REALLY don’t want to manually re-map all this stuff.

Retracted the original report.

There appears to have been some flaw in Maya 2009 that enabled me to corrupt the skin cluster somehow (I found issues with the file in 2009, and they disappeared when I deleted all history). 2011 had no chance when I fed it garbage.

So I am back testing the suitability of 2011, I have commented before on the snappy and snazzy look and feel, if I can get the Interactive Skin Bind to do what I want, I will be pleased (although I really wish Renderman for Maya worked with 2011).

<* Wes *>

the most powerfull tool in maya - split poly tool become Annoying
with “split only from edges” unchecked

	Attachment

I have to get used to the new maya interface, but I do think I am going to like it!
Personally I think, and I share this with colleagues, that the background color in the outliner is a bit to dark.
Is there any way to adjust the new interface colors? (like the slider in Adobe After Effects which adjusts the overal brightness)

But what I actually want to ask is how I can get the channel box back in the main window!
I was experimenting with the new functionality of the interface and I teared of the channel box, so it’s floating around happily now.
But… I would be happy if I could get it back in there again! And I feel stupid not knowing how to do that!
Could someone please help me out?

Update:
Never mind! I got it!
Turns out you have to hover the channel box kind of precisely over the right side of maya to pop it back in.

Is there any chance someone is working on the SERIOUSLY slow response of this release of Maya? I timed the start up of Maya 2011 vs. Maya 2010. Here are the times.

Maya 2011
@10 sec output window appears
@29 sec Maya initialization window appears
@1:10 min Maya initializes GUI
@1:13 min Maya becomes usable.

I had imported previous versions preferences and I believe this was the cause. I reset to default prefs and it opened exactly as fast as 2010

Maya 2010
@18 sec output window appears
@26.2 Maya GUI appears and is usable

There is a lag on just about everything from setting key frames to refresh and updating of anything in the GUI. (This seems to only happen when working in scene files created with previous versions.)

Thought I would post for anyone experiencing similar issues.