Importing by reference confusion

[Jkoseattle]

I have created a character with a run cycle. I added him to the library, and imported the character by reference in another project. All's well.

Then I noticed I needed to change something with the character. Knowing he was just a reference, I went back into the original character and made the change. I went into the project with the reference and chose "Update layer reference" and checked all the boxes. But the character didn't update. Then I thought "Oh, it's because I just updated the original character file, and not the library copy of it." So I went back to my original and tried to save it back to the library, but all it does is make a copy of the first version with a " 1" after it. I just want to have a single version of this character in the library. How is this all supposed to work?

[Jkoseattle]

I'm surprised I've gotten no response to this question. Is the library something that people aren't using much? Let me put it this way then:

You have a character all built that you want to use in multiple scenes. After having created these scenes, you realize her mustache is the wrong color and the sneeze action looks wrong. You want to go back to the original character file, change the mustache and the sneeze action, and have that change propagate to all the scenes she is used in. How do you go about that?

[amanandink]

Hi jkoseatle

what your describing is the way to go about it

You have a character all built that you want to use in multiple scenes. After having created these scenes, you realize her mustache is the wrong color and the sneeze action looks wrong. You want to go back to the original character file, change the mustache and the sneeze action, and have that change propagate to all the scenes she is used in.

this is pretty much exactly how we construction all our scenes. We have a MASTER model that is built and referenced in all the scenes. And altering the Master allows the changed to updated into the scenes.

There may be something else going on with your scenes.
sometimes the link to the master model can get broken. When trying to update the reference does it ask you to locate the model?
When you make the change to the master file and save it, do the models in the scene go to red arrows? to show the reference needs updating?
Can you right click on the referenced model and select locate original layer and the correct Master file opens? if you can do these its not a broken reference link.
Are the actions your trying to update already in the scenes timelines? any timeline animation wont update unless its in the timeline of the master and the timeline layers are still referencing the original master.
sometimes if we run into a reference model updating you can delete every layer inside the bone layer of the reference model, so you are only left with the topmost referenced layer, usually the bone layer for us. Then update the reference, this will essentially re-import every layer back into the model.

let me know how you get on with these
j

[Jkoseattle]

Thanks for he reply. Before I get to the referencing part, I'd like to know first how you change the source master files and re-port them to the library, replacing the original library version. When I go to save it to the library, it won't overwrite the existing one, but makes a copy with " 1" appended to it. So then I have to delete the original and remove the " 1" from the new one.

[amanandink]

Not sure why it is making a new one with a 1 at the end. We did run into this before but it was when we were using google drive to sync the library between 2 studios and it was more a google drive issue than a moho one. It might be a similar windows explorer issue for you. The file is reading as open for some reason.

an easier way to change the Master file in the library is to open the library in Moho and right click on the file, select Open Project. This will open the file so you can change it as you wish and saving it again just saves it back in and over writes the library file.

Master and Referenced models can be finicky sometimes. The reference is linked to the master, not only by the file link but also by unique layer codes with in the file. At least this is how I understand it to work.

So as a rule of thumb it is better to just change the original master file and not create a new one and save over it. But if you want to do it that way it is best to not duplicate the character/parent referenced layer at all as this will give it its own unique layer code and thus break the reference.

[Jkoseattle]

Hmm, your comment that the file must be reading as open rings a bell, that often I will be unable to do something because the file is listed as open, and I've discovered it is due to a mysterious process called "COM Surrogate". I can end the COM Surrogate process and the file is no longer tagged as open. I need to look into this process elsewhere. But I bet that's the source of the problem.