Stronger opinion check blocking valid Usd edits.

[daviddeacon]

Hi,

We are having an issue with newer versions of the MayaUsd plugin blocking valid Usd edits.

Printing the error Cannot edit [variantSelection] attribute because there is a stronger opinion in [some layer]. //

I'm trying to edit a variant selection, in the animation sub layer, which sits higher than our layout sublayer.

This worked fine in 0.19.0, stopped working in 0.20.0 and still doesn't working in 0.21.0

To demo the issue I've recorded a video -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/je89yt4bhjs2a5c/strongerLayerError.mp4?dl=0

Here is a link to the project files -

https://www.dropbox.com/s/qy9ikkpuq9gsrjl/strongerLayerError.zip?dl=0 The shot Maya file is - strongerLayerError/scenes/shots/e01/01/020/animation/base/workspace/previsExport_lunar_v000.ma The Usd files are all using relative paths, so should work out of the box.

This issue is completely blocking us from moving to any version higher than 0.19.0 as we rely on the variant selection to activate our Maya rigs via the Maya reference schema, and is frustrating not being able to change a models variant at the animation stage.

If someone could look at this for us it would be much appreciated.

Thanks, David.

Specs : macOS 12.0.1 Maya 2023.2 Maya Usd 0.19.0 and 0.21.0

[santosg87]

Hi @daviddeacon it looks like the sample file you had is already gone. :(

from your screen capture though, I am a bit surprised. we had a fix for this issue on 0.21.0. the fix for it should be #2736 which based on your comments, should be on your build.

would you be able to add the sample file here so i can investigate with your specific scenario? also, (this is not a workaround, but more of a test to investigate things :) ) If you switch targets to the session layer, does that allow you to change variants?

cheers!

[santosg87]

on a second, unrelated note - the warning message on this always cracks me up. feels like unecessary movie line mystery!

"Can't change [something] because there is an opinion [somewhere], please target [some layer] instead" 🤣

[daviddeacon]

Apologies, Looks like I moved the file - https://www.dropbox.com/s/3137qkiseyty9pv/strongerLayerError.zip?dl=0

[DanEnglesson]

Getting this as well when just selecting a node within a proxyshape and running this:

mc.group(
empty=True, name="test_grp"
)

error is similar to @daviddeacon in <0.21.0 with the following error:

RuntimeError: Cannot add new [test_grp] under  [props]. It has a stronger opinion on another layer. Please set [layer] as the target layer to proceed. 

The layer it mentions here is of lower order than the one it sets it in. Even tried setting in the session layer with same response.

It errors with this in 0.23.0 with the following:

---------------------------- python-bin terminated -----------------------------
python-bin crashed. FATAL ERROR: Dereferenced an invalid SdfPrimSpec
in operator-> at line 97 of USD3/include/pxr/usd/sdf/declareHandles.h
writing crash report to [] ... done.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Worked around it for now by clearing selection before creating the test_grp and reapplying the selection :)