Maya Error: Cannot use data of type no type in a scalar operation

sometimes when i try to export nurbs from i get this strange error. At first i assumed i moved the CV's to much, but when i played around with other nurbs i was getting the same error on objects i had already exported previous. These objects had not been edited, something obvioussly changed.

Also for some strange reason, during the export to picture process a copy of the same nurb is produced on the maya desktop and it gives and aditional error:
"More than one object matches name: MY_NURB". I am not producing this cloned nurb object though. but it keeps comming back ruining everything.. i can delete it but ever time i hit the export it comes back to ruin everything

What do you mean by "export" in this case? Are you talking about sculpties? Moving your NURBS objects from one Maya scene to another? Moving your NURBS objects from a Maya scene to another 3D modeling program? Something else?



You've hit on one of my terminology pet peeves, so allow me a minute to politely rant about it.

There's no such thing as "a nurb". The word NURBS is not plaural, even though it ends with S. It's an acronym. It stands for Non-Uniform Rational Bezier Splines. The subject here is the spline; all the other words are adjectives whose purpose is only to describe what kind of spline you're talking about. By removing the S, you're removing the most important word, and all you're left with is a bunch of adjectives describing nothing.

The logic behind where the acronym comes from could go like this:

"Hey, look, I've got a spline."

"Cool. What kind of spline is it?"

"Why, it's a Bezier spline."

"Nice. What kind of Bezier spline?"

"It's the rational kind."

"Okay, great. It's a rational Bezier spline. But is it uniform or non-uniform"

"It's non-uniform."

"Alright, so what you're telling me then is you've got a non-uniform rational Bezier spline? I'll tell you what; that's kind of a mouthful. How about we just say you've got a NURBS?"

"Sounds good to me. NURBS, it is."


Without the S, the conversation would have gone like this:

"Hey, look, I've got nothing."

"Man, you suck."






Check your hypergraph. Somewhere in there, you've got two objects with the same name.

I've ran in to the same error twice now, Chosen. Both times trying to do an extruded shape, as it happens, so I've simply tried to avoid using those shapes since.

I don't know what causes it, but I do know that (for me) converting the shape to a polygon object resulted in a successful export to a sculpt texture. Which isn't going to work for all situations, of course, but it does in this one.




Yes, but it would be a non-uniform, rational Bezier nothing.

Interesting. I haven't tried playing with extrusions for sculpties. I never actively thought about it, but I guess I just figured instinctively that it wouldn't work too well, at least not for spherical sculpties. I'm guessing if you delete the construction history and freeze transformations on your extrusions, they'll probably work more reliably (within the limits of shapes that actually can work as sculpties, of course). When you converted them to poly, you created a brand new surface with no history or transforms on it yet, so you eliminated the issue.

Just a guess, though, as I said. I could be wrong.

Negative, Chosen. Tried that. Was the first thing I thought of too. Still chokes on it.

When i say export a Nurb, or an object i mean use the MEL script Qarl linden gave to turn it into a 64 by 64 bitmap image that i can then upload to sl and then utilize within the object editor of sl to make a sculpted prim.

On the issue of hypergraph checking. That isn't the issue. Under extreme stress i just copied the edited nurbs sphere that i intended to upload to sl in maya's viewer. I then made a new scene and pasted that lone edited nurbs sphere into the maya enviornment. The object tally is only 1. When i click Qarl linden's converstion to bitmap button the following events occur:

1). the lone object is copied or duplicated without my input ( this would be analagous to trying to change the channel on your television adn the tv turns off).

2) i get the error message : More than one object matches name: MY_NURBS_SPHERE

3). i get an additional error messsage: Cannot use data of type no type in a scalar operation

basically is't as if somehow i'm duplicating or hitting D or control+D or cntrl +d. but i'm not. i would know if i had duplicated.

Reitsuki Kojima how do you transform to a poly? and will it automatically be closed as long as i don't screw with the CV's at the pole of the sphere or edited NURBS sphere?

Thanks for hte quick response guys. i searched all over the internet for this one and nobody else seems to be having this problem.

I have NO idea if converting a NURBS sphere to a poly sphere will still result in a shape that the exporter can use... It should, so long as the UV mapping doesn't get too badly botched, but you may wind up with jaggies on the polar ends of the texture, similar to what you get if you convert a shape to polygon to generate a normal map out of a higher detailed version... Polygons and NURB shapes don't handle that area the same way.

NURBS > poly is in with the rest of the conversions, first one on the list. You may need to play with the settings a bit to keep the shape as close to what you started with as possible.

AHA, i think i see a pattern now in regaurds to my main question..
After playing with many different files and being as observent as possible i found that if i rename the shape this error occurs/

AS my scenes started to include more and more objects i've begun naming them so that i know what they are for and how the coorespond to the sculpt maps i upload in sl..
The problem started when i renamed the object under the SHAPE designation title instead of the channel box. I was even able to go back and fix these broken NURBS obects by just changing the name int the channel box . Then going to the shape title and adding the letters "Shape" (case sensitive ) to the end.

format should be
channel box title : Object
shape box title : ObjectShape

sorry about all the confusion guys. thanks for hte rapid response.

Reitsuki see if you can go back and find that object and rename it in the channel box and the shape box. This seems to be working for me now consitently.