BroTools Changelog

Improvements and optimizations into the physics engine resulting in more stability, better accuracy and almost 2x performance gain, especially with the Thrower mode (around 1.5x for Chain and Point modes).

Realtime simulation preview for Chain and Point modes allowing you watch how the simulation reacts to attribute changes in realtime. You no longer need to run the constant cycle of simulate -> check -> tweak -> re-bake over and over. Supports looping and normal mode (resets on first frame or not, based on whether Cycle Iterations is above 0)

Keyable attributes - you can now keyframe most numeric attributes of Chain and Point simulation modes to better control how the simulation behaves throughout the animation, for example you can stiffen or loosen a character's tail at specific moments of the animation. Combined with realtime previews it offers great artistic control.

Batch exporter - fixed a bug where it would choose the wrong sets for export (there were situations where it would include RIG sets as well)

Other bug fixes in Batch Exporter

Skeleton Builder added to BroRig. It's simple but allows to quickly build a biped skeleton and fingers. The skeleton follows UE mannequin conventions for integration with game engines. Will be improved and made more modular in future versions.

Rig presets can now be exported and imported, so you can easily share rig setup between characters that share the same skeleton structure and naming

BroMocap - a little utility for transferring motion capture data from any skeleton to a control rig or another skeleton has been greatly improved. It is not necessarily a replacement for HumanIK, but a simpler quicker alternative (at least for now). It allows to specify mapping between a skeleton and a control rig (or another skeleton), specify which controls should have position, rotation or both baked, and can maintain offset. Data is preserved in a BroMocap_Data node which can be easily transfered between scenes or included with the rig scene.

Fix an issue where Updater would throw a TypeError: Flag 'openChunk'/'closeChunk' must be passed a boolean argument error in Maya 2027

Added an option to automatically run "Simplify Curve" filter after Chain and Point simulations to optimize keyframe density and reduce small jitter.

Added Euler filter option to Point simulation mode (since it now supports rotations as well)

You can now add a special "Tip" locator to guide direction of Chain simulations when applied to single objects or chains. Add this locator to any objects manually or through Tools menu of BroDynamics. Chain mode, on simulation, will automatically add it to selected objects for simulation.

Fixed behaviour of Fixed Base setting in Chain mode. When unchecked it now keeps translation locked to original animation and only unlocks rotation of the base object, which is the expected behaviour of this setting. This now allows to properly simulate attached objects without selecting their parent, which results in better and more consistent results. While the change is small, it significantly improves the workflow.

MicroRigs now has a new feature - temporary pivot system. You can create a temporary pivot to rotate an object around, then bake it back into animation of the control

Added Batch Exporter that works with PipelineTools exporter system. It allows batch exporting fbx files from multiple maya scenes. Drag and drop maya scenes into the window, choose whether to override export path or use scene filenames as fbx filenames or preserve settings defined in the scene, and export all at once. Only exports ANIMATION sets, not RIG sets.

Added "GIF Playblast (Grid)" option to Previewing section and added option box and UI for configuring GIF Playblast resolution and grid size

FBX Exporter is now properly supported on MacOS and Linux as well as Windows. This is done by pinning FBX SDK version and bundling BroTools with an embedded fixed-version python interpreter, which decouples it from Maya Python. It does not even increase the size of BroTools distribution much, because previously BroTools bundled multiple FBX SDK versions for different pythong version and platforms. And embedded python ships compressed, and is only uncompressed for your current platform on demand.

FBX Exporter now has an option to use FBX Take name from the name of the fbx file (previously only options were default "Take 001" and maya-scene name).

Improve codec detection and selection for playblasts, which in particular fixes compatibility with MacOS and Linux

AnimHUD - fix AnimHUD reopenning after closing it with the "close" button and dragging the time slider

AnimHUD now has 2 modes of operations that can be switched - overlay and dockable window. In overlay it presents itself as a transparent window overlayed on top of a viewport. In dockable window mode it is a regular dockable window that can be docked, for example, above the timeline or anywhere else. On MacOS it defaults to dockable window mode due to MacOS compositor issues that make it hard to make it operate reliably in overlay mode and has some visual bugs. On Windows and Linux it works reliably in either mode.

MacOS - fix playblast functions not finding ffmpeg

MacOS - fix other bugs preventing playblast functions from working

MacOS - fix AnimHUD disappearing after using tweener

MacOS and Linux - AnimHUD hide and show was triggering the OS-specific window animations, instead of just disappearing and reappearing. Fixed by using a different method to hide it from view while scrubbing the timeline.

Added "BroRig FBX Animation Importer" available under BroTools - Rigging. This command will import any FBX animation exported from BroRig back onto the animation rig. Relies on joint naming. FBX should contain the same skeleton as BroRig-built rig.

Preserve and restore node connections and attribute values when deleting -> building or rebuilding the rig.

IK with Leg Mode enabled now has a better algorithm for aligning the foot IK control, resulting in more intuitive control rotation for animation

Improved UI

Mirroring - automatic installation of modules on mirrored joints (install FK on left arm, it will automatically get installed on right)

Numerous little tweaks and bug fixes

BroRig went missing from the Menu due to internal build pipeline bug, fixed

New processor - Parent Name. You can use the name of the parent of the object being renamed as prefix or suffix.

New backup tool for Maya projects! It can create efficient space-saving incremental snapshots of your current Maya workspace at set intervals. You can controls which extensions to compress, and you can also create a blacklist of files, extension, folders to ignore (similar to .gitignore file for those familiar with git). While Maya's autosave feature protects your current scene from corruption or loss, this backup tools protects your existing files from accitental overwrite or other issues, as well as providing a simple version history of your project files over time. All files are kept in a backup folder inside your maya workspace, or in a directory you can specify.

Improved API server connectivity detection to be more reliable, which should fix Offline authorisation popup showing up when there's active internet connection and some updater issues. It now relies just on HTTP requests without ICPM (Ping) requests, which should allow it to work in more restricted environments and on Linux under Distrobox without extra permissions.

Adjusted timeouts in various requests to API, improving reliability of updater and licensing api handling.

Improved MacOS and Linux compatibility

BroTools now bundles it's own fixed-version python interpreter to decouple it from Maya ever-changing python environment. Currently only used for FBX SDK, but can be used to offload more features to it later.

Fixed an issue that caused some tools to now be visible in the menu

Fixed the offline activation URL still not being visible by increasing default notification window size

New version of IK FK switcher, now truly universal. Two biggest changes are - it is not not limited to just 3 joint IK-FK chains, but can support any number of joints, for example for spines or tails with any number of joints, driven by FK and SplineIK setups.

It also now has autodetection for popular autoriggers. It can intelligently find all limbs and set them up for IK-FK switching automatically. Works for BroRig, AdvancedSkeleton and I will be adding more autoriggers in future releases

Advanced Skeleton to Game Engine converter - a new script that makes it easy to export your Advanced Skeleton rigged characters to a game engine, in a non-destructive way. It does so by creating a copy of your AS skeleton deformatin joints, converting their naming and orientations to UE-compatible conventions, creating a copy of all meshes bound to AS joints, and transferring skins. The new skeleton is bound to the original one. It allows you to keep using all AS tools, and make changes to AS skeleton, build and rebuild it, and then re-run the script to create a new exportable copy.

New Advanced Skeleton mode - helps export AS skeleton animations to game engines. Automatically fixes hierarchy (making sure "root" is the first node, and removing AS-specific groups like DeformationSystem) and removes namespaces. Does so by recreating the skeleton in the root of the scene and baking animation onto it.

Fix an issue where after running updater it would say that error went with errors, pointing out inability to update LICENSE.html file. It will now only log it as a warning, but treat it as a succesful update. This was causing confusion on first install for many people.

NEW MODE! Thrower! You can now throw any bodies around with the same familiar simplicity of BroDynamics - select and click a button. Physics engine is tuned not for realtime performance, but for precision of collision shapes, better artistic control and natural collisions with detailed friction controls. It can be used to simulate anything from bouncy objects and sliding objects to, what many other physics engine fail to offer - high friction modes, like sticky objects or dropping objects into soft surfaces like sand or ground.

Internal physics engine had a large update, many parts were improved, refined and rewritten to add full support for Rigidbodies, new collision and collider generation algorithms, better stability and smoothness, better artistic control

Improved unified progress reporting, with better ETA (Time to completion) estimation

Physics engine improvements (Caution: Can result in simulations looking different from previous version, may require settings to be tweaked)

Internal stability improvements affecting all chain simulation modes, including legacy modes - should result in better orientation and aligment at start

Added tooltips with example GIFs to the new Chain and Point modes

Default presets updated for new modes

When loading a preset for the first time - the BroDynamics/presets folder is opened by default, to improve discovery of this folder by users

Number input fields can now be clicked and dragged to change the value, much like Maya's built in number fields. By default drags by 1s, hold Shift to change by 0.1s and Ctrl to change by 10s.

Added foldable groups to sort attributes, making it easier to navigate

Custom Scripts submenu now supports folders (and subfolders!) and you can define the folder where you want to keep your custom python and mel scripts.

Updated install.mel script

Fix "Cannot delete 'bd_chain_additionalLocator' as it has locked or read-only children." errors at the end of the Chain (nHair) simulation

New ArcTrail tool. It's an alternative to Maya's built-in Motion Trails that has 1 main pro over the built-in solution - it does not update while you move objects around, so you can continue posing your character witohut lag. It can track arcs in camera-space (relative to the moving camera), which is helpful to trace arcs in scenes with a moving camera, or in world space.

AnimHUD's transparent background has been restored, and refactored with improved performance, and better viewport integration. This gif shows how it looks and works now

AnimHUD now has customization options - you can show\hide tools from it and change their order

Added documentation about running BroDynamics simulations in Maya Standalone\Batch mode, for example for funning simulations on a "farm".

Fixed bugs that prevented BroDynamics simulation from being run in Maya Standalone (Batch) mode without monkey_patching.

Custom simulation mode has been updated and can be used to create realtime simulation set ups more reliably. It is still an Alpha module, though.

Renaming operation can now be undone with a single Undo operation (previously it was 1 undo per object)

Renamer can now detect and warn about potential name clashes during preview. Renaming operation can still be performed, but numbers will be added to objects that have the same name and hierarchy

Trim processor now relies on underscores instead of spaces

Various updates into core libraries aimed at fixing small bugs and stability

Documentation for Python API was updated

Some studios were concerned about BroAI potential of sending data to third party servers. While this is disabled by default, it's still a possiblity if an employee uses their OpenAI or Anthropic API key to use these tools. To address this an environment variable was added that can disable these tools. Previously it could be done by removing BroAI folder, but an environment variable may be more convenient. It will disable BroAI from showing up in the menu, and from being capable of sending any HTTP requests. BroTools communication with BroTools Licensing servers is unaffected by this setting. Simply set BROTOOLS_DISABLE_BROAI=1 in Maya.env or as a system-wide environment variable to disable BroAI tools.

Fix a bug that would cause AttributeError 'PySide6.QtCore.SignalInstance' object has no attribute 'sig' error

Hotfix - fixed offline activation unsupported operand type(s) error causing offline activation to not function

Add tooltips to new simulation modes' attributes

Fix Spline IK

Fix was required to support Maya 2026 renaming all *DoubleLinear nodes to *DL

Fixed a cpath error that prevented offline authorization from working

Other small internal fixes and improvements

Controls now have mouse proximity visibility option, meaning they are only visible when mouse cursor is in close proximity to them

Remove unused PyMel imports

Improved debug logging on startup, added output of file structure of BroTools folder to be able to quicker spot missing or corrupt files when reviewing logs

Updated FBX SDK libraries

BroTools Core \ Network Installer was missing some required files, preventing it from launching

Fix decode errors in configuration.py

Fixed configuration.py import error (missing icon_generator)

Fixed BroAI not working in Maya 2026

New simulation engine - custom physics engine written from scratch.

New Chain simulation mode based on new engine

New Point simulation mode based on new engine

Realtime physics simulation setups (in alpha)

Fixed batch simulation Get button functionality

Various internal improvements

Fixed Presets saving and loading, updated to work with new modes and added curve support

Added Hind Leg IK rig (actually it's a combo of IK, Hind Leg IK, Hind Leg with Toe, depending on number of selected joints)

Improved renaming process that better avoid name clashing during renaming

Transparent background disabled for all Maya versions, due to instability of current solution. AnimHUD is now just a dockable window that can be docked near a timeline. I'm going to revise the transparency feature in future releases.

Added new tool! Foot Planter. A few clicks to fix feet going under the ground, sliding and so on, helpful when cleaning up mocap.

Added an option to configure Floating License server address from License Manager UI

Improved filtering, fixing a bug that would not properly apply Exlusion filter on first run

Various internal and install procedure improvements

Improve hardware fingerprinting on Windows to fix wmic related errors.

Added new tool!

Added a new environment variable BROTOOLS_FLOATING_DONT_LEASE_ON_START which, if set to 1, will prevent BroTools requesting a lease from the TurboFloat server on startup.

Added LicensingAPI with functions to request and drop licenses from the TurboFloat server with Python.

Attribute Spring and Noise modes now check if an attribute is keyable and ignore it if it's not, instead of throwing an error. Which means you can now select a whole bunch of objects for simulation and hit simulate without worrying if there are locked attributes there or not.

gif_playblast_size_px setting for GIF Playblast now takes a string with 2 space separated numbers width height

Improved locale encoding detection which should fix some problems with BroTools not starting or not working properly on Windows systems with some specific locales, for example German.

Manually Dropping and Requesting lease from TurboFloat server was not working properly, it has been fixed

Fix cannot import name 'prod' from 'math' error preventing BroTools from starting in Maya 2022.

Added "Cleanup All Static Curves" command to the menu which runs delete -all -staticChannels; command

Support for Maya 2025 added on all platforms

Support for 2024 on MacOS and Linux restored

Improved build and release processes to reduce amount of work needed for adding new Maya versions support and testing

Added "Sort Outliner Objects" to BroTools - Common Tools menu. A simple script to reorder objects by alphabet in outliner. Available for free with the core (network installer).

Python Custom Scripts are now executed with global() namespace, which should allow using functions and more

Python Custom Scripts are now wrapped in open\close undo chunk, so should fall under a single undo operation. Potentially breaking, if you already used undoinfo within your custom scripts, you may need to remove those commands

Maya 2019-2020 (Python 2) support is dropped, if you need to use BroTools or BroDynamics with these versions - download version 2023.07.06.

Fix missing .json configuration files for Noise and Attribute Spring simulation modes.

New simulation mode - Noise! Uses configurable Perlin Noise to drive any numeric attribute(s) in Maya. Preserves original animation.

New simulation mode - Attribute Spring! Adds springiness to any animated numeric attribute(s) in Maya. Follows original animation.

Chain Simple Tension attribute was not working unless collisions were involved. This has been fixed, and Tension attribute should now always affect the animation.

Added a Close button for AnimHUD

Potentially Breaking on Windows The way BroTools finds user directory on Windows is changed to be more reliable and support having Documents folder in non-standard locations. For some users configuration settings might reset to default, as new config files will be created in a different location. By default BroTools writes config files in it's own directory, so it may primarily affect some studio installations.

Unicode support when reading and writing config files and in preferences menus

Fix License Manager window causing a crash on Maya 2024.2

Fix - trying to use collisions with nHair simulation was causing unsupported operand type(s) for +: 'NucleusNode' and 'str' error, this was fixed

Support for Maya 2024 on Windows

Installer script improvement - Changed the way Maya Modules directory is found, it now relies on environment variable which should be more reliable.

Installer script improvement - Added an option to manually specify Maya modules directory where BroTools.mod file is installed, to address cases when it does not detect the correct one.

Installer script improvement - Installer script now supports installing BroTools on a different drive from Maya modules directory

Adjusted a "New version" message text to include a reminder that Lifetime licenses are only limited to receiving updates within 1 year after purchase.

Many of BroTools menu entries will now show help annotations, and more will be coming with each release.

Disabled "AnimationOnly" option on FBX exporter globablly after finding out that it has a high likelihood of breaking poses in exported animations. At least until I can find a proper solution to this problem.

Server side - updater will now properly work with lifetime licenses which expired - it will properly limit maximum version (previously it was causing issues and breaking installations)

Fixed "Object has no transform" error that was introduced in 2023.02.07 release and affected Maya 2022+ installs (Python 3 specific).

Point (nParticle), Chain (nParticle) and Chain (nHair) simulation modes now properly support simulation in negative frames. This feature was broken for some time.

Auto Playblast and GIF Playblast will now run ffmpeg commans in parallel to greatly speed up mp4 and gif encoding when using multiple cameras

Auto Playblast and GIF Playblast will no longer show CMD windows when using ffmpeg, unless Debug Level is set to 0 in Preferences

Auto Playblast and GIF Playblast now use Maya's built-in progress bar

Fixed a bug where switcher dropdown menu checkboxes would reset on any object selection change and after running Bake

Fixed a bug where Bake Existing checkbox would have no effect

Renamed BroSelector to Finder to better reflect what it does

Changed it's logic on how it works without selection. With no objects selected it will now operate on all objects in the scene, allowing you to quickly search objects by name.

Core BroNode class instantiation was optimized globablly to prevent re-instantiation of already instantiated class. What this means is that it should significantly improve performance in some areas of BroTools, but it may introduce new unexpected bugs that fell through the cracks during testing.

Multiple other minor core bug fixes and improvements

Adjusted how path to the BroTools folder is found internally, to fix an issue with launching BroTools from a network mountpoint on Linux

Improved internet and license server connectivity detection to be more reliable

Fixed an edge case causing some errors to fail to show properly in Script Editor

Added support for Maya 2023 (Which means Maya 2023 is now supported on Windows and Linux. MacOS was not yet tested)

Fixed startup crashing when using Floating Licensing on Linux with Maya 2022

Made hostname reading code more resilient to non-ascii encoding, fixing errors like Generic HTTP Exception: 'utf8' codec can't decode byte 0xc0 in position 0: invalid start byte;

Changed text of the message shown when license key verification date expired to avoid confusion.

Fixed some Python 3 errors that were breaking some online functionality

activeModules in BroDynamics settings (and brodynamics.cfg) is now replaced with disabledModules. By default all modules are now active, and those listed in disabledModules will not be loaded. If you changed this setting before - make sure to adjust it. If you did not change it - this change will not influence you.

New Animation Layer checkbox now properly works with Batch Simulation

Chain (nParticle) mode that was introduced in 2021.6.30 could be missing from your installation if you updated from earlier versions, it was only available on new installations, due to updater not updating the config file properly. This issue has been addressed by changing config logic - replacing activeModules with disabledModules

AnimHUD performance optimization - reduced background redraw rate from 40 fps to 12 fps.

Now supports renaming of most Maya objects. In case it can't rename something it will print a warning in ScriptEditor, and rename everything it can

Better support for selecting objects with same name for renaming (in different parts of the hierarchy)

Maya 2023 support on Windows (Linux and MacOS were not yet tested on Maya 2023)

TurboFloat libraries for Linux and MacOS were missing from distribution, leading to Failed to get the floating license lease: Unhandled exception. /BroTools/core/system/libTurboFloat.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory // # error, this problem was fixed

Some systems were getting # RuntimeError: The system does not seem to have a valid MAC and # BroToolsError: name 'O____o____o____0__o__0__o____0_O_O__O__o___0__O__O' is not defined [NameError, 'utilities.on_plugin_initialized'] licensing errors, a potential fix to this issue was added in this release

Fix ping: bad linger time. error on Linux

Greet AnimHUD! This is a HUD interface for primary animation tools. It integrates with the main Maya viewport to provide non-distracting buttons for commonly used Animation Toolbox tools like: tweener, ikfkswitcher, euler filter and others. Refer to documentation for more info.

Main IKFKSwitcher window was changed, and now it only contains primary buttons. All extra options were moved to the right-click menu. This was done to make it more compact and compatible with HUDA.

Icons were refactored to be more intuitive, recognizable and have better contrast. Icons now primarily use 2 colors.

Added icons for more tools and actions

Fixed a bug preventing BroTools 2021.12.14 from starting with fresh installs

Main tweeener window was changed, and now it only contains the slider. All extra options were moved to the right-click menu. This was done to make it more compact and compatible with HUDA.

Added new global Overwrite Previous Layer checkbox. This should greatly improve iteration speed, you can use this instead of Ctrl+Z when iterating. If you run simulation with New Animation Layer checkbox on, it will remember last created layer (until you close the window). If you check Overwrite Previous Layer checkbox and run the simulation again, it will remove previous layer, create a new one with the same name and run simulation again. Layers can be renamed, it won't affect BroDynamics's link to the layer.

Chain (nParticle) - much improved twisting calculations, they now use a better and more reliable method

Chain (nParticle) - improved stability and reliability

Added Reinstall Here option to license manager, which helps simplify the process of moving your license between PCs. With this option you can now jump onto a new PC, go to License Manager and select "Reinstall Here", and in one action it will move your license to your current PC. It is exactly the same as performing Uninstall and then Install manually.

Added "Copy Project Path" and "Copy Scene Path" menu actions to File Tools - these will copy paths to current project and scene to the clipboard respectively

Added Restore Backup menu option to BroTools menu to launch restore_backup.mel script from UI

Fixed a name "system_locale" is not defined startup bug that showed up on MacOS and Linux

BroDynamics will now perform some sanity checks before running simulations and display a warning window for common problems like incorrect number of selected objects, or selecting objects without transforms, etc.

Chain (SpringMagic): Added extra logging for Problem with the API object returned by __apiobject__ method; No object matches name: None error suspects, hopefully next occurence will have better logs to determine the issue

BroDynamics now better keeps track of timeline playback speed and properly restores it even in most error events.

Fix chain modes not starting simulation due to parenting errors

Chain (SpringMagic): Fixed Invalid arguments for flag 'worldUpVector'. Expected ( float, float, float ), got MVector error

Chain (SpringMagic): Fix Problem with the API object returned by __apiobject__ method; No object matches name: None error

Chain (SpringMagic): Fixed gitter bug with Flex parameter above 0

Chain (SpringMagic): Fixed simulation twisting incorrectly with some rigs

Chain (SpringMagic): Fixed MEulerRotation error introduced in 2021.11.23

Fixed Expected (distance, distance, distance) got MVector error in Chain (SpringMagic)

Fixed invalid null reference in method 'MVector___eq__' error in Chain (SpringMagic) that was happening on collision with capsule

Fixed bug when using Flex parameter in Chain (SpringMagic)

Improved support for non-english locales on Windows for running shell commands, improved detecting of current terminal encoding

restore_backup.mel script was not included with distribution archives, a bug in the release script that was fixed

Chain (SpringMagic) mode was rewritten from pymel to cmds and OpenMaya to remove dependency on PyMEL and improve performance by around 8-10%

Chain (SpringMagic) mode now better supports undo for operations like Adding Capsules and Wind

restore_backup.mel script has been added to BroTools folder. Drag and Drop it into Maya window to restore to a backup of previously installed version.

Improved handling of SSL connection with the server to help identify SSL issues

Improved support for non-English locales on Windows

Improved logging

Fix shell command errors on Brazilian Portuguese locale in Windows

Improved error handling for Floating License system

Fixed a bug causing changing TurboFloat server port to raise TurboFloatInetError

New Animation Layer, Do Not Refresh Viewport and Disable Viewport checkboxes now also work with Batch Simulation

Fixed critical bug in floating licensing system. TurboFloatFailError was causing BroTools to exit with error, when in reality it's normal part of TurboFloat library operation and should've been ignored.

Added an option to bake only existing poses, instead of baking every frame. This allows to transfer animation between IK and FK in a much cleaner and editable way

Bake and Transfer now respect keyframe range selection on the timeline (Shift+Click+Drag region marked in red)

Fixed IKFK Switcher crashing on Maya 2022 with Python 3

Fixed IKFK Switcher compatibility issues on Maya 2022 with Python 3

Tools that rely on matching existing keyframes (like Transfer motion) will now respect timeline range selection

Overall speed optimization (BroNode initialization speed up)

Fixed a bug causing downloads of some non-essential files to fail on Maya 2020 and earlier, resulting in "Download finished with errors" message

Added an option to disable SSL verification on the client side

Fixed a bug preventing an error window from showing on license key renewal failure

Added an option to run euler filter after switching

Further improvements to licensing and update systems stability in Maya 2022 with Python 3 and overall

Attempting to run updater without license key will now show proper error

In Maya 2022 with Python 3 there was a bug preventing BroTools from properly working if Windows system language was set to anything other than English. This was fixed.

Tweeener added icon

Fixed Gravity not working in Chain (nHair) mode with Collision mode checkbox enabled. This was a design flaw, users were meant to use Gravity force instead, but it caused more confusion. Now if Gravity is not 0 it will create a force.

Tweaked internal server connection test to be more reliable and reduce false negatives causing Offline Activation window to appear when there is an acitve internet connection available

Fix trim processor not trimming words from the end

Fix a bug causing File - Open to not work on Maya 2022

Loading presets from a file was additive which is not an expected behavior. Now existing processors are replaced with loaded preset.

Auto Euler filter option - it will run Euler filter before and after tweening to help with gimbal lock issues

Added Substeps and Timescale controls to all nucleus based simulation modes - Chain (nHair), Spring (nParticle), Chain (nParticle)

Improved "Welcome back" window for those who upgrade from BroDynamics 2.x

New processor - Split. Allows splitting strings into multiple words by specific separator. Is similar to using Replace and replacing with space.

Trim processor can now work on words instead of characters. In combination with Split or CamelCaseSplit it can allow to easily remove parts of names of unequal length

Clicking simulate button in RBD mode will now show a notification saying that Simulate button is not used in RBD mode, to reduce confusion. RBD has a slightly different workflow revolving around using buttons available in Workbench of RBD mode UI.

Improved documenation on Python API

Improved simulator logging, simulation properties logging was moved to INFO level and now contains proper args and kwargs for using the simulator.run function:

```

// BroTools | INFO || chain.run:82 | Run Simulator for module: Chain (nHair).

Args: ([u'nurbsCircle1', u'nurbsCircle2', u'nurbsCircle3'],)

Kwargs: {'preserveAnimation': True, 'collisionMode': False, 'forces': [], 'shiftDistance': 1.0, 'dontRefresh': False, 'followBaseTwist': True, 'preserveInertia': True, 'preAlign': False, 'autoShiftDistance': True, 'cycleIterations': 0, 'aimRotation': True, 'multiPassSimulation': False, 'simulationProperties': {'attractionScale[1].attractionScale_Position': 1, u'startCurveAttract': 0.01, u'stiffnessScale[1].stiffnessScale_FloatValue': 1.0, 'stiffnessScale[0].stiffnessScale_Position': 0, u'damp': 0.0, u'compressionResistance': 10.0, u'gravity': 0.0, u'attractionScale[0].attractionScale_FloatValue': 1.0, u'drag': 0.05, u'attractionScale[1].attractionScale_FloatValue': 1.0, u'stiffnessScale[0].stiffnessScale_FloatValue': 1.0, 'attractionScale[0].attractionScale_Position': 0, u'bendResistance': 1.0, u'stretchResistance': 10.0, 'stiffnessScale[1].stiffnessScale_Position': 1, u'attractionDamp': 0.15, u'collideWidthOffset': 0.0, u'mass': 1.0}, 'skipControls': 1, 'eulerFilter': True, 'matchPositions': False, 'colliders': [], 'deleteNucleus': True}

//

```

Chain (nParticle) mode was ignoring timeline selection range. This has been fixed, now it will properly simulate only within selected timeline range (Shift+Click+Drag on timeline)

Fixed a bug causing forces from Collisions and Forces window were ignored in Chain (nHair) mode

Improved internal error handling

Fixed an issue where BroTools was unable to get proper Hardware ID on MacOS and showing error in License Manager

Version 2021.6.30 introduced a bug that causes a lot of errors that should halt execution and show error instead pass silently. This has been fixed, some errors will now properly raise exception windows, others will leave warnings in the log.

New Chain (nParticle) mode! Combines the best of... well, seems like all previous modes. It has proper inertia for both overlap and overshoot motion like Chain mode, but it's easier to work with and more predictable like Simple Chain. And it supports looping animation in a similar way as Point mode, meaning proper transfer of both position and inertia in the seam area. And it follows your existing animation and poses! And collisions with objects (any nCloth - Passive Collider). It will likely become new primary simulation mode for most animators.

Updated default values in Chain mode to provide a more uniform result

Renamed simulation modes in UI for transparency:

• Point - Spring (nParticle)
• Simple Chain - Chain (Spring Magic) (Because it's based on approach used in Spring Magic script for 3ds Max)
• Chain - Chain (nHair)
• RBD - RBD (Bullet)

New tool - Renamer! Ultimate modular renaming tool for Maya, stack string processing actions in any order, preview rename, save and load presets and more!

Floating Licenses, powered by LimeLM TurboFloat server

Lifetime licenses

Added 'restore_backup.mel' script. If there is any issue with the update you can drag and drop this script into Maya's viewport much like install.mel, and it will let you select a backup to restore to.

Updater windows now include warnings asking user to close all Maya instances before updating, as it may cause issues with the update. Additionally on Windows update check will not run if more than 1 Maya instance is running.

Added an option to skip an update, that will remember your choice and no longer notify you about an update to this specific version. If there's another version released that's newer than the one you skipped - it will notify you again.

Improved stability of licensing server connection test

Reduced spacing of some UI elements, specifically in License Manager and Preference Windows, to make UIs more compact

UI Style update

Added more tools icons for menu

Server side support for updating to and downloading specific versions, part of the work required to implement lifetime licenses

Improved stability of BroTools - Debug - Reload BroTools command

Improved licensing system to better handle multiple tools installs on same machine

Fix critical bug causing BroTools to not properly get hardware ID on MacOS and Linux

Highlight of this release is addition of Cycle\Seamless Looping for Point and Chain modes!

Chain mode - also tweaked how it simulates start and end frame. It was skipping first 2 frames of the simulation to preserve initial pose, this was a rudimentary feature that was taking it's roots way back from version 1.x. Now it will simulate and match all frames including first ones, required for

Simple Chain mode - Is Loop? option renamed to Create seamless loop, should be more intuitive to understan what it does

Custom Scripts menu now supports running mel scripts

Custom Scripts menu now has reload button which will allow adding new scripts without restarting Maya or reloading entire BroTools plugin. It's only required if you add new files to custom scripts folder, reloading is not required to detect changes in scripts' code, they are loaded from disk for every execution

Custom Scripts now have Python and Mel icons

BroDynamics on startup will check Undo Queue state, if it's off it will suggest to enable it

Point mode - previously simulation was ending 1-2 frames before the final frame. Now it simulates until the very last frame properly. Tweaked frame walking logic to better match frames on different steps.

Fixed some logging bugs introduced by python 2 to 3 convertion

Fixed 'Object's name 'bro_dynamics_windowWorkspaceControl' is not unique.' error when trying to reopen BroDynamics UI or other BroTools dockable UIs when it's been docked before closing Maya

New Tool! Tweeener - allows creating in-between and overshoot poses with a slider. Well, if you know TweenMachine - you know what Tweeener is. But it now comes included with AnimationToolbox, has sleeker UI and is going to be upgraded over time with new features.

Fixed bug with SquashStretch tool showing errors and not reverting slider on selection change

Improved message for offline activaiton

IKFK Switcher window is now dockable

You can now dock some windows together, for example you can combine IKFK Switcher, Tweeener and BroDynamics into one window. This concept will be improved in future versions

All dockable windows will now remember their docked state between maya sessions and when closed and reopened

Added an option to revert to old version to the main BroTools menu for users coming from BroDynamics 2.x

Fixed some HTTP error messages not showing up

New Animation Layer checkbox! It will automatically generate a new animation layer and all simulated keyframes will go there. Should allow to improve iteration speed a lot, no need to remove keyframes or wait for undo command to finish, just disable current simulaion layer and run simulation again. It also preserves your existing keyframes, allows to compare different simulation results or stack simulations on top of each other.

GIF Playblast and other playblast tools that expected camera names to have "Cam_" will now support namespaces

Menus for fileops advertised in 2021.5.14 were missing on some platforms, this has been fixed

License Manager window will now automatically select "Install" if you only have 1 license, so you can just click "Next"

License Manager will now show a warning suggesting to start a trial and a "Go Back" button if you don't have any licenses

Start Trial button was not available after running License Manager once

Pre-update backups will now include date and time when they were created

Fixed License Manager window width, it would open up too narrow to show license action dropdowns, causing confusion

Improvements to better support those upgrading from BroDynamics 2.x

Fixed config read error preventing Point tab from showing in Maya 2022+ with Python 3

Added File Tools menu containing some tools to help working with files and file browser. Available to both BroDynamics and BroTools users

Locate current scene - will reveal current scene folder in your system's file browser (Explorer in Windows)

Locate current project - will reveal current project folder in file browser

Find Textures - for every file texture in the project it will scan current project directory and subdirectories for a file with matching name and replace the path to the file. Can help find missing textures in the scene.

Find Textures In - does the same thing as Find Textures, but allows user to specify directory to scan in. Also recursive. Can be used to find missing textures or to replace existing textures with other textures in another folder, as long as they have same filenames.

A backup of BroTools folder will now be created before every update to allow user to easily roll back in case of a failed update

Licensing improvements

Fixed Python 3 (Maya 2022+) bug causing updater to fail file downloads

Changes how BroTools identifies hardware IDs, should help make it more stable and unify between different Python versions. It will attempt to upgrade old HID in the database, but if it fails it may require you to reactivate your license. To do it open License Manager, enter your email, click "Next" select "Uninstall" next to your license, click Next. Close any windows that show up, reopen License Manager, enter your credentials, click Next - select Install from the dropdown. Click Next. Your license should be bound to new ID.

Network host IP input changed from a text box to a dropdown list of IPs that are available for use with network licensing system for transparency

Fixed a bug causing menus for some tools to not be created

In Chain - Renamed "Use Nucleus (Collision mode)" checkbox into "Enable Collisions (Use Nucleus)" to make it more intuitive as to what this checbox is for.

New tool under Curves subsection - Cycle Animation Tangents (beta), helps with making animation loops

Python 3 and Maya 2022 support

Small UI tweaks

Hotfix - fixed email validation regex to match RFC 5322 Official Standard. Prior to this update some emails would be falsely detected as invalid.

Downloader speed up

Add file download progress indication to downloader

Fixed a severe bug affecting Unix (Mac and Linux) users that was breaking some of the menu entries from showing up, for tools like IKFK Switcher, broSelector and some others

You can now use Shift+Drag selection on timeline to tell BroDynamics which frames to simulate!

Video tutorials with voice over!

Improved and Updated UI

More user-friendly and meaningful error message when trying to run simulation on objects without transforms in selection

Show error if trying to use BroDynamics with unsupported Animation Blending settings

Some now rudimentary menus and options were removed, like Help and some Preferences options

Fixed error preventing user from adding or editing license key in BroDynamics

Fixed issue where simulation could result in adding translation to control where it was locked by respecting locked attributes while matching transforms

Simple chain mode proxy joints parenting fix, fixed an issue where chain would not properly following animation in some cases

Fixed Presets - Load Defaults, which was broken for a while

Animation Toolbox is released!

IKFKSwitcher has been updated to match new BroTools frameworks and updated UI.

Code cleaned up

Added licensing system to allow for more flexible licensing terms, subscriptions and trial periods

Updater reworked from scratch featuring per-file sync with checksum checks

New calendar based versioning system, instead of arbitrary numbers, it's now YEAR.MONTH.DAY of release. Versioning is now unified among all tools, as they all share same core modules.

Code improvements and optimizations

Installation script was improved to not require Maya restart

Cleaned up and improved logging styling, removed timestamps from logs as there is no use for them

New error message window

Transform matching now respects locked attributes

trackTransform now respects locked attributes

Better config option names in all configuration windows

Overall UI framework update

Overall UI styling update

Stopped using WebView anywhere in the UI as it was causing Maya to freeze in some cases. Which means that some thigns like changelog will now open in the web browser instead of being opened inside BroTools UI

Core function for writing files had a serious bug preventing it from writing any files that used this function

ControlMeshCreator has been updated to match new BroTools frameworks and updated UI.

Code cleaned up

Maya 2019-2020 improved compatibility

Added 'Disable Viewport' checkbox which may allow to speed simulation up a bit more

Fixed a bug where some objects were not cleaned up from the scene when simulating with 2 objects or using Multi Pass Simulation checkbox

BroNode updates and improvements

Maya 2019-2020 improved compatibility

Added prefix to internal menu names to avoid potential clashing with other plugins

Added a configuration option to fallback to using a more reliable QTextBrowser instead of QWebEngineView. There was a slowly but surely growing number of users reporting Maya hanging when trying to import it, and disabling anti-malware software was not always a solution.

core.cfg was deprecated, as it was only used to define config and log directories, which was moved to environment variables

Maya menu improvements and bug fixes

Minor improvements, still pending major redesign