Bug: Sometimes Hexagon doesn't save changes

rtweed

Maybe this is a well-known issue?

It seems that Hexagon will not save your work when you select File>Save if it thinks nothing has changed recently. If you rename an object in the scene and don't do anything else, hit save, quit, reload the file, the change is gone. If you do the same thing but move a vertice by a tiny amount, Hexagon realises that something has changed and actually does save the file.

Also note, Hexagon doesn't bother to let you know whether or not it saved the file when requested. Furthermore, if you quit Hexagon without explicitly choosing Save, it won't realise you have unsaved changes and will just quit without prompting "do you want to save", however that's not quite as bad as the fact it ignores you explicitly choosing Save from the menu.

Possible workaround: Using Save As forces it to save everything correctly. Or ensure you make some other small change to your scene so it saves correctly.

I'm going to file a bug report next, but thought I'd post this here in case it helps someone.

rtweed

Just for anyone curious about this, I've raised a support ticket with Daz, and they've reproduced and accepted the bug. No word on if/when it will get fixed. As far as I know, Daz isn't actively supporting Hexagon anymore: version 2.5 was release 6 years ago!

FirstBastion

I typically use Save As and then give an incremental alpha-numeric rename as I'm building something as general practice. Hexagon is too finnicky and crashes too often to not have multiple backups of work done. But I still use it. For now.

rtweed

FirstBastion said:

I typically use Save As and then give an incremental alpha-numeric rename as I'm building something as general practice.

Funnily enough, as I was just discussing with JimmyC in this other thread, that's actually what "incremental saving" does, but it's not documented, nor is it particularly clear from the option name (another substandard French to English translation, I expect).

Unfortunately, while it is quicker than Save As and manually typing in a new name each time, incremental save also does nothing unless Hexagon has detected a change to the scene (which is partly why I was having such a hard time understanding what it did in the first place).

It also turns out that if you have the "show filename" option turned on in preferences, Hexagon puts an asterisk after the name if it knows there are changes, which will go away after it saves. As far as I can tell, it doesn't show this unless you have that option turned on, which is unfortunate, but there's little reason to turn it off anyway. This is potentially quite useful if you want to be sure it is actually doing what you tell it, as long as you remember to check for the asterisk before saving.

However, because of this bug, the absence of an asterisk is no guarantee that you have successfully saved all recent changes. Plus, it's very likely that the same bug affects other parts of the program as well as object renaming, so I'd be wary of trusting it too much. Still, it's unlikely anyone would lose a lot of work because of this. If you just move one vertices in the scene, it will save correctly. So if you've been working away for an hour without saving, the chances are that this bug won't prevent those changes being saved.

Ironically, this bug is much more likely to cause problems if, like me, you're pretty paranoid and save every few minutes, or after making just a single change. Especially if you are uber-paranoid about crashes and keep closing and re-opening Hexagon after saving. That's why I noticed it in the first place.

patience55

I find it best to use "save as" and right away afterwards "save" for the first project save.
Then keep an eye on whether or not there be an "*" after the file's name. [means unsaved].

Also, for changes to be kept ... it's rather important not to confuse Hexagon.
All Shading Domains must have their own materials or they will possibly lose names and/or be merged.
Some of the quirks can be useful, but it can be very frustrating when one is not aware of them.
Multiple Shading Domain 'same name' IF they have materials applied via the 'change material' selection, will normally merge together.
Multiple Shading Domain 'same name' IF they have materials selected from the material's tab and the 'this file already exists, save changes yes/no' pops up, and one says yes thinking they are giving all the same material to the same name SDs ... nope.
End result will be materials matched with materials.

IF Hexagon ... wait a minute ... WHEN Hexagon throw out an error message that the file could not be saved ... make some changes 'anything' ... and try a 'save as'. Then close Hexagon, open Hexagon and hope the latest save as works. If not, go back until a good file is found. On super long project, it's a good idea to nest folders.