Evaluation Toolkit

To open the Evaluation Toolkit

Windows > General Editors > Evaluation Toolkit

Use the Evaluation Toolkit to analyze and understand how to best use Parallel evaluation modes to speed up your animation. Activate the options in the Evaluation Toolkit to manipulate all aspects of the Evaluation Manager, including enabling debugging modes and output. See also Test Performance with Evaluation Modes.

Note: The information here is provided as a guide. If you want technical background on these processes, see Using Parallel Maya or the Evaluator Reference, which contains further description of some of the custom evaluators.

Configuration

Contains settings to let you configure the behavior of the tools provided by the Evaluation Toolkit.

Graphviz Options

Use Graphviz system installation: Activate this option to use your system's Graphviz installation instead of the one provided with Maya.
Note: In order for Maya to locate find the Graphviz installation, ensure that the Graphviz folder that contains Graphviz executables is in the PATH environment variable. See Standard paths.

Show Graphviz Version

Displays the output of the dot -v command, which reports the dot command software version.

Modes

Choose the appropriate evaluation mode from the Evaluation Mode menu

Evaluation Mode menu

DG: Uses dependency graph-based evaluation mode for your scene. (See also Dependency graph.) This was the default evaluation mode before Maya 2016.
Serial: Uses the Evaluation Manager but limits evaluation to a single core (serial evaluation). Use Serial to troubleshoot your scene as it prioritizes scene fidelity over performance so you can locate evaluation errors.
Note: Sometimes scenes run more slowly in Serial evaluation mode than in DG mode. This is because Serial evaluates more nodes than DG mode. Because of this detailed evaluation, if the scene looks incorrect in Serial mode, it is unlikely to work properly in Parallel mode.
Sometimes improper evaluation in Serial mode is caused by custom plug-ins.
Serial (uncached): Like Serial (above) but uncached redetermines the evaluation order at every frame. Not recommended.
Parallel: Parallelizes evaluation and uses all available cores to evaluate your scene. If this mode causes problems with your scene, disable it and return to the previous standard: DG evaluation mode.
See Profile a scene to improve performance.
This mode is active by default.
GPU Override: Works with the Evaluation Manager to accelerate deformations in either Serial or Parallel Evaluation mode. If your scene has standard Maya deformers and the mesh geometry is dense, this can improve performance. Results vary based on the deformers and density of meshes in your scenes.
Note: GPU override works only with Viewport 2.0 and does not work with Quadro 4000 graphics cards on OSX.; You can find a technical explanation of GPU Override at Using Parallel Maya.
Include Controllers in Evaluation Graph: Activates/disables pre-population with the controller mechanism in the Evaluation Manager when building.

Advanced

Manipulation: Toggles the Evaluation Manager for Manipulation. Valid only in Serial and Parallel modes.

Heads Up Display

You can display Evaluation and Frame Rate information in a view panel using the following Heads Up Display (HUD) options. For more Heads Up Display options, see Heads Up Display (HUD) Options and Display scene information (HUD) in a view panel.

Evaluation

Indicates the current evaluation mode. See Evaluation in Preferences > Animation to change evaluation nodes.

If you are in DG mode, "Evaluation: DG" displays. The EM State shows "Off", and the GPU Override shows "N/A."
If you are in Serial or Parallel mode, "Evaluation: Serial" or "Evaluation: Parallel" displays, along with the EM State. EM State indicates whether the Evaluation Manager has an up-to-date evaluation graph, or if it needs to re-build the graph the next time evaluation is triggered by a playback. For example, when something in the DG changes, such as the deletion of a node connection, the Evaluation Manager is no longer in sync with the DG, so the Heads Up Display shows "Rebuild required".
When an evaluation is triggered, the Evaluation Manager rebuilds the EM graph and the HUD shows "Ready".
If the GPU Override option is active, which only occurs when you use Serial or Parallel mode, "GPU Override" displays, which counts the number of mesh vertices (in thousands) being evaluated by the GPU, instead of the CPU. For example, if the HUD shows GPU Override: Enabled (94k), this indicates that 94,000 vertices are being evaluated by the GPU.

Frame Rate

Displays the frame rate in frames per second (FPS) for the current view in the bottom-right corner. The default is off.

Debugging

Use these options in this section to identify the problem areas of your scene.

Validation Trace

Toggles the trace object that tracks invalid evaluation graph paths. It logs data accesses that do not respect dependencies represented by the evaluation graph. These unexpected accesses could lead to evaluation errors and instabilities, such as crashes.

The output file contains missing dependencies detected during each playback frame. This only works in Serial mode.

Trace results are saved in Maya’s Temp directory, in the _MayaEvaluationGraphValidation.txt file by default but you can specify another location. Find the temporary directory on your machine with the getenv("TEMP") MEL command.

Computed Nodes Trace

Performs a high-level trace of the compute path by toggling the trace object that prints out the nodes being computed. This only works in DG and Serial modes.

Trace results are saved in Maya’s runtime directory in the file _Trace_Compute.txt. Find the runtime directory using the getenv ("MAYA_LOCATION") MEL command.

Launch Profiler

Opens the Profiler, a tool to help locate performance bottlenecks in your scene by recording and depicting the amount of time that each significant event, such as evaluation tasks, consumes.

Launch Analytics window

Opens the Analytics Window, a tool to help analyze the contents of your scene or collection of scenes by running scripts on the scene(s) and reporting back what it finds.

Evaluation Graph Inspection

This section provides a collection of tools that let you see how your evaluation graph and scheduling graph are constructed.

Nodes to Inspect: For each of the tools in the Evaluation Graph Inspection section you can choose to inspect either the entire graph, in which case you would choose All from the drop down menu, or only a subset, when you would choose Selected.; When you choose Selected another field labeled Levels Deep appears. When displaying graph information you are usually interested in the connections between nodes. The Levels Deep value tells the tool how many steps away from the selected nodes should be included in the output.; In this context, "steps away" means "number of connections it has to traverse in the graph to go from one node to another". For example, if you have the graph connections A -> B -> C then node B is depth one from both A and C, and C is depth 2 from A.; For clarity, the functions below will be described as if you chose the All option.

Graphical Output

Tools in this section will provide an output in either PDF or DOT format for visualization of the evaluation or scheduling graphs. The visualization is similar to what you see in the node editor for the dependency graph.

Format	Select the type of output you wish to produce. If PDF is set, then the graph is sent to a .pdf file. If DOT is set, then the graph is sent to a .dot file. In both cases, the tool attempts to open the file in your default application for the generated file so you can see it immediately. For example Adobe Acrobat for a .pdf file and graphviz for a .dot file. The Transitive Reduction checkbox is an option that tries to reduce the number of unnecessary connections in the graph being displayed. The resulting output is cleaner though it can take significantly longer to generate.
Output file	This field shows where the file is created. By default, it is stored in your MAYA_LOCATION directory. Enter a new file name or browse to a new directory to change the location. The extension on the filename always reflects your currently selected Format (.pdf or .dot).
Visual Graph	When you invoke the Show button the visual representation of the Evaluation Graph will be generated in the format you have selected, and the result will open in your default application for that file type. The Add Dirty Plugs option includes a list of all plugs being set dirty in each node by the Evaluation Manager. Normally, you would not want this amount of detail, but it's useful for discovering missing attribute dependencies in the graph
Visualize Scheduling Graph	When you invoke the Show button, the visual representation of the Scheduling Graph is generated in the format you have selected, and the result will open in your default application for that file type. The Scheduling Graph differs from the Evaluation Graph in that it groups sets of nodes together for evaluation as a group. For example, the invisibility evaluator clusters all of the invisible node together and evaluates them, by doing nothing, as one. The Add Cluster Contents option lets you switch the cluster nodes from displaying a count of the nodes they contain to a list of all nodes by name. This is useful when you want to see which nodes a particular custom evaluator has clustered together.

Text Output

Tools in this section will provide an output in either JSON or plain text format for visualization of the evaluation or scheduling graphs.

Format	Two types of output are available. The JSON format is more verbose; describing all node information and relationships in a key/value form. The Summary format compresses the information into a more compact display for quick reference
Output Location	You can choose to send the results to the Script Editor directly, or to an external File. The script editor is most useful when you want to quickly examine part of a scene; the external file is best for parsing and interpreting results offline.
Output File	This field is active only when you select the File option as the Output Location. It shows where the file will be created. By default, it will go into your MAYA_LOCATION directory. Enter a new file name or browse to a new directory to change that..
Evaluation Nodes	Prints a list of evaluation nodes and connections on the selected nodes, or the entire scene, if nothing is selected. Activate Show Dirty Plugs to print a list of plugs that the Evaluation Manager sets to dirty before evaluation and computation.
Evaluation Nodes	When you invoke the Show button, a list of all of the nodes in the Evaluation Graph is generated in the format you have selected. This usually means all of the nodes that are either animated or controllers. The Add Dirty Plugs option lets you include a list of all plugs being set dirty in each node by the Evaluation Manager.
Node Scheduling types	When you invoke the Show button, the scheduling types for the nodes in the Evaluation Graph are displayed. The types are Parallel, Serial, Globally Serial, and Untrusted. See the Using Parallel Maya for more information.
Scheduling Graph	When you invoke the Show button, the contents of the Scheduling Graph are displayed in the selected format. The Scheduling Graph differs from the Evaluation Graph in that it groups sets of nodes together for evaluation as a group. For example, the invisibility evaluator will cluster all of the invisible node together and evaluate them, by doing nothing, as one. Use the Add Cluster Contents option to include the set of nodes in all of the clusters being scheduled. This is useful for seeing which nodes a particular custom evaluator has clustered together.

Scene simplification

Retrieves the selected object's minimum dependencies.

Select minimal scene: Use this option identify everything required to evaluate the selected objects.
Remove all except minimal scene: Deletes every object that is not considered essential by the minimal scene selection option above.
Important: Data Loss! Do not accidentally save this version of the scene after activating this option.

Dynamic Attributes

Connected dynamic attributes sometimes create artificial dependencies that can prevent parallelism, which negate any performance gains from parallel evaluation. Use these tools to show connections between those types of dynamic attributes:

Print extra connections: Click Print to display a list of connections discovered between dynamic attributes. Results are displayed in the Script Editor.
Remove extra connections: Only use this option for debugging purposes, as it is meant to give an idea of potential performance gains that would occur when extra dependencies are removed. Use caution, as this option is an aggressive tool and could alter the evaluation output.
Important: Data Loss! Do not accidentally save this version of the scene after activating this option as data is lost.

Scene simplification

Retrieves the selected object's minimum dependencies.

Select minimal scene: Use this option identify everything required to evaluate the selected objects.
Remove all except minimal scene: Deletes all every object that is not considered essential by the minimal scene selection option above.
Important: Data Loss! Do not accidentally save this version of the scene after activating this option.

Custom Evaluators

Click the checkbox next to each Custom Evaluator to activate custom evaluation.

Use the (question mark)button to view supported configuration options for the associated custom evaluator. See the -c / -configuration flag in the evaluator command reference.

Use the ("i") button to query information related to the associated custom evaluator.

Use the ("n") button to open a window where you can view the nodes claimed by the associated custom evaluator.

Tip: You can use the evaluator command to query the available/active evaluators or modify currently active evaluators. Some evaluators support using the _nodeType_ flag to filter out or include nodes of certain types. Query the _info_ flag on the evaluator for more information on what it supports.

For background on the invisibility, frozen, dynamics and deformer evaluators, see Evaluator Reference. More technical detail is available in the Using Parallel Maya document.

Important: Changing the default enabled/disabled state may cause instabilities or degrade performance. Proceed with caution.

For information about the dynamics Evaluator listed here, see the Dynamics section, below.

Custom evaluator	Purpose
invisibility	Removes invisible nodes (and any that drive them) from evaluation. For more details on the invisibility evaluator, see the Evaluator Reference. Note: The scene looks the same, regardless of whether the evaluator is enabled or not. See the Evaluator reference for more information about the invisibility evaluator.
frozen	Handles "freezing" workflows provided to control which part of the scene does or does not evaluate. See the Evaluator reference for more information about the frozen evaluator.
curveManager
timeEditorCurveEvaluator	Deals with custom curve evaluation requirements from the Time Editor
dynamics	Responsible for the correct evaluation of dynamics nodes that have unorthodox evaluation requirements. See the Evaluator reference for more information about the dynamics evaluator.
ikSystem	Manages evaluation complications that arise from multi-handle IK systems.
disabling	Disables the Evaluation Manager (used for debugging purposes).
hik	Improves performance of HumanIK rigs.
reference	Improves performance of scenes with loaded/unloaded references.
deformer	Provides support for GPU execution of supported deformers. The deformer evaluator implements the GPU Override option See the Evaluator reference for more information about the deformer evaluator.
transformFlattening	Improves performance of long transform hierarchies.
pruneRoots	Improves performance by scheduling together small individual tasks to reduce scheduling overhead

Dynamics

Configures the dynamics evaluator. The dynamics evaluator is responsible for the correct evaluation of dynamics nodes that have unorthodox evaluation requirements.

Note: For an in-depth technical discussion of the dynamic evaluator, see Using Parallel Maya.

Mode

Choose from five options:

Name	Function
Disabled	Disables Parallel evaluation/Evaluation Manager as soon as there are active dynamics nodes in the scene.
Legacy 2016	Reproduces the default settings of the 2016 release, by disabling evaluation as soon as blacklisted nodes appear in the scene. The following node types are blacklisted: nucleus pointEmitter rigidSolver rigidBody particle geoConnector field fluidShape and any type derived from these.
Supported	Implements complex evaluation for supported dynamics nodes and disables Parallel evaluation/Evaluation Manager as soon as there are blacklisted nodes in the scene. The following node types are blacklisted: rigidSolver rigidNode particle (unless also a nBase) fluidShape fluidEmitter dynHolder collisionModel dynController dynGlobals spring membrane and any type derived from these.
Everything (NOT SUPPORTED)	Uses all nodes, even problematic ones, as this mode does not use a blacklist,
Custom (NOT SUPPORTED)	This mode lets you try unsupported combinations of the options below…

Advanced

Disabling Nodes

Disables the set of nodes that causes Parallel evaluation/Evaluation Manager.

Handled Nodes

The set of nodes read by the dynamics evaluator which that handles their evaluation.

Action

Select the action that the dynamics evaluator performs on the handled nodes.

Name	Function
None	Ignores the nodes.
Evaluate	Implements evaluation whenever special evaluation requirements are required.
Freeze	Causes the Dynamics evaluator to freeze all of the nodes it processes in their current state. No evaluation is performed, the node is unaffected; this is the fastest method.

GPU Override

Displays the following reports in the Script Editor. See Evaluator Reference for a description of this evaluator and Using Parallel Maya for technical information about GPU Override.

Active deformation chains: Compiles a list of deformation chains (that is a mesh and at least one deformer,) that are handled by the GPU evaluator.
Mesh information: Prints information about the current GPU deformation support for each mesh. If the mesh is currently handled by the GPU deformer, its deformation chain appears in the list. If the mesh is not handled by the GPU deformer, the list displays the reason for its exclusion.
Selected nodes status: Prints information about the current GPU deformation support for the selected nodes. If the node is currently handled by the GPU deformer, its deformation chain appears in the list. If the node is not handled by the GPU deformer, the list displays the reason for its exclusion.
Clusters: Prints a list of nodes for each cluster handled by deformer evaluator. Each deformer chain has its own cluster.

Selection

Select the following:

Nodes under evaluation manager control: Changes the selection to only nodes under the control of the Evaluation Manager. Nodes that are not directly or indirectly animated are not included in the set.
Upstream nodes: Selects all nodes that are currently under Evaluation Manager control that are upstream from the current selection. The nodes selected before the operation depend on which upstream nodes are selected after the operation.
Downstream nodes: Selects all nodes that are currently under Evaluation Manager control that are downstream from the current selection. The downstream nodes selected that are selected after the operation depend on which nodes are selected before the operation.

Upstream versus Downstream nodes

All nodes with connections in the Evaluation Graph are considered either Upstream or Downstream.

In the following diagram, you can see how Upstream and Downstream nodes interact.

Upstream is required by:

nurbsCone1_translateX => nurbsCone1
nurbsCone1_translateX is upstream of nurbsCone1
nurbsCone1_translateX is required by nurbsCone1

Downstream depends on:

nurbsCone1_translateZ => nurbsCone1
nurbsCone1 is downstream of nurbsCone1_translateZ
nurbsCone1 depends on nurbsCone1_translateZ

Cycles

An in-depth explanation of cycles and their part in the evaluation process can be found in Using Parallel Maya.

Full Graph

Creates .PDF and .DOT files to show the scene's current evaluation graph.

Output Folder: Type the path for the folder where the output graph is saved. Click Generate to create the output graph. Click the folder icon to open a file browser where you can navigate to an appropriate folder.
Output base file name: Shows the file name for the base file. The default is _EvaluationGraph_.; The generated files will add .DOT and .PDF to the chosen base file name.
Generate: Creates a Graphviz .DOT file with the current evaluation graph. If the Perform transitive reduction option is active, an extra .DOT (.tr.dot) is created that has the output of the transitive reduction (performed by Graphviz tred command). The .DOT file is then converted to a PDF file (using Graphviz dot command) and opened using the system's default PDF reader application.
Perform transitive reduction: Activate to perform Transitive reduction so that the output graph removes redundant dependencies to de-clutter the output graph.
Note: This process can be very long for large scenes.
Mark clusters in full graph: Activate this option to highlight evaluation clusters in the output graph.
Open: Opens the newly-created PDF file.

Cycle Graph

This section provides utilities for investigating cycle clusters in your scene. Cycle clusters are evaluated serially, therefore large cycle clusters can reduce the potential for parallelism and prevent efficient use of all CPU cores. Large cycle clusters limit general scene performance and breaking them up yields beneficial performance gains.

Cycle clusters field

Click Generate to display a list of cycle clusters in the current scene ordered by number of nodes in the cluster (largest first) in this field. Clusters that contain an amount of nodes below the chosen threshold will not be included in the list.

For each cluster, the number of nodes and the first node of the cluster is printed. You can query the full cluster with the evaluationManager command.

Cycle Size Threshold

Define a minimum number of nodes of cycle clusters to be included. The default is 100.

Note: Small cycles are likely to be less relevant for performance analysis.

Refresh Cycle cluster list

Click to update the cycle list.

Select the cycle based on selected nodes

Choose the cycle that contains the selected nodes.

List the nodes in selected cycle cluster

Show all nodes in the cycle cluster.

Shortest Path

When both a source node and destination node are specified in the currently selected cluster, both nodes are highlighted in green the output graph. The path from the source node to the destination node is blue, the path from the destination node to the source node is red.

Note: Deactivate Transitive reduction when using this setting as it can remove connections from those paths.

Shortest Path

Source node: Click Pick Selected to set the Source node.
Destination node: Click Pick Selected to set the Destination node.
Shortest path only: Activate this option to display only the nodes that are on the shortest paths.

Output Folder

Type the path for the folder where the cycle cluster graph is saved. Click Generate to create the graph. Click the folder icon

to open a file browser where you can choose a destination folder.

Output Base File Name

Shows the file name for the base file. The default is _CycleCluster_.

Perform transitive reduction

Activate to perform Transitive reduction on the output graph to remove redundant dependencies to de-clutter the output graph.

Dependencies

This section lets you generate a graph to show dependencies between two sets of nodes. This can be helpful to illustrate why two sets of nodes that should not depend on each other actually have dependencies on one another.

Upstream/Downstream nodes: Choose the nodes you want to use as the Upstream/Downstream node list and click Choose Selected to use this set of nodes.
Output Folder/Output Base File Name: Type the path for the folder where the graph is saved. Click Generate to create the graph. Click the folder icon to open a file browser where you can navigate to the appropriate folder.
Perform transitive reduction: Activate to perform Transitive reduction the output graph to remove redundant dependencies to de-clutter the output graph.

Reports

This section contains reports that you can generate for the scene. Currently, there is only one report about expressions. Results are displayed in the Script Editor.

Expressions: If active, reports the total number of expression nodes, along with the number of safe and unsafe expression nodes.; Safe expressions are expressions which can have multiple outputs, as long as they are functions of its input.; Safe expressions only output is a function of its input (the input being read through DG connections) and call no command other than mathematical functions. These nodes cannot have any side effects so they can be evaluated at the same time as other nodes. You cannot evaluate unsafe expressions in parallel with any other nodes. Unsafe expressions cannot be evaluated in parallel with any other nodes; This report checks for the different types of expressions which might have a performance impact for your scene.; Click Generate to create the report.

Freezing

These options let you activate or disable sections of the DAG (Directed acyclic graph) to improve performance. When Explicit Propagation is activated, everything that is set to frozen (either directly or indirectly) is not scheduled for evaluation, which improves playback performance. If you select Runtime Propagation instead, sections of the graph are still scheduled but are skipped at runtime.

Animated frozen states are still scheduled as they first must be evaluated to determine if they are required.

Frozen Propagation

Activate this option to set any reference nodes that are frozen to force nodes that they reference to also be frozen, regardless of any edits applied to them.

Runtime: This setting enables downstream pruning only at runtime. The frozen nodes are still scheduled, but once they are found to be frozen, all downstream evaluation is skipped.
Explicit: Activating this option is equivalent to enabling the frozen evaluator. It uses the freeze options to prevent any scheduling of nodes not evaluated by direct or indirect freezing. This setting provides the maximum playback acceleration.

Downstream/Upstream freeze mode

Lets you specify the strictness of the Freeze mode. Choose from Upstream or Downstream.

None	No downstream/upstream propagation.
When All Parents are Frozen	The downstream/upstream node is frozen only when all of its upstream/downstream nodes are frozen.
Always	All downstream/upstream nodes from a frozen node are also frozen, even if they have other non-frozen inputs.

Freeze Invisible

Propagates the frozen state down the DAG (Directed acyclic graph) hierarchy to all invisible children. This lets you freeze (make invisible) a root node and freeze its entire DAG hierarchy. Without this option, you need have to freeze each node individually. Chose from Nodes or Display Layers to make a node that is a member of an invisible frozen display layer frozen as well.

Directly Frozen nodes

Click Select to choose which nodes are frozen.

Click Print to print a list of which nodes are frozen.

Click Unfreeze All to deselect every node that has been frozen.

Scheduling

Scheduling type override

This option lets you choose a scheduling type override to apply to all nodes of a given types using the tools listed below. The following is a description of each override type:

Scheduling type override	Description
None	No scheduling type override. This is the default setting.
Parallel	Asserts that the node and all third-party libraries used by the node are thread-safe. The scheduler evaluates instances of this node at the same time as instances of other nodes without restriction
Serialize	Asserts it is safe to run this node along with instances of other nodes. However, all nodes of this scheduling type should be executed sequentially within the same evaluation chain.
Globally serialize	Asserts it is safe to run this node along with instances of other nodes but only a single instance of this node is run at a time. Use this setting if the node relies on a static state, which might lead to unpredictable results if multiple node instances were simultaneously evaluated. The same restrictions may apply if third-party libraries store states.
Untrusted	Asserts this node is not thread-safe and that no other nodes should be evaluated while an instance of this node is evaluated. Untrusted nodes are deferred to the end of the evaluation schedule, and can introduce costly synchronization.

Registered Node Types

Select a Node Type from the Registered Node Types list and choose the scheduling type override you want to apply to specify when nodes are scheduled for Parallel evaluation by the scheduler. Click Refresh to update the Node Types list.

Override for selected types(s)

Print: Click Print to display the currently activated scheduling overrides on node types selected in the Registered Node Types list.
Set: Click Set to assign the same scheduling type as set in the Scheduling type override options to all selected node types in the Registered Node Types list.

Selected Nodes

Select a node from the scene and choose the scheduling type override you want to apply to specify when nodes are scheduled for Parallel evaluation by the scheduler.

Override for type(s) selected node(s)

Print	Displays the currently activated scheduling overrides on the types of each selected nodes in the scene.
Set	Assigns the same scheduling type as set in the Scheduling type override option to the types of each selected nodes in the scene.

Type used for selected node(s)

Print

Displays the actual scheduling types used by the scheduler for each selected nodes in the scene, taking into account overrides or displaying the unmodified scheduling type if no override is present.