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What's New in MotionBuilder 2025.1

Welcome to MotionBuilder 2025.1! This release introduces new shortcut key actions to improve workflows in the Story Tool, Schematic View, and Transport Controls along with performance improvements when selecting objects and groups with large datasets. We've also made various other refinements to streamline workflows and cater to developer needs.

See below for all of the updates and more.

Improved object selection

In the Constraint’s Asset Settings, you can now select or deselect a scene object by right-clicking the object’s name and selecting the Select Scene Object or Deselect Scene Object menu item.

Improved group selection

We’ve significantly improved performance when selecting or deselecting groups in scenarios involving larger scenes.

Improved Handling of Numeric Precision in MotionBuilder

We’ve addressed an issue where certain numerical fields in the user interface (UI) were not adhering to the specified Fields & Values > Numeric Fields Default > Decimal Places preference.

We’ve introduced a new environment variable: MOBU_IGNORE_PROPERTIES_PRECISION_VALUES.

When this variable is set, it disregards the explicit precision values assigned to properties (except for a value of 0, which completely hides the decimal portion of the number). Instead, it relies solely on the precision values defined in the preferences.

Please note that this change also affects precision properties set using the SDK (for example, FBEditNumber.Precision).

For more details, refer to the updated documentation on the MOBU_IGNORE_PROPERTIES_PRECISION_VALUES environment variable. You can also find information by launching MotionBuilder with the -help flag.

New shortcut keys to Arrange all Horizontal/Vertical Nodes in Schematic View

This release introduces new actions for arranging nodes horizontally and vertically within MotionBuilder. These actions streamline your workflow, making it easier to organize your schematic views. Here are the details:

New Actions

  • Horizontal Arrangement: action.viewer.schematic.arrange.all.horizontal
  • Vertical Arrangement: action.viewer.schematic.arrange.all.vertical

By default, there are no shortcut keys assigned to those new actions. You can set new shortcut keys to these new actions by creating/editing a keyboard config file, or using the Keyboard Shortcuts Editor (from the Python Tools main menu).

Furthermore, the menu has been reworked to put the "Arrange All” options in the first menu and no longer as sub menu items.

New shortcut keys streamline interaction with the Story Tool:

We have introduced several new actions that enhance your experience with the Story Tool in MotionBuilder. These actions let you perform common tasks more efficiently.

New Actions

  • Create Generic Animation Track: action.story.create_generic_animation_track
  • Create Character Animation Track: action.story.create_character_animation_track
  • Insert Animation File: action.story.insert_animation_file
  • Insert Current Take: action.story.insert_current_take
  • Plot Whole Scene to Current Take: action.story.plot_whole_scene_to_current_take

By default, there is no shortcut keys assigned to those new actions. You can set new shortcut keys to these new actions by creating/editing a keyboard config file, or using the Keyboard Shortcuts Editor (from the Python Tools main menu).

New shortcut keys enhance Transport Controls and Play Speed Actions

We have introduced new actions that enhance your control over the Transport Controls and Play Speed in MotionBuilder.

New Actions

  • Start Frame: action.global.time_set_start
  • End Frame: action.global.time_set_end
  • 1x Speed: action.global.time_set_1x_speed
  • Custom Speed: action.global.time_set_custom_speed

By default, there is no shortcut keys assigned to those new actions. You can set new shortcut keys to these new actions by creating/editing a keyboard config file, or using the Keyboard Shortcuts Editor (from the Python Tools main menu).

Enhanced Plot Options

The latest Plot Options used when doing a plot process with the UI are no longer saved in the config files, but are instead kept in memory and saved within the scene. When running multiple instances of MotionBuilder at the same time, the plot options for one instance will no longer affect the plot options for the second instance. When loading a scene, the latest plot options used when the scene was saved will now be reapplied.

The configs for the plot options are still used to specify what the default plot options are when starting a new instance of MotionBuilder or when creating a new scene.

Send crash reports silently

On Windows, MotionBuilder now offers an automatic and silent crash reporting feature. When a crash occurs, you can opt to send crash reports directly to Autodesk. This functionality is facilitated by the new MOBU_AUTOSEND_CER environment variable.

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