Q100074: Methods for troubleshooting Nuke/NukeX/Nuke Studio issues

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SUMMARY

This article will advise you of certain steps you can take to self-diagnose your issue, or narrow down potential causes, in your Nuke scripts and Nuke Studio projects.

If you are encountering crashes or errors on launch, then you can find a more specific guide to troubleshooting these problems here:

Q100540: How to troubleshoot Nuke/Hiero/Nuke Studio crashing on startup

 

INITIAL STEPS

Check for known issues in our Knowledge Base Articles

First we would recommend that you check Nuke's product Knowledge Base articles for known issues. If you do not see an article relating to the issue you are seeing, then please do the following:

 

Isolate customizations/third party plug-ins by running Nuke/Nuke Studio in safe mode

Launching the software in safe mode will make Nuke/NukeX/Nuke Studio temporarily ignore any customizations or plug-ins and help you to understand if the issue is to do with Nukes core functionality, or possibly something external. Please reference the Q100038: Launching Nuke/NukeX/NukeStudio/Hiero in safe mode article for instructions.

If the issue does not occur in safe mode, then the issue is likely related to a third-party customization that has been added to Nuke. For more information about troubleshooting your .nuke directory, and isolating any customizations that may be causing problems, please refer to the following article:
Q100475: Troubleshooting the .nuke directory

 

Test with alternative footage/default settings

Testing with different footage/settings to your original reproduction case will help you understand if the issue is isolated to specific footage or settings.

  • Try replacing the footage in your script with checkerboards (using the CheckerBoard node) or with 10-bit DPX files and testing to see if the issue still occurs.

  • Try using alternative settings where available to see if the issue is isolated to one particular variable setting. i.e if you are experiencing issues when writing out using a codec with the mov32 encoder, you might try changing the codec and testing with mov64 instead.

 

NUKE

Simplify the script file

Often issues in large scripts can be isolated to a small collection of nodes and simplifying the project to these nodes will give a better insight as to what the possible cause is. To simplify a project we recommend that you:

1. Remove a large selection of branching nodes

2. Test the script to see if the issue still appears

    • if it does: repeat step 1, and start to remove nodes from all areas of the node network

    • if it doesn't: undo the action of deleting the nodes and repeat step 1, but select a smaller selection of nodes

3. Repeat steps 1-2 until you have simplified the script as much as possible while being still able to reproduce the issue

 

NUKESTUDIO

Simplify the project file

Often issues in large projects can be isolated to a small collection of clips/tracks and simplifying the project to these elements will give a better insight as to what the possible cause is. To simplify a project we recommend that you:

1. Remove a single track at a time

2. Test the script to see if the issue still appears

    • if it does: repeat step 1, if you are down to 1 track and can still see the issue, then we would recommend to repeat the process but with clip items on the track
    • if it doesn't: undo the action of deleting the track and repeat step 1, but select a different track, or start removing clip items instead

3. Repeat steps 1-2 until you have simplified the project as much as possible while still able to see the issue

Clear tags

Sometimes export errors can occur when tags have been applied to a clip or sequence and there is a conflict between these tags and the export process. To clear tags please do the following:

1. Select all clips on in the Project Bin

2. Right click > Tags > Clear Tags

3. Retry export
 
  

ADDITIONAL TESTS

Depending on the type of issue you're experiencing the following suggestions might prove useful for additional troubleshooting. Including these test results in the support request you send us would be extremely useful during our internal investigation.
 
Test with the project and footage on a local drive
To remove the possibility of the issue being network related we would recommend that you try to reproduce the issue with all files stored on a local drive. For example:
  • slow playback. Trying to use local footage or making sure everything is localised should help speed up the playback process
  • rendering a script on the farm. Trying to render in batch mode on a local machine instead of using the farm, would confirm whether the problem is related to Nuke or the third party renderfarm software vendor.


Close all background processes and test again while checking memory usage

If you are noticing a high memory usage when running Nuke it would be good to get an understanding of what effect Nuke/NukeX/NukeStudio is having on your machine. Take a note of the high memory consumption then close all other applications and test Nuke/NukeX/NukeStudio again while checking what the memory usage of the machine is (CPU/RAM) compared to the previous one.

We are aware an issue with Nuke's memory usage in some Nuke versions, 12.2v1-12.2v9, 13.01-13.0v5, 13.1v1-13v1.2. This was fixed in Nuke 12.2v10, 13.0v6, 13.1v2, and more information about this issue can be found in the bug report below:
ID 484135 - Nuke seems to use more RAM than 12.1 versions, and clearing the cache frees up less memory

Ensure there are no foreign characters or uncommon symbols used in paths

Read, Export and render errors can sometimes be caused by Nuke/NukeX/NukeStudio not recognizing foreign characters or uncommon symbols. If this is the issue you're seeing the please ensure the paths used in your script do not contain any of these.

Clear cache

Clearing your cache can help with performance issues and unexpected behaviours. Please references our Q100043: How to clear your Nuke/NukeX/NukeStudio cache article for instructions.

 

FURTHER READING

If you are still seeing any issues after performing the steps outlined in this article, then please open a Support ticket and let us know the issue you are encountering and the troubleshooting steps you have taken so far.

For more information on how to open a Support ticket, please refer to the Q100064: How to raise a support ticket article.

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