Troubleshooting¶
Hover it first
ORC's rule is that a disabled control's tooltip is the reason it is disabled. A greyed Compose button, a refused Paste, an unavailable scope — each one names its own fix. Most of this page is only needed when there is no control to hover.
The log¶
%APPDATA%\OctoRigComposer\orc.log
Attach it when you contact support (? → Report a bug… pre-fills your version and machine id).
Licensing keeps a separate log, orc_python_debug.log, in your system temp folder.
It will not launch¶
| Message | Cause |
|---|---|
| Octo Rig Composer could not start: Python bridge unavailable. | The folder is missing, misnamed, or in the wrong <version>-scripts directory. The box prints the path it expected — the folder must be named exactly octoRigComposer. |
| Octo Rig Composer failed to launch. | Python raised while starting. Read orc.log. |
| The activation dialog opens and closing it closes ORC | The trial has expired. See Licensing. |
Compose¶
It is greyed out¶
Hover it. The tooltip is the reason, and it is always actionable — see Compose.
The three common ones:
| Fix | |
|---|---|
| Enter a name for the Master Controller first. | Type a name. |
| …has no keys yet. Stamp a snap with F6 or delete the empty layer. | An empty layer blocks. Key it or remove it. |
| …is keyed but has no targets. | A layer that moves nothing cannot ship. |
It refuses outright, in red¶
Two conflicts cannot be composed, and the offending Outliner row is lit red:
| Fix | |
|---|---|
| Knob conflict — two extra knobs on the same node and channel | They cannot sum. Give one a different channel, or merge them. |
| Drawing conflict — one READ node swapped by two sibling layers | A drawing swap is discrete. Move one deeper in the hierarchy, or drop it. |
It says CONFIRM?¶
A warning, not a blocker. Read the list beside it and click again within five seconds, or let it lapse.
It finished "with warnings"¶
The MC exists and works. A non-fatal step had a problem — read the log pane, or orc.log.
F6 does nothing¶
Three possibilities:
- The cursor is not over anything keyable. F6 dispatches on what the mouse hovers. Put it over the grid.
- It is a shared extreme — "This extreme is shared from the Front (read-only) — author it on the Front face."
- It is a knob. A knob authors no frames.
Compose is slow¶
Every dimension multiplies the poses. A 5 × 3 control with a 3 × 3 layer and a 13-position knob is 1,755 addressable poses, and Compose reads each keyed one.
- Keep the same output folder between composes — the incremental cache lives there and is what makes a re-compose fast.
- Use the funnel's static channel filter, or turn on
Auto-filter static channels at Compose, so channels that never change are not written. - Check the History depth: every entry is a full rig snapshot.
The rig, after composing¶
A widget ignores every checkbox¶
Its visibility group is probably No Group. A widget with no group answers to nothing, including All. Give it a group.
A checkbox turns something off but will not turn it back on¶
Fixed in v1.0.0. If you see it on a rig composed by an older build, recompose.
An eye is cross-eyed, or the pupils drift¶
- Invert R is off. On by default, it compensates the mirrored right-eye peg so both irises track together.
- Or the peg baselines are stale: press
⟳in the look-at Values toolbar to re-read them.
A driver's value runs away¶
That is the additive-runaway signature. Check its Blend: additive is meant for a channel another author already writes, and it applies only where there is genuinely an overlap.
The rig has poses but nothing moves¶
Check the layer's targets, and the Side column. A row displaying an inherited side may never have been committed — re-pick the side explicitly. On a mirrored rig an inherited Both averages left and right and can cancel to the rest pose.
Re-opening¶
My composed MC will not re-open¶
If the log says "not ORC-readable — treating as regular MC. Recompose to enable re-edit", it was composed before ORC moved its data to disk. Recompose it with the current version.
It says the MC is already imported¶
'robin-MC' is already imported — remove it first to re-import. Importing twice would duplicate its targets and double-drive the same nodes.
My imported MC is gone and the rig still opened¶
That is intended. An imported MC is an accelerator, not a dependency — ORC merges its frames into the layer and composes natively:
2 imported MC(s) not found in this scene - composing natively from 528 frame(s)
Your targets are untouched.
The composed rig has no poses after moving the scene¶
The MC reads its state files from disk. Move the output folder with the scene — the path is stored scene-relative, so moving the pair together is safe.
Presets¶
Applying one created a second control¶
That is Add as new control — the safe default when the preset matched a control that already had authored poses. If you meant to overwrite, undo and choose Replace.
A section is greyed in the Pose Presets dialog¶
The preset does not contain it. Re-save the preset with that section ticked.
A grid preset dropped most of my knob positions¶
Knob reaches 1 of 18 positions — 17 will not be imported (ORC never resizes a shared knob).
A knob is a separate layer that other layers ride. Resize the knob deliberately, then re-apply.
Undo¶
Ctrl+Z did not undo what I expected¶
ORC coalesces deliberately: one gesture, one slider drag, and one bulk fill are each a single entry. Use the History panel to see the real steps and click to jump.
Ctrl+Z did nothing at all¶
ORC only listens while its window is active, so a Ctrl+Z in Harmony's Camera View never reaches it. Inside a text field it undoes your typing instead.
Undo did not change my Harmony scene¶
Correct — undo never writes to your scene. Compose is the only thing that does.
Performance¶
| Symptom | Look at |
|---|---|
| Slow with a huge target list | Normal — rows build lazily as you scroll. A bulk repopulate freezes behind a snapshot of the old list rather than blanking. |
| Memory climbing over a long session | History depth. Every entry is a full snapshot; the oldest are dropped past a hard ceiling regardless of the setting. |
| A grid is hard to click | 32 per side is the deliberate cap. On dense grids, navigate with the arrows and the ruler bars. |
Still stuck¶
? → Report a bug… opens the support form with your version, platform and machine id filled in. Attach orc.log and, if you can, say which snap address it happened at — R1C3, UR0C4:P1LR1C2 — because that is how ORC names where.