ok here's a lot of info
The gist... I have a container that is 24v x 40v x 340v scale 6x10x85
I have an emitter flying through the container over the course of 92 frames. I find that to get the fluid to connect I need a 5 frame over sample when I hit create cache it gives me a warning that the cache is going to be 5.6 gigs... that's ok I have plenty of room on my drive, I have 2 gigs of ram. when it goes through the frames (3 hours later) it errors and says the cache file either can't be found or used, I don't remember exactly. anyway, I find it acording to the time created in documents and settings>myusers>local settings>temp>mayaDiskCache_27c>hidden1_fluidShape.mcfp
so I set it (connect it back to the cache) but it crashes Maya(I try again and again no luck). Also the cache file is only 2 gigs... does RAM have any effect on Max fluid cache size?
I finally solved it by reducing my resolution, oversampling, and the total frames cached... it was a compramise, I lowered the settings till I didn't get a warning on my cache size and then I still had to connect the cache file from the same location. I have my projects set correctly and I've quadruple checked it made sure all files go where they are suposed to, they are. I've cached before but for some reason this big cache file is giving me trouble. Any help please? Not for this file but the problem in general.
I'm fairly sure maya has a 2 gig limit for caches. Try seperating it into something like 30 frames per scene.
1)Save as filename_1, filename_2, filename_3
2)Change the start time of the fluidShape
3)Cache with the appropriate frame range
4)Change render globals and batch render
I have no idea why they would have put this limit in there, but I guess it must have been unavoidable.
Maya6 also supports segmented cache files so that you can more easily cache longer animations.
Duncanthanks for the clarification guys, that helps a lot...
Oh, I just got Maya 6. I'm looking forward to giving it a good run through.