I was getting scarce reports from BroDynamics users about Maya hanging on BroDynamics startup, or more precisely - when trying to load BroTools.py plugin (or using install_step2.mel ).

Recently some studio had similar issue with Maya freezing on BroTools startup. After some mutual research we managed to narrow it down to their Anti Malware software blocking some functions of PySide - Maya's UI library.

To check if it's the case for you as well, please, try executing the following command in Maya as Python - either switching to Python on the command line that's located at the bottom of Maya's UI, or through the Script Editor and Python tab:

import PySide2.QtWebEngineWidgets 

If Maya hangs when you run this command, try temporarily turning off or disable your anti-virus and anti-malware software and try this command again. If it succeeds - try launching BroDynamics again.

If it works you may need to tweak your anti-virus or anti-malware software to add Maya.exe and mayapy.exe to trusted or otherwise tweak it's settings.

Unfortunately this is not something I can fix on my end, as it's a complex issue involving Qt library and Anti Malware software which I have no control of. QtWebEngineWidgets is used throughout BroDynamics and BroTools to display HTML+CSS formatted text: docs, about windows, welcome windows, changelog, license window and the like.

I'll see if I can replace his module with something else in future versions, but it may not be possible, at least not without giving up some functionality of BroTools UI.

And in case it makes you wonder if there's some actual malware in BroTools - the source code is open, so anyone can check it! 😉 That's one of the main reasons I decided to not hide the source code.

Cheers!

EDIT

You can view this and other solutions to this and other problems in the Troubleshooting section of BroTools and BroDynamics documentation here: https://docs.brotools.tech/BroDynamics/troubleshooting.html