Custom archive primitives

You can save Maya geometry in your scene and use it as custom archive geometry with XGen. You can also select Maya scenes and batch export contents of that scene to archive files. For example, you can create a tree with Maya Paint Effects, then save the polygon version of the tree as an .arc archive file and its supporting files.

When you use Export Select as Archive(s) or Batch Covert Scenes to Archives, Maya creates an archive directory at the specified location. It contains the following files:

• XGen .xarc archive file, which represents the geometry in XGen. These files store directory and file name information of the other archive-related files described below.

  When you use Batch Convert Scenes to Archives, saved archive files use the name of the source Maya scene file as a file base-name.

• Render proxy .mi.gz files which are used to render the archive primitives using mental ray.
  NoteMaterials that are baked in the render proxy (mi.gz) file are overwritten by materials assigned to the geometry in the scene. This means you can use SeExpr shaders and to shade primitives on a per-instance basis.
• Alembic .abc files which store the geometry objects.
• Maya .ma files, which contain the references to the materials assigned to the geometry. These material files are imported into the scene when you add the archive (.xarc) file.

 Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License