Export to an offline file

You can export edits in your scene, such as geometry changes or new connections and nodes connected via those connections, to an external file. You can then apply this edits file to other objects to invoke the same changes on them.

For example, if you started with a base walk cycle animation, you could export a number of different tweaks, such as a strut, a shuffle, and a march, and export each of these tweaks into different files. You can then apply these edits to other characters.

You can export edits on an asset, a referenced file, or a set of selected nodes in your scene.

To export edits from a set of selected nodes

+ select the nodes in the scene that you want to export edits from.
Select File > Export to Offline File.
A file browser appears.
Navigate to the folder you want to store your edits and enter a name for the file. By default, Maya places these files in a subfolder of the current project called scenes\edits.
Click Export to Offline File.
Maya creates the specified file containing the reference edits with the extension .editMA or .editMB. You cannot open these files in Maya, but you can assign them to another file. For more information, see Assign an offline file.

Note

Dangling connections (connections to non-exported nodes) and reference edits are saved to the edits file with a placeholder namespace. When applying these edits, Maya replaces the placeholder with the namespace of the reference that the file is being applied to, or ":" for imports into the main scene.

Note

Default nodes are not exported. For example, if you changed the default shader (lambert1) and then exported your edits, the changed lambert1 is not exported.

You can also export edits for a specific referenced file.

To export edits on a referenced file

In the Reference Editor, select the referenced file that you want to export edits from.
Select File > Export to Offline File.
A file browser appears.
Navigate to the folder you want to store your edits and enter a name for the file. By default, Maya places these files in a subfolder of the current project called scenes\edits.
Click Export to Offline File.

Alternatively, you can export edits on a referenced object from the Outliner by -clicking a referenced object in the Outliner and selecting Reference > Export to Offline File from the marking menu.