Maya lets you organize the various files associated with scene files into projects. A project is a collection of folders for different file types, and consist of the following:
This is the top level directory associated with a Maya project. A project is referred to by the name of this root directory. You can specify the location of the project root folder in the Project Window when you create a new project. See Create a new project.
A Maya project definition file is named workspace.mel and is stored in the project's root directory. This file contains a set of commands that define where various types of files are located. The locations are usually relative to the root directory of the project but can also be arbitrary locations external to the project directory and defined by absolute paths. These locations are used when resolving file paths at runtime.
Sub-directories are used to further manage the project files. These sub-directories, organized as Primary Project Locations, Secondary Project Locations, Translator Data Locations, and Custom Data Locations, are generated by default when a new project is created. You can change the directories of these project locations. See Change project file locations.
For more information, see Project Window.