Prepare your Maya scene for Softimage

Before sending Maya scenes to Softimage, set your Maya project and save the scene you want to use for your ICE particle or deformation effect to the currently set project. All of the files sent back to Maya are copied to the currently set Maya project folder.

Preparing for ICE particle effects

Create the geometry that you want to use in the ICE effect.
This includes any objects that you want to use to control particle effects in ICE, such as geometry for surface emitters as well as any collision objects, goal objects, and curves for particles to flow along.
Set the Maya timeslider to the desired length of the simulation.
Increasing the scene length in Softimage does not update the scene that is sent back to Maya. You must set the scene length in both Maya and Softimage.
If you want to use animated geometry in an ICE effect, ensure that you have created a Maya geometry cache of the animation.

Preparing for animated deformations

For objects that have an animated deformation, such as a Squash or Twist, add them to a set, select the set and the individual objects in the set, then send them to Softimage. Although you do not need to do this for Skin deformers, the deformations might not be exactly the same in Softimage if you don't prepare them. The geometry of objects in sets or groups is cached automatically. You do not need to apply caches manually.

You can send any deformation from Softimage using a cache. For geometry deformations originating in Softimage, the geometry participating in the effect must be grouped before being sent to Maya. Plus, you need to select the geometry group and each geometry object before sending them to Maya.