Receive objects from Mudbox

You can send objects from Mudbox to Maya using the Send to Maya options located in the Mudbox File menu. These are objects that have either been created in Mudbox, or sent to Mudbox from Maya. Once you have applied paint layers or sculpt layers to an object, you can choose how you want to send those layers to Maya using the preferences associated with the Send to Maya options.

To send objects from Mudbox to Maya, do the following:

1. In Mudbox, select the object(s) that you wish to send to Maya.
   NoteIf you have multiple objects in your scene, and you do not select a particular object, the whole scene will be sent to Maya.
2. From the File menu, select Send to Maya.
3. Then select from the following options:
   • Send Selected as New Scene: By default the whole scene will be sent, so use this option if you have more than one object in a scene, and don't want to send all of the objects to Maya.
   • Update Current Scene: Use this option to add paint or sculpt layers to an object in Maya.
     NoteYou can also click the Update button in the status bar to update the current scene.
   • Update Textures in Current Scene: Use this option if you only want to update the textures of an object in Maya.
   • Add Selected to Current Scene. Use this option to add an additional object to an existing Maya scene.
   • Select Previously Sent Objects: If you have previously sent multiple objects at the same time, then this option will select all of those objects. However, if you have sent multiple objects separately, then this option will only select the most recently sent object.

     If you want to set the paint or sculpt layer preferences for an object, then select Preferences. This will prompt the Maya Send Preferences dialog. From this dialog, you can set the following preferences:

     If you want to set paint layer preferences, select:

     1. Do not send paint layers, if you do not want to send any paint layers.
     2. Flatten paint layers in each channel before sending, if you want to flatten all paint layers into a single layer.
     3. Send paint layers separately, if you want to send paint layers as individual layers.

     If you want to set the sculpt layer preferences, select:

     1. Flatten sculpt layers before sending, if you do not want sculpt layers to be converted to blend shapes.
     2. Export sculpt layers on current mesh level as Maya blend shapes, if you want sculpt layers to be converted to blend shapes.
     NoteThere are two preferences that you can also change from the Windows menu. If you go to Windows > Preferences and choose FBX, you can select Export Layers as Blend shapes and Flatten Paint Layers On Export. However, changing these preferences from the Windows menu does not automatically change the preferences in the Maya Send Preferences dialog.

   A connection status indicator displays in the status bar when Mudbox and Maya are connected.

Limitations

There are some known limitations associated with the Send To workflow between Maya and Mudbox. You may receive one of two messages when sending objects to Mudbox:

• High-valence vertex
• UV Faces Crossing Tile Boundaries

Both of these problems can be corrected in Maya.

Do the following if the problem is High-valence vertex:

NoteThis problem is often associated with spherical objects.

1. Select the object in Maya.
2. From the Windows menu, select the Attribute Editor.
3. Then select the Poly Sphere History.
4. Next, change the values in the Subdivisions Axis and Subdivisions Height fields to 15.
5. Then, from the Windows menu, select the UV Texture Editor.
6. Select the Move UV Shell tool and reduce the size of the object so that it is not touching the borders.

Do the following if the problem is the UV Faces Crossing Tile Boundaries:

1. Then, from the Windows menu, select the UV Texture Editor.
2. Select the Move UV Shell tool and reduce the size of the object so that it is not touching the borders.

Additionally, another limitation is that multiple materials on the same mesh are not supported in Mudbox. So if you send an mesh with multiple materials from Maya to Mudbox, only one of those materials will appear on the mesh in Mudbox. In fact, Mudbox will select the material applied to the first face (ID 0) of the mesh.