You can edit reference paths using the Reference Editor. You can also customize the Unresolved Name field so that it includes a specified prefix.
If Maya cannot find the referenced file in the specified location, it looks in several default locations to find the file.
Customize the Unresolved name with a prefix
You use the following Python script to customize the Unresolved name field so that, instead of the absolute path, the file path is displayed with a prefix of your choice.
import os.path import maya.cmds as cmds import maya.mel as mel import maya.OpenMaya as OpenMaya mel.eval('string $MyScenes; putenv $MyScenes "C:/Documents and Settings/admin/My Documents/maya/projects/default/scenes/"') def foo(retCode, fileObject, clientData): print "Callback was given %s" % fileObject.rawFullName() rel = "$MyScenes/" rel = rel + (os.path.basename(fileObject.rawFullName())) print "Callback changed this to %s" % rel fileObject.setRawFullName(rel) OpenMaya.MScriptUtil.setBool(retCode, True) id = OpenMaya.MSceneMessage.addCheckFileCallback(OpenMaya.MSceneMessage.kBeforeReferenceCheck, foo) # for deleting the callback OpenMaya.MMessage.removeCallback(id)