Objects contained by standard Alembic files can be assigned shaders using the same materials and workflows as Maya geometry. You can have the Alembic object inherit the shading of its original object by selecting Merge from the Alembic Import window ( See Assign original object shading to Alembic objects and Pipeline Cache > Alembic Cache > Alembic Import. Alembic objects can be rendered with Maya Software or mental ray renderers.
GPU cache files export the original object's color information, including baked diffuse color data. If the original object includes textures, no color information is exported. The textures and materials from the source objects are replaced by the default shading color. GPU cached objects can be rendered with mental ray.
Assign original object shading to Alembic objects
If you import an Alembic object into a scene that contains the original version of the object, you can have the Alembic object inherit the original object's shading information. To do this:
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