File > Open Scene

General options

File type

Select the file format you want to use as a default for the next time you open a file.

If you have a project set up, when you open a scene, the browser points to the directory containing files of that type. On Windows and Mac OS X, it also sets the filter to display only files of the selected type.

Depending on the File Type you select, various File Type Specific Options are displayed.

Execute Script Nodes

Script nodes contain MEL scripts in mayaAscii or mayaBinary files. You can designate a script node to execute its script when the node is read from a file, or before or after rendering a frame. You can

and edit the script nodes using the Expression Editor. See the chapter “Using Script Nodes” in the MEL book for information on creating and editing script nodes.

User interface configuration information is stored inside the Maya scene file as an attribute on a script node. If you disable the Execute Script Nodes option, the UI script nodes are not executed. However, we recommend disabling script node execution only if you have an error in your script.

Referencing options

Load Default References

Respects the referenced file’s state in the referencing file when the referencing file was last saved. Whatever references were loaded or unloaded the last time you worked on the file are properly loaded or unloaded when you re-open it.

Load All References

Opens the file with all references loaded. You can change the state of reference loading after the file is open in Maya by opening the Reference Editor (Reference Editor overview) and selecting the references you want to unload.

Load No References

This opens the file without loading any references. You can load references after the file is open in Maya by opening the Reference Editor (Reference Editor overview) and selecting the references you want to load.

Load Top-Level References Only

Loads only the top-most referenced files (which may themselves contain many nested referenced files). This is useful in cases where you may be opening a complex nested scene reference hierarchy with many nested references and you want to easily work at the top level of the hierarchy.

Selective preload

Selecting this option opens the Preload Reference Editor before opening any file (Preload Reference Editor). You can select to load or defer any references in the file.

mayaAscii, mayaBinary, and MEL File Type Specific Options

Use full names for attributes on nodes

Displays the full names of node attributes in the file.

For example, if you select the Use Full Names for Attributes on Nodes option, attribute names are listed as, setAttr.translate 0 0 0 when you open the Maya ASCII file in a text editor. If you turn off the Use Verbose Names option, attribute names are listed as setAttr .t 0 0 0.

OBJ File Type Specific Options

Single Object/Multiple Objects

Specifies how shapes are created in OBJ files.

Multiple Objects creates individual shapes based on grouping information specified in the OBJ file. Single Object creates one shape for the entire file, with object sets corresponding to each of the specified groups.

You cannot have overlapping groups. If you do, Maya informs you that overlapping groups exist, and re-reads the file as if the option were set to Single Object.

Sound (audio) File Type Specific Options

Sound file offset

Specifies the time the sound should start playing.

For example, suppose you created an animation of a bird walking a tightrope, and you wanted the sound file to play after the bird reached the end of the rope. If you knew that the bird reached the end of the tightrope at time 108, you would specify a sound file offset of 108.

Move files

You must import move files. See File > Import.

Anim files

You must import anim files. See File > Import.

Illustrator and EPS files

You must import Illustrator and EPS files. See File > Import.