Supported file formats

 
 
 

The following lists general file format support. There may be slight differences in support between platforms and depending on variations in file formats. For example, TIFF is a very loosely defined format. It may be possible to save TIFF files in another program that Maya cannot open.

Translators

Translators are plug-ins that let you open and/or save data in a given file format. You must have the proper translator plug-in loaded to be able to open, save, import, or export data in the format.

Use the Plug-in Manager to load or unload translators.

Data Import Plugin Name Windows Mac OS X Linux Ext.

Maya ASCII

   

 

 

ma

Maya Binary

   

 

 

mb

MEL

   

 

 

mel

audio

   

 

 

 

FBX

fbxmaya

 

 

 

fbx

DAE_FBX

fbxmaya

 

 

 

dae

Alembic

AbcImport.mll  

 

 

abc

Alembic (GPU-optimized)

gpuCache.mll  

 

 

abc

DXF_DC

   

 

*3

dfx

DWG_DC

Direct-Connect

 

 

 

dwg

CATIAV4_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

model

CATIAV5_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

cat-product

IPT_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

ipt

animImport

anim-Import-Export

 

 

 

anim

Autodesk Packet File

Autodesk-Packet-File

 

 

 

apf

OBJ

   

 

 

obj

IGES_DC

   

 

*2

iges

StudioTools® wire

   

   

 

AIFF

   

 

 

 

image

   

 

 

 

fluidCache

   

 

 

 

editMA

   

 

 

editMA

editMB

   

 

 

editMB

studioImport

studioImport

 

 

 

wire

JT_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

jt

PTC_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

prt.*

SPF_DC

Direct-Connect

 

 

 

wire

STEP_DC

Direct-Connect

 

 

 

stp

SW_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

sldprt

IV_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

iv

CSB_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

csb

move (ascii motion)

   

 

 

mov

VRML2

wrl2ma*

*4

*4

*4

 

EPS

   

 

 

eps

Adobe® Illustrator®

   

 

 

ai

OpenFlight®

flt-Translator

 

 

 

flt

STL_DC

Direct-Connect

 

 

*1

stl

UG_DC

Direct-Connect

 

   

prt

*1 On Linux, use STL from the stlImport plug-in

*2 On Linux, use IGES from the Iges plug-in

*3 On Linux, use "DFX"_"FBX" from the fbxmaya plug-in

*4 standalone 'wrl2ma' on all OS

Data Export Plugin Name Windows Mac OS X Linux Ext.

Maya Ascii

   

 

 

ma

Maya Binary

   

 

 

mb

MEL

   

 

 

mel

FBX export

fbxmaya

 

 

 

fbx

DAE_FBX export

fbxmaya

 

 

 

dae

Alembic

AbcExport.mll

 

 

 

abc

Alembic (GPU-optimized)

gpuCache.mll

 

 

 

abc

DXF_DCE

DC-EXPORT

 

 

*6

dxf

OBJexport

objExport

 

 

 

obj

iv2

open-inventor

 

 

 

iv

IGES_DCE

DC-EXPORT

 

 

*5

iges

DWG_DC

DC-EXPORT

 

 

 

dwg

StudioTools wire

   

     

move (ascii motion)

   

 

 

mov

editMA

   

 

 

editMA

editMB

   

 

 

editMB

VRML2

vrml2-Export

 

 

 

wrl

apex-Clothing-Exporter

physx

 

   

ctp

PhysX

physx

 

     

MayaBullet

bullet.mll

*7

 

 

bullet

GE2

ge2-Export

 

 

 

grp

RTG

rtgExport

 

 

 

rtg

mental ray®

Mayatomr

 

 

 

mi

animExport

anim-Import-Export

 

 

 

anim

Autodesk Packet File

Autodesk-Packet-File

 

 

 

apf

SPF_DC

Direct-Connect

 

 

 

wire

STL_DC

Direct-Connect

 

 

 

stl

Open Inventor2

   

 

 

 

OpenFlight®

flt-Translator

 

 

 

flt

Shockwave3D

   

     

UG_DCE

Direct-Connect

 

   

prt

ZPR_DCE

Direct-Connect

 

   

zpr

Note

Starting in Maya 2014, Maya Binary (.mb) files use 64-bit indices and can be larger than 2.0 GB. Scenes exported as .mb files are not compatible with earlier versions of Maya.

*5 On Linux, use IGESEXport from the Iges plug-in

*6 On Linux, use DXF_FBX export from the fbxmaya plug-in

*7 Win 64 only

NoteThe mayaAscii and mayaBinary file formats are the only ones that preserve all the information contained within your scene. Setting the output format for an export using the Export Options box will change your default export format for the current and subsequent export operations. If you set the output format to something other then mayaAscii or mayaBinary and export using that format and then quit without saving the entire file then you can lose data.

Always check the export type in the export file browser to ensure you are writing the file using the expected file format.

Image Input Windows Mac OS X Linux Ext.

Adobe ® Photoshop ®

 

   

psd

ALIAS PIX

 

 

 

als

AVI

 

   

avi

DDS (fixed point)

 

 

 

dds

DDS (floating point)

 

   

dds

GIF

 

 

 

gif

JPEG

 

 

 

jpg

Kodak Cineon

 

 

 

cin

MAYA IFF

 

 

 

iff

mentalrayCT

 

 

 

ct

mentalrayMAP

 

 

 

map

mentalrayST

 

 

 

st

OpenEXR (Floating point, half)

 

   

exr

PNG

 

 

 

png

Postscript

 

 

 

eps

Quantel

 

 

 

yuv

Radiance Picture

 

 

 

pic, hdr

Silicon Graphics

 

 

 

sgi

Softimage ®

 

 

 

pic

SonypPSX

 

 

 

tim

Targa

 

 

 

tga

TIFF

 

 

 

tif

TIFF (floating point)

 

   

tif

Wavefront

 

 

 

rla

Windows Bitmap

 

 

 

bmp

XPM

 

 

 

xpm

Image Output Windows (Maya Software/Hardware/Hardware 2.0/mentalray/Vector) Mac OS X (Maya Software/Hardware/Hardware 2.0/mentalray/Vector) Linux (Maya Software/Hardware/Hardware 2.0/mentalray/Vector) Ext.

Adobe ® Illustrator ®

*4

*6

 

ai

ALIAS PIX

 

 

 

als

AVI

*1, *8

   

avi

CINEON

*1

 

 

cin

Dassault

*3

*5

*7

picture

DDS

*1

 

 

dds

EPS

*2

 

 

eps

Encapsulated Postscript

*4

   

eps

GIF

*1

 

 

gif

HDR

*3

*5

*7

hdr

JPEG

 

 

 

jpg

MacPaint

   

 

pnta

Macromedia SWF

*4

   

swf

MAYA IFF

 

 

 

iff

MAYA 16 IFF

*1

 

 

iff

mentalray Color

*3

*5

*7

ct

mentalray Alpha

*3

*5

*7

st

mentalray Normal

*3

*5

*7

nt

mentalray Motion

*3

*5

*7

mt

mentalray Depth

*3

*5

*7

zt

mentalray Tag

*3

*5

*7

tt

mentalray Bit

*3

*5

*7

bit

mentalray HDR

*3

*5

*7

cth

Portable Pixmap

*3

*5

*7

ppm

Postscript

*3

*5

*7

ps

PSD

*3

 

 

psd

PSD Layered

 

 

 

psd

PNG

 

 

 

png

OpenEXR

*3

*5

*7

exr

Quantel

*1

 

 

yuv

Quantel PAL

*3

 

*7

yuv

Quantel NTSC

*3

 

*7

yuv

Apple® QuickDraw®

   

 

pict

Apple® Quicktime Image®

   

 

gtif

Apple® Quicktime Movie®

   

 

mov

RLA

*1

 

 

rla

SGI ®

 

 

 

sgi

SGI 16 ®

*1

 

 

sgi

Softimage ®

 

 

 

pic

Swift3DImporter

*4

   

swft

Targa

 

 

 

tga

TIFF

 

 

 

tif

TIFF 16

*1

 

 

tif

TIFF uncompressed

*3

*5

*7

tif

Wavefront

*3

*5

*7

rla

Windows Bitmap

 

 

 

bmp

Sony Playstation

*1

 

 

tim

SVG

 

*6

 

svg

XPM

*1

 

 

xpm

*1: For Windows > Maya Software, Maya Hardware, Maya Hardware 2.0, and Vector

*2: For Windows > Maya Software,Maya Hardware, Maya Hardware 2.0, and mentalray

*3: For Windows > mentalray

*4: For Windows > Vector

*5: For Mac > mentalray

*6: For Mac > Vector

*7: For Linux > mentalray

*8: Export of .avi files limited to a size of 2GB.

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