Why export APF files to Maya?

The Autodesk® Showcase™ installation provides APF plug-ins you can load into Maya® (versions 8.5 - 2009). With this plug-in, you can import tessellated APF model files into Maya and enhance them there (for example, by unwrapping UVs). You can use the same plug-in to export the files to be read back into Autodesk Showcase.

This workflow may improve the appearance of materials using image-based textures (for example, bump maps and lighting maps) when the images are mapped onto the model surfaces. In addition, you can bake software-rendered textures in Maya to make sure they appear correctly aligned and positioned in Autodesk Showcase.

Tips and warnings

• You can change the overall shape of the polygon mesh (for example, add creases, deform, bend, or stretch), but you cannot remodel the polygonal mesh (for example, delete faces, change the number of vertices, extract, detach, regroup, rename, or cut).
• You must perform the same UV remapping for each LOD (LODs appear as separate transforms in the Maya Outliner). Some useful unwrapping tools in Maya include Polygon UVs > Planar Mapping.
• You must use parametric mapping of textures in Autodesk Showcase (as opposed to projection mapping) to see the results of your changes.
• If you change the APF file in Maya, these changes will not be preserved if you reload or re-tessellate the model from its original CAD format back into Autodesk Showcase.