Imports the contents of a scene (objects, animation, shaders, and so on) into your currently open scene without importing the files into the scene. That is, the contents that appear in your scene are read or referenced from pre-existing files that remain separate and unopened.
The following describes the reference options available when creating a file reference.
Select from the drop-down list the file type you are importing. If you aren’t sure what type of file you are importing, you can select Best Guess.
For more information on file type options, see File > Import.
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.
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.
Sets whether anything will be shared between nodes, be it display layers, shading networks or render layers. If you have a render layer, display layer, or shading network in a referenced file that has the same name as the one in the referencing file, turning this option on allows these nodes to be shared between the referencing and referenced file (see the following options).
For shared display layers, merging is decided based on name alone. If both layers have the same name, and shared display layers is turned on, the contents are merged.
For shared shading networks, merging is done only if the node names and types are the same.
When the reference is created, display layers associated with the child scene are integrated into the parent scene.
Maya uses the display layer name to determine how the referenced layer is added to the current scene. If a display layer name already exists in the parent scene, any objects assigned to an identically-named display layer in a child scene are added to the original parent display layer when they are referenced.
If a child scene contains a display layer that does not exist in the parent scene, the layer from the child scene appears in the parent scene when the child scene is referenced. If these child scenes are later removed from the parent scene, their associated layers are removed as well.
Shared layers are automatically placed in the default namespace.
If you reference a file into your current scene with shared shading networks enabled, the shading networks from the referenced scene are combined with those in the current scene (including those of any references). This avoids creating duplicate shading networks when you want the same ones used throughout your scene, including the reference.
Shading networks can only be shared if the shading networks are identical. Maya considers two shading networks to be identical only if all the nodes included in it have both the same name and type while traveling upstream from the shading group.
While the name and type of each node in the shading network must be identical in order for the shading network to be shared, the actual values in each node are not considered. So, a node in a child scene with one value (for example, blue) is considered identical to a node in the parent scene with a different value (for example, red) as long as its name and type match.
However, certain shading networks cannot be shared. They are: networks that include DAG objects (such as those that include the place3dTexture node); networks with animation applied to a node; networks with an expression applied to a node.
If any of these items appear in the shading network, the network is not shared when the file is referenced with shared shading networks enabled.
Any items that exist downstream of the shading network are also not shared. The only items shared are those items upstream of the shading network.
When the reference is created, the render layers associated with the child scene are integrated into the parent scene.
You can choose to use the render layer by Name or by Number to determine which render layers are merged. If a render layer name or ID already exists in the parent scene, any objects assigned to a render layer with the same name or ID in a child scene are added to the referencing scene’s render layer when they are referenced.
When you reference a scene with the Use Namespaces option turned on, Maya creates a new namespace that contains the imported or referenced data. Turning on the Use Namespaces option ensures that all nodes are uniquely named.
A namespace is a grouping of objects under a given name. Each item in a namespace is identified by its own name along with the namespace it belongs to.
By default, the basename of the imported or referenced file is added to the beginning of the imported or referenced object names, separated by colons.
For example, if you are importing a scene named foo.ma that contains an object named ball, after it’s imported the ball is named foo:ball.
You can change the prefix by selecting Resolve all nodes with this string and entering a prefix.
You can create, name, parent, and remove namespaces using the namespace command.
Namespaces do not effect selection, the DAG, the Dependency Graph, or any other aspect of Maya.
When you reference a scene into another scene, naming conflicts occur if the nodes share the same name and parent nodes.
To resolve these naming conflicts, all nodes will be renamed when the reference is loaded. You specify whether to use the filename as the prefix (the default) or to create a prefix string. Name clash options are ignored when referencing files. The Rename All selection is used throughout.
For more information on node hierarchy, see MEL and Expressions.
Type the text string for the proxy tag you want applied to the proxy reference or select an existing tag from the list in the drop-down menu. When a proxy tag appears in gray in this list, it indicates that the tag is already in use for this specific file reference. The proxy tag appears in the Reference Editor.
Maya keeps track of, and can distinguish between, the last proxy tag used for a file reference, and the last proxy tag used for a proxy reference. This ability streamlines the tagging process regardless of your preferred workflow.
For example, you may want to tag multiple file references in succession with a tag named hiRes when you first create each one. In this case, you need only type the tag name once and it is automatically assigned to successive file reference tags. If you want to tag multiple proxies for those same references, you only need type in the proxy tag name for the proxy once, and the proxy tag will be remembered for successive proxies.
Alternatively, you may want to create and tag one file reference named hiRes and then immediately create and tag its corresponding proxy reference named loRes. You can then create the next file reference and it will automatically be assigned the tag hiRes, then create its proxy reference, and it will automatically be assigned the tag loRes.
Because Maya can distinguish between the most recent file reference and proxy reference tags specified, this alternating tagging workflow is possible.
If a file reference has not been assigned a unique proxy tag prior to the creation of the first proxy in the scene, the file reference will be assigned a proxy tag named original to differentiate the original file reference from the first proxy. Once a tag has been specified for a file reference, it will continue to be used as the default file reference tag until another is specified. That is, Maya only uses the default original tag if the user has not previously explicitly specified a tag for a file reference.
If a proxy tag is not specified when the first proxy reference is created in the scene, Maya will automatically apply a unique proxy tag based on the name of the reference node. Once a proxy tag has been specified for a proxy reference, it will continue to be the default tag for proxy references until another is specified. That is, Maya only uses a default proxy tag name when the user has not previously specified an explicit tag name for a proxy reference.
Once you create a proxy tag, it will become available for selection within the Proxy Tag Options drop-down menu in both the Proxy Options and Reference Options windows.
Proxy tags must be unique within a given proxy set. That is, a proxy tag will be available for a proxy set provided it is not already in use within the same proxy set. You can create your own tags and reuse them in different proxy sets.
