Installing the module

To install a module:

  1. Extract the module
  2. Move or copy the module's entire directory tree to a local or shared location, depending on whether the module will be used by a single user or several user
  3. Change the path to the module description file to point to the location where the module's directory tree is now located
  4. Place a copy of the modified module description file into a directory pointed to by the MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable

When Maya starts up, it will read in the module description file and add the module's icons directory to XBMLANGPATH, add the module's plug-ins directory to MAYA_PLUG_IN_PATH, add the module's presets directory to MAYA_PRESET_PATH and add the module's scripts directory to MAYA_SCRIPT_PATH and PYTHON_PATH.

Note: MAYA_MODULE_PATH defines the search paths for Maya module files. To see what directories this environment variable is set to, use the getenv command in the Maya Script Editor or Maya command line:

getenv MAYA_MODULE_PATH

You can also add additional directories to MAYA_MODULE_PATH in the Maya.env file. See Setting up your build environment for information about Maya.env.