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 Windows Mac OS X Linux

Maya ASCII

Maya Binary

MEL

FBX

DXF

OBJ

IGES

StudioTools® wire

 

AIFF

image

mov (ascii motion)

VRML2

*

*

EPS

Adobe® Illustrator®

OpenFlight®

STL

Data Export Windows Mac OS X Linux

Maya Ascii

Maya Binary

MEL

FBX

DXF

OBJ

IGES

StudioTools wire

   

mov (ascii motion)

VRML2

GE2

RTG

mental ray®

RIB

 

Open Inventor2

OpenFlight®

* via wrl2ma

Image Input Windows Mac OS X Linux

Maya IFF

AVI

   

Apple® Quicktime®

 

 

GIF

 

Softimage®

 

Wavefront RLA

   

BMP

TIFF

SGI® RGB

Alias Pix

 

JPEG

EPS

   

Cineon

 

Quantel

 

Targa

MacPaint

 

 

Adobe® PhotoShop®

 

 

PNG

 

 

QuickDraw

 

 
Image Output Windows Mac OS X Linux

Maya IFF

AVI

   

Apple® Quicktime®

 

 

GIF

 

Softimage®

 

Wavefront RLA

 

BMP

TIFF

SGI® RGB

Alias Pix

 

JPEG

EPS

 

Cineon

 

Quantel

 

Targa

 

MacPaint

 

 

Adobe® PhotoShop®

 

 

PNG

QuickDraw

 

 

DDS

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.