File > Export All, Export Selection (mental ray)

File > Export Selection, Export All >

File Type

When you select mentalRay from the File Type drop-down list, the many options appear.

File Type Specific Options

Export Selection Output

If objects do not change, reprocessing before exporting to .mi is not required, and the export process is significantly shortened as a result.

Renderable Scene: This is the default.

Maya exports all scene entities (lights, cameras, shaders, globals, and so on) that are necessary to render the selected geometry. The resulting scene will be renderable using the mental ray standalone.
Render Proxy (Assembly): Export selection as a mental ray file so that it can be used as a render proxy in your scene. Use this option to export your complex geometry into a mental ray file, then replace it in your scene with a placeholder object that references this file. See Using render proxies in your scene for more information.
Scene Fragment (Custom): Maya exports only the nodes that are selected. This mode can be used to export particular lights, cameras, shaders, or geometry. The resulting .mi file will most likely not be directly renderable, so it is called a Scene Fragment.

Export materials: In addition to the selected nodes, this setting also exports any materials that they are connected to. This applies to selected geometry and shading nodes.
Export material Assignments: In addition to the selected nodes, this setting also exports any material assignment that they are connected to. For example, if your selected geometry is assigned to a Phong shader, selecting this option as well as the Export Materials option will export the geometry, its association with the Phong shader, and the Phong shader itself.

This option is most useful when exporting render proxies to a .mi file. See Using render proxies in your scene and Managing your scenes using render proxies for more information regarding the use of render proxies.

This option supports material propagation from Maya with render proxies. For example, if you generate a render proxy without assigning to it any material or shading group, and then assign this render proxy to a shape placeholder, then any material assigned at the placeholder level (Maya shape node / instances) is automatically propagated to all objects in the render proxy file. This option allows for the separation of geometry from materials or shading groups.
Export all incoming shaders: In addition to selected shading nodes, also exports all inputs to those nodes. For example, if a surface shader is selected, this mode causes any texture networks feeding into the shader to be exported along with the shader.
Export entire child DAG: This option specifies that in addition to selected geometry, any children of that geometry should also be exported.

The standard export filters (enabled by turning on Export Selected Items Only) are also applied to the nodes identified for export. This allows you to prevent the export of unwanted node types.
Root Group Name: Use this option to specify the name of the assembly root. If you choose Use Filename, the root group name is derived from the file name. For example, if the render proxy file name is test.mi, the assembly root group name is test. Alternatively, you can specify your own root group name.

File Format: In ASCII mode, all data in the exported .mi file will be human-readable ASCII text. In binary mode, certain floating-point data (points, normals, texture coordinates, and so on) will be output in binary format to reduce the size of the exported file. The ASCII mode tabulator size determines the amount of indentation in the .mi file.
Output File Per Frame: When animation is enabled, Maya exports all data required to render all the frames specified by the Render Settings animation range settings. With Output File Per Frame off, data for all the frames is output to a single .mi file. With this option on, a separate file is output for each frame.
Frame Extension: When Output File Per Frame is enabled, this option determines the convention for naming each frame’s output file.
Frame Padding: When Output File Per Frame is enabled, determines the amount of padding applied to the frame numbers. Setting the padding to 2 means each frame number is at least 2 characters long (01, 02, 03, ...), setting it to 3 means each frame number will be at least 3 characters long (001, 002, ...), and so on.
Output File Per Layer: The information from multiple render layers cannot be contained within a single .mi file. Enabling this option allows you to export one .mi file per render layer.

If your scene contains multiple render layers, you must turn on this option. If this option is turned off and you export to .mi format, your scene will not render properly.
Export File Paths: Use this option to set the file path for each category.

For each option, there are three choices:

None. The filename does not contain a path. For example, hat.jpg.
Absolute. The filename contains an absolute path. For example, c:/My Documents/maya/projects/default/sourceimages/hat.jpg.
Relative to project. The relative path to the project directory is used. For example, sourceimages/hat.jpg.
Link Library

Path option for shader libraries. For example, decides the path options for mayabase.so, base.so, etc.

Include File

Path option for shader declaration files (mi) such as mayabase.mi, etc.

Texture File

Path option for texture files; for example, hat.jpg.

Light Map

Path option for lightmap files generated (if lightmap shader is used).

Light Profile

Path option for light profile files.

Output Image

Path option for output image files.

Shadow Map

Path option for shadow map files.

Finalgather Map

Path option for final gather map files.

Photon Map

Path option for photon map files.

Render Proxy Placeholder

Path option for the render proxy placeholder.

Export Selected Items Only

This option allows detailed control over precisely which mental ray entities are exported into the .mi file. See the mental ray User Manual, available from the Maya Help, for descriptions of the various entity types that can be exported.

Predefined Export Filters

Provides several useful preset combinations of entity types for export.