FBX Conversion support

The following sections are about how the Maya FBX Plug-in converts Maya objects and their properties.

For a detailed report of conversion support for this version, see the Maya Compatibility Chart. The FBX compatibility chart explains what is supported and at what level, when you export from Autodesk Maya and import into Autodesk 3ds Max, Autodesk Mudbox or Autodesk MotionBuilder.

File textures, procedural, and map channels

The Maya FBX Plug-in supports texture files in almost any standard material channel. Anything that you map in the Color, Bump mapping and other channels translate to FBX, as long as they are not procedural maps.

Map channel	Support
Color	Supported
Transparency	Supported
Ambient color	Supported
Incandescence	Supported
Bump	Supported
Diffuse	Supported
Cosine power	Supported
Specular color	Supported
Reflectivity	Supported
Reflected color	Supported

The Maya FBX Plug-in supports file texture maps. If you are using either 2D or 3D procedural textures, convert them to a file texture first.

Note: The Maya FBX Plug-in ignores any maps applied to unsupported channels on export.

Camera support

The following tables indicate how both Maya and the FBX file format treat cameras.

Camera export

The following table lists Maya cameras and how the FBX file format treats them on export:

In Maya	Becomes in FBX
Camera	Camera without interest.
Camera and Aim	Camera with interest.
Camera, Aim, and Up	Camera with interest and up vector.
Angle of View	Field of View FCurve. The view is consistent even though the focal length values change when you import the FBX file into 3ds Max.
Near/far clipping planes	Near and Far clipping plane values are supported but not animation.
Stereo Camera	StereoCamera

Note: Any animation applied to a Maya camera’s Up node is baked onto the camera’s rotation when you import it into 3ds Max.

Custom camera export

When the Maya FBX plug-in exports custom cameras, the exporter sets the Render Image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio for all cameras. If no custom cameras exist, the Render Image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio values are not exported.

Note: Make sure your custom camera is the current camera in the scene when exporting to FBX for the correct transport of the camera Render image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio.

Camera import

The following lists how Maya treats MotionBuilder cameras on import:

In FBX	Becomes in Maya
Free Camera	Camera
Camera (With a look-at Target/Interest)	Camera and Aim
Orthographic Camera	Camera with an orthographic setting.

Custom camera import

When the Maya FBX plug-in imports Maya and 3ds Max custom cameras, the Render Image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio applied to the scene is set by the current camera. That is, the Render Image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio from additional cameras are ignored. If the current camera is not a custom camera, the Render Image Size and Pixel Aspect Ratio values are not imported.

Light support

The following tables list Maya lights and how the plug-in treats them when they are exported to the FBX file format and imported into Maya:

In Maya	When imported back into Maya
Ambient light	Point light Note: The FBX plug-in exports Ambient light as inactive point lights with the Visibility value set to off.
Directional light	Directional light
Spot light	Spot light
Area light	Area light
Volume light	Volume light Note: The Maya FBX Plug-in has limited support for Volume lights and errors may occur.
Point light	Point light

Custom properties

Because of type limitations in FBX files, the following conversions are applied.

Exported from Maya	Becomes in FBX
Vector	VECTOR
Boolean	BOOL
Integer	INTEGER
String	STRING
Enum	ENUM
Float	REAL

Imported FBX	Becomes in Maya
REAL	Float
BOOL	Boolean
INTEGER	Integer
STRING	String
VECTOR	Vector

The Maya FBX Plug-in supports Extra Attributes (or custom properties) applied to Materials and Transform nodes.

Level of Detail group nodes

The Maya FBX plug-in supports LOD (level of detail) group nodes. See the Maya documentation on LOD group nodes for more information.

Joint Orients

The Maya FBX Plug-in converts Maya Joint Orients to pre-rotation on export.