Content Browser
The new Content Browser is your one-stop center for finding examples, scenes, and other content to build your scenes in Maya, replacing the Visor. You can navigate for files in your Maya projects, local and network directories, and sample libraries, then drag and drop them into the view panel.
See Find and import files from the Content Browser and Customize the Content Browser for more information.
Most commands that previously opened the Visor now open the Content Browser, except for workflows involving the Trax Editor. Sample content from the Visor is available on the Examples tab.
To open the Content Browser, choose , or in a panel.
Thumbnails and playblasts for scene files
You can now create a thumbnail image or an image sequence (playblast) with your scene file when saving or exporting it. This makes it easy to identify a file in the Content Browser. You can have thumbnails or playblasts for Maya ASCII (.ma), binary (.mb), or FBX files.
See Create thumbnails and playblasts for scene files for a workflow video and more information.
Outliner Enhancements
You can now use the Outliner to work with the new Render setup system, Materials, and Sets. You'll also notice some ease-of-use tweaks to the Outliner menus and Outliner contextual menus.
Filter objects based on their render layer by choosing the new Display > Render Setup Filter command. This displays the Render Setup filter box at the top of the Outliner from which you can select different filter options. You can select the same filters in the Show > Objects menu. See Filter and display only render setup members in the Outliner for more information.
The new Display > Assigned Materials filter displays the materials assigned to each object, and you can right-click a Material node to access several new commands. See Outliner contextual menus.
All the capabilities of the Relationship Editor for working with sets now exist in the Outliner. See Create and edit sets for updated information.
Additionally, the Search field in the Outliner has been updated. See Search and filter nodes. The same Search field appears in the Node Editor to help you filter the nodes displayed in its graph.
Selection improvements
- Objects now remain selected when you toggle between object and component mode using the marking menu.
- You can now make a marquee selection and only select border components using the Border selection constraint. See Expand a selection.
Automatic camera-based selection
You can use the new Automatic camera based selection setting to automatically activate camera-based selection when in shaded mode and disable it when in wireframe and x-ray modes. See Selection preferences.
Transform Tool updates
- Drag anywhere along the length of the Scale tool's XYZ axis handles to scale along an axis. See Scale objects and components.
- The new Along Normals option in the transform tool settings is on by default to provide you with more predictable sliding behavior. This new option snaps points onto the surface along the normal direction instead of using the closest point to the surface. See Move Tool.
- You can now select Set to Object in the custom axis orientation drop-down menu to set an object's axis orientation using the axis orientation of another object See Move Tool.
Modify > Match Transformations
You can use the new Match Transformations command to quickly match the transform values (Translation, Rotation, Scale) or pivots of one object to another in the scene. See Matching object attribute values.
Channel Box keyed channel bars
The channel fields in the Channel Box now have a colored bar beside them to indicate the current keying status of that channel instead of the channel field itself changing color. The keying status colors remain the same as before.
Copy weights when generating LODs
A new option in the
Generate LODs Options (Edit > LOD (Level of Detail) > Generate LOD Meshes >
) lets you specify whether to copy skin weights from the source mesh to the generated lower resolution meshes. Refer to the following topics for updated information:
MAYA_CONTENT_PATH environment variable
With the new MAYA_CONTENT_PATH environment variable, you can add third-party content, such as plug-ins and other content, so that it appears on the Examples tab in the Content Browser. Plug-ins can add to this path with their own content directories by adding to the environment variable in their module template files, or by using the assetBrowser -addContentPath flag. See File path variables.