Unsupported actions and important notes

When sending scenes between Maya and Softimage, be aware of the following unsupported actions and important notes.

Unsupported actions

  • Maya subdivision objects are not supported in Softimage.
  • ICE kinematics are not supported for sending to Maya.
  • Particle strands in ICE are not transferred to Maya. nParticles do not support arrays of positions per point.
  • Properties, such as weight maps and vertex colors, that are added in Softimage are not sent back to Maya. These properties are lost if the objects are re-sent from Maya to Softimage.
  • Only Points and Spheres particle Shapes (Particle Render Types) are supported in the same way in both Maya and Softimage. If the ICE particles use either of these shapes, the corresponding shape is automatically set as the Particle Render Type in Maya. All other ICE shapes are transferred as points by default.

    You can change the Particle Render Type in Maya, but the changes are not transferred to Softimage.

  • Use of multiple shapes in Softimage will not transfer to Maya. Maya uses the shape of the first particle for the Particle Render Type, as long as it is a Point, Sphere, or Rectangle (sprite).
  • If you want to use scene objects as instanced shapes, you need to instance the geometry in Maya after sending the effect back from Softimage. See Instance geometry to particles.

Important notes

  • Maya reads ICE particle and deformation effects as cached files, meaning that the effect cannot be modified in Maya.

    See nCaching overview.

  • Maya nodes or objects that are not recognized by the FBX file format appear in Softimage scene as anchors. The anchors maintain transform values set by Maya.
  • If you want to change the start and end frames, you must do so manually in both Maya and Softimage.
  • If you change the Time working units in Maya, the frame rate in Softimage is automatically updated when you re-send data from Maya.
  • Objects in the Maya and Softimage scenes are matched by name. If you change the name of an object in Maya, it will not be included when you update Softimage unless you add it explicitly, and the object with the old name in Softimage will not be automatically updated or deleted. Similarly if you change the name of a point cloud in Softimage, it will be treated as a new nParticle object in Maya and the nParticle object with the old name will not be automatically updated or deleted.
  • The geometry of objects in sets or groups is cached automatically. You do not need to apply caches manually.
  • For geometry deformations originating in Softimage, the geometry participating in the effect must be grouped before being sent to Maya. Plus, you need to select the geometry group and each geometry object before sending them to Maya.
  • You can send any deformation from Softimage using a cache.
  • The location of the cached files depends on the origin of the scene file. For example, if your scene is created in Maya, and then sent to Softimage as a new scene, Softimage saves the cached files to the current set Maya project's data directory.

Related topics

Parent topic: Simulation interchange with Softimage