Notes and Procedures

The following topics describe some procedures and notes specific to using Maya with Mac OS X. These topics describe the variations to features and to common procedures when using Maya for Mac OS X.

Features for Mac OS X not available for Windows or Linux

The following features are available in Mac OS X but not Windows or Linux versions of Maya.

QuickTime integration
Threaded sound playback in time line during scrubbing
AppleScript executes Maya MEL commands with results returned. (See also Calling MEL from AppleScript and vice-versaof the MEL and Expressions guide.)
Full screen mode (See also Enter full screen mode.)

3rd party programs not available for Mac OS X

Motion capture drivers

Transferring files between platforms

Mac OS X files use different line endings than UNIX or Windows files. Mac OS X programs accommodate this by accepting any line ending, but Windows and UNIX programs require only their own form of line ending—including the UNIX-like programs run from the Mac OS X Terminal window.

Two UNIX utilities, which you run from the Terminal window, are included in the Maya bin folder to help you easily transfer files from one platform to another: tounix and tomac.

The following table describes what you need to do to transfer files between specific platforms.

From	To	Requires
mayaBinary on OS X	Any platform	Put as a binary file using ftp from the Terminal window, the Fetch application in binary mode, or any other Mac OS binary mechanism; or Use AppleShare IP on the non-Macintosh platform to transfer as a binary file from the Mac OS. (Using ftp from the non-Macintosh platform corrupts the file.)
mayaBinary on UNIX or Windows	Maya	Get as a binary file using ftp from the Terminal window, the Fetch application in binary mode, or any other binary mechanism; or Use AppleShare IP on the nonMacintosh platform to transfer as a binary file from the Mac OS. (Using ftp from the nonMacintosh platform corrupts the file.)
mayaAscii or mel files on UNIX or Windows	Maya	No special handling
Maya mayaAscii or mel files	Maya 5.0+ on UNIX or Windows	No special handling
Maya mayaAscii or mel files	Mac OS X applications that read text files	No special handling
Maya mayaAscii or mel files	Mac OS X UNIX applications (for example, vi or grep)	Use the tounix utility. From the Terminal window, enter: `tounix scene_file.ma`
Maya mayaAscii or mel files	Maya 3.0 on UNIX or Windows	a) From the Terminal window, use the tounix utility: `tounix scene_file.ma`then ftp as an ascii file. or b) Use the interactive Macintosh application Fetch, in ascii transfer mode.
mayaAscii or mel files that have been run through tounix utility	Mac OS X applications that read text files	Use the tomac utility. From the Terminal window, enter: `tomac scene_file.ma`
mayaAscii or mel files that have been run through tomac utility	Maya	No special handling
mayaAscii or mel files that have been run through tounix utility	Maya	No special handling