Open Options

Use these options to set what happens when you select File > Open. See also Create, open, or save a scene file.

General options

File type

Select the file format you want to use as a default for the next time you open a file.

If you have a project set up, when you open a scene, the browser points to the directory containing files of that type. On Windows and Mac OS X, it also sets the filter to display only files of the selected type.

Depending on the File Type you select, various File Type Specific Options are displayed.

File Type Specific Options

These options change depending on the File type you specify in the General Options section.

For mayaAscii, mayaBinary files

Use full names for attributes on nodes

Displays the full names of node attributes in the file.

For example, if you select the Use Full Names for Attributes on Nodes option, attribute names are listed as, setAttr.translate 0 0 0 when you open the Maya ASCII file in a text editor. If you turn off the Use Verbose Names option, attribute names are listed as setAttr .t 0 0 0.

For OBJ files

Single Object/Multiple Objects

Specifies how shapes are created in OBJ files.

Multiple Objects creates individual shapes based on grouping information specified in the OBJ file. Single Object creates one shape for the entire file, with object sets corresponding to each of the specified groups.

You cannot have overlapping groups. If you do, Maya informs you that overlapping groups exist, and re-reads the file as if the option were set to Single Object.

For audio files

Sound file offset

Specifies the time the sound should start playing.

For example, suppose you created an animation of a bird walking a tightrope, and you wanted the sound file to play after the bird reached the end of the rope. If you knew that the bird reached the end of the tightrope at time 108, you would specify a sound file offset of 108.

Illustrator and EPS files

You must import Illustrator and EPS files. See Import Options.