Exporting to Alembic Files

• File menu > Export > Select File to Export dialog > Files of Type: Alembic (*.ABC)

When you export an Alembic file, you automatically export data for:

• Node Transform
• Node Visibility
• Shape Objects
  • Nurbs
  • Beziers
  • Lines
• Mesh/Polygons
  Note: Any geometry is converted to a poly object, and all hidden edges for mesh are visible.
  • Faces
  • Position Channel
  • UV Channel 1 native
  • UV Channel 2-99 as custom channel name "Max Map Channel %d", where d is the map channel index
    Note: Channels -2 to 0 are not included (vertex color, illum, and alpha)
  • Normals from smoothing groups and Explicit Normals
  • Material ID as a FaceSet, named the Material ID index
• Particle Points, Simple Particles, and PFlow
  • Position
  • Velocity
  • Width
  • ID
  Note: Particles can be exported to Alembic but particle shape information is not preserved. Particles export as point-sized particles.
• Cameras
  • Render Aspect Ratio
  • Horizontal/Vertical Aspect Ratio
  • Focal Length
  • Near/Far Clip Planes
  • DOF FStop
  • Focus Distance

There are also several options for additional data you can export should you wish.

Interface

Export group

All # nodes

Exports the selected nodes and ancestors only. The number value corresponds to the number of nodes selected.

Format

ABC file format:

• Ogawa (default): Suitable for multi-threading. Ogawa files can be smaller than HDF5 files and generally load more quickly.
• HDF5: Legacy file format.

Coordinate System

Exports Alembic geometry in a Y-up or Z-up coordinate system.

Export Hidden Geometry

Exports all geometry hidden in the scene.

Add Shape Suffix

Adds the suffix "shape" from the Alembic node names.

Animation group

Single

Saves the current frame only.

Active Time Segments: 0 to 100

The range of frames as shown on the track bar.

Range

All the frames between and including the two numbers you specify.

Samples per frame

Regular sample of frames. For example, type 8 to render every 8 samples per frame. This affects only the Active Time Segment and Range output options. Default=1.

Export Data group

UVs

Exports all UVs in the exported meshes.

Normals

Exports all Normals associated with the exported geometry.

Vertex Colors

Exports the vertex colors associated with the exported vertices.

Extra Channels

Exports any extra channel information associated to geometry.

Note: From version 2017.2 on, UV channel information is compatible with Autodesk Maya.

Velocity

Exports the velocity associated with the exported vertices.

Material IDs

Exports the Material IDs associated with the exported faces.

Visibility

Exports visibility per object frame.

Layer Name

Exports layer names associated to exported objects.

Material Name

Exports material names associated with exported objects.

Object ID

Exports the g-buffer object ID for 3ds Max geometry nodes.

Custom Attributes

Exports all custom attributes associated with exported objects and their modifiers.

Particle Shape as Mesh

Converts particle shapes into meshes and exports the meshes.

Object Attributes

Exports all object attributes associated with objects.

Splines as NURBS

Exports all splines as NURBS.

Preserve Instances

Exports all instances of objects.

Important: Alembic format specification does not include any standard for most of this data. While 3ds Max will be able to import this information back into the software, other DCCs may not be able to read the data.