The following section contains a list of known limitations for this version of the Maya FBX Plug-in. If you have problems with the plug-in that are not listed here, refer to the Troubleshooting section.
- FBX and smooth edge export
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Exporting an FBX polygon object with smooth edge normals will reimport into Maya with incorrect normal information unless you activate the Smoothing Groups option in the Include > Geometry section on export, and the Smoothing Groups option in the FBX Import options on import.
- Node Namespaces
- The FBX Import window File Content option must be set to Add if you want the Import option Use Selected namespace as parent and add new namespace/(file name)string to behave correctly. If the File Content options are set to either Update animation or Add and update animation, your namespace is not added to the file.
- FBX attribute support
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You can export Maya transform node custom attributes to the user properties of FbxNode. However, you cannot export Maya shape node custom attributes, such as mesh node, to FbxGeometry. This is because FbxGeometry does not currently support user properties.
FBX does not support the export of every Maya attribute, for example, SmoothDrawType, or ShaderFX primitive variable node attributes.
If the FBX plug-in encounters an attribute on export that it does not support, it resets the attribute to its default value on re-import.
- FBX and Color Management
- The FBX file format does not support Color space information.
- Cannot cancel FBX file overwrite
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In older versions of the Maya UI (before version 2011), as well as the "Classic" OS Native UI, if you want to overwrite an existing file, the Overwrite dialog box appears. If you select Yes, and then cancel the export in the FBX exporter window that appears, the FBX file that was to be overwritten is instead deleted.
This is not a problem if you use the Maya default UI while exporting to FBX because the file browser and exporter options now appear in the same window. If you use the Maya Default UI to export to FBX, you can cancel the export operation without deleting the original FBX file. See the Switching the FBX UI section in FBX Plug-in UI.
- FBX cluster import
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To import clusters correctly into Maya, deactivate the Deforming Elements to Joints option in the FBX Import options window. Otherwise their cluster pivots do not import correctly.
- FBX Support for instanced geometry
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A limitation exists where FBX does not support instanced geometries that have materials that differ from the original geometry object.
While instanced geometries are supported, materials differences are not. For example, if two instances of a geometry have colors A (original object color) and B, once exported to FBX, both will share color A. - FBX and non-orthogonal matrices
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“Orthogonal” is a term used to describe two vectors that are perpendicular (at 90 degrees) to each other. In 3D space, when the X, Y, or Z-axes are not perpendicular, they are considered “non-orthogonal” and the FBX plug-in does not support their representation as a matrix. For example, a non-orthogonal set of axes can occur when you use rotation and scaling to skew an object.
Because the FBX plug-in assumes that there is always a 90 degree angle between the X, Y, and Z axes, it can support only orthogonal matrices. Any transformed axes that have non-orthogonal TRS matrices are ignored by the FBX plug-in, so it does not import or export effects created when axes are not orthographic. Because of this, any non-orthogonal effect (such as skewing) is lost.
This can cause problems even when you have transformation data that has been inherited from other objects, for example, scaling via a parent object where the result is a non-orthogonal local TRS matrix.
- FBX Preset Bake Animation settings
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You cannot save Bake Animation settings (Start/End/Step values) in Preset files. If you created a preset that had specific settings for the Bake Animations values, these values will not be used the next time you load the preset. Instead, the FBX plug-in will always default to the values set for the scene's timeline.
For example, if the animation in the scene is 102 frames long, the Start value will be 1, the End value will be 102, and the Step value will be 1, regardless of what is values you may have stored in the preset for this setting.
- FBX and scale compensation
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There is no limitation for the scale compensate setting in the Maya FBX Plug-in itself.
However, there is a limitation in 3ds Max. If you modify the scale of joints that are parents of other joints in Maya, a conversion is performed that compensates for the scaling behavior that is not found in 3ds Max. This is done by animating the scale of the child joint. This conversion maintains the visual fidelity of Maya animation in 3ds Max.
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What does Scale Compensate do?
If you scale a parent joint in Maya using scale compensation, it creates an offset for a child joint rather than scaling it. But if you do the same thing in 3ds Max, the child scales and creates no offsets.
- FBX and Selection sets
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A known limitation exists where sets that contain NURBS Sub-components, such as Isoparm, Control Vertex, or Surface Patch, are not retained in sets and will not be exported.
- FBX Tangents and Binormals
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There is a known FBX limitation where exported binormal and/or tangent information does not appear, even if you activate the Export > Include Geometry Tangents and Binormals option.
The Tangents and Binormals option only works on meshes that have only triangle polygons, so you may need to triangulate the mesh before activating this option
- FBX and assets (containers)
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Although assets are included when exporting via FBX, custom attributes on the asset nodes are not included with the export.