Directory Structure

Installation Directory

MotionBuilder is available for 64-bit architectures. By default, MotionBuilder is installed in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MotionBuilder <year>

This installation path will be referred to as [MotionBuilder] in the remainder of this topic to represent the path of your MotionBuilder installation directory.

C++ Directories

PathDescription
[MotionBuilder]\OpenRealitySDK\includeHeader files.
[MotionBuilder]\OpenRealitySDK\lib\x64Library files.
[MotionBuilder]\OpenRealitySDK\samplesC++ samples, including Visual Studio solution files.
[MotionBuilder]\OpenRealitySDK\scenesSample scene data.

C++ Libraries

Library NameDescription
cg.lib, cgGL.libCg header files and libraries provided by the Cg Toolkit 3.0.
fbsdk.libMotionBuilder SDK.

Python Subdirectories

PathDescription
[MotionBuilder]\bin\config\PythonContains Python modules used in MotionBuilder. Also contains keyboard configuration file. For more information on customizing keyboard shortcuts, see Managing Python Tools.
[MotionBuilder]\bin\config\ScriptsSample Python scripts. These are described in the Sample Programs topic.
[MotionBuilder]\bin\x64\python\lib\plat-win\pyfbsdk.pydThe pyfbsdk Python module, which encapsulates the majority of the MotionBuilder SDK Python functionality.
[MotionBuilder]\bin\config\Python\pyfbsdk_additions.pyContains Python code used to bridge functionality between the OpenReality C++ SDK and Python. It contains tool management functions and some UI creation helper classes.

User Configuration Directory

In the latest versions of Windows, only administrative users have the permission to write to the Program Files directory. To enable non-administrative users to customize MotionBuilder's configuration files, MotionBuilder creates the following directory for each user that opens MotionBuilder:

C:\Users\<user_name>\Documents\MB\<year>-x64\config\

This user configuration directory, which we will refer to as [config], allows each user to specify his or her own keyboard shortcuts, Python startup programs and scripts, character templates, and layouts. The [config] directory is created using the [MotionBuilder]\bin\config\ directory as a template.

Users can place Python scripts in the [config]\PythonStartup directory to have their scripts run when MotionBuilder starts up. For more information, see Running Python Scripts and Command Line Options.

Note: MotionBuilder will run the scripts in both the user's [config] directory, as well as the [MotionBuilder]\bin\config\ directory.