Getting started with .NET API

The Maya .NET API is used to create plug-ins for Maya. It is generated from the Maya C++ API, and the C# classes it uses are proxies for C++ classes.

See Maya devkit requirements for the supported version of .NET.

Maya only supports .NET plugins written in C#. Class libraries used by .NET plug-ins can be written in languages other than C# and referenced by the C# plug-in code.

The .NET SDK class libraries, openmayacs.dll and swigfiles.dll, are located under the bin directory of your Maya installation directory. By default, Maya is installed to C:\Program Files\Autodesk\<maya_version>.

The OpenMaya XML documentation, openmayacs.xml, is located in the same directory, and will be loaded automatically when the class libraries are added to your solution references in Visual Studio. See Compiling the .NET examples for more information.

The .NET examples are located under devkitBase\devkit\dotnet.