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TACHYON STUDIO · UNIVERSAL BRIDGE

Maya Bridge

Move meshes and UVs between Blender and Maya, keep control of what returns, and continue working with supported scene data.

Version 3.0.16 · Windows · Autodesk Maya required separately

Blender and Maya views showing a bucket-mesh send, edit and return sequence.

Select in Blender, edit in Maya, then bring the result back. These are edited workflow demonstrations, not real-time performance benchmarks.

Bring back the changes you need

Send selected assets to Maya, make your edit, and use Get from Maya in Blender. Choose Everything for a broader return, Mesh for geometry, or UVs for UV work. This makes it easier to continue the same asset without manually choosing an exchange file each time.

Mesh and UVs modes use object matching. Topology changes can require approximate UV mapping; review the result before continuing.

Blender and Maya UV editors with UV-only exchange and mesh-only return controls.

UV-only and mesh-only return examples. Keep paired object identities stable and inspect results after topology changes.

Keep transfers moving

Auto Sync watches for incoming exchange files and imports new sends. For experimental automatic edit sending, enable the separate Beta controls on the required side. Start with a simple asset, choose the push scope deliberately, and stop syncing before restoring scenes or making large structural edits.

Blender Live Push and Maya return synchronization demonstrated on a dining-room scene.

Auto Sync imports incoming sends. Automatic edit sending is a separate Beta feature: Live Push in Blender and Live (Beta) in Maya.

Prepare the result for the next task

Choose Maya import cleanup deliberately, retain linked instances where supported, and use Blender’s independent Get cleanup for returned normals, sharp edges and seams. Update-in-place behavior depends on matching geometry; it is not a blanket promise that every modifier, relationship or rig survives arbitrary changes.

Maya import-cleanup controls for history, transforms, pivots, edges and shader reassignment.

Choose Maya-side cleanup before sending: history, transforms, pivots, edges and supported material handling.

A dining-room scene showing linked chair duplicates transferred as Maya instances.

Linked chair meshes arrive as instances in this scene; changing shared geometry updates the group.

Blender Get cleanup with clear-normal options and UV-derived seams or sharp edges on a returned mesh.

Blender Get cleanup has its own controls for custom normals, sharp edges and UV-derived seams.

Carry texture placement and scene context

Transfer supported Principled/PBR material channels and rebuild supported repeat, offset and rotation on return. Keep external textures available. Single-axis mirrored placement is approximated, and procedural or layered shader graphs do not automatically become equivalent Maya materials.

Send camera framing and lights alongside your asset workflow. Include Animation bakes object and armature motion over the scene frame range; inspect playback in the destination application.

Maya place2dTexture repeat and rotation demonstrated alongside a Blender Get operation.

Rebuild supported Maya texture placement on return. Complex shader graphs and renderer-equivalent appearance are outside this guarantee.

Blender camera and light transfer controls with the receiving dining-room scene in Maya.

Transfer camera framing and lights, then inspect the result in Maya. Renderer appearance can differ.

A walking character in Blender and Maya with Include Animation enabled for transfer.

Include Animation carries baked object/armature motion through FBX. Native rig controllers, constraints and drivers are not guaranteed to transfer.

Save a Maya scene

Save Maya Scene (.ma) offers Full, using your configured Maya installation in the background, and Fast, a limited Blender-side writer. Keep the original .blend and inspect the saved scene in Maya. Full and Fast describe export routes, not selection versus whole-scene scope.

Blender Save Maya Scene dialog followed by the saved room scene opened in Maya.

Full uses Maya and the FBX route, limited to supported data; the clip’s “rigs, materials, all” wording is not an unrestricted preservation promise. Fast writes meshes, empties, UVs and limited materials, without rigs, animation, cameras or lights.

Keep useful tools close

Use Preflight before a transfer, restore saved Selection Sets, revisit sends in History and find actions through Command Palette. Configure icon colours to suit your interface. The bridge works standalone; a separately installed Universal Bridge Manager is optional.

Blender Universal Bridge tools showing Preflight, saved selection and Command Palette controls.

Preflight, Selection Sets and Command Palette keep common bridge actions close to the scene.

Maya Bridge sidebar demonstrating branded, orange, violet and built-in icon treatments.

Choose Brand Colours, a custom Mono accent or Blender Built-ins for button icons.

Your first round trip

Maya Bridge installation steps with Blender Preferences, the Maya companion panel and a first mesh transfer.

Recorded setup sequence. For 3.0.16, use Blender’s Install / Reinstall route and restart Maya; the supplied drag-in installer has a stale version label.

  1. Install the ZIP once and enable Universal Bridge: Maya. Set the Maya executable in add-on preferences.
  2. Back up Maya’s userSetup.py, use Install / Reinstall for the companion, then restart Maya.
  3. In Blender’s 3D Viewport, press N and open Maya. A separately installed Manager can provide a shared tab instead.
  4. Start with a saved test scene. Send from Blender, edit and send from Maya, then Get in Blender. Stop watchers before Undo or restoring a scene.

Requirements and downloads

The package declares Blender 3.3–5.2 on Windows: classic metadata starts at 3.3 and Extension metadata at 4.2. No independently verified build-by-build test matrix accompanies this release. macOS and Linux are unsupported in the supplied documentation.

The bridge requires a separate licensed Maya installation running Python 3 and its fbxmaya plug-in. Confirm your required Maya version with Tachyon Studio. Maya is not included.

  • universal_bridge_maya-3.0.16-blender3.3-5.2.zip — the Blender add-on, Maya companion, source and installation resources.
  • maya-bridge-3.0.16-support-docs-and-license.zip — corrected guide, FAQ, package notes and license text. Open this support archive separately; do not install it as an add-on.

Choose your purchase option

All three purchase options receive the same complete features and downloads. The software is GPL-2.0-or-later; purchase-option descriptions do not replace that license.

  • Individual: For 1 person (1 seat). Commercial use included.
  • Team: For a team of up to 6 people (6 seats). Commercial use included.
  • Studio: For a studio of up to 20 people (20 seats). Commercial use included. Need more than 20 seats? Contact us directly.

Read the full documentation for procedures, limitations and troubleshooting. Contact Tachyon Studio through Superhive messaging or Discord; see the displayed Support Period terms for included support.

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  • For 1 person (1 seat). Commercial use included.

    $7.99
  • For a team of up to 6 people (6 seats). Commercial use included.

    $31.96
  • For a studio of up to 20 people (20 seats). Commercial use included. Need more than 20 seats? Contact us directly.

    $79.90
$7.99

Support Period Included

Includes 12 months of

Extend this product’s Support Period +12 months: 25% of product price

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Details
Blender Extension Compatible Yes
Sales 20+
Rating
2 ratings
Published 3 months ago
Blender Version 3.3 - 5.2
Extension Type Add-on
License GPL