Maya Bridge exchanges meshes and UVs between Blender and Autodesk Maya. Send an asset, work on it in Maya, then choose Everything, Mesh or UVs when bringing it back. It also handles supported materials, texture placement, cameras, lights and baked animation. Auto Sync receives incoming sends; automatic edit sending is a separate Beta feature. The package works standalone. Other bridges and the optional Universal Bridge Manager are not included.

Yes. Install the included Maya companion from Blender's add-on preferences using Install / Reinstall, then restart Maya and open its Blender Bridge panel. Back up your existing userSetup.py first and check any other startup customizations afterwards. The transfer also needs Maya's fbxmaya plug-in. The supplied DRAG_INTO_MAYA.py alternative has a stale 3.3.10 label; the recommended Blender installation route copies the correctly labelled 3.0.16 companion. Use the same release on both sides.

Everything imports the returned mesh and UVs and uses your material settings. Mesh updates matched geometry while attempting to retain Blender UVs; changed topology can require approximate nearest-surface mapping. UVs transfers UV data onto matched meshes. Start with an Everything send, keep object names stable and inspect the report: unmatched Blender returns may remain as new imports. Blender-to-Maya Send UVs Only requires matching topology and vertex order, UV maps, and an active Maya watcher.

The bridge requires a separate Windows Maya installation running Python 3 with the fbxmaya FBX plug-in available. An exact independently verified Maya version range has not been established for this package. Detection of an installed version is not proof of compatibility. Use Maya Version in the preferences, or set Maya Executable to the intended maya.exe. Confirm your required version with Tachyon Studio before depending on a production combination.

Auto Sync watches for a new exchange file sent by the other application and imports it; saving an ordinary Maya scene is not itself a bridge send. Automatic edit sending is separate, Beta and off by default. Enable Blender's Beta Features → Live Push for Blender-to-Maya edits, or Maya's Live (Beta) for the return direction, with both watchers running. Start with a saved test scene. A manually stopped Blender watcher stays off until you restart it.

Update In Place attempts to update an existing Maya mesh when its geometry checks match, retaining the existing node and relationships. It is not an unconditional preservation guarantee: topology changes can require replacement, and enabled cleanup or material reassignment can change the result. Save a copy, review Delete History and other In Maya settings, and test the asset before resending a production rig. Complete editable controller, constraint and driver conversion is not promised.

The In Maya group offers Delete History, Freeze Transforms, Center Pivot and Soften Edges, plus shader, namespace and custom-script options. Game, Clean and Raw presets set the four basic cleanup toggles; Raw does not reset every transfer option. Blender's Get cleanup is separate: Clear Custom Normals, Clear Sharp Edges, and Sharp + Seams from UV. These settings change the receiving data, so enable only what the asset needs and review the result.

The bridge rebuilds supported Principled/PBR channels, can preserve linked mesh instances, maps collections to Maya display layers, and can represent unbaked subdivision as a smooth-preview hint. These are specific conversions, not complete native-scene or shader-graph preservation. Material channels depend on the destination shader, Arnold needs mtoa or falls back to Standard Surface, and single-axis mirrored texture placement is approximated in Blender. Check multi-material assets, hierarchy, textures and renderer appearance after transfer.

Yes. Send Camera and Send Lights provide dedicated transfer controls and selection scopes. Include Animation bakes object/armature animation over the Blender scene range. On Maya's return panel, Skin enables skin/blendshape export and Anim enables baked timeline animation; both are off by default. Inspect the full frame range and destination lighting. Native rig controllers, constraints, drivers and renderer-equivalent appearance are not guaranteed. Full .ma saving follows the Maya/FBX route; Fast .ma omits animation, rigs, cameras and lights.

Yes, receiving work can change it. Everything Get replaces matching objects in the destination collection, and Replace all clears its previous objects. Mesh and UVs returns modify matched data; unmatched returns may remain new imports. Keep the dedicated Maya Import collection enabled and save both scenes. Backup Before Send creates object copies, not a full backup of both applications. Stop syncing before Undo; Undo in Blender does not reverse Maya changes or external file writes.

The supplied 3.0.16 package declares Blender 3.3–5.2. Its classic add-on metadata has a 3.3 minimum and its Extension manifest a 4.2 minimum. These declarations are not a complete independently verified build-by-build test matrix. Install universal_bridge_maya-3.0.16-blender3.3-5.2.zip once; the older internal manual's two alternative ZIP names do not describe the single supplied installer. In Blender's 3D Viewport, press N and open the standalone Maya tab.

Commercial use is included in every purchase option. Individual: For 1 person (1 seat). Team: For a team of up to 6 people (6 seats). Studio: For a studio of up to 20 people (20 seats). Need more than 20 seats? Contact us directly. All three receive the same complete features and downloads. The software declares GPL-2.0-or-later; purchase-option descriptions do not replace that license. Autodesk Maya is separately licensed and is not included.

The supplied package declares Windows only. macOS and Linux are not supported by its documentation. Do not treat the Blender version range or a successful installation on another operating system as proof that Maya detection, launching and transfer work there. No independently verified platform test matrix accompanies this release.

The two-application bridge needs your own separately licensed Autodesk Maya installation. This purchase includes the Blender add-on and its Maya companion script, not Maya or an Autodesk licence. The optional Fast .ma writer can create a limited mesh/UV/material file without running Maya; that does not provide Maya or replace the requirements for round trips and the Full .ma route. Other Universal Bridge products and the optional Manager are separate.