Can maya 6 read maya 5 files?

John Warner

because i have a .mb file here that i THINK was made in maya 5 and i get an "errors have occured while reading this scene that may result in data loss" error when i try to load it up in my copy of maya 6.

is this a common problem? maybe the file's messed. is there a free 3d file viewer that i can perhaps grab the mesh out of, or something? thanks guys.

Daz

Strange as it sounds that error message isn't necessarily as bad or as drastic as it sounds. Going from 5.0 to 6.0 the file *should* open pretty much correctly unless it's a scene with complex rigging etc which may induce issues. So error message aside, what's in the scene when you open? Nada?

pyromania

If you open the file in notepad, on the first line you should see something like HEADVERS (number). The number will be the version of maya it was made with. 5 files should open right up in 6, maybe the file uses a custom script or plugin that you don't have. You should open up the script editor and see if it gives you any clues as to what its failing on.

Daz

I'd have suggested that but he doesn't appear to have a .ma

MoP

I've had that error before, even loading a Maya 6 file in Maya 6. However the scene appeared to load fine, nothing missing. So I guess that error may not be too severe... but of course if nothing is appearing in the scene even after that, it sounds like something is screwed...

pyromania

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I'd have suggested that but he doesn't appear to have a .ma



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It still works with binary, its just easier to read when it's a maya ascii

Daz

You can text edit a maya binary?! I had no idea. How?

pyromania

You can't edit, but you can still open up the .mb in notepad or another text editor. Everything will look pretty much like garbage but you can still make out some words, like the maya version, file date, operating system.

John Warner

thanks alot, Daz, Pyro & MoP. sory for the late responce. somethin' came up.

yah, when i load up the scene i get nothing. it SHOULD be just one model, perhaps with a texture applied to it, but quite frankly, i'm not sure. it could also have a rigged character in it. it's strange, because i've gotten files from these guys before and they've loaded fine. *sigh* i bet there's some silly problem.

pyro, thanks for the tip.. here's what comes up in notepad:

application maya FINF product Maya Complete 6.0 FINF version 6.0.1

looks like 6.0. strange. the script error spits out this when i try to load the file:
// Error: line 1: Unknown Maya file version: 6.0. //

that's just friggin crazy. maybe i'll toss it over to a friend with maya 6 and see what happens.......

pyromania

Do you have the 6.0.1 patch installed? Its almost like the file was made with 6.0.1 and you are running 6.0 so it thinks 6.0.1 is invalid.

Or you could try maya fileconverter and try converting it to another version then try opening it again

http://www.highend3d.com/maya/plugins/?section=utilities#2936

vahl

I also had this errore even with maya 5 files loaded in maya 6...this usually happens when you have a null node in the scene. The scenes always seemed to work fine each time i had this error though.

John Warner

OOoooohhhh good idea pyro. i'll look into this right away.

vahl- interesting. i'll add it to my list of things to stay up at night worying about hehehe.

NoSeRider

Maya 6 can read Maya 5 files......if the Maya files are saved in asci...*.ma format.

If you have some access to maya 5, convert them to asci, then you can open them with Maya 6

This also works vise versa 6 to 5, has to be asci.

Basically, dont ever same in *.mb format