Maya Bundle Exchange
Build a Maya asset library: create assets, migrate MA/MB/FBX files, organize variants and place them in your scene.
Build a Maya asset library: create assets, migrate MA/MB/FBX files, organize variants and place them in your scene.
Explore 20 illustrated topics with step-by-step workflows and explanations of the controls: library setup, asset creation, MA/MB/FBX migration, variants, previews, viewport placement, team reviews and portable scene exchange.
Import, Reference & Viewport Placement
Import or reference selected assets, place them at the origin or drag them into the viewport with placement previews and optional snapping.
Import or Reference
Choose how the asset should live in the destination scene. Both modes need materialized package resources; importing geometry does not embed texture files into the Maya scene.
- Select an asset and its variant.
- Choose Reference or Import in the inspector’s placement control.
- Drag from the grid or list into a Maya viewport. Move the placement preview to the desired location.
- Release to commit the placement, or press Escape to cancel.
- Reference
- Keeps the loaded content as a Maya reference to extracted package data. Use Maya’s reference tools for reference management.
- Import
- Adds editable content to the current scene. Use it when you need to modify the imported objects directly.
- Reference at Origin / Import at Origin
- Use these asset actions to load at the origin without an interactive viewport drop.
Position and snapping
MBX uses the asset’s stored placement bounds to put it into the destination scene. Configure persistent preferences in Browser Settings > Placement.
- Ground plane
- Used when surface placement is off or there is no visible surface hit.
- Snap to Surface
- Place on visible meshes when the setting is enabled.
- Hold X
- Use Maya grid snapping while the key is held.
- Hold V
- Snap to a vertex while the key is held.
- Hold C
- Snap to a curve while the key is held.
- Release the snapping key
- Return to the configured placement behavior.
- Additional snap step
- Use an optional fixed interval in scene units. Vertex and curve snapping keep their exact target positions.
Keep resources available
The reference and imported materials can point into managed extraction storage. Do not treat that storage as a disposable thumbnail cache. For a project handoff, collect the scene’s dependencies and verify the result on the receiving workstation.
How do I install and open MBX?
Install Maya Bundle Exchange through AO.Hub with your free account. Launching MBX opens AO Asset Browser. In Settings, choose an existing writable folder for the library. After an update, restart Maya so all changed modules and the placement plugin reload.
Can I import existing MA, MB and FBX files?
Yes. Drop files onto the browser asset area or use Add Asset > Migrate Asset Files… to scan a folder. Review names, categories and checkboxes, then choose Migrate checked. One source file becomes one MBX asset; the converter does not split each object into its own asset.
Does migration change my source files or open Maya scene?
No. Each source is processed separately from your working scene. The source file remains untouched and an existing output name is skipped. Keep source and destination folders separate, with neither folder inside the other.
What happens to MA/MB references?
Referenced MA/MB scenes are loaded and embedded into the migrated scene, including applied reference edits. The new asset contains their effective scene content, rather than the original editable reference hierarchy. Keep your original source project when you need that hierarchy.
Where does migration look for textures?
MA/MB paths are resolved from each owning source scene and its source project, including relevant nearby sourceimages or textures folders. The current working project is not used as a fallback. Ambiguous matches are reported instead of choosing a same-named image arbitrarily.
Why did an asset get a WARNING instead of READY?
A package was created, but its report contains information to review, such as missing textures, preview issues or embedded references. WARNING does not always mean the package is unusable. Select the row and inspect its diagnostics before reuse.
Can I reject files with missing textures?
Yes. Turn off Package with missing textures before migration. It is enabled by default. Missing references, other blocking dependencies, unknown required nodes or geometry-free inputs can still fail even when missing textures are allowed.
What should I check after converting FBX?
Check materials, texture paths, animation and scale in Maya. FBX import can lose Maya-specific tiled-texture or image-sequence settings. MBX packages the result that Maya imports; it does not turn FBX into a lossless Maya scene format.
What happens to duplicates, failures and cancellation?
An existing output filename is SKIPPED; edit the asset name or category to create another output. FAILED rows report their error, and the batch continues with other files. Cancel waits for the current operation to finish safely and stops before the next asset; completed packages remain available.
What is the difference between Import, Reference, Open and Unpack?
Import adds content to the current scene; Reference creates a Maya reference to the extracted asset content. Both load resources from a managed local cache. Open replaces the current Maya scene after checks. Unpack Scene collects the opened MBX scene and its resources into a Maya project or directory.
Which data travels in an MBX package?
The package includes the scene data, collected resources, previews, asset metadata and integrity information. Library review notes and tag colors are separate shared library records; favorites and recent history are local.
Why do I still need Maya and renderer plugins?
MBX carries detected resource files, not installed Maya plugins or renderers. Use a compatible Maya installation with the required plugins. Migration also needs the mayapy runtime supplied with Maya; FBX input needs its FBX importer.
What does Remove from Index do?
It removes the browser index entry but keeps the .mbx file on disk, so a refresh may rediscover it. Delete Variant Permanently… deletes that variant package; Delete Asset Permanently… deletes the family packages. These are different operations.
Which platforms are listed as supported?
The website lists Windows and macOS for AO Studio Tools. Windows Explorer thumbnails and file association features apply only to Windows.