This group provides common answers to questions about Okino's PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in system. This native plug-in system for Maya allows all of the PolyTrans 3D file formats to be executed directly inside the Maya user interface. A good product overview can be found by clicking here.
Rest assured that the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in system always works. The problems come down to installation issues. This FAQ will outline all possible problems.
Version 4 and newer of Okino software uses the "Okino Plug-Ins Super Installer" to have the 3DS MAX, Maya, XSI and Director plug-ins automatically installed. Keep in mind that you must install v4 or newer of Okino's stand-alone PolyTrans or NuGraf products first before running the super installer.
Does Maya report the error "Error: No plug-ins loaded - "The specified procedure could not be found"?
Go to the Maya plug-in manager and make sure the "ptio.mll" module is set to "loaded" and "auto load". Type "pt" on the Maya command line and see if the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in system control panel appears.
Does Maya report "Your node lock ID or serial numbers are incorrect?". If so, please ensure that you have obtained a node lock ID for your computer and that you have the most recent version of serial numbers. Send email to support@okino.com for a quick response to solving this problem. A node lock ID is not required for the demo version.
If the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in system fails to initialize and show up in the Maya plug-in manager then the cause is always due to one of the following cases:
Your global "PATH" environment variable is most probably too long. This is often the problem to most plug-in installations failures. The "Okino Plug-Ins Super Installer" appends the directory path of the main PolyTrans or NuGraf program to the end of this PATH environment variable. However, Microsoft Windows will ignore some of these entries if it is too long (this is a bug in all current versions of Windows). Please edit the current PATH string and remove all redundant entries. This can be edited by going into the "System" control panel applet in Windows (START menu, Settings, Control Panel) and modifying the "Advanced/Environment Variables" section. Please reboot if you make any changes to this PATH variable. You need to ensure this variable is set because Maya needs to know where the main Okino DLLs are located (the vc4_*.dlls located in the main PolyTrans or NuGraf home directories).
Your global "PATH" environment variable does not have any entry which points to the main PolyTrans or NuGraf home directories. See the previous paragraph about how to edit this environment variable. You need to ensure this variable is set because Maya needs to know where the main Okino DLLs are located (the vc4_*.dlls located in the main PolyTrans or NuGraf home directories). The Okino plug-ins super installer will automatically add this entry in all cases. Please reboot if you make any changes to it.
You have not rebooted your computer since you updated the global PATH environment variable or since you installed the PolyTrans-for-Maya system (common problem). Using the Okino "Super Installer" you will normally not have to reboot your computer.
You are using the wrong version of the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in module (ptio.mll) for Maya. Every version of Maya requires a different version of PolyTrans-for-Maya.
You have mixed up a newer version of the stand-alone PolyTrans software with an older version of the Maya plug-in module (ptio.mll in the Maya bin\plug-ins directory). If you had recently installed an update from Okino then please ensure that you updated the PolyTrans or NuGraf main installation as well as the Maya plug-in and optionally the PolyTrans-for-3DSMAX plug-in system as well. Send email to support@okino.com if you need further clarifications.
For Maya 6.0 and newer you may be missing either one of the following two Microsoft DLLs. Please right click on these links and "Save to" to your "windows\system32" directory on your machine: msvcp71.dll msvcr71.dll
After installation you may want to review the "ptio.hlp" file which is installed into the Maya "bin\plug-ins" directory. This is the complete online help system for PolyTrans-for-Maya.
You may also want to review the "ptio_maya_install.txt" file which is installed into the Maya "bin\plug-ins" directory. This contains all possible information about getting PolyTrans-for-Maya installed and running (which otherwise should be automated by the Okino super installer).
Send email to support@okino.com if you need further clarifications. - Updated: November 16, 2007
Maya v2.51 added the new capability of importing vertex normals for its mesh based objects (these are needed to represent the smoothing of the objects). However, the internal routines inside Maya can become incredibly slow to accept the vertex normals during an import process of large mesh models. Alias has been made aware of this after Maya 3.0 but no improvements have been seen. The solution is to choose the “Create new vertex normals based on angles” radio button on the “Mesh” sub-panel of the PolyTrans-for-Maya “Import Options” panel; this will use smoothing groups instead of the more accurate vertex normals. - Updated: October 19, 2007
Once the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in has been successfully installed you can execute PolyTrans by typing 'pt' in the Maya command line. A more convenient method is to add a bitmap icon to a Maya command shelf. The method is described as follows:
1) Execute Maya. From the main menu of Maya select the menu option: "Window/Settings-Preferences//Shelves..."
2) Under the "Shelves" tab, select which shelf you wish to add the icon.
3) Press the "Shelf Contents" tab and highlight one of the entries in the list box that you wish to become the PolyTrans execution icon.
3B) Change the "Label" type-in to read "PolyTrans"
3C) Press the "Change Image..." and locate the "pt_icon.bmp" file which was installed by the "setup_ptio.exe" installer program. This location is typically something like:
"C:\aw\Maya3.0\bin\plug-ins"
where "C:" should be replaced by the hard disk drive letter where Maya is installed on your machine.
4) Press the "Edit Commands" tab and enter this new command sequence:
pt;
5) Click the "Close" button to exit this edit dialog box.
You should now be able to execute PolyTrans by pressing this new command icon. - Updated: October 2, 2007
Yes. We have spent several years cloning the best aspects of the animation engines from 3ds max, Maya, XSI, Softimage-3D and Lightwave so that our core software can import, retain and export the native animation data of these 3d packages. Our core software handles Bezier/TCB/Linear keyframe interpolators, and quaternion/Euler/Angle-Axis rotation types. Cross conversion between all these animation methods is transparently handled by the core software.
For 3ds max and Maya, our most popular conversion path for animation professionals, we have developed our "Artic" toolkit that intelligently handles all the complexities of Maya's animation keyframe lists. Bidirectional conversion between MAX and Maya occurs via the Okino .bdf file format.
Yes, very much so. Several continuous years of working has been invested in our skeleton and skinning support. We have very strong internal and 'smart' conversion of skeletons and skinning weights.
We support the import and export of 'smooth skinning' (not rigid skinning, which is cluster deformations) to/from other 3D packages such as 3ds max, Maya, XSI and DirectX. Import from FBX (FilmBox) is also possible.
You need to enable the "Import camera animation" checkbox on the PolyTrans-for-Maya "Import Options" dialog box. You may also need to enable the camera animation import option on the file format importer itself (such as the SoftImage import options dialog box). - Updated: October 19, 2007
Simple solution: disable the "Keyframe Resampling" and "Keyframe Reduction" options on the "Animation" panel of the PolyTrans-for-Maya "Import Options" dialog box.
When animation data is imported into Maya via the PolyTrans-for-Maya plug-in system the data is always resampled and reduced by default. However this is not always advantageous or necessary. For example, when importing from Lightwave 6 (or newer) the resampling always occurs at the Lightwave import stage and this does not need to be done again when importing into the Maya stage.
You can also reduce the keyframe reduction tolerance values to cause less keyframes to be removed from the dataset. You are in complete control over how many keyframes are to be removed. - Updated: October 19, 2007
Yes. Go to the "Export Options" panel of PolyTrans-for-Maya and enable the "Output branches with no geometry" option and then export an Okino .bdf file to MAX. Open up the .bdf file inside MAX using the most recent PolyTrans-for-MAX utility panel plug-in system. - Updated: October 19, 2007
Yes. It has been proven quite possible. PolyTrans-for-Maya has a complete Windows graphical user interface but it also sports a nice but compact set of MEL scripting interfaces. This will allow you to invoke PolyTrans-for-Maya via MEL commands while running the command line only version of Maya.
A good example of this was done by a user who wanted to transfer data between Softimage XSI and Maya automatically. He did this by invoking the command line version of Maya from inside XSI and scripting the conversion process performed by PolyTrans via MEL commands. - Updated: October 1, 2007
Yes, absolutely. Please read the PolyTrans-for-Maya online help system. It fully describes the MEL interface commands. You can use the MEL scripting interface to import or export any scene via the PolyTrans 3D file formats. Batch conversion can be done by writing a MEL script with all filenames to be converted.
As an interesting case in point, one user has ran Maya in command line mode (no user interface) and controlled the PolyTrans converters via MEL commands. The process involved moving data back and forth between Maya and XSI. Maya was executed and controlled by XSI, as was the PolyTrans-for-Maya converter system. - Updated: October 1, 2007
