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Installing the Maya Shader Library

After installing Maya, you can install the Maya Shader Library, which is a collection of Maya scene files consisting of over 60 shading networks, including materials and file textures.

To use the Shader Library, you can:
run it from your local machine
run it from the server
run it from the DVD

In order to run it from your local machine, you have to copy the entire shader library directory and its contents to your computer. The Shader Library is about 110MB. If multiple users will be accessing this library, put it in a location where all users have read access.

We recommend that you update each user’s Maya.env file so that Maya knows where you’ve stored the Shader Library. You can also set up a Shader Library tab in Hypershade.
To install the Maya Shader Library
Insert the Maya DVD into your computer’s drive.
Copy the shaderLibrary folder from the PDFs_and_Extras folder to your computer. For Windows and Linux, copy it into the Autodesk program directory. For Mac OS X, copy it into a special folder in the shared users directory. By default this is:
(Windows) C:\Program Files\Autodesk\
(Mac OS X) /Users/Shared/Autodesk/maya/
(Linux) /usr/aw

Note
Alternatively, you can access the Shader Library from the DVD or copy the shaderLibrary directory to another location in your own home directory and set the following environment variables.

(Windows, Linux) To update the Maya.env file with new environment variables

In the user’s Maya.env file set the following environment variable (for example):
MAYA_SHADER_LIBRARY_PATH = /usr/aw/shaderLibrary
MAYA_SHADER_LIBRARY_PATH = C:\Program
Files\Autodesk\shaderLibrary\

For Mac OS X, the value is preset for you. Once you install the Shader Library, you’ll see a Shader Library tab in the Hypershade.

For more information about setting environment variables, see the Environment Variables section in the Maya Help.