Downloading Models
 

I like to download some of the free models off of this site, maybe for animations, but usually just to see how they're made. My big problem is, a lot of the models wont download-- when I click the download link, a HUGE page of code comes up and I don't know what to do with it. I tried entering it into the MEL script editor (I'm sure that is a really dumb thing to do, but oh well), but nothing happened. WHAT DO I DO WITH ALL THIS CODE!?!?!?!?!:confused: :eek3: :eek: :mg:

i think maybe those are .ma files, and maybe your settings on your computer open .ma with a word editor [notepad or wordpad] so your browser automatically lunches that so u see the ascii .ma file.
u can rightclick and save as instead, then open that file in maya.

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unless its something else?

I'm a complete newbie, so I can't be sure, but I don't think that's it. I tried saving it to my desktop, and I changed the .extension to .mp. The file opened in maya, but the scene is blank, and it says "unrecognized file type". If these three things make any difference, then this might hint as to the solution:

I use an iMac
I use the free demo version of Maya 7 PLE
This only happens on some of the models I try to download.

I hope to get the full version when my wallet is a little fatter, since the demo renders suck and there's this little layer over every render saying "Alias Maya 7 PLE" Thanks for the suggestion, anyway.

well your extension should be .ma or .mb...

maya ple uses a different extension that's exclusive to the program, but can open regular maya's files as well.

so try .ma, and if that doesn't work, try .mb

if that doesn't work either, ummm... no clue.

yeah, maya PLE uses .mp.... anyway, after your post I attempted both .ma, .mb, and .mp once again. SThe strange thing here was that it says " files created in maya cannot be opened in maya ple". This is not true, because I'v downloaded .ma / .mb files off of this site and they worked. Thanks for the idea, but it looks like it's a little more complicated than the file format. I don't know how, but maybe it could be they way it was uploaded? Anyways, thx for you interest and suggestions, I've almost got it to work, but not quite.

oooh, Sh**. I was just playying around with the extensions on one of the projects I created, and I got this message:

"Maya Personal Learning Edition is unable to save Maya Ascii and Maya Binary files. However, Maya Personal Learning Edition may save [project].mp as an .mb or .ma file instead."

If Maya PLE can't SAVE as ascii then maybe it cannot read thm either. PLEASE TELL ME THIS ISN'T TRUE!

there might also be the possibility that the file you're trying to download is a .rar or a .zip and needs extracted first. i have yet to download a model from the site so i don't know what format they usually come in...

so just as another possibility you could always try changing the extension to one of those two and see if you can extract it.