Settings
 

My maya is bugging out the last few weeks. I want to reinstall but I created my own hotkeys and marking menu's and i don't want them to be lost. Where can i find these settings? And if i upgrade to a newer version can i still keep my hotkeys and marking menu's?

I think I found it. Its not in the program files dir. but in the "my documents".

Glad you found it, for the other people who might be wondering the same thing its here

C:\Users\david\Documents\maya\2011-x64\prefs

you need to put your computer username and your version of maya in there of cource.

Dave :)

Just curious DAve,
i've never tried it as i constantly change my prefs around based on the project, but maybe it would be useful for other users.

Are the prefs backwards and or forwards compatible with other versions of maya?..
I.E. can i take prefs form maya, 8.0 and use them in maya, 2009, or take them from 2011 and use them in 2009 for instance?...
( not sure why one would go backwards but ya know. )
I ask since they renamed alot of things in the modeling menu so are the compatible from across the name change?..
G-man

To a certain extent the prefs are compatible. If you take your prefs form say Maya 2010 and try and use them with 2011 Maya will keep a lot of your custom setting and shelfs etcetera.

It will then tel you that your prefs need updating and will update them leaving your custom setting alone in theory.

I would not recommend doing this however as it will probably come back and bite you on the ass later down the line.

Dave :)

While on the subject it is not a bad idea to make a copy of your maya prefs folder when in a known to be stable state.

There are many ways to get your settings befuddled and having a backup has saved me many times.

Also, I keep a copy on one of my jump drives and if I ever use a version of maya on the road I can simply backup the local folder and replace it with mine and BINGO I have an exact copy of my working env and all my favorite scripts.

I keep a copy of the entire maya folder.

1) maya>srcipts = are global scripts
2) maya><version>|<year> = prefs, scripts, presets, and maya.env specific to each version of maya that is or has been installed on the system
3) maya>projects = default project location

note: the maya folder also contains the control file for mental ray satellite.

Nice tip ctbram, that sounds really handy.