Maya 6.5 backward compatibility?
 

Ok, I've only had the opportunity to work with 6.5 for couple days, but I've already hit a block. I still have my 6 installed and it won't open 6.5 files. Am I missing a setting somewhere? I can't find anything in the manuals or the help that tells how to save a 6.5 file to a previous version (i.e. 6).

I know I can export to another format such as OBJ, then import that into 6. But the results aren't always accurate and it seems odd that Maya wouldn't allow you save one version back.

If you save as a .MA file, you can change the header information with any text editor. Look for the lines "Requires Maya 6.5" and change the "6.5" to "6.0". The file can then be opened by Maya 6.

Excellent! Thanks Dannyngan! Out of curiosity, how did you know to do this. I'm usually pretty good at finding answers in books or help files, but I didn't see this anywhere. Thanks again.

You should put this one in the tips & tricks thread.

I don't remember exactly how I found it. Either I was tinkering around with the Maya ASCII files while scripting or I read it somewhere. This trick has been around for quite some time. Feel free to post it in your tips and tricks thread. I'm too lazy to type it up. :p

ahhh they need to be MA files! I was messing with hex editors for a while, and got bored and exported stuff as OBJ :P