Originally posted by Ultragames
I think .ma if for exported files. Shaders, and such. .mb is used for scenes i think.
No. .MA and .MB files contain the same scene information. The main difference is in how the information is stored. .MB files are binary, meaning they can only be read by Maya but are very optimized in terms of data compression and disk space usage. .MA files are ASCII files, meaning they are simple text files that can be opened and edited with any text editor. In general, you're fine sticking with .MB files. .MA files are useful when you need to open the file in an older version of Maya or if you want to do some fancy troubleshooting/file editing using a text editor instead of opening things in Maya.