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.