Help with Maya reference files and namespaces??

[kate30787SSAN]

Hi. I have an animation scene with several rigged characters and items referenced in. I have already done a bunch of animation and just now realised that for some reason the referenced files do not have their own namespaces (though I am pretty sure I had 'Use namespaces' checked when I set up the references??). The problem is that I NEED namespaces to export the animation correctly, but I can't seem to figure out how to add a namespace to an existing reference. Is this possible?? I'd really rather not have to set up new references and copy all my animation over...???

Many thanks for any advice.

[dinofiguera]

Hello. 
As far as I know, there is no way to add a namespace to an already referenced file since they are read-only files.
The solution I will probably use is to import all referenced files in the scene and check if the controller's names are clean. In case they are not, use a renamer to correctly rename the controllers with their clean names.
After that, I would export all the animations (using Maya native Atom exporter or better, the Studio Library plugin) 
after the animations are exported I would clean up the scene from all the rig (make a back-up copy)
then I´d reference new rigs with a clean namespace and paste all the animations.
Hope this will fix your problem.