How to extract or generate thumbnail for Maya files?

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I would like to extract or generate thumbnails for given *.mb files on macOS and/or Windows.

1) Does Maya embed a thumbnail of the viewport upon saving into *.mb files?

2) Is there any way to extract or generate such image programatically or with a helper process?

I have the same situation with Photoshop files, where I can generate such small thumbnail with `libpsd`. Does something similar exist for Maya as well?

Thank you!

[stuzzz]

I've done that a long time ago.

- set a callback when maya save a scene which triggers a function

- That function is calling a QPixmap method to capture the focused viewport.

[Anonymous]

Hi, thank you very much! Unfortunately I am looking for a solution that works where Maya is not installed (or at least not running anymore).

[mspeer]

Hi!

The only option is to create sidecar files or add thumbnails to a special sub-folder in the project directory, however without Maya installed you can't render preview images.

[Anonymous]

Oh, I see. Because most 3D applications save a viewport image inside the file upon saving, so that's unfortunate to hear it doesn't work with Maya. But thanks for the confirmation!

[mspeer · Accepted solution]

Hi!

To create and use preview images in Maya please check this:

https://help.autodesk.com/view/MAYAUL/2020/ENU/?guid=GUID-67B3FB68-AAA4-415D-A37B-1EAC461613C0

[Anonymous]

Cool! That looks very promising. Would be good if that could be done automatically, but that looks like what I need! 🙂