Importer Options

Material Settings

These options control how the importer builds Maya shading networks from the source glTF material data.

Open Importer Overview Install the Plug-in View Supported Features

Material settings exposed under File Type Specific Options when glTF2.0 Import is selected.

Shader Type

Choose which Maya shader family will be created for imported materials.

Standard Surface

• Default option
• Good general-purpose choice for most Maya scenes
• Preserves the broadest set of imported material data in a renderer-friendly way

Arnold

• Creates Arnold-native shading nodes
• Recommended when your look-dev and rendering pipeline already targets Arnold

OpenPBR

• Available in newer Maya versions
• Useful when your scene pipeline is built around OpenPBR
• Some renderer/viewer combinations still approximate parts of the material response

Stingray

• Simpler material target focused on basic glTF channels
• Best suited to lightweight round-trip or compatibility-oriented workflows
• Advanced glTF material extensions are more limited here than in Standard Surface or Arnold

Shading Option

Controls how Maya handles imported normals.

Use Normal Data

• Default option
• Preserves the normals authored in the glTF asset

Harden Edge

• Rebuilds shading with harder edge separation
• Useful for hard-surface assets

Soften Edge

• Rebuilds shading with softened edges
• Useful for organic assets where you want Maya to smooth the result

Use file/place2dTexture Texture Nodes

• Enabled by default
• Imports textures as Maya file nodes with place2dTexture placement nodes instead of Arnold aiImage nodes
• Recommended for round-trip workflows because it preserves UV transforms, and UV-set selection in a form the exporter can read back reliably
• Disable this only when you explicitly want the Arnold-centered texture-node workflow

Multiply AO with BaseColor

• Disabled by default
• Reads occlusion from the ORM texture's red channel and multiplies it into the base-color result
• Useful for viewport preview workflows where you want baked-looking diffuse shading in Maya
• Leave disabled if you want a cleaner separation between base color and occlusion data

Import Materials

• Enabled by default
• Creates shaders and shading groups from the glTF material data
• Disable when you only need geometry, animation, or scene structure without imported shading networks

---

Note: To evaluate advanced properties such as sheen, iridescence, clearcoat, transmission, and related PBR extensions, use Arnold in the viewport or render the asset with Arnold. Maya's default viewport does not fully represent every imported glTF material feature.