Hello everyone,

We are very proud to announce the availability of our FBX 2010.0 plug-ins and SDKs on http://www.autodesk.com/fbx.

This release includes FBX 2010.0 Plug-ins for the following products:
Autodesk 3ds Max 2008 (WIN 32/64-bit)
Autodesk 3ds Max 2009 (WIN 32/64-bit)
Autodesk 3ds Max 2010 (WIN 32/64-bit)
Autodesk 3ds Max Design 2010 (WIN 32/64-bit)
Autodesk Maya 8.5 (WIN 32/64 bit / MAC / Linux 32/64-bit)
Autodesk Maya 2008 (WIN 32/64 bit / MAC / Linux 32/64-bit)
Autodesk Maya 2009 (WIN 32/64 bit / MAC / Linux 64-bit)
Apple QuickTime 7 (WIN / MAC)

The following downloads are also available:
Autodesk FBX 2010.0 Converter (WIN / MAC / Linux)
Autodesk FBX 2010.0 Software Development Kit (WIN / MAC / Linux)
Autodesk FBX 2010.0 Extensions Software Development Kit (includes published reader/writer source code) (WIN / MAC / Linux)

FBX 2010.0 is a direct successor to FBX 2009.3.  FBX 2009.4 is exclusively available to 3ds Max 2010 and 3ds Max Design 2010 users; it installed along with the software to ensure the latest possible version of FBX was shipped with the new releases.  Therefore, for those of you who have 3ds Max 2010 or 3ds Max Design 2010 installed, this FBX 2010.0 release is a direct (and important) update to your FBX 2009.4 plug-ins.

For those who participated in our Beta project, please ensure that you uninstall any previous beta versions of the plug-ins.

For those who would like to participate in future beta projects, please contact us at for further information.

Details regarding this new version:
We have made several changes to our plug-ins.  The following few paragraphs are meant to provide Area Discussion Forum users with a summary of what’s new and improved regarding our 2010.0 plug-ins.  For more complete information, please refer to the updated user references included in all our plug-ins and SDKs:

3ds Max / 3ds Max Design: Click the question mark located at the top-right corner of the FBX Exporter and Importer User interfaces.

Maya: In the FBX Exporter and Importer UIs, choose ‘Help>Help on FBX’.

QuickTime 7: The PDF, by default, installs here: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\FBX\FbxPlugins\2010.0\Quicktime.

FBX Converter: In the FBX Converter UI, choose ‘Help>Help’.

We’ve managed to beef up the documentation as well, with more accurate and fuller explanations of our features.  Please take the time to read the documentation, as there are also some workflow tips at the end of both the 3ds Max and Maya FBX plug-in docs.  We will continue to add more content with each new release, and so since a lot of this content is based upon your questions posted right here in these forums, keep those questions and feedback coming.

What’s New in 2010.0, you ask?

3ds Max / Maya FBX plug-ins:

* Normal Map support

* Tangents and Binormal import/export support

* New Exporter UI option: Use scene name

...This option allows users to name their exported Animation Take after their 3ds Max .max or Maya .mb scene filename instead of the default “Take 001”

* 3ds Max FBX plug-in: New Exporter UI option: Re-evaluate normals

...Function: Forces normals by control point (averages vertex normals by control points)

* New Exporter / Importer UI option: Generate Log Data

...This option allows users to choose whether or not log data is written to the log file

* Improved Hardware Shader Support

3ds Max FBX Plug-ins:

* Added new MAXScript option to allow for the importing of explicit normals

...If implicit normals (smoothing groups) exist within an FBX file, since FBX 2009.3, 3ds Max overrides modified/explicit normals with implicit normal data.  In certain cases, users need to be able to override this automatic behavior and force the import of explicit normals.
* NEW COMMANDS:
o FBXImporterSetParam “ForceNormal” true|false
o FBXImporterGetParam “ForceNormal”

Maya FBX Plug-ins:

* Export Selected

...Export selected option has been added to the Maya FBX plug-in (FBX Exporter UI). This feature has been implemented for both UI and scripting use. It allows users to export selected items from Maya to FBX without exporting all associated input connections.  When the input connections option is deactivated, no input connections associated to the selected object will be exported. All other options in the FBX exporter still apply when exporting selection.

* Support for “Smooth Mesh”

...Smooth Mesh Preview information and Subdivision Levels attached to mesh-type geometries supported

* Camera Image Back Plane export/import support

* Displacement Map export/import support

QuickTime FBX plug-ins:

The QuickTime FBX plug-in’s kernel has been replaced which should encourage better performance, stability and compatibility with FBX files.

What’s Fixed?
We have addressed hundreds of defects in this release, many of which have been brought to our attention by Area Forum members.  Please see the readme.txt files that install with the plug-ins and SDKs for more information.

Also worth mentioning:

Improved feature: MotionBuilder>Biped workflow

* A significant amount of development work has been done in both 3ds Max 2010 and FBX 2010.0 to improve the Biped workflow between MotionBuilder and 3ds Max.  Historically, merging MotionBuilder FBX animation onto Bipeds took a long period of time to process.  When using 3ds Max 2010 with FBX 2010.0, you will notice a significant improvement in speed.  In our tests, files that took 5 minutes to import into 3ds Max now take about 30 seconds and 45 second imports take about 3-4 seconds.  Again, this will require 3ds Max 2010 to obtain the results.
* There were animation precision issues when importing FBX animation from MotionBuilder; those have been fixed in 3ds Max 2010 as well.

Again, what’s listed here is only a small list of the many fixes and improvements made to the plug-ins since FBX version 2009.3.  Again, please consult the readme.txt files that install with the plug-ins for information on specific bug fixes.  If you run into any issues at all or have any questions about the direction we’re headed in with our plug-ins, please contact us at .  We’re of course very interested in what you have to say.

Have a great long weekend, everyone!

...Autodesk FBX QA

Tested on Maya 2009 sp1 and the importer don’t work as before: broken skins and character definitions (fullBodyIK), the channel box values of the objects uses comma separated numbers (by default Maya uses a dot) and the skeleton is not driven by the effectors anymore: i think that some naming or attributes conventions of what is exported or imported are changed in this new fbx version, looking at the script editor. Reverting to the 2009.x FBX plugin installed with sp1 restores the correct behavior. :|

Hello Michele,

I haven’t been able to reproduce the issue you’re describing; can you please provide a small Maya scene and FBX file to me?  Send it to or simply post it here on the discussion thread.

Thanks,

Trevor Adams
Autodesk FBX QA

Yes, i’ll try to prepare a simple scene with a skinned character and fullBodyIK rig, i had tested it with a project at work so i can’t give You directly that scene.

Hi Michele,

We have received your files and are currently looking into the issue. I will contact you as soon as we have any additional information.

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention.

David Abitbol
Autodesk FBX

Thanks to your support. :)

Hi, this is a post to provide some details regarding the issue that Michele ran into and a workaround as it may help others. It appears that in certain cases the windows regional language setting will change the decimal to a comma. This appears to cause issues during the FBX import. If you run into issues during the import process in which you notice that the skinning or the FBIK rig is not importing correctly you may want to try the following steps as a workaround.

•Make sure that Maya is closed.

•From your desktop go to Start>Control Panel>Regional and Language Options

•In the Regional and Language Options window, click on Customize

•In the Customize Regional Options window change the “decimal symbol:” to a decimal (dot).

•Click Apply and OK to exit the Regional and Language options window.

•Restart Maya.

Please note that this bug is logged and we plan on resolving the issue in a future release of the plug-in.

Thank you

David Abitbol
Autodesk FBX