About Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE)

To help students and interested artists explore and learn to use Maya, Alias|Wavefront took the unprecedented step of releasing a full free version of its software. Anyone can download the software bundle or, for those with low bandwidth, purchase a CD from Alias|Wavefront for a nominal price. After installation, a one-year license of the software is free from Alias|Wavefront. The software is not licensed for any commercial purposes; it is for learning Maya only. This student version, known as Maya Personal Learning Edition (PLE), is identical to Maya Complete, with a few major exceptions:

• PLE is watermarked every screen and dialog box in Maya has a large repeating diagonal Alias|Wavefront logo. The watermark is light enough so that it shouldn't interfere with your work, but it's noticeable enough to prevent files from being used for commercial purposes.

• PLE does not allow plug-ins to run, except those that Alias has specifically created for the PLE.

• You can import .ma and .mb files, but you can output files only in the PLE file format (.mp files).

• PLE doesn't include the Vector or Mental Ray renderers.

At this writing, the Maya 5 Personal Learning Edition is available for Windows (XP or 2000 Professional) or Macintosh (Mac OS 10.2.4 or later). (As of yet, there's no IRIX or Linux version of PLE.) Consult this book's web site, where modified PLE scene files are posted, if you encounter problems loading the scene files into Maya PLE. For other questions on working with Maya PLE, you can consult the A|W support site at http://www.alias.com/maya/ple/resource.