Maya Workflow Kit for Blender

for Maya users, in Blender

The whole Maya workflow in Blender, in one install.

The tutorial ends. Your Channel Box comes back.

Maya Workflow Kit is a free, open-source Blender extension for people who learned 3D in Maya. It brings the Maya workflow to Blender — hotbox and marking menus, Channel Box and Attribute Editor, menu sets, shelves and option windows, Maya-style navigation and selection, and Maya scene concepts such as Freeze Transformations, Delete History, groups, centimetres and pCube1 — rebuilt on top of Blender's own tools. Installing it changes nothing until you choose Maya, and one click on the Maya | Blender switch gives you plain Blender back whenever a tutorial uses Blender's own keys.

▶ Watch the half-minute tour (MP4) · Website · Install · Quick start · FAQ

📥 Free download: Blender Extensions, or in Blender: Edit → Preferences → Get Extensions → search "Maya Workflow Kit"

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👋 Hi, a quick note from me

I spent years in Maya. When I finally tried to move to Blender, the software wasn't really the problem. My hands were. I'd hold Space and nothing would pop up, I'd look for the Channel Box that wasn't there, and every few minutes I'd catch myself reaching for a shelf. I made this hoping that people like me, who are used to Maya, can settle into Blender a little more easily.

To be honest, it's still rough in places. Some Maya tools aren't there yet, and some don't feel quite right. I use it myself and I'll keep improving it, but I can only fix what I know about. So if something breaks, feels off, or you miss a Maya feature you use every day, please leave an issue. Even a one-liner helps a lot. Want to help in other ways? Anything goes — see CONTRIBUTING.md.

Thanks for giving it a try 🙂

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Why this exists

Many artists learned 3D in Maya and spent years building muscle memory there. When they need to work in Blender, because a team, a client, a class or a personal project uses it, that muscle memory works against them. This project tries to make that part a little easier.

It is not meant to replace Maya or to move anyone away from it. Many people use both, and this kit is for the moments when you are in Blender and want your hands to feel at home.

Maya Workflow Kit is a free, personal open-source project. There is no paid version, no donations requested, and no commercial goal behind it. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Autodesk.

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Contents

• Why this exists
• Features
• Known limits
• Installation
• First run: turning Maya mode on and off
• Recommended setup
• Quick start for Maya users
• FAQ
• Development
• Contributors · Credits · License · Trademarks

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Features

Modern Smart Extrude grows, carves and stitches intersecting faces, with a combined Move/Rotate/Scale manipulator and cut-through support.

Make Live uses the Status Line magnet and history menu to manage reference meshes, with dark green labels/wires, viewport selection restrictions and Move/Quad Draw projection onto the live list.

Everything below is in the current version. Maya menu items that Blender cannot do are still shown — greyed, with a one-line note saying why and what to use instead.

Look & layout

• Maya layout, added to the open file as workspaces when you choose Maya: menu bar, Status Line, Shelf, Tool Box, Outliner, Channel Box / Layer Editor tab stack, Time Slider and Range Slider, Help Line and Command Line.
• Maya's docking: Channel Box, Attribute Editor and Modeling Toolkit share one tab stack next to the viewport and tear off into floating windows by their ::::: handle; Outliner and Tool Settings dock on the left.
• The Maya Move / Scale manipulator.
• Alt+B cycles the background of every 3D view through Maya's solid background colours.
• The kit uses your own Blender theme; see Recommended setup for a Maya-like look.

Navigation & selection

• Alt + LMB / MMB / RMB tumble, track and dolly; F / A frame selected / all in the visible part of the view; Shift+F / Shift+A in all views; [ ] view undo / redo; Space tap toggles one view / four views.
• Q W E R T Y tools (Y = last non-QWERT tool), Maya selection modifiers (Shift toggles, Ctrl deselects, Ctrl+Shift adds), F8 object / component toggle, F9–F12 vertex / edge / face / UV.
• Pre-selection highlight, edit-mode box select through occluded elements, selection priority, arrow-key pick-walk (edge loops / rings, joints), soft select and symmetry.
• Hold keys: X / C / V snap to grid / edge / vertex while held, J step snap, D / Insert toggle pivot editing (D can also be held temporarily), B soft select.

Insert edits the pivot; hold V while dragging and it snaps to a vertex. Insert again, and the object rotates around its new pivot.

During pivot editing, click a vertex, edge or face to snap and align the pivot. Shift-click changes position; Ctrl-click changes orientation. See custom pivot editing for the full controls.

Hotbox, marking menus & menu sets

• Space-hold hotbox with every menu of the current menu set, Recent Commands and the marking-menu zones.
• Right-click, Shift+right-click and Ctrl+right-click marking menus over objects and components, in Maya's radial positions, with gestures, click mode, submenus and option boxes; Q / W / E / R + LMB tool option menus; Shift+Q / Alt+Q / Shift+S hold menus.
• Menu sets Modeling / Rigging / Animation / FX / Rendering on F2–F6, Maya's menu order and names, Maya hotkeys shown in the menus, dotted tear-off lines.
• Option boxes (❒) open Maya option windows with Maya 2022's factory values — Save Settings, Reset Settings, Apply and the command button; a plain click then uses your saved values.
• Shelves: the factory shelves (Polygons, Rigging, Animation, Rendering, FX …) with every button in its Maya slot, plus your own Python shelves.

Tap Space to toggle one view and four views; hold Space for the hotbox. Here: Select > All, straight from the hotbox.

Right-click over an object for its marking menu in Maya's positions: drag to Vertex for component mode, right-click again for Object Mode.

Channel Box & editors

• Channel Box / Layer Editor: Translate / Rotate / Scale / Visibility of every selected object, SHAPES and INPUTS (history), keyed / locked / driven colours, +=5 and *=2 entry, middle-drag virtual slider in the viewport for selected channels, Channels menu and right-click menu, display layers.
• Attribute Editor with Maya's node tabs and sections (transform, shape, history, material, shading group) and Notes; Ctrl+A toggles Channel Box ↔ Attribute Editor.
• Outliner with Maya's Display / Show menus (DAG hierarchy, Shapes toggle), sets and Maya's default rows.
• Maya menu bars in the Graph Editor, Dope Sheet, UV Editor, Hypershade, Render Settings and Script Editor; a Tool Settings dock; the Modeling Toolkit.
• Command Line and Script Editor run Python with a small maya.cmds look-alike (e.g. cmds.polyCube(), cmds.move(5, 0, 0)).

S keys every channel and the Channel Box turns red; type +=90 into Rotate Z, right-click › Key Selected, then scrub the Time Slider.

Modeling & UV

• Maya creation defaults: Maya names (pCube1, pCubeShape1, group1, polySmooth1), Maya sizes in centimetres, a default lambert1 material; optional Maya Units preference (1 Blender unit = 1 cm).
• Maya concepts: Freeze Transformations (channels back to 0 / 0 / 1, pivot kept), Reset Transformations, Center Pivot, Delete History and Delete by Type, Maya-style parenting (P / Shift+P keep the Channel Box values), Ctrl+G groups, Duplicate Special.
• Smooth Mesh Preview on 1 / 2 / 3, display modes on 4 / 5 / 6 / 7.
• Mesh tools including Combine / Separate / Mirror / Boolean, extrude with editable history, Ctrl+B Bevel, Circularize, Connect and Make Hole, Maya's convert-selection rules.
• UV: Cut / Sew UV Edges, 3D Cut and Sew, Unfold, Layout, UV shell selection, Maya UV Editor menus and UV Toolkit.

Animation

• S sets a key on every keyable channel; Shift+W / E / R key translate / rotate / scale.
• Time Slider with key ticks and Range Slider; K-drag to scrub; , / . previous / next key; Alt+V play; Time Slider bookmarks.
• Graph Editor with Maya menus and the tangent toolbar (Spline, Linear, Clamped, Stepped, Flat …), Shift+S tangents marking menu, I insert-key tool.
• Auto Key and Playblast.

Alt + left drag tumbles, Alt + middle drag tracks, Alt + right drag dollies; click an object and press F to frame it, A to frame everything.

Rigging

• Joint Tool, IK Handle and IK Spline, joint pick-walk, Reroot and Preferred Angle.
• Bind Skin and Paint Skin Weights (influence list, Replace / Add / Scale / Smooth), Hammer weights.
• Set Driven Key, constraints, Cluster and Soft Modification.

From the Rigging shelf: Create Joints by clicking, an IK Handle from shoulder to wrist, Bind Skin, pull the handle, then Paint Skin Weights.

Rendering & FX

• Hypershade menus and Browser tabs, Maya shader types with their Attribute Editor sections, shading groups.
• Render Settings window with Maya's Common tab; Rendering menu set (Render Current Frame, Keep Image in the render view).
• FX menu set with Maya's simulation scale: nucleus gravity, nParticles emitters, nCloth.

Scene & files

• Maya projects: Set Project / Project Window; file dialogs start in the current project's folders (default project Documents/Maya Workflow Kit/projects/default).
• Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Shift+S save in the project's scenes folder; Ctrl+Alt+S increment and save the Maya way (shot_v001 → shot_v001.0001).
• Ctrl+R Create Reference: links a .blend with a library override and namespace:name naming.
• File > Import / Export with Files of type (FBX, OBJ, Alembic, USD …) and Maya presets (cm, Y-up).

Switch & revert

• A Maya | Blender switch at the right of the top bar, an Edit menu entry and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M.
• Switching to Blender unregisters the Maya keys and Maya UI and gives Blender's own back — with the same scene open; switch again whenever you like.
• Maya mode never changes your preferences, theme or active keymap, so there is nothing to restore.

One click on Blender in the top-bar switch gives plain Blender back with the same scene; one click on Maya brings the Maya layout and keys back.

All clips as MP4 (1920 × 1080): docs/distribution/marketing/clips/.

Known limits

Some Maya behaviour needs Blender's C++ code; the kit does not fork Blender, so these are worked around or left out:

• Z-up world. Blender is Z-up; Y-up applies only to the import / export presets.
• One pivot per object. Maya's separate rotate and scale pivots have no Blender equivalent.
• No middle-drag on fields. Select channels in the Channel Box and middle-drag in the viewport instead.
• No MEL. Scripting is Python, with a small maya.cmds look-alike.
• No Maya scene files. .ma / .mb can't be read — export FBX (or OBJ / Alembic / USD) from Maya.
• No theme. Maya's grey UI and green lead selection come from a theme you install yourself (Recommended setup); extensions.blender.org add-ons may not change themes.
• Docking stays inside Blender's areas. Maya's side tabs and OS-level docking of panels are not imitated.
• Not every Maya menu item has a Blender counterpart; those items are greyed with a note.
• Blender versions after 5.2 are not offered the extension until they are tested.

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Installation

Requirements

• Blender 5.2 LTS. For now the kit is supported and tested on Blender 5.2 only. It still installs on Blender 5.0 and 5.1 (blender_version_min = "5.0.0", blender_version_max = "5.3.0" exclusive), but those versions are no longer tested and may have problems — please use 5.2 if you can. Blender 4.5 LTS is no longer supported: 0.6.2 is the last version for Blender 4.5 — keep using 0.6.2 there.
• Pure Python, no compiled code, no network access. On Windows, hold keys read the keyboard state with one read-only system call; elsewhere Blender's own key-release event is used. Development and testing so far have been on Windows only.

Option 1 — Blender Extensions platform (not yet listed)

Maya Workflow Kit is not on extensions.blender.org yet. Once it is, install it from inside Blender: Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions, search Maya Workflow Kit, click Install.

Option 2 — Install the zip from disk

1. Get maya-workflow-kit-<version>.zip (current version: 0.2.1) from GitHub Releases — or build it as in option 3.
2. In Blender: Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions > ▾ (top-right menu) > Install from Disk… and pick the zip — or drag the zip onto the Blender window.

Command line (installs into the user repository and enables it):

blender --command extension install-file -r user_default --enable maya-workflow-kit-<version>.zip

Option 3 — Build from source

git clone https://github.com/5hyuns/maya-workflow-kit-for-blender.git
cd maya-workflow-kit-for-blender
python tools/build.py            # -> dist/maya-workflow-kit-<version>.zip (+ dist/maya-workflow-kit-<version>-legacy.zip)
python tools/build.py --blender "/path/to/blender"   # point it at your Blender 5.x

The build runs blender --command extension build (which also validates the manifest) in a throwaway user config; then install dist/maya-workflow-kit-<version>.zip as in option 2.

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First run: turning Maya mode on and off

Enabling the extension does not change your keymap, preferences, theme or layout. It only adds the Maya | Blender switch at the right of the top bar, an Edit menu entry, the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M and, once, a welcome dialog.

Turn Maya mode on — click Make Blender feel like Maya in the welcome dialog or in Preferences > Add-ons > Maya Workflow Kit, or click Maya in the top-bar switch. The kit then adds its Maya-style keys (as add-on keymap items: your active keymap stays selected), its Maya menus and panels, and the Maya layout as workspaces appended to the open file. It does not change your theme or your Blender preferences.

Go back — any of these:

Want	Do
Plain Blender for a while	Click Blender in the switch (or Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M). The Maya keys and UI go away; switch again any time.
Uninstall	Disable or Remove the extension (Preferences > Add-ons). Everything it registered is unregistered; there is nothing else to undo.
Drop the Maya layout from a file	Delete its workspace tabs, or don't save the file — they are ordinary file data.

The kit never saves your preferences.

Files it writes outside the extension

• The extension's user folder — your shelves.
• Maya project folders — the default project Documents/Maya Workflow Kit/projects/default the first time a project-aware dialog opens, and folders you choose with Set Project.
• Playblast writes its movie to Blender's temporary folder; exports and saves go where you choose.

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Recommended setup

Optional — the kit leaves your theme and preferences to you. Maya users usually like:

• A dark grey theme. Edit > Preferences > Get Extensions, filter by Themes, and install a dark grey theme you like (or pick one in Preferences > Themes > Presets).
• Navigation (Preferences > Navigation): Orbit Method Turntable, Orbit Around Selection off, Zoom to Mouse Position off, Auto Perspective on, Zoom Method Dolly with Zoom Axis Horizontal.
• Undo Steps 256 (Edit > Preferences > System > Memory & Limits > Undo Steps) — Maya's undo queue is unlimited, Blender keeps only 32 steps by default, so a long modeling session runs out of undo much sooner than in Maya. 256 is Blender's maximum; the kit can't set it for you (extensions may not change Blender's preferences) and shows this hint in its preferences while Undo Steps is lower.
• Emulate 3 Button Mouse off (Preferences > Input). When it is on, Blender turns Alt+left drag into a middle drag before any key map sees it, so Maya's Alt+LMB tumble can't work (the kit shows a hint while it is on).
• Linux: many desktops (GNOME, KDE, Xfce) move windows on Alt+drag before Blender gets the mouse. Set the window manager's move modifier to Super (as for Maya on Linux) to tumble / track / dolly with Alt.
• Region Overlap off (Preferences > Interface > Editors), so side panels sit beside the viewport like Maya's.
• Only Insert Available (Preferences > Animation > Keyframes) for Maya-like auto key.

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Quick start for Maya users

With Maya mode on. Every Maya hotkey and its Blender counterpart is listed in Maya's Hotkey Editor (Windows > Settings/Preferences > Hotkey Editor).

Action	Keys / mouse
Tumble / track / dolly	Alt + LMB / MMB / RMB drag
Frame selected / all	F / A (Shift+F / Shift+A: all views)
One view ↔ four views	Space (tap)
Hotbox	Space (hold)
Marking menus	RMB, Shift+RMB, Ctrl+RMB over an object or component
Select / Move / Rotate / Scale	Q / W / E / R (hold + LMB for the tool's marking menu)
Last tool	Y
Add / toggle / remove from selection	Ctrl+Shift+click / Shift+click / Ctrl+click
Object ↔ component mode	F8; F9 vertex, F10 edge, F11 face, F12 UV
Pick-walk	Arrow keys
Edit pivot	D (hold) or Insert (toggle)
Snap to grid / edge / vertex	X / C / V (hold while dragging)
Soft select	B
Smooth preview / display modes	1 / 2 / 3 · 4 / 5 / 6 / 7
Channel Box ↔ Attribute Editor	Ctrl+A
Menu sets	F2 Modeling · F3 Rigging · F4 Animation · F5 FX · F6 Rendering
Undo / redo	Z or Ctrl+Z / Shift+Z
Duplicate / with transform / special	Ctrl+D / Shift+D / Ctrl+Shift+D
Group / parent / unparent	Ctrl+G / P / Shift+P
Delete history	Alt+Shift+D
Hide / show	Ctrl+H / Shift+H
Set key / key T, R, S	S / Shift+W, Shift+E, Shift+R
Previous / next key · play	, / . · Alt+V
Scrub time	K + LMB drag
Tangent marking menu	Shift+S (hold) + LMB
Background colour	Alt+B
Save / increment and save	Ctrl+S / Ctrl+Alt+S
Create Reference	Ctrl+R
Switch Maya ↔ Blender	Ctrl+Alt+Shift+M

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FAQ

Does it change my Blender settings? No. Maya mode adds add-on keymap items, menus, panels and layout workspaces in the open file; it never writes your preferences, theme or active keymap. The settings Maya users usually change are listed under Recommended setup for you to set yourself.

Is it reversible? Yes. Click Blender in the top-bar switch, or disable / remove the extension — everything the kit registered is unregistered, and nothing else was changed. See First run.

Can I follow Blender tutorials with it installed? Yes — switch to Blender, follow along with Blender's own keys, and switch back to Maya.

Which Blender versions are supported? For now, Blender 5.2 LTS only. The kit also installs on 5.0 and 5.1, but they are not tested and may have problems. 0.6.2 is the last version for Blender 4.5 LTS; versions after 5.2 are added once they are tested.

Does it open Maya .ma / .mb files? No. Export FBX (or OBJ, Alembic, USD) from Maya; the kit's Import uses Maya presets (cm, Y-up).

Does it include any Maya code or files? No. It contains no Autodesk code, icons, MEL scripts or other Autodesk assets; behaviour is re-implemented on Blender's own tools. It does not need Maya installed.

Is it affiliated with Autodesk? No. Maya Workflow Kit is an independent, free and open-source project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Autodesk or the Blender Foundation. See Trademarks.

Does it use the network? No network access and no auto-updater. Help menu items open Blender manual pages in your browser only when you click them.

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Development

The extension's internal id is allset (package src/allset/, operators allset.*, classes ALLSET_*, environment variables ALLSET_*); the id stays the same whatever the display name.

Repository layout

Path	What
src/allset/	The extension: blender_manifest.toml, preferences.py, switch.py, keymap/, marking/, operators/, ui/, compat.py (all Blender-version differences)
tests/	Headless harness run.py, GUI tests gui/, helpers kit.py, tests test_*.py
tools/	build.py (packages), release_check.py, build_repo.py (static extension repository), make_startup.py (layout template)
docs/	distribution/ (release notes, store and marketing media), user guides

Build and test

Every Blender run uses a sandbox user config under tmp/ — your real Blender settings are never read or written.

python tools/build.py              # build dist/maya-workflow-kit-<version>.zip and the legacy zip
python tests/run.py                # build + install into tmp/test_env + run all headless tests
python tests/run.py -k enable      # only matching test files
python tests/run.py --no-build     # reuse the zip in dist/
python tests/gui/run.py            # GUI tests with simulated key / mouse events (a Blender window opens briefly)
python tools/release_check.py      # build, extension validate, clean-config install + enable, screenshots
python tools/build_repo.py         # static extension repository in dist/repo/ (zip + index.json + index.html)

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Contributors

Thank you to everyone who sent code to the kit! 🙏

	Contribution
@cnzim	Real-time transforms, joint selection and the Paint Skin Weights workspace (#125)
@LSKianhao	Time slider scaling on high-DPI screens and ruler text size tests (#188)
@youngmin2k	Hidden-mesh warning before component mode (#196); pivot editing, Prevent Negative Scale, Smart Extrude and Make Live (#207)

Many more people helped by reporting issues and testing; they are thanked in each release note. Pull requests are welcome.

Credits

The scenes in the screenshots and clips use third-party models and images under their own licences; every asset, its author, source and licence is listed in docs/distribution/marketing/CREDITS.md. Captions are set in Inter (SIL OFL). These assets are used only in the marketing media and are not shipped in the extension.

License

Code: GPL-3.0-or-later (LICENSE). The kit-made images and data files in the extension (welcome PNGs, the Maya layout startup.blend) are CC0-1.0 (src/allset/ASSETS_LICENSE.txt). Copyright 2026 ohnsk.

Trademarks

Autodesk and Maya are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. This project is an independent, free and open-source (GPL) extension for Blender. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or otherwise approved by Autodesk, Inc. or the Blender Foundation. It contains no Autodesk code, icons, MEL scripts or other Autodesk assets; references to Maya are solely to describe compatibility and the intended audience.