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# Maya API Reference

This reference provides detailed documentation of the classes, methods, types and constants provided by the Maya API (Application Programming Interface) along with cross-linked source for the code samples provided in the Maya Development Kit.For an overview of how all the pieces fit together and a tutorial showing how to use the API, please refer to the API Guide.

The API can be accessed from both C++ and Python. The method signatures are given in C++ syntax and in most cases translation to the equivalent Python syntax is straightforward. However, because the C++ interface was developed long before that of Python some API methods use C++ types and features in ways which have no Python equivalent. The Maya Python API chapter of the API Guide provides techniques for addressing these incompatabilities.

Some API methods cannot be used at all from Python. These will be marked in the documentation as follows:

This method is not available in Python.

In all cases there should be an equivalent method which is available from Python. If you find any exceptions, please let us know.

Some methods are marked as "obsolete" or "deprecated". You should not use these in new code that you write as they may be removed in a future version of the API. You should also consider updating any existing API code to remove references to these methods to ensure that your code continues to build properly against future versions of the API.

In the class documentation, immediately below the class's title is listed the module to which the class belongs. This corresponds to the API library which your C++ code must link to and your Python code must import to be able to access that class. For example, the MUniformParameter class belongs to the OpenMayaRender module, so to use this class your C++ code would have to link to libOpenMayaRender (Linux and OS X) or OpenMayaRender.lib (Windows) and your Python code would have to import maya.OpenMayaRender.