MP Rollout Shelf

MP Rollout Shelf is a free script shelf for Maya: a narrow column of buttons beside the viewport, grouped into collapsible rollouts, with a separate set of buttons for every project. On top of that, your favorite folders and recent scene files are one click away.

Maya's stock shelf is a long strip of icons on tabs. To reach a script you have to remember which tab it's on and what its icon looks like, and moving to another project means rebuilding the shelf. Here everything is labelled with words and stays where you put it.

Labelled buttons and rollouts

Every button carries a label, and can have its own colour and tooltip. Buttons are grouped into rollouts, 3ds Max style: click a header and the rollout collapses, and it stays collapsed. What you rarely need gets out of the way without being deleted.

A button runs Python or MEL exactly the way a stock Maya shelf button does, sharing imports and variables with the Script Editor. A script from Maya's shelf moves over by copying its command text.

Rearrange by dragging

Hold Ctrl and drag a button to another spot, in any rollout, or drag a rollout with all its buttons. The Ctrl is there so a click with a shaky hand runs the script instead of carrying the button away.

Profiles per project

A profile is its own set of rollouts and buttons. The easy way is to build a common set, then copy it for a new project and change what differs: Duplicate copies the profile with every button. You switch profiles in Settings and the shelf rebuilds at once.

Floating or docked

The shelf is a small floating window or a panel docked to Maya on the left or right. Switch in Settings, no restart needed. The docked shelf remembers its width and comes back in place after a Maya restart; the floating one remembers where it stood.

Favorite folders

The Favorites button opens a list of your project folders beside the shelf. Each has four buttons: open a scene, save the scene, import a file, export the selection — each opening the usual dialog right in that folder. Import takes Maya scenes, FBX and OBJ and gathers them into one group; export picks the format from the extension and loads the plug-in it needs. Folders can be grouped under headers and separators.

Recent files

The Recent button lists the files you opened and imported lately — open or import one again with a click. Maya's own File > Recent Files list is merged in.

Your buttons live apart from the tool

Buttons, profiles and favorites sit in their own folder in Maya's documents, apart from the tool and shared by every Maya version. Updating the tool never touches them, and a backup is a copy of one folder.

What it doesn't do

• It doesn't import Maya's stock shelves automatically: buttons move over by copying their command text.
• It doesn't keep icons: buttons are told apart by words and colour.
• It doesn't sync your buttons between computers by itself: put the data folder on a network drive or copy it over.
• Tested on Windows. Not tested on macOS or Linux.

At a glance

• Maya: 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, 2026
• System: Windows
• Python: 2.7 and 3.x, PySide2 and PySide6
• Install: copy one folder into Maya's scripts and make a shelf button
• Size: 0.32 MB
• Interface: English; manual in English and Russian, opens from Settings
• License: free, MIT, open source