How do I execute Maya script without lauching Maya?

Question

For example, I want to launch a script that creates a poly cube, export it to .stl or .fbx from the command line.

I can do it in Python by using the Maya standalone but it cannot handle exporting to other formats than .ma apparently

Answer 1

Why of course you can. Here's how you'd do exactly that (for FBX):

from os.path import join

from maya.standalone import initialize
import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.mel as mel

initialize("python")
cmds.loadPlugin("fbxmaya")
my_cube = cmds.polyCube()
cmds.select(my_cube[0], r=True)

my_filename = "cube2.fbx"
my_folder = "C:/SomeFolder/scenes"
full_file_path = join(my_folder, my_filename).replace('\\', '/')

mel.eval('FBXExport -f "%s"' % full_file_path)

Hope that was useful.