Perforce in Maya: check out, lock, sync and submit from the Dousen panel

By Luca Vitiello · Updated 6 October 2026

Dousen adds a docked panel and shelf to Maya. Its Perforce tab shows whether the open scene is locked, opened by others or behind the depot, and lets you check out, sync and revert it under your own Perforce user. Published exports go to the Jira task's changelist.

What changes for artists

Launch the DCC from DousenDesktop. A DCC started from a desktop shortcut has no Dousen panel. DousenDesktop runs on Windows 10 and 11, and tasks come from Jira Cloud.

What Perforce status does the Dousen panel show in Maya?

Maya starts with a Dousen shelf and a docked panel. Open the Perforce tab to see the state of the current scene file. Dousen reads it with p4 fstat, through P4Python if it's installed or the p4 command line otherwise, and refreshes about every 30 seconds. Next to the file status the panel shows Stream: <name> for a stream workspace, or Classic depot. The status line is one of these:

StatusMeaning
Locked by <user> (CL n)Someone else has the file checked out exclusively.
Opened by <user(s)>One or more people have it open without an exclusive lock.
Locked by youYou hold the Perforce lock, from an exclusive checkout or p4 lock.
Not at latest (have r<n>, head r<m>)Your local copy is behind the depot.
AvailableNobody else has the file open or locked, and your copy is current.
P4 error: <detail> or Not in PerforcePerforce can't answer, because the server is unreachable or the file isn't in the depot.

How do I check out, sync and revert a scene from Maya?

Each button is available only when it applies to the file's current state.

  1. Open a scene saved under your Perforce workspace root, then open the Perforce tab.
  2. Click Check Out to edit an existing file. It opens in the changelist of the task selected in DousenDesktop, or in default if no task is active.
  3. If the file is behind the depot, click Sync & Reload. Dousen asks you to confirm, because the reload discards unsaved changes.
  4. Click Revert and confirm to discard your changes to an open file. The scene matches the restored file afterward.
  5. Click Refresh to read the lock state again.

For a new scene, open the New Asset tab, click Load Conventions, choose a name, type and taxonomy, and click Set Up Asset. Dousen saves the .ma file to the resolved source path and adds it to the task's changelist. The Dousen Asset shelf button opens a window that does the same.

How do exported files land in the task's changelist?

Desktop sends the Jira key and changelist to every running DCC when you select a task. When you click Publish on the Publish tab, Dousen opens the scene and the files from your last export for edit in that changelist and adds newly created files after the export. Each instance exports as its own FBX file. The publish doesn't submit anything, so submit the changelist from DousenDesktop afterward. One changelist per Jira task walks through that step. The Publish mesh.export on save checkbox on the Tools tab triggers the same handling on every save.

After you restart Maya, the first publish doesn't know the previous outputs. Check those out yourself if your workspace is read-only.

What stops a publish in Maya?

Dousen runs a Perforce pre-flight before it exports. If another user has locked a file that the export would write, the publish stops and names the lock. A save-triggered publish stops the same way. Lock failures appear in Publish history in DousenDesktop. Ask the lock holder to submit or revert, then publish again.

How does the Maya addon load?

You don't install the addon in Maya. DousenDesktop ships it and loads it when you launch Maya from the apps bar, using the executable path in Settings → DCC Apps. The panel opens at startup, and the Dousen shelf button opens it again. A Maya started from a desktop shortcut has no Dousen panel. Restart Maya after you update DousenDesktop. If the panel header says Cannot connect to Dousen Desktop, open Desktop and the panel reconnects. See How the addons load.

If your studio keeps DCC source files in a separate Perforce repository, possibly on another server, the same buttons act on that repository's server. See Source repositories for the admin binding and the artist workspace.

Dousen is free during the studio beta, with access by request, and free forever for teams of up to 5 users. Request early access.