If you get this UnicodeEncodeError when you render

# Error: line 1: UnicodeEncodeError: file C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2016\bin\python27.zip\encodings\utf_8.py line 16: ascii #

it’s probably because because the project folder has a special character in the name (for example, an accent mark like é).

If that’s not it, then we’d need more context (hint: everything else that is logged in the script history).

For a project name with a special character, you’ll see something like this in the script history:

file -f -save -options "v=0;";
// C:/maya/projects/New_Projéct/scenes/blank.mb // 
# Error: line 1: UnicodeEncodeError: file D:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2017\bin\python27.zip\encodings\utf_8.py line 16: ascii # 
# Error: line 1: UnicodeEncodeError: file D:\Program Files\Autodesk\Maya2017\bin\python27.zip\encodings\utf_8.py line 16: ascii #