Perhaps some of you have already noticed that I primarily work on a Mac. And just like any operating system, macOS has its own unique quirks.
One of these quirks is that it’s not always straightforward to open two or more instances of the same application simultaneously. However, there’s an easy workaround for this: using the Terminal, you can launch multiple instances of the same program.
Here are some terminal commands:
| App | Command |
|---|---|
| Autodesk Maya | open -n /Applications/Autodesk/maya2025/Maya.app/ |
| Substance 3D Painter | open -n -a “Adobe Substance 3D Painter.app” |
Please note that you should not forget to enter or change the year of your Maya version.
This is particularly useful in a production environment, where running multiple instances of an application can greatly improve efficiency. For example, in Maya, you might quickly want to open another scene to copy objects or settings from it.
I remember one project where everyone in the studio proactively kept a second, empty Maya window open at all times. The reason was that Maya frequently crashed during this particular project. With the backup window already open, we could swiftly reload the required scenes and immediately continue working without significant delays.
Maya and Substance 3D Painter each require different commands. I don’t know why either. If anyone knows why or has more commands, please let me know 🙂