Well it's the same cause I think, you have spaces in your paths (Documents and Settings)
I'm not familiar with Maya, but when you make a new project, can't you specify the root folder for that project? Try something directly in c, like c:\Maxwell_scenes\
Fellow Attractives:
Please let me make sure I understand this thread - are you all saying that your having trouble saving your PREVIEW images???
If so, here's how to fix it...
First, set project to what ever you want - In Maya's top level menu choose:
FILE->PROJECT->SET
the folder you select in the browser that pops up will serve as your maya project folder.
Next we tell Maxwell where to write any temp images:
FILE->PROJECT->EDIT CURRENT
a dialogue box named "edit project" will pop up
the second twirl down menu is labeled "Project Data Locations"
the first tab in that section is labeled "images"type "images" in the widget right next to it.
Click accept in the edit project dialogue box....
Save your file (standard precaution)
Now do a preview render and in a file browser window, navigate to your $project/images directory - you should see your previz imge there no matter what format you chose.
You'll notice that Maxwell(actaully Mayall) will create some of it's needed directories on it's own, like renderData and renderScenes to name a few. I'm thinking it's a BUG that Mayall doesn't create the images directory it needs to store its "_Previz" image. Until then, this should work everytime.
It seemed to me that alias rla format is only one that is giving me an error message of not be able to save out (look in a console window) for preview render.
Other formats (tga, psd, tiff, sgi etc) were able to render and saved fine.
Rla will render in maxwell preview but cannot save out the file.
As you mentioned this is all tested AFTER setting the project.