Maya Export

You can export in one of the preinstalled general formats, write a .ma parser (not recommended), or write your own exporter. Check out RobTheBloke's fantastic tutorials on writing Maya exporters here

MAya also has a file format called RTG which you have to enable through the plugin manager. Its a basic format that should be easy to parse with standard file i/o if you dont wish to use Maya's API.

Cool, thanks for your replies. I'll have a deeper look into your infos later.

getting the FBX or collada SDK's would be a better option than RTG.