USD for Maya Release Notes

The latest available version of USD for Maya is version 0.21.0. Visit the official Autodesk MayaUSD GitHub repository to obtain the latest release.

The release notes for each version of the USD Extension for Maya describe what's fixed, known limitations and workarounds, plus other important information about each release. This topic defines the latest features introduced to USD for Maya. For version-specific information on fixes and limitations, be sure to review the release notes page corresponding to your version of MayaUSD.

What's New: Latest USD features

• Support: General stability fixes, support for Maya reference and display layers as feature workflows. See add a reference in the Outliner and display layer editing for more information.
• Visibility: Cameras are now able to draw in the Viewport and lights can illuminate in the Viewport.
• Improvements: Improvements have been made to the push/pull and edit or duplicate as Maya workflows. See work with USD data and Maya data interchangeably for more information.

Previously released USD features

• Channel Box: Support for manipulating prims using the Channel Box is now available. See Channel Box for more information.
• Viewport Selectability and Isolate Select Support: Isolate select in the Viewport to manage complex scene performance. Point snapping performance improvements and point instance selection.
• Import and Export: Import/Export of lights, basis curves, export roots and is now supported. UV set naming on export now uses st, st1, st2 etc. See USD Import options and USD export options for more information.
• Layer Editor: Uneditable/ read-only layers now show as locked in the Layer Editor. See read-only layers in the USD Layer Editor contexual menu.
• Attribute Editor Options: New categorization template based on schemas for a stage and prims in the Attribute Editor. Added missing material and texture info, connected attribute display with settings, and array widget functionality. Unshareable stage support now exists for proxyShape nodes. See USD data in the Attribute Editor to learn more.
• Outliner: All concrete prims have been added to the prim creation menu in the Outliner. Renaming and re-parenting workflows are fully supported. Grouping restrictions for prims have been added. Learn more in Work with USD data in the Outliner and USD contextual menu in the Outliner.

Feature support and foundation framework

• Material Support and MaterialX: Conversion options newly available. See USD import options for more information. Displacement mapping is supported. MayaUSD supports OpenEXR textures, 8, 16 and 32 bits, single channel, RGB and RGBA. Lossless interchange capability of materials when exporting StandardSurface to UsdPreviewSurface with MaterialX node definitions.
• API documentation for Maya 2023 - UFE 3.2 and Maya 2022 - UFE 2.0 is available. View the respective API documentation to script and develop with Maya USD.
• UFE- Aware Commands: select, nodeType, rename, parent, delete, duplicate, move, rotate, scale, reorder, group, showHidden, hide, pickWalk, ls, nameField, createEditor, outlinerEditor. See MEL commands for more information on how to use the listed commands.