Install USD for Maya

The USD Extension for Maya is included in the Maya installer. Visit the official Autodesk MayaUSD GitHub repository to obtain the latest release.

Installing the latest version of USD for Maya requires the corresponding latest installation of Maya in conjunction. After obtaining a user platform-specific installer package, press Page Down to read the license agreement, then click Install or Extract when prompted.

The MayaUSD plug-in installs (or updates) a common .mod file in the default Maya search path. For more details, see: file path variables which in turn points at the specific directory where a MayaUSD plug-in version is installed.

Tip: If you wish to change between MayaUSD versions you can edit this .mod file instead of reloading. If for any reason there is a need to revert/load a previous version of the MayaUSD plug-in, you can replace the path strings on the .mod file to point to the desired version you want to load.

Install USD for Maya on Windows

The default installation path for MayaUSD is C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MayaUSD\<MayaVersion>\<ExtensionVersion>.

Uninstall MayaUSD via Control Panel > Programs and Features.

The MayaUSD installer updates the common .mod file that Maya looks for in this location: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Modules\Maya.

Install USD for Maya on MacOS

The default installation path for MayaUSD is /Applications/Autodesk/MayaUSD/<MayaVersion>/<ExtensionVersion> .

The MayaUSD installer updates the common .mod file that Maya looks for in this location: /Users/Shared/Autodesk/modules/maya.

Install USD for Maya on Linux

The default installation path for MayaUSD is /usr/autodesk/MayaUSD/<MayaVersion>/<ExtensionVersion>.

If you are installing directly via rpm, use command: rpm -ivh --force name-of-rpm-file so that Maya automatically recognizes the latest installation.

The MayaUSD installer updates the common .mod file that Maya looks for in this location: /usr/autodesk/modules/maya.

Important: If installing USD for Maya Creative, please be aware that Maya Creative is not available for Linux operating systems.

Load and manage plug-ins

Load the USD Extension into Maya with the Plug-in Manager: Select Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mayaUsdPlugin.mll > Loaded. You can also opt to Auto Load the plug-in for each Maya session.

The USD core provides a rendering framework called Hydra, which supports multiple rendering backends. The Maya to Hydra plug-in can be turned on in the Plug-in Manager (Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mayaHydra.mll). When on, you can select between the render delegates in the Renderer panel menu (Select Renderer > select between Viewport 2.0 and (Technology Preview) Hydra GL).

Note:

The core USD rendering backend HydraGL(Storm) is not fully supported in Maya. Switching to Hydra render delegate from VP2 on a Maya scene can cause Maya to crash. View the USD Limitations section of your version-specific Release Notes page for more information and a workaround. Hydra for Maya is also not supported on MacOS.

Note: For working with USD and other plug-ins in the Maya ecosystem, visit this support article for version-specific compatibilities.

Installing multiple versions

USD for Maya versions install side-by-side. The MayaUSD that is loaded into the particular Maya version is defined by the .mod file. Multiple versions can be loaded by specifying the path to their install directory in the .mod file which can be found in:

Windows: C:\Program Files\Common Files\Autodesk Shared\Modules\maya\<year>
Linux: usr/autodesk/modules/maya/<year>
Mac: /Users/Shared/Autodesk/modules/maya/<year>

This .mod file can be edited in any text editor (such as VSCode or Notepad). Replace the path of the installed version with the current version and then you should save your file and restart Maya to enact changes.