USD for Maya Release Notes

The latest available version of USD for Maya is version 0.26. Visit the official Autodesk MayaUSD GitHub repository to obtain the latest release.

Important:

MayaUSD 0.23.0, Bifrost 2.7.0.1, and MtoA 5.3.1 all use a version of USD that provides important security enhancements. It is recommended that you upgrade to these versions of MayaUSD, Bifrost, and MtoA or higher. For more information on version compatibility, refer to the following support article.

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.

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

What's New: Latest USD features

Relative Pathing: Save USD files relatively to your Maya scene file and parent file directories. To learn more about saving USD files relatively, see Make Path Relative.
Set default prim: Set a prim path when adding a reference or payload. The Select a Prim to Reference dialog lets you choose a prim to define as your default prim to reference in. See add a reference in the Outliner.
USD section in the Maya Preferences: Set your preferences for using relative paths when creating sublayers, references, payloads and more alongside viewport preferences when in untextured mode for displaying prims using either material colors or display colors. See set USD preferences.
Outliner and Attribute Editor: Bulk edit multiple prims with many USD commands in the Outliner. You can also set the stage's default prim in the Outliner and Attribute Editor. Learn how to work with the Outliner contextual menu.
Support: General stability fixes and support for drag-and-drop in the Outliner.
Improvements: Improvements have been made to Maya reference, push/pull and edit or duplicate as Maya workflows. See work with USD data and Maya data interchangeably and add a reference in the Outliner.

Previously released USD features

Channel Box: Support for manipulating prims using the Channel Box is now available. See Channel Box.
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: If your Maya scene contains multiple stages, you can work to select a stage as you do in the Attribute Editor. You can either pin a current view, or by default, the focus of your USD stage in the USD Layer Editor changes depending on your selection in the Outliner. Thus, if you select prim in the Outliner, the USD Layer Editor will auto-focus to the stage of your selection, so long as there is no pinned stage. See Work with the USD Layer Editor for more information on pinning your stage.
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 2024 - UFE 4.0, 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.