USD for Maya v0.30.0 Release Notes

Release Highlights

USD in the Viewport

Control USD cameras in the native Maya viewport. With USD for Maya 0.30, you can now use the native Maya viewport's camera controls, such as tumbling, tracking and dollying, to manipulate USD cameras.
Display light shapes. We have added shapes for all core USD lights that were previously not visible in the Viewport. Note that this feature does not support Arnold lights.

USD in the Outliner

Reload references for prims. The Outliner now lets you reload references, payloads and nested references for prims.
Set the outliner text color for USD prims. A new Object Display option in the Attribute Editor lets you set the text color for USD prims in the Outliner.

Export update

Export a Maya USD proxyShape as a USD reference. We have added a new export option that lets you export a Maya USD proxyShape as a USD stage, which references the USD layer containing the original stage.

What else is new?

OpenPBR. The Assign New Material option now includes the ability to assign an OpenPBR MaterialX shader to a prim.
Bulk duplication. You can now duplicate multiple objects as USD data simultaneously.
General stability and performance improvements

Note:

In Maya 2025.3, there is a change in how UFE paths should be called, related to the normally hidden "world" node. Starting with this version, "world" must always be added as a prefix to UFE paths, regardless of whether it was previously included. In earlier versions, the "world" prefix was only added if the path was not already prefixed.

Avoid using str(ufe.Path) as it was intended for debugging. Instead, use ufe.PathString.string(ufe.Path). Examples:

Use ufe.PathString.string(ufe.Path(pathSegment)) instead of str(pathSegment)

Use ufe.PathString.string(path) instead of str(path)

What's Fixed

Build
[GitHub #3909] Trimmed down the UsdUfe linking to only what is needed.

Translation Framework
[GitHub #3886] Added USD Support for Maya Dual Quaternion skinned shapes.
[GitHub #3867] Placed Material Scope under the default prim when a scripted export automatically generates a default prim.
[GitHub #3858] Improved curve import sanity checking.
[GitHub #3849] Fixed a bug where the default prim settings in the export options were not retained.
[GitHub #3843] Updated the USD Exporter to prompt users to save anonymous layer edits when exporting stages as references.
[GitHub #3820] Fixed an issue where a skeleton exported from Maya to USD was positioned incorrectly.

Workflow
[GitHub #3904] Fixed an issue with saving and restoring a non-local target layer.
[GitHub #3883] Added a fallback light type for unsupported lights.
[GitHub #3881] Fixed an issue where the location of a prim changed when editing it as Maya data.
[GitHub #3874] Fixed edit routing errors when routing transforms followed by parenting commands.
[GitHub #3868] Fixed an issue where disabling the Meshes option in the export settings prevented future caching to USD with meshes.
[GitHub #3851] Fixed an issue where the Universal Manipulator appeared in the wrong location for USD prims parented to multiple transforms.
[GitHub #3826] Fixed an issue where objects were incorrectly positioned when pulling USD data on animated meshes.

Miscellaneous
[GitHub #3894] Fixed an issue where material settings in the Export All Options Box were not retained.
[GitHub #3875] Fixed excessive CPU and GPU usage when viewing through a UFE camera.
[GitHub #3869] Added missing functions to MayaUsdAPI required for LookdevX.
[GitHub #3863] Added a tooltip for Default Prim in Export Options.

Known Limitation

The light shape orientation is incorrectly rotated 90 degrees in the viewport. Lights such as like rectlight and disklight will render 90 degrees off the axis.