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Bifrost-USD in Maya

Bifrost-USD combines the ability of USD to assemble, organize, and edit assets non-destructively with the flexibility and proceduralism of the Bifrost graph. For example, you can use Bifrost to easily create USD Point Instancers that instance USD assets.

Bifrost-USD instances in the Maya viewport

Bifrost-USD features both high-level compounds to easily and quickly populate a USD stage with layers and prims, as well as low-level nodes that match the capabilities of the USD API. It is integrated with USD for Maya, letting you see, select, and adjust elements directly in the viewport.

Note:

If you are using a custom extension of USD, then you need to rebuild the Bifrost-USD plug-in to work with your USD assets in Bifrost. You can get the Bifrost-USD source files at https://github.com/Autodesk/bifrost-usd.

BifrostUSDExamples plug-in

In addition, there is an early-access version of a Python-based plug-in, BifrostUSDExamples. This provides menu-based options for both generic and component USD workflows. The plug-in is installed with Bifrost in the following folder:

  • Windows: C:\Program Files\Autodesk\Bifrost\<MayaVersion>\<BifrostVersion>\bifrost\packs\usd_pack\<USDVersion>\examples\maya_plugin
  • macOS: /Applications/Autodesk/bifrost/<MayaVersion>/<BifrostVersion>/bifrost/packs/usd_pack/<USDVersion>/examples/maya_plugin
  • Linux: /usr/autodesk/bifrost/<MayaVersion>/<BifrostVersion>/bifrost/packs/usd_pack/<USDVersion>/examples/maya_plugin

Bifrost USD Examples plug-in menu

To enable the plug-in, add the path to the folder that contains the bifrostUSDExamples.mod file to your MAYA_MODULE_PATH environment variable (for example, in your Maya.env file), then restart Maya and load bifrostUSDExamples.py using the Plug-in Manager. A new menu Bifrost USD appears on Maya's main menu bar.

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