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 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.
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
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.