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Maya USD Author

A simple yet powerful tool for authoring USD (Universal Scene Description) edits directly within Autodesk Maya.

USD Prim Editor

Features

  • Hierarchy Browser: Navigate USD stage hierarchy with a tree view
  • Property Editing: Modify Kind and Purpose properties
  • Attribute & Primvar Editor: View and edit attributes with color-coded types
  • Time Samples: Edit animation keyframe data
  • Variant Sets: Switch between variant selections
  • Payload Control: Load and unload payloads

Requirements

  • Autodesk Maya 2022+ with MayaUSD plugin
  • Python 3.7+
  • PySide2 (Maya 2025 and earlier) or PySide6 (Maya 2026+)

Installation

Method 1: Automatic Installation (Recommended)

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/maya-usd-author.git
cd maya-usd-author

# Run the installer
python install/install.py

# Or specify a Maya version
python install/install.py --maya-version 2024

# With shelf button
python install/install.py --maya-version 2024 --create-shelf

Method 2: Manual Installation

  1. Copy the scripts/maya_usd_editor folder to your Maya scripts directory:

    • Windows: C:\Users\<username>\Documents\maya\<version>\scripts\
    • macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/Autodesk/maya/<version>/scripts/
    • Linux: ~/maya/<version>/scripts/

  2. Restart Maya or reload the scripts.

Usage

Quick Start

In Maya's Script Editor (Python):

import maya_usd_editor
maya_usd_editor.show()

Adding to Shelf

  1. Open Maya's Script Editor
  2. Enter the code above
  3. Select the text and middle-mouse drag it to your shelf

Or run in Maya:

exec(open('/path/to/maya-usd-author/install/shelf_button.py').read())

Adding to Menu

Add to your userSetup.py:

import maya.cmds as cmds
import maya.utils

def add_usd_editor_menu():
    cmds.menuItem(
        label="USD Prim Editor",
        parent="MayaWindow|mainWindowMenu",
        command="import maya_usd_editor; maya_usd_editor.show()"
    )

maya.utils.executeDeferred(add_usd_editor_menu)

Keyboard Shortcut

Add to your userSetup.py:

import maya.cmds as cmds

cmds.nameCommand(
    "usdPrimEditorCommand",
    annotation="USD Prim Editor",
    command="python(\"import maya_usd_editor; maya_usd_editor.show()\")"
)
cmds.hotkey(keyShortcut="u", ctrlModifier=True, shiftModifier=True, name="usdPrimEditorCommand")

Color Coding

The attribute editor uses color coding to differentiate attribute types:

Color Type
Yellow Custom attributes
Light Blue Transform (xformOp) attributes
Green Time-sampled attributes
Orange Token attributes
Cyan Primvars
Light Cyan Default attributes

Development

Running Tests

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pytest

Project Structure

maya-usd-author/
├── scripts/
│   └── maya_usd_editor/
│       ├── __init__.py          # Package entry point
│       ├── qt_compat.py         # PySide2/PySide6 compatibility shim
│       ├── style.py             # Centralized dark stylesheet
│       ├── usdPrimEditorUI.py   # Main UI
│       ├── usdTreeModel.py      # Tree data model
│       ├── usdUtils.py          # USD utilities
│       └── constants.py         # Configuration
├── install/
│   ├── install.py               # Installation script
│   ├── shelf_button.py          # Shelf button creator
│   └── userSetup_example.py     # Example userSetup.py
├── tests/
│   └── test_usdUtils.py         # Unit tests
├── pyproject.toml               # Package configuration
└── README.md

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit issues and pull requests.