Install USD for Maya

The USD Extension for Maya 2022 is included in the Maya 2022 installer. Visit the official Autodesk MayaUSD GitHub repository to obtain the latest release.

Installing the latest version of USD for Maya requires the corresponding latest installation of Maya in conjunction. After obtaining a user platform-specific installer package, press Page Down to read the license agreement, then click Install or Extract when prompted.

Install USD for Maya on Windows

The default installation path for MayaUSD is C:\Program Files\Autodesk\MayaUSD\<MayaVersion>\<ExtensionVersion>.

Uninstall MayaUSD via Control Panel > Programs and Features.

Install USD for Maya on MacOS

The default installation path for MayaUSD is /Applications/Autodesk/MayaUSD/<MayaVersion>/<ExtensionVersion> .

Install USD for Maya on Linux

The default installation path for MayaUSD is /usr/autodesk/MayaUSD/<MayaVersion>/<ExtensionVersion>.

If you are installing directly via rpm, use rpm --force so that Maya automatically recognizes the latest installation.

Load and Manage Plug-ins

Load the USD Extension into Maya with the Plug-in Manager: Select Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mayaUsdPlugin.mll > Loaded. You can also opt to Auto Load the plug-in for each Maya session.

The USD core provides a rendering framework called Hydra, which supports multiple rendering backends. The Maya to Hydra plug-in can be turned on in the Plug-in Manager (Windows > Settings/Preferences > Plug-in Manager > mtoh.mll). When on, you can select between the render delegates in the Renderer panel menu (Select Renderer > Viewport 2.0 > to set the Viewport 2.0 options): select between VP2 and GL(Hydra).

Note: The core USD rendering backend HydraGL(Storm) is not fully supported in Maya. Switching to Hydra render delegate from VP2 on a Maya scene can cause Maya to crash. View the USD Limitations section of your version-specific Release Notes page for more information and a workaround.