Alembic / USD #73363

New Issue

Status: Milestone 1 and 3 are done. Project needs plans / tasks and commissioners and to clear up partners (Tangent? Epic?) involvement. Particularly to define the USD importer scope use cases and priorities.

Team
Commissioner: @DanielBystedt (Alembic) @Ton (USD)
Project leader: @dr.sybren
Project members: ?

Description
Big picture: Feature parity with other software.

Use cases: ?

Design: ?

Engineer plan:

Unifying cache read/write system for Alembic and USD,

{icon check-circle color=green} Milestone 1 - Basic USD Exporter Done - Blender 2.82

Animated meshes, viewport material (diffuse, metalicness and roughness), animated transforms, perspective camera, most lights (with some properties animated).
Skeletal animation or non-mesh geometry is not part of the exporter.

Milestone 2 - Alembic exporter refactoring
Time estimate: ?

{icon check-circle color=green} Re-implementation of the exporter based on the USD exporter. D7664, Blender 2.90
{icon check-circle color=green} Include support for instances. b3759cc0d6, Blender 2.91
Support export of custom properties - #50725.

{icon check-circle color=green} Milestone 3 - Export / evaluate hidden objects Done - Blender 2.91
Time estimate: ?

Dependency graph changes (or other approach) to handle hidden objects. D8595.

Milestone 4 - USD importer
Time estimate: ?

The goals for this milestone are:

Lift limitations of the current import system. The most important current limitations are:
Only supports importing meshes and object/bone transforms (no properties like camera focus distance, no custom properties). There is no way to update the Blend file based on changes in the imported files (objects added to the USD file are ignored by Blender, objects that are removed cause warnings).
Implement a USD importer that is on par with the current USD exporter.

The USD importer is likely to use the approach that is described in the 'Libraries and Overrides' section of #68933 (Collections for Import/Export).

Milestone 5 - USD exporter feature extension
Time estimate: ?

The exporter part of #68933 (Collections for Import/Export)
Possibly skeletal animation (probably limited to a subset of Blender's features), i.e. export static mesh + animated armature.

Milestone 6 - USD importer feature extension
Time estimate: ?

The importer part of #68933 (Collections for Import/Export)
Hydra delegate, to directly pass data from USD to a render engine without intermediate conversion to Blender data.

Milestone 7 - Alembic importer rewrite
Time estimate: ?

Rewrite the Alembic importer to use the same approach as the USD importer.
Support different kinds of data-blocks (e.g., curves)
Support different kinds of properties (e.g. animated camera parameters)
Support importing custom properties.

Dependencies

Milestone 1 - Basic USD Exporter: Done - Blender 2.82
Milestone 2 - Alembic exporter refactoring: Depends on Milestone 1.
Milestone 3 - Export / evaluate hidden objects: Requires no other milestone.
Milestone 4 - USD importer: Requires no other milestone.
Milestone 5 - USD exporter feature extension: Depends on Milestone 1.
Milestone 6 - USD importer feature extension: Depends on Milestone 4.
Milestone 7 - Alembic importer rewrite: Depends on Milestone 2, 3, and 4.

Relevant links:

**Status:** Milestone 1 and 3 are done. Project needs plans / tasks and commissioners and to clear up partners (Tangent? Epic?) involvement. Particularly to define the USD importer scope use cases and priorities. --- **Team** **Commissioner:** @DanielBystedt (Alembic) @Ton (USD) **Project leader:** @dr.sybren **Project members:** ? **Description** **Big picture:** Feature parity with other software. **Use cases**: ? **Design:** ? **Engineer plan:** * Unifying cache read/write system for Alembic and USD, **{icon check-circle color=green} Milestone 1 - Basic USD Exporter *Done - Blender 2.82*** * Animated meshes, viewport material (diffuse, metalicness and roughness), animated transforms, perspective camera, most lights (with some properties animated). * Skeletal animation or non-mesh geometry is not part of the exporter. **Milestone 2 - Alembic exporter refactoring** Time estimate: `?` * {icon check-circle color=green} Re-implementation of the exporter based on the USD exporter. [D7664](https://archive.blender.org/developer/D7664), *Blender 2.90* * {icon check-circle color=green} Include support for instances. b3759cc0d6, *Blender 2.91* * Support export of custom properties - #50725. **{icon check-circle color=green} Milestone 3 - Export / evaluate hidden objects *Done - Blender 2.91*** Time estimate: `?` * Dependency graph changes (or other approach) to handle hidden objects. [D8595](https://archive.blender.org/developer/D8595). **Milestone 4 - USD importer** Time estimate: `?` The goals for this milestone are: * Lift limitations of the current import system. The most important current limitations are: **Only supports importing meshes and object/bone transforms (no properties like camera focus distance, no custom properties).** There is no way to update the Blend file based on changes in the imported files (objects added to the USD file are ignored by Blender, objects that are removed cause warnings). * Implement a USD importer that is on par with the current [USD exporter](https://wiki.blender.org/wiki/Source/Architecture/USD). The USD importer is likely to use the approach that is described in the 'Libraries and Overrides' section of #68933 (Collections for Import/Export). **Milestone 5 - USD exporter feature extension** Time estimate: `?` * The exporter part of #68933 (Collections for Import/Export) * Possibly skeletal animation (probably limited to a subset of Blender's features), i.e. export static mesh + animated armature. **Milestone 6 - USD importer feature extension** Time estimate: `?` * The importer part of #68933 (Collections for Import/Export) * Hydra delegate, to directly pass data from USD to a render engine without intermediate conversion to Blender data. **Milestone 7 - Alembic importer rewrite** Time estimate: `?` * Rewrite the Alembic importer to use the same approach as the USD importer. * Support different kinds of data-blocks (e.g., curves) * Support different kinds of properties (e.g. animated camera parameters) * Support importing custom properties. --- ## Dependencies - Milestone 1 - Basic USD Exporter: Done - Blender 2.82 - Milestone 2 - Alembic exporter refactoring: *Depends on Milestone 1.* - Milestone 3 - Export / evaluate hidden objects: *Requires no other milestone.* - Milestone 4 - USD importer: *Requires no other milestone.* - Milestone 5 - USD exporter feature extension: *Depends on Milestone 1.* - Milestone 6 - USD importer feature extension: *Depends on Milestone 4.* - Milestone 7 - Alembic importer rewrite: *Depends on Milestone 2, 3, and 4.* --- **Relevant links**: * [Alembic official site ](https://www.alembic.io/) * [USD official site ](https://graphics.pixar.com/usd/) * [Alembic cache integration importing ](http://developer.blender.org/T69046) * [Original Alembic umbrella task ](http://developer.blender.org/T69058) * [Original USD umbrella task ](http://developer.blender.org/T72204)

Added subscribers: @rafaelmoco.lr, @dr.sybren, @Ton, @dfelinto

Added subscriber: @AditiaA.Pratama

Added subscriber: @Pipeliner

Added subscriber: @PratyakshGaur

Added subscriber: @USDZLover

Added subscriber: @karlisstigis

Added subscriber: @ManuelAlbert

Changed status from 'Needs Triage' to: 'Confirmed'

Added subscriber: @slumber

Added subscriber: @fx

Hi, the release notes for 2.82 says that USD export is done. But I can not find it on the export menu. Can you tell me how to export to USD?

@fx This is not a support forum. Please visit https://www.blender.org/support/ to find support channels.

Added subscriber: @YegorSmirnov

Added subscriber: @evantryan

Added subscriber: @MattCurtis

Added subscriber: @MartenZander

Added subscriber: @frameshift

Added subscriber: @Memento

Added subscriber: @afleith

Added subscriber: @LourCloud

Added subscriber: @sharaths21312

Added subscriber: @DanielBystedt

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Added subscriber: @Michael-Heberlein

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Alembic / USD #73363

Dependencies