# PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD

Universal Scene Description

Repository: https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/openusd
Homepage: http://www.openusd.org
Language: C++
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-25T18:53:50+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 93/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 99, release rhythm 81, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3772, "days_push": 8, "days_rel": 44, "gap_med": 83, "n_releases_24m": 10}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 7455, forks 1448 (observed 2026-08-28T04:09:59.970584+00:00)

## What it is
OpenUSD is Pixar's Universal Scene Description, an efficient and scalable system for authoring, reading, and streaming time-sampled 3D scene description for interchange between graphics applications. It ships as C++ libraries with optional Python bindings, imaging components, and the usdview viewer.

## Use cases
- exchange 3D scene data between DCC tools like Maya, Houdini, and Blender
- build a VFX or animation pipeline with layered scene composition
- author and stream time-sampled scene description for large-scale 3D assets
- inspect and visualize USD scenes with usdview
- embed USD in iOS/visionOS apps or run it in WebAssembly on the web

## When to choose
- you need a robust, industry-standard scene interchange format for 3D graphics
- you are building tools or pipelines around 3D assets, VFX, or simulation
- you need composable, layered, time-sampled scene description at scale

## When to avoid
- you only need simple 3D model export/import without scene composition
- you want a lightweight format with minimal dependencies and build complexity
- your project has no 3D graphics or scene-graph requirements

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: stable
- function: graphics, simulation, file-system, serialization, sdk, plugin-system
- domain: graphics, cross-platform, developer-tools
- platform: windows, cpp, python, wasm, cross-platform
- tags: 3d-graphics, scene-description, vfx, interchange-format, usd, animation, 3d-pipeline, game-development, linux, macos, ios

## Member repositories
- PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD (main) score 93

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:59.970584+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T17:37:39.719077+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD (fetched 2026-08-28T04:09:59.970584+00:00, sha 867f876d3fe7)
  - homepage: http://www.openusd.org (fetched 2026-08-29T08:33:05.977939+00:00, sha 7eeff98d8660)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.