Autodesk open-sources USD for 3ds Max
Autodesk has open-sourced USD for 3ds Max, the USD plugin for 3ds Max, its 3D modeling and animation software.
The source code for the plugin is available on GitHub under an Apache 2.0 license.
Increasing adoption of USD outside VFX and feature animation
First released in 2022, USD for 3ds Max makes it possible to use workflows based around Universal Scene Description in 3ds Max.
The open-source framework for exchanging scene data between CG applications was originally developed by Pixar, and has been widely adopted in VFX and feature animation pipelines.
However, it is now being adopted in industrial design and visualization, in part thanks to NVIDIA’s adoption of USD in its Omniverse design collaboration platform.
Pixar, NVIDIA and Autodesk itself were all founder members of the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), the body founded last year to guide future development of the technology.
Support for USD-based workflows inside 3ds Max
USD for 3ds Max lets studios use 3ds Max in USD-based pipelines, making it possible to import and export data in USD format, and to load USD stages directly in the viewport for editing.
On its GitHub repository, Autodesk describes the add-on as supplementing 3ds Max’s XRef referencing workflows, to “enhance, and in many use cases, replace existing referencing setups”.
The latest of Autodesk’s USD tools to be open-sourced
USD for 3ds Max is the latest USD-related tool that Autodesk has open-sourced, following on from Bifrost USD, for Maya’s multiphysics plugin, in 2022.
(USD for Maya, the primary Maya USD add-on, has always been open-source, having been originally developed outside Autodesk.)
The change should enable studios to build the add-on with the specific version of USD required in their production pipeline, and to customize the default import and export process.
Autodesk has continued to develop its open-source USD add-ons for Maya actively, releasing new versions with every update to the software.
Pricing and availability
Source code for USD for 3ds Max is available under an Apache 2.0 licence.
The add-on is compatible with 3ds Max 2022+. You can find a list of dependencies in the build instructions on the GitHub repo.
The plugin is still officially in beta: the latest release is version 0.9.
You can find pricing and system requirements for 3ds Max itself in this story on 3ds Max 2025.3.
View the source code for USD for 3ds Max on GitHub
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