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Tools

usdtweak includes several utility tools accessible from the menu bar and dedicated panels.

Storm Playblast​

The playblast tool renders an image sequence of your stage using the Hydra Storm renderer. Access it from Tools > Storm playblast.

Configuration​

The playblast dialog provides the following options:

  • Stage camera -- Select which camera to render from. Only stage cameras (UsdGeomCamera prims defined in your stage) are available.
  • Output directory -- The directory where rendered frames will be saved.
  • Filename prefix -- The base filename for the image sequence.
  • Sequence mode -- Render a range of frames or a single frame.
  • Start / End -- The frame range to render (when in sequence mode).
  • Width -- The output image width in pixels. Height is determined by the camera's aspect ratio.

Usage​

  1. Open a stage with at least one camera prim.
  2. Go to Tools > Storm playblast.
  3. Configure the output settings.
  4. Click OK to start rendering.

The playblast renders frames using UsdAppUtilsFrameRecorder, which creates a headless Storm render for each frame.

Limitations

The current playblast implementation has some limitations:

  • Only stage cameras can be used (not the viewport's internal perspective camera).
  • Renderer options (like material loading) cannot be customized from the dialog.
  • There is no progress bar during rendering.

Launcher Bar​

The Launcher Bar lets you create custom shortcuts to external tools. Enable it from Windows > Launcher bar.

Adding launchers​

  1. Go to Edit > Preferences.
  2. In the launcher section, add a new entry with:
    • Name -- The label that appears on the button in the Launcher Bar.
    • Command line -- The command to execute when the button is clicked.
  3. Close preferences. The new launcher appears in the Launcher Bar.

Removing launchers​

Open Edit > Preferences and remove the launcher entry you no longer need.

Use cases​

Common uses for the Launcher Bar include:

  • Opening the current file in usdview for comparison
  • Running validation scripts on the current scene
  • Launching custom pipeline tools
  • Opening a terminal in the current working directory
  • Running USD utilities like usdcat or usdchecker

Validation Window​

The Validation Window runs USD validation checks on the current stage. Enable it from Windows > Validation.

The validator checks your stage for:

  • Schema conformance issues
  • Invalid property types or values
  • Missing required attributes
  • Other USD structural problems
Availability

The Validation Window requires USD to be built with the validation API (HAVE_USDVALIDATION). If your USD build does not include validation support, this window will not appear in the Windows menu.

Access the search tool from Edit > Search. It provides text-based search functionality across the current stage and layers, helping you find prims, properties, and values by name.