# USD Layer Manager A C++17 / Windows desktop application providing a **Maya-style** USD scene and look-dev editor using **OpenUSD v25.05**, **ImGui 1.92.7** (docking branch), and **OpenGL 3.3** (via GLAD). Users can open, edit, and save USD files, manage layered stage overrides, inspect and edit prim properties, author UsdShade material graphs with a live shader-ball preview, animate with a Bezier curve editor, and interact with 3D scenes through a multi-viewport Hydra renderer with OCIO color management. ![Screenshot](docs/icons/screenshot_01.png) ## Features - **Layer Stack Management** — `StageEditorPanel`: create, reorder, mute/unmute sublayers, set the edit target, add existing files as sublayers, with full undo support - **Scene Hierarchy** — Browse prim tree with per-type SVG icons; create, delete, rename, reparent, and group prims; add/replace references - **Property Editor** — Maya Channel Box-style attribute editing with type-aware drag inputs, color pickers, and undoable transforms - **Material Editor** — Hypershade-style node-graph editor for UsdShade/MaterialX networks (`MaterialEditorPanel`): material browser, drag-to-connect node canvas, per-node/per-pin display modes, Sdr-driven node creation menu and enum dropdowns, colorSpace authoring on texture inputs, and a live shader-ball preview (`MaterialPreviewRenderer`) with its own renderer/HDRI/preview-shape controls. In-canvas node thumbnails (`NodeThumbnailCache`) show texture previews and per-node shader-ball renders, amortized across frames and re-rendered until progressive delegates (Arnold/Cycles/Embree) fully converge - **Timeline & Curve Editor** — Transport controls with loop/bounce and Auto-Key (`TimelinePanel`); a Maya-style F-curve editor (`CurveEditorPanel`) with Bezier round-trip to USD time samples; Playblast export to MP4 via `MovieEncoder` (libavcodec) - **3D Viewport** — Hydra rendering via `UsdImagingGLEngine` into an offscreen FBO; switchable render delegates (Storm, Embree, Arnold, Cycles); OCIO-based color management (sRGB or full display/view/look pipeline) applied as a post-Hydra GL pass; grid overlay; selection bounding boxes; camera/light wireframes - **Multi-Viewport** — Single, horizontal split, vertical split, and quad layouts; per-tile camera, render delegate, and AOV; Space to maximize/restore - **Camera Control** — Free orbital camera (tumble/truck/dolly) or drive from USD camera prims; auto near/far clipping; frame selection; correct camera prim orientation for Y-up and Z-up stages - **Transform Gizmo** — Pure ImDrawList-based manipulator (translate/rotate/scale) in object or world space - **Undo/Redo** — Full command history (`ICommand` subclasses under `src/core/commands/`) covering prim creation/deletion/reparenting/grouping, attribute edits, transform changes, shader-node creation/connection, and layer operations; Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y hotkeys; Edit menu integration - **Multi-select** — Rectangular selection in viewport with cross-panel syncing | Material Editor (Arnold) | Curve Editor | Quad Viewport (4 delegates) | MaterialX import | |---|---|---|---| | ![Material Editor](docs/icons/screenshot_06.png) | ![Curve Editor](docs/icons/screenshot_02.png) | ![Quad Viewport](docs/icons/screenshot_03.png) | ![MaterialX](docs/icons/screenshot_04.png) | ## Dependencies | Dependency | Version | Notes | |---|---|---| | [OpenUSD](https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD) | v25.05 | Prebuilt; found via `FindOpenUSD.cmake` | | [Dear ImGui](https://github.com/ocornut/imgui) | v1.92.7 | Docking branch; Win32 + OpenGL3 backends | | [GLAD](https://glad.dav1d.de/) | — | OpenGL 3.3 core loader | | Python | 3.12 | Required by OpenUSD runtime (`python312.dll`) | ### Optional Render Delegates | Delegate | Renderer Version | Variable | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | **hdEmbree** | Embree 4.4.1 | `HDEMBREE_USD_ROOT` | USD build with `PXR_ENABLE_EMBREE_PLUGIN=ON`; set `EMBREE_LOCATION` if Embree DLLs are not in `HDEMBREE_USD_ROOT/bin` | | **hdArnold** | Arnold 7.4.0 (MtoA 5.5.0) | `HDARNOLD_ROOT`, `ARNOLD_LOCATION` | [arnold-usd](https://github.com/Autodesk/arnold-usd) install dir + MtoA root for `ai.dll` | | **hdCycles** | Cycles 5.2.0 | `WITH_CYCLES=ON` | Built from source under `third_party/cycles` via ExternalProject; requires MSVC | All delegate paths are pre-configured in `CMakePresets.json`. ## Build ### Prerequisites - Visual Studio 17 2022 (MSVC v143) with C++17 support - CMake 3.20+ - Python 3.12 installed at `%LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Python\Python312\` ### Steps ```powershell cmake --preset default cmake --build build --config Release cmake --install build --config Release ``` The installed executable lives in `install/bin/`. **Presets** — `default` (`Release`, `WITH_CYCLES=ON`, all render delegates), `debug` (`Debug`), `release` (`RelWithDebInfo`, installs), `no-tests` (`Release`). All presets currently build with `BUILD_TESTS=OFF`. ### Building with Cycles `WITH_CYCLES=ON` is set in the default preset. The first build compiles Blender Cycles from `third_party/cycles` via ExternalProject — expect a significantly longer initial build. Subsequent builds are incremental. Cycles runtime dependencies (`embree4.dll`, `openvdb.dll`, `OpenImageDenoise.dll`, `tbb12.dll`, etc.) are automatically deployed to the output directory by a post-build step. CRT DLLs bundled inside the Cycles install are excluded to avoid version conflicts with the app's own MSVC runtime. ### Tests There is currently no working test runner: `BUILD_TESTS` is `OFF` in every preset. The two test executables (`ViewportDisplayTest`, `RendererDiagnosticTest`) have stale USD include paths and don't build — fix those before turning `BUILD_TESTS` on. ## Architecture ``` src/ ├── main.cpp — Entry point (plugin path init, app lifecycle) ├── core/ — USD business logic (no UI dependency) │ ├── UsdStageManager — Stage open/create/save/close lifecycle │ ├── LayerManager — Layer stack introspection and mutation │ ├── PropertyManager — Property read/write via edit target with undo │ ├── MaterialManager — UsdShade graph introspection + Sdr node-type/enum discovery │ ├── CommandHistory — Undo/redo stack for ICommand instances │ ├── UsdSceneRenderer — Hydra rendering + picking + overlays + OCIO color correction │ ├── ViewportCamera — Free / USD-camera-driven orbital camera │ └── commands/ — ICommand subclasses for all mutable operations │ ├── TransformCommand — Undoable translate/rotate/scale │ ├── CreatePrimCommand — Undoable prim creation (with camera orientation) │ ├── DeletePrimCommand — Undoable prim deletion (SdfCopySpec snapshot) │ ├── RenamePrimCommand — Undoable prim rename │ ├── ReparentPrimCommand — Undoable reparent via UsdNamespaceEditor │ ├── GroupPrimsCommand — Group selected prims under a new Xform │ ├── AttributeSetCommand — Type-agnostic undoable attribute writes │ ├── AddReferenceCommand — Undoable reference addition │ ├── ReplaceReferenceCommand — Undoable reference replacement │ ├── CreateShaderNodeCommand — Undoable UsdShadeShader creation (Material Editor) │ ├── ConnectShaderAttrsCommand — Undoable shader input↔output connection │ ├── DisconnectShaderAttrCommand — Undoable shader connection removal │ └── LayerCommands — Create, remove, reorder sublayers ├── ui/ — ImGui panels and application shell │ ├── Application — App shell (owns managers/panels, docking, menus) │ ├── ImGuiContext — Win32+OpenGL+ImGui initialization and loop │ ├── ViewportPanel — Viewport container (layout, divider drag, maximize) │ ├── ViewportTile — Single viewport tile (camera, rendering, overlays, picking) │ ├── SceneHierarchyPanel — Prim tree browser with context menus │ ├── PropertyPanel — Attribute/transform editor (channel box-style) │ ├── StageEditorPanel — Layer stack editor (edit target, dirty state, drag-drop ordering) │ ├── TimelinePanel — Transport controls, loop/bounce, frame scrub, Playblast │ ├── CurveEditorPanel — Maya-style F-curve editor (Bezier ↔ USD time samples) │ ├── MaterialEditorPanel — Hypershade-style UsdShade node-graph editor │ ├── MaterialPreviewRenderer — Shader-ball preview: independent Hydra instance + scratch stage │ ├── NodeThumbnailCache — Async texture decode + amortized shader-ball thumbnails for the node canvas │ ├── TransformManipulator — ImDrawList gizmo (move/rotate/scale) │ ├── IconManager — SVG icon rasterization via NanoSVG │ └── NodeEditor/ — Vendored/patched imgui-node-editor └── utils/ — Cross-cutting utilities ├── Logger — Thread-safe logging (file + console); also sinks USD TF_WARN/TF_ERROR ├── FileDialog — Win32 file open/save dialogs ├── PathUtils — Exe-relative path resolution ├── OcioConfigParser — Enumerates displays/views/colorspaces/looks from the active OCIO config ├── MovieEncoder — Streams RGBA frames to H.264/MP4 via libavcodec (Playblast) └── GLExt — GLAD extension initialization ``` ## Key Design Patterns - **Command Pattern** — All mutable USD operations go through `ICommand` → `CommandHistory` for undo/redo - **Panel-Manager Separation** — UI panels hold pointers to core managers but contain no USD layer/prim logic - **Callback Wiring** — Cross-panel communication via `std::function` callbacks (e.g. viewport pick → hierarchy select → property panel update) - **Render-Delegate Plugability** — `UsdSceneRenderer` can switch Hydra render plugins at runtime - **Own Color Correction Pass** — Hydra's `HdxColorCorrectionTask` is bypassed; a file-local `ViewportColorCorrector` (inside `UsdSceneRenderer.cpp`) applies sRGB/OCIO as a fullscreen GL pass after Hydra renders linear (see `docs/adr/0001-viewport-color-correction.md`) - **Gizmo as 2D Overlay** — `TransformManipulator` uses pure `ImDrawList` calls (no GL resources), same approach as ImGuizmo ## Project Configuration | Config | Purpose | |---|---| | `cmake/modules/FindOpenUSD.cmake` | OpenUSD SDK discovery | | `cmake/modules/FindImgui.cmake` | ImGui source integration | | `cmake/modules/FindGlad.cmake` | GLAD loader setup | | `CMakePresets.json` | Build presets (VS 17 2022, x64) | | `docs/adr/` | Architecture decision records | | `AGENTS.md` | AI agent build/architecture guide | | `.kilo/` | Kilo AI configuration (commands, agents, skills) | | `openspec/changes/` | Feature proposals and implementation tracking | ## Development Workflow This project uses **OpenSpec** for feature development: 1. **Propose** — Create a new change under `openspec/changes//` with `proposal.md`, `design.md`, `specs/`, and `tasks.md` 2. **Implement** — Work through checkbox-tracked tasks in `tasks.md` 3. **Archive** — Move completed changes to `openspec/archive/` when done Use Kilo's `openspec-*` skills to streamline this workflow. ## Runtime Requirements - **Python 3.12** — OpenUSD requires `python312.dll` at runtime. CMake copies it to the output directory via `POST_BUILD` commands. - **USD Plugin Path** — The app scans `/usd/` for `plugInfo.json` and registers plugins via `pxr::PlugRegistry`. - **Render delegate DLLs** — hdEmbree, hdArnold, and hdCycles each bring their own runtime dependencies (Embree, Arnold SDK, Cycles libs). CMake `POST_BUILD` steps deploy all required DLLs next to the executable automatically. ## Contributing Before writing any OpenUSD API call, verify the API exists in the actual SDK: ```powershell findstr /r /s "FunctionName" third_party\OpenUSD_v25.05\include\ ``` Always build and install before manually verifying a change: ```powershell cmake --build build --config Release cmake --install build --config Release ``` ## License See [LICENSE](LICENSE) file for details.