Hydra Viewport#

The Hydra Viewport shows a 3D render of the USD stage. usdview can be configured to load with different Hydra renderers.

Ref #	Option	Description
1	Heads-Up Display	Click and drag the marker to scrub through the animation.
2	Selected Prim	By default, the currently selected prim will highlighted yellow and display a bounding box wireframe.
3	Renderer	Opens the Renderer menu
4	Display	Opens the Display menu
5	Select	Opens the Select menu
6	Camera	Opens the Camera menu
7	Lights	Opens the Lights menu

Right Click Menu#

In the viewport, additional functionality can be found for the selected prim by right clicking and invoking the contextual right click menu.

Menu Item	Action
Jump to Enclosing Model	Select the first ancestor prim with a Kind metadata value set.
Select Bound Preview Material	Select the Preview Material prim bound to the selected prim.
Select Bound Full Material	Select the Full Material prim bound to the selected prim.
Make Invisible	Set the selected prim’s visibility property to “invisible”.
Vis Only	Set the selected prim’s visibility property to “visible”. Make all other prims “invisible”.
Remove Session Visibility	Restore the selected prim’s visibility property value.
Load/Unload	Load/Unload the payloads for the selected prim and all its descendants.
Activate/Deactivate	Activate/Deactivate the selected prim.
Copy Prim Path	Copy the selected prim’s path to the clipboard.
Copy Enclosing Model Path	Copy enclosing model’s prim path to the clipboard. A Model is a prim with a Kind metadata value set.
usdview asset	Open the selected asset in a new usdview instance.
Set As Active Camera	Set the selected prim as the active camera.

Within the viewport, you can use the following methods to navigate the three-dimensional space:

The focus control zooms the viewport camera in on a specific prim. When you focus on an prim, you can orbit that prim.

To focus, click a prim and press the F key.

The orbit control rotates the viewport camera around a given point.

To orbit, first use focus to select an prim. Then, hold the Alt key and the left mouse button, and move the mouse.

The pan control moves the viewport camera parallel to the viewpoint.

To pan, hold the Alt key and the middle mouse button, and move the mouse.

The dolly control moves the camera forward and backward in the space. There are two ways to dolly:

The Renderer menu contains operations for changing renderers and modifying renderer settings.

Menu Item	Action
GL (Renderers)	One or more available Hydra renderers are listed first. Check to enable.
Hydra Settings	Renderer settings. These can be different per renderer.
Hydra AOVs	Select an arbitrary output variables (AOVs) to display in the viewport.
Hydra Commands	Renderer Commands. (only utilized by some renderers)
Pause Render	Pause rendering. (only utilized by some renderers)
Stop Render	Stop rendering. (only utilized by some renderers)

The Display menu contains operations for controlling the display in the viewport.

Menu Item	Action
Open	Open a USD file as a stage.
Reopen Stage	Fully reopen the current stage.
Reload All Layers	Reloads all of the stage’s layers.
Display Purposes	Choose which display purposes to show.
Heads-Up Display	Choose which Heads-Up Display details to show.
Selection Highlighting	Set selection highlighting settings.
Show Rollover Prim Info	When enabled, shows prim information as a tooltip when hovering the mouse in the viewport.
Enable Scene Materials	Choose whether to render materials.
Default Material Settings…	Adjust the ambient intensity and specular intensity of the default material for prims without a material assigned.
Color Management	Select a color management profile.
Background Color	Select a background color for the viewport.
Cull Backfaces (GL)	Whether to cull backfaces. (only utilized by some renderers)

The Select menu allows you to change your selection mode.

Menu Item	Action
Select Prims	Clicking the viewport will select individual prims.
Select Models	Clicking the viewport will bubble up the selection to the closest ancestor prim with a model kind.
Select Instances
Select Prototypes

The Camera menu contains operations for viewing through a particular camera and modifying camera settings.

Menu Item	Action
Camera Guides	Displays camera guides.
Camera Masking	Show or hide camera masking.
Camera Reticles	Show or hide camera reticles.
Select Camera	Choose a stage camera to look through.
Frame Selected	Frame the selected prim.
Toggle Framed View	Resets the camera to your last framed view. (e.g. The last time to framed to selection.)
Reset View	Reset the view to when the stage was opened.
Copy Viewer Image	Copy the current viewport image to the clipboard.
Save Viewer Image…	Open a file dialog to save the current viewport image.
Auto Compute Clipping Planes	When enabled, auto computes the camera clipping planes based on your selection when you frame selected. Used to prevent Z-fighting.
Free Camera Settings…	Set the near clipping plane, far clipping plane, aspect ratio and field of view of the Free Camera.

The Lights menu contains operations for controlling stage lights.

Menu Item	Action
Enable Scene Lights	When checked, enables the lights defined by the stage.
Enable Default Camera Light	When checked, enables a default light emanating from the viewport camera. Fully reopen the current stage.
Enable Default Dome Light	When checked, enables the default dome light.