Tutorials ModelCraft help Walkthroughs
Save, open and export USD
Save the whole model as USD (.usda, .usdc or .usdz) with nothing lost, open it again, and import USD scenes from other 3D programs.
Written for ModelCraft 0.7.1. The same help is inside the app: press F1.
USD is a scene format many 3D, rendering and archviz programs share. ModelCraft writes and reads it. .modelcraft stays the format Save writes; USD is a choice in Save as.
Save as USD
- Choose Save as in the File group (or press ⇧⌘SCtrl+Shift+S).
- Pick the format: Text (.usda) (readable, good for version control), Binary (.usdc) (smallest and fastest) or Package (.usdz) (one file with the textures inside).
- The file downloads (in the desktop app you choose where it goes).
The same choices are in Export › USD (.usda, .usdc, .usdz)….
Nothing is lost
Open a USD file that ModelCraft saved and you get the model back exactly: faces with their holes, soft and hidden edges, curves, groups and components, tags, scenes, dimensions, guides, section planes, lamps, imported textures and the view. Other programs see the same model as meshes, groups, prototypes for components, materials, lamps and cameras.
Open or import someone else's USD
- Open a
.usd,.usda,.usdcor.usdzfile to start a model from it. - Import one to add it to the open model. Drop the files it refers to (other layers, textures) together with it.
Meshes come in with their normals, UV coordinates and colours, shared geometry as components, materials as paint colours, lamps as lamps and cameras as scenes, in metres with Z up whatever the file's units and up axis.
Not yet
Animation, skeletons and MaterialX node graphs are not read or written as USD yet. ModelCraft's own animation and node materials are kept in a USD file it saved, for ModelCraft to open again, but other programs don't see them. Layers a file refers to that ModelCraft can't read (for example a MaterialX document) are left out with a note.