Universal Scene Description (USD) is a framework developed by Pixar Animation Studios for the interchange of 3D data with a focus on collaboration, pipeline efficiency, and scale.

With USD becoming increasingly popular and the industry looking for a standard solution, Autodesk has come together with studios like Pixar, Animal Logic, Luma Pictures, and Blue Sky Studios to work on a common single-supported USD plugin. The goal is to ensure a consistent yet modifiable way to use USD within Maya, while remaining fully open-source and used as a baseline going forward.