Loading USD Plug-ins into Katana

In Katana 4.5v1, and later, USD plug-ins are enabled by default. You don't need to define any environment variables, you can use USD plug-ins straight away.

To use the USD nodes inside versions of Katana earlier than 4.5v1, you must first enable the USD plug-ins so that they are loaded when you open Katana.

To do this, you must edit your KATANA_RESOURCES, LD_LIBRARY_PATH (PATH on Windows), and PYTHONPATH in your Katana launcher script and add the USD plugin folder.

Note:  For more information about creating a launcher script for Katana, refer to these Support articles:
Linux: Creating a Katana Launcher Script for Linux
Windows: Creating a Katana Launcher Script for Windows

1. Add the following lines to your launcher script:

   Note:  <KATANA_ROOT> represents the path to your Katana install folder, for example:
   C:\Program Files\Katana4.0v1
   

   Windows

   set PATH=%PATH%;<KATANA_ROOT>\plugins\Resources\Usd\lib
   set KATANA_RESOURCES=%KATANA_RESOURCES%;<KATANA_ROOT>\plugins\Resources\Usd\plugin
   set PYTHONPATH=%PYTHONPATH%;<KATANA_ROOT>\plugins\Resources\Usd\lib\python
   

   Linux

   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:<KATANA_ROOT>/plugins/Resources/Usd/lib
   export KATANA_RESOURCES=$KATANA_RESOURCES:<KATANA_ROOT>/plugins/Resources/Usd/plugin
   export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:<KATANA_ROOT>/plugins/Resources/Usd/lib/python

2. Launch Katana using the launcher script and the additional USD node types are available from the node creation menu.

   Additional USD nodes	Additional USD shading nodes

   A usd menu is also loaded on the Terminal sidebar inside NetworkMaterialCreate nodes.

   

Note:  For more information on USD plug-ins for Katana, refer to the Katana USD Plug-ins section in the Developer Guide.