In this edition of the “Meet the Visionary” series, we spotlight Susanna Holt, Vice President of Strategic Technologies at Autodesk.
As a leader in one of the most influential companies in design and make software, Susanna is driving adoption of Universal Scene Description (OpenUSD) across industries, from media and entertainment, to architecture and manufacturing.
Autodesk: Pioneering OpenUSD Integration Across Industries
At Autodesk, Susanna leads efforts to integrate OpenUSD capabilities across a diverse range of products and industries. “OpenUSD has revolutionized the way entertainment pipelines are built,” Susanna explains. “Our aim is to offer our users the ability to create, view, render, and edit USD natively in our tools with the performance, scalability, and collaboration features that USD provides.” Under her leadership, Autodesk’s flagship applications — such as Maya, 3ds Max, and Arnold — now offer extensive support for OpenUSD, enabling seamless workflows and greater creative freedom.
The journey began when Autodesk recognized the need for a unified approach to handle complex 3D data across various disciplines. OpenUSD presented the ideal solution, offering a set of features that enhances collaboration and interoperability. “We’re integrating specific components of OpenUSD, such as the Hydra rendering framework and the Storm renderer, into several of our AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) and Product Design and Manufacturing applications,” Susanna shares. This move has positioned Autodesk at the cutting edge of industry innovation, leveraging OpenUSD’s capabilities to transform digital workflows.
The Power of OpenUSD: Enhancing Collaboration and Interoperability
Susanna’s enthusiasm for OpenUSD stems from its powerful features and its potential to transform workflows across industries. She notes, “OpenUSD offers a set of powerful features — like layers, variants, and composition — that enhances collaboration and interoperability across teams and disciplines.” These features allow Autodesk’s users to bypass many of the cumbersome data conversion steps traditionally required, enabling them to focus on creativity and innovation.
One of the key advantages of OpenUSD for Autodesk is its extensibility. “OpenUSD’s extensibility through custom schemas and plugins allows us to tailor it to specific workflows and expand its feature set to meet future needs,” Susanna explains. This adaptability is critical as Autodesk continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in design and engineering.
Building a Cross-Industry OpenUSD Ecosystem
Under Susanna’s leadership, Autodesk is actively working to expand the application of OpenUSD beyond the entertainment industry. “The need for effective collaboration across teams and disciplines, using a diverse set of tools, is not limited to the media and entertainment industry,” Susanna points out. “There’s growing interest in the potential applications of OpenUSD in other sectors.”
However, Susanna acknowledges the challenges ahead. “Utilizing OpenUSD in the design of a skyscraper or a factory presents a new set of challenges that have yet to be fully explored within the USD framework,” she explains. “There are existing standards, regulations, and new data types that all need to be considered.”
Autodesk’s vision extends to creating consistent OpenUSD offerings for the three primary industries they serve: AEC, Manufacturing, and M&E. This cross-industry approach positions Autodesk at the forefront of OpenUSD adoption and development.
Engaging with the OpenUSD Community
Autodesk’s commitment to OpenUSD goes beyond its product offerings. As a co-founder of the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD), the company actively contributes code, participates in working groups, and collaborates with industry leaders. Susanna emphasizes the company’s active involvement in the OpenUSD community: “Autodesk is deeply involved in the OpenUSD community, contributing both OpenUSD proposals and code PRs through Pixar’s OpenUSD GitHub repository. We are also active participants in the working groups of both AOUSD and Academy Software Foundation (ASWF), working in collaboration with the OpenUSD community to enhance the entire ecosystem.”
Susanna highlights specific areas where Autodesk is making significant contributions:
- Expanding Hydra and rendering capabilities of OpenUSD and Storm, including the addition of critical viewport features and support for more graphics APIs.
- Extending the Hydra framework to support WebGPU and DirectX 12, collaborating with other industry leaders to improve support for various platforms.
- Enabling full web browser support for OpenUSD, including the entire OpenUSD software stack.
Envisioning the Future of OpenUSD
Looking ahead, Susanna is excited about the evolution of OpenUSD and its potential to transform industries, particularly in its ability to support more complex and collaborative workflows across industries. “Autodesk is actively working to standardize OpenUSD, enhance its capabilities, and explore opportunities in new sectors such as architecture, manufacturing, and industrial digital twins,” she states.
As we continue our “Meet the Visionary” series, Susanna’s insights offer a compelling glimpse into the future of OpenUSD adoption across multiple industries. Her leadership at Autodesk and her visionary work with OpenUSD are paving the way for transformative changes across multiple industries, underscoring the potential for OpenUSD to revolutionize how we create, manage, and interact with digital content.
Continue your OpenUSD journey at Autodesk University (AU) 2024, which will gather more than 10,000 creatives — from VFX, architecture, animation, product design, and more — to advance industry practices, explore opportunities for the future, and share ideas and insights on emerging technology like AI and open standards. Be sure to check out the dedicated AOUSD panel, “OpenUSD: The Path to Interoperability in VFX and Beyond,” where technical visionaries will explore the role of OpenUSD in fostering open data exchange — not just in media and entertainment, but across industries. Register today.
If your company is interested in joining the Alliance for OpenUSD, sign up to become a member. Follow AOUSD on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, X, and YouTube, and get support from our community of artists, designers, and developers in our forum.
