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USDZ converter

A .usdz file is a single-file package containing a USD scene together with every texture and asset it references. It is an uncompressed ZIP archive with strict alignment rules, so its contents can be read straight from disk without unpacking — which is what makes it viable as a mobile AR format.

Private for supported formats — processed in your browser

Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop USDZ files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where USDZ comes from

Pixar developed Universal Scene Description internally to compose enormous film scenes from layered contributions, and open-sourced it in 2016. Apple and Pixar defined USDZ in 2018 as USD's delivery package, and Apple wired it directly into iOS: AR Quick Look renders a .usdz from Safari, Messages or Files with no app involved. Adobe, Autodesk, NVIDIA (Omniverse) and Blender have all since adopted USD, making it the de facto standard for production 3D scene interchange.

How USDZ works

  • The package is a ZIP with STORED entries only — never deflated — so readers can memory-map the payload in place.
  • The first entry must be the USD layer itself (.usd, .usda or .usdc); readers reject a package that begins with anything else.
  • File data is aligned to 64-byte boundaries so aligned reads work directly against the archive.
  • The layer inside may be ASCII USDA or the binary USDC crate format, and textures are typically PNG or JPEG.
  • USD's composition arcs — sublayers, references, variants, payloads — are what distinguish it from a mesh format; a USDZ flattens the result into one deliverable.

When to use USDZ

  • Publishing an AR model that opens directly on iPhone and iPad with no app
  • Shipping a product visualisation to a website as a single self-contained file
  • Handing a complete textured scene to another studio without a folder of dependencies
  • Packaging a converted model for Apple's AR Quick Look

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • One file carries the whole scene, textures included — no missing-asset problems
  • Native, zero-install rendering across Apple platforms
  • Backed by USD, which is now the production standard across the industry

Limitations

  • Uncompressed by design, so packages are considerably larger than a compressed equivalent
  • Editing means unpacking, changing and repackaging; it is a delivery format, not a working one
  • Support outside Apple's ecosystem is improving but still uneven

Compatibility

iOS and macOS render USDZ natively through AR Quick Look and Preview; Blender, Maya, Houdini, Omniverse and Adobe Aero import it. Android relies on separate viewers and generally prefers glTF. Novus Convert both reads and writes USDZ locally: it is the output of eleven mesh routes as well as an input of its own, which is why promoting it unblocked far more pages than its own.

USD layer metadata — up-axis, metres-per-unit, default prim — is present in the package; the geometry-only targets cannot carry it.

Convert USDZ to another format

Convert other formats to USDZ