Convert USDA to FBX Online
Upload a .usda stage and get back a binary FBX that Maya, 3ds Max, Unity, Unreal and Blender open without a USD plugin. Our USD reader takes mesh geometry only, so expect one untextured object that needs rotating upright and rescaling after import.
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What a USDA stage turns into as FBX
USDA is the ASCII form of Universal Scene Description: readable in a text editor, easy to hand-edit, and the layer people keep when they want to see what a stage actually declares. The trouble starts downstream. Plenty of modeling and engine versions still need a USD plugin or a specific build to open a stage at all, while FBX is the one mesh container almost every DCC tool and game engine imports out of the box.
On our servers the file is read by a Python script built on the USD libraries (pxr). It walks the stage, collects every UsdGeom.Mesh at the default time code, applies each prim's world transform so multi-prim layouts keep their relative placement, splits quads and fan-triangulates n-gons, and merges everything into a single mesh with recomputed normals. That mesh is written to a temporary GLB, and Blender 5.1.2 writes the final FBX 7400 binary file.
What survives: triangles and their positions. What does not: material bindings, displayColor, UVs, authored normals, skeletons, blendshapes, time-sampled animation, variants, and the prim hierarchy itself, since every mesh ends up as one object. Two side effects are worth knowing before you import. The reader ignores the stage's upAxis, so a Z-up stage arrives lying on its back and needs a 90 degree rotation about X. It also ignores metersPerUnit, and nothing in the chain converts units: the raw numbers are written into an FBX labeled in meters, so a centimeter stage reads 100 times too large.
How to convert USDA to FBX
- Make sure the meshes are in the file you upload. We read the uploaded .usda only, so sublayers, references and payloads pointing at files you did not upload will not be found. Flatten the stage first (for example with usdcat --flatten) so the mesh prims are inline.
- Note the stage's authoring unit. Nothing in the conversion rescales, so write down whether you authored in centimeters, millimeters or meters and plan to correct the scale on import.
- Upload the .usda file. Up to 50 MB without an account, 100 MB with a free account, 200 MB on Plus and 1 GB on Pro.
- The conversion runs on our servers: the USD libraries read the mesh prims, trimesh merges them, then Blender writes the FBX as a 7400 binary file.
- Download the .fbx. The download link works for about four hours after the job finishes.
- In your 3D app, rotate the object 90 degrees about X to stand it up, fix the scale, and assign materials, since the FBX carries geometry only.
What this converter does
- Reads ASCII USD directly, including stages that use quads or n-gons; those faces are triangulated instead of being refused.
- Applies each mesh prim's world transform, so a stage made of several placed prims keeps the layout you see in your USD viewer.
- Recomputes normals on the merged mesh, so shading is consistent even when the source prims had inconsistent winding.
- Writes FBX 7400 binary, the version Maya, 3ds Max, Unity, Unreal Engine and Blender all import without extra plugins.
- Refuses to hand you an empty file: if the stage has no mesh prims, you get the message "No mesh geometry found in USD file" rather than a 0-byte download.
- Runs entirely on our servers as a Blender and Python job, so nothing has to be installed on your machine.
Video Tutorial
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USDA to FBX questions
Why does my file fail with "No mesh geometry found in USD file"?
That is the single most common failure on this page. Our reader traverses the stage for UsdGeom.Mesh prims and finds none: the file may hold only references, payloads or sublayers to other files, only cameras, lights, curves or basis curves, or only instanced prims (the traversal does not descend into instance proxies). Flatten the stage, or export the layer that actually contains the meshes, then upload again.
Will materials and textures come through to the FBX?
No. The USD reader takes vertices and faces only; material bindings, displayColor, UV sets and texture paths are all dropped, so the FBX opens as one gray object. If you need materials, textures or a rig, use the USDZ route: our USDZ to FBX page goes through Blender's USD importer, which reads materials, images and skeletons. Alternatively export glTF or GLB from your DCC tool and convert that.
The model is lying on its back after import. Why?
The stage's upAxis is not read, and the intermediate step writes Z-up coordinates straight into the Y-up FBX convention. Rotate the imported object 90 degrees about the X axis and apply the transform.
Why is the scale wrong in Maya or Unity?
No step in the chain converts units. metersPerUnit is ignored and the coordinate numbers pass through untouched into an FBX that declares meters. A stage authored in centimeters therefore appears 100 times too large, and one authored in millimeters 1000 times too large. Scale the imported object by 1 percent or 0.1 percent accordingly, or author in meters before exporting the .usda.
Can animation, skeletons or blendshapes be converted?
Not from a .usda source. Meshes are sampled at the default time code only, so the FBX is static: no UsdSkel skeleton, no skin weights, no blendshapes, no time samples. If you need a rigged, animated FBX, start from a GLB, a .blend file or a USDZ, all of which keep armatures and animation through our Blender path.
What about .usdc, .usdz, or converting USDC back to USDA?
Binary .usdc and .usd files have their own pages and use the same mesh-only reader as this one, while .usdz goes through Blender and keeps more. We do not do USD-to-USD swaps such as USDC to USDA, since both are the same format in different encodings and the usdcat tool shipped with the USD libraries does that in one command.
Can I convert several stages at once, or upload a folder as a ZIP?
You can send up to 10 files per request as a guest or free account, 25 on Plus and 50 on Pro, and each file is converted on its own with its own download. An archive containing a USD stage has to go through our ZIP to FBX page, which converts only one model per archive, picked by a fixed format order in which USD formats rank low, so an OBJ or FBX in the same archive would win.
What happens to my file after the conversion?
The conversion runs on our servers, not in your browser. Your uploaded .usda is deleted as soon as the job finishes its last attempt, and the converted FBX can be downloaded for about four hours before it is deleted automatically. Transfers use HTTPS, and the download link is an unguessable random token. For diagnostics we do log file names, sizes, formats and outcomes.