3D Dataset

This guide shows how 3D files are previewed on the Hub, and how to structure a dataset of OpenUSD assets, such as SimReady packages for robotics simulation. 3D files aren’t shown in the Dataset Viewer, but you can preview each file on its page, and SimReady datasets get a gallery of their assets on the dataset page.

Previewing 3D files

Click a 3D file in the Files and versions tab of a dataset, model or Storage Bucket to open it in an interactive 3D viewer. You can rotate, zoom and open the viewer in full screen.

OpenUSD layers and textures

A USD asset is often split across several files: a root file that references sublayers, payloads, materials and textures. The viewer loads these referenced files from the same repository, so keep the folder structure you authored the asset with, and use relative paths for references. References to absolute paths, or to files outside the repository, can’t be loaded.

SimReady datasets

SimReady is a specification for OpenUSD assets that are ready to use in simulation, with physics, materials and semantic labels. Datasets that contain SimReady packages show a 3D Assets card on their page, with the number of packages and up to 15 thumbnails sampled across the dataset. Clicking a thumbnail opens its USD file in the viewer.

For example, see nvidia/simready-assets or nvidia/PhysicalAI-SimReady-Warehouse-01.

Package structure

A package is a folder that contains a com.nvidia.simready.packaging.json file. Packages can be at any depth in the repository, and folders inside a package are part of that package.

Each package needs a thumbnail of its root USD file to appear in the card. Following the SimReady requirement for thumbnails, the thumbnail of <folder>/<file>.usd is <folder>/.thumbs/256x256/<file>.usd.png (or .usda.png, .usdc.png, .usdz.png), in the package folder or one folder below it:

my_dataset_repository/
├── IV_pole_a01
│   ├── com.nvidia.simready.packaging.json
│   └── simready_usd
│       ├── .thumbs
│       │   └── 256x256
│       │       ├── sm_IV_pole_a01_01.usd.png
│       │       └── sm_IV_pole_a01_01.usd_light.png
│       ├── sm_IV_pole_a01_01.usd
│       └── payloads
│           └── ...
└── IV_pole_a02
    ├── com.nvidia.simready.packaging.json
    └── ...

• An optional <file>.usd_light.png is shown in light mode, and <file>.usd.png in dark mode.
• Thumbnails larger than 4 MB are skipped.

The card is updated after each push to the dataset.

Modality tag

Datasets with 3D files get the 3d modality, so they show up when filtering datasets by modality. You can also set it in the dataset card, see Force set a dataset modality.