OpenUSD & NVIDIA Omniverse explained: why they are redefining 3D product design

OpenUSD & NVIDIA Omniverse: the new standard for 3D product designUnderstand OpenUSD and NVIDIA Omniverse, and how V‑DESIGN uses them to accelerate design reviews, collaboration and time‑to‑market.

In product design, one question keeps coming up: how to move faster from CAD to decisions, without sacrificing quality? The answer increasingly involves OpenUSD (the open framework for 3D scene description) and NVIDIA Omniverse (a platform that turns OpenUSD into real-time, collaborative workflows). Together, they enable seamless interoperability, live collaboration and photorealistic visualization, exactly where design teams need them most.

What is OpenUSD?

OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) is an open-source technology initiated by Pixar to interchange, assemble and non‑destructively edit complex 3D scenes across tools and teams. It’s designed for scale, collaboration and variant management, and has become a foundation for modern 3D pipelines well beyond film and VFX.

In 2023, Pixar and industry leaders created the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD) to promote standardization and wider adoption of OpenUSD across industries, further cementing its status as a cross‑industry standard.

Key takeaways:

·         Interoperability across DCC/engineering apps with a consistent API and scenegraph.

·         Variant/override composition to manage many product versions cleanly.

·         Open-source governance and active, growing ecosystem.

What is NVIDIA Omniverse and how does it relate to OpenUSD?

NVIDIA Omniverse is a development and runtime platform built on OpenUSD that enables real‑time collaboration, enterprise data management (Nucleus), high‑fidelity RTX rendering, and SDKs to build OpenUSD-based apps and services. It connects multiple 3D tools through USD I/O, providing a single source of truth for 3D data. 

Why it matters to product design teams:

·         Live collaboration on the same OpenUSD scene across apps (via Nucleus).

·         OpenUSD Connections to import/export from common 3D/CAD tools.

·         Modular SDKs (Kit, USD Exchange, Physics, RTX) to tailor workflows (reviews, digital twins, configurators).

OpenUSD vs traditional 3D workflows

Traditional 3D pipelines suffer from siloed formats, brittle conversions and versioning pain. OpenUSD introduces a shared, composable scene description with non‑destructive edits and robust variant handling, enabling teams to reduce duplication and increase parallelism.

With Omniverse, these foundations become operational in the enterprise: multi‑app live‑sync, centralized asset truth, and accelerated rendering/physics for reviews and decisions. 

Business impact: why this pair is a game changer

·         Faster design reviews & early validation → fewer late changes and lower cost.

·         Cross‑functional collaboration (engineering, marketing, retail) on consistent, photoreal assets.

·         Time‑to‑market acceleration from a shared 3D source of truth and streamlined content creation.

How V‑DESIGN leverages OpenUSD & Omniverse

V‑DESIGN places OpenUSD/Omniverse at the core of two complementary solutions:

·         Overtools: advanced visualization and design review environment built on Omniverse/OpenUSD, to manage CAD/3D assets, create variants, and generate high‑fidelity renderings for expert reviews (including XR).

·         CMX (Collection Management eXperience): data + 3D visualization platform for retail/luxury teams to aggregate collection data, track KPIs, and make decisions with HD visuals, bridging design, merchandising and marketing.

The site highlights benefits aligned with OpenUSD/Omniverse: early concept validation, more iteration time, better communication, and faster time‑to‑market.

Use cases

·         Industrial design reviews: synchronize CAD to OpenUSD, explore variants in Omniverse/Overtools, review in real time (screen or XR), document decisions.

·         Luxury collection go‑to‑market: plan/curate assortments in CMX with live visuals, align creation/marketing/sales, and track KPIs before production.

Want to dive deeper? Watch the Industrial Hive conference featuring our expert Cédric Bematol

If you want to go further into the practical impact of OpenUSD on real‑world industrial workflows, we strongly recommend watching this in‑depth conference hosted by La Ruche Industrielle. The session brings together industry leaders exploring how OpenUSD is reshaping interoperability, real‑time collaboration, and large‑scale 3D data exchange across the manufacturing ecosystem.

One of the highlights of this event is the intervention of Cédric Bematol, expert at LS GROUP, who provides a clear and actionable perspective on:

·         how OpenUSD fits into modern industrial pipelines,

·         why enterprises gain efficiency by adopting USD‑native workflows,

·         how LS GROUP leverages OpenUSD + Omniverse to improve product visualization, collaboration, and simulation,

·         concrete examples of USD‑based processes accelerating decision‑making in design and engineering teams.

👉 Watch the full conference here: https://www.youtube.com/live/kRo6i5Qr4LE?si=YhbFHhUM2yniTpdL

This session is an excellent complement to the concepts covered in this article, offering a hands‑on look at OpenUSD in real industrial use cases, and providing valuable insights from practitioners, including our own expert.

Frequently Asked Questions (PAA)

What is OpenUSD used for? Interchange, assembly and non‑destructive editing of large 3D scenes across tools; increasingly used beyond media in AEC, manufacturing, product design and more.

Is Omniverse only for media? No. Omniverse targets industrial twins, robotics, and product design scenarios with modular libraries and SDKs—on top of OpenUSD.

What advantages vs proprietary formats? Open, extensible schema; composition/variants; collaboration; lower duplication and friction.

Explore

·         Overtools (design review & visualization)

·         CMX (collection management for luxury/retail)

·         Discover our full ecosystem: V‑COMMERCE & V‑MANUFACTURING

Talk to our experts: sales@ls-group.fr

Sources

·         Pixar Animation Studios – OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description) https://www.pixar.com/openusd

·         OpenUSD Official Documentation – What is USD & core concepts https://openusd.org/docs/

·         GitHub – Pixar Animation Studios / OpenUSD (open-source project) https://github.com/PixarAnimationStudios/OpenUSD

·         Apple Newsroom – Pixar, Adobe, Apple, Autodesk and NVIDIA form the Alliance for OpenUSD https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2023/08/pixar-adobe-apple-autodesk-and-nvidia-form-alliance-for-openusd/ 

·         NVIDIA – Omniverse Platform Overview https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/dev-overview/latest/platform-overview.html 

·         NVIDIA – What is NVIDIA Omniverse? https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/omniverse/ 

·         NVIDIA – Introduction to Omniverse (Developer Documentation) https://docs.omniverse.nvidia.com/dev-overview/latest/index.html