Allow users to view/edit UsdCollectionAPI in Outliner

[ika-rporter]

We are developing workflows for our artists that use the UsdCollectionAPI to emulate native Maya features like display layers and selection sets. However, these are collections are currently blind data to the artists - we have to write tools for them to create, view, and edit the contents of these collections.

As a user, I would like UsdCollectionAPI objects and their contents to be presented and editable in the the outliner.

[maya-usd-git-sync]

Issue synced internally to EMSUSD-827

[scottrenaud]

Hey @ika-rporter,

We're gearing up to perform some work outlined in #3816, and I'm wondering if any of it would be usable for you?

It wouldn't solve for showing collection prims in the outliner (which we are also interested in), but it might allow your artists to manage the collections.

I'm curious, are your collection objects using a custom prim type with a UsdCollectionAPI schema applied to it, or something else? An example USD file would be super interesting!

Thanks!
Scott

[ika-rporter]

Hi @scottrenaud - yeah, that looks like it may be useful. The workfile that prompted this feature request has gone dark since the artists have rolled off, but I'm sure we'll find other uses for the ability for artists to more easily author USD collections.

An example file of how we're using them for "display layers" is attached. We have a UFE observer that detects when the "display layer" is activate/deactivated and updates the layer contents accordingly.

example.zip

[scottrenaud]

Alright, thanks!