Universal Scene Description (zipped) .usdz
Apple AR Quick Look. Pixar USD in a zero-compression zip.
What a .usdz file holds
USDZ is Pixar’s Universal Scene Description packed into an uncompressed zip archive, and it is the format Apple’s AR Quick Look expects. Send someone a .usdz link and iOS will drop the model into their living room straight from Safari or Messages, with no app to install. Under the hood USD is a full scene-composition system built for feature-film pipelines, of which USDZ exposes a deliberately narrow, single-asset slice.
Also seen as .usda, .usdc, .usd.
Commonly seen in: AR Quick Look on iOS, Reality Composer, Safari, Shopify AR, Adobe Aero.
| Data | Stored in USDZ |
|---|---|
| Geometry | Yes |
| Materials and colour | Yes |
| Texture maps | Yes |
| Animation and rigs | Yes |
| Scene hierarchy | Yes |
| Read here | Yes |
| Written here | Yes |
Tested against a real file
The last sweep loaded saeukkang.usdz from three.js examples through the viewer on this site: 25,000 triangles across 1 meshes and 1 materials, in 2.2 seconds. Every format's result is on the test results page, run 2026-09-08.
Convert USDZ to another format
Every pairing has a page saying what survives the trip.
Convert something else to USDZ
Other things to do with a .usdz file
Questions about USDZ
How do I open a .usdz file?
Drop it into the viewer on this site and it opens in the browser, with the scene tree, the materials and the mesh statistics. Nothing is uploaded. If you want it in another program instead, convert it to GLB, which almost everything reads.
Is USDZ a good format to archive in?
USDZ carries geometry, materials, textures and animation, so an archive copy keeps nearly everything. The usual caveat applies: a format is only as future-proof as the readers that exist for it, and .usdz is well served.
Does converting USDZ lose quality?
Geometry is copied vertex for vertex, so the shape does not degrade. What gets lost is whatever the target format has no field for: convert to STL and the materials go, convert to OBJ and the animation goes. The comparison table on each converter page says exactly which.
Written up on the blog
Formats that hold the same things
Or go back to the full format reference.