# How to enable USD IO module build?

**URL:** https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-enable-usd-io-module-build/16368
**Category:** Support
**Tags:** code
**Created:** [April 1, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-enable-usd-io-module-build/16368 "2026-04-01T20:48:47Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Nicholas\_Yue](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/nicholas_yue/32/3751_2.png) [@Nicholas\_Yue](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Nicholas_Yue)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2026, 8:48pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-enable-usd-io-module-build/16368/1 "2026-04-01T20:48:47Z")

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I saw a message regarding USD and thought I’d give it a go.

I downloaded 9.6.1, run the cmake config (no special flags)

I noticed that in the build directory, USD is not configured for building.

I tried grep’ping USD in the README and other files but could not find any mention.

Is there some flags I need to enable to get the USD IO module to be build.

I am keen to review the USD file exported via vtkUSDExporter

Kind regards

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### Author: ![mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/mwestphal/32/19_2.png) [@mwestphal](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2026, 7:35am UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-enable-usd-io-module-build/16368/2 "2026-04-02T07:35:46Z")

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As always, enable the VTK module:

`-DVTK_MODULE_ENABLE_VTK_IOUSD=WANT`

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### Author: ![cory.quammen](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/cory.quammen/32/6751_2.png) [@cory.quammen](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/cory.quammen)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2026, 9:29pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-enable-usd-io-module-build/16368/3 "2026-04-02T21:29:21Z")

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Note that there is a conflict between CMake targets `pegtl` defined in PXR (the OpenUSD project) and VTK if you compile against a standard install of OpenUSD. To get around that, you can compile OpenUSD with the CMake options we use for ParaView’s superbuild, which you can see [here](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/-/blob/master/projects/openusd.cmake?ref_type=heads#L43-52).

Note that we also patch the OpenUSD source as well: [https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/-/blob/master/projects/patches/openusd-exported-targets.patch?ref\_type=heads](https://gitlab.kitware.com/paraview/paraview-superbuild/-/blob/master/projects/patches/openusd-exported-targets.patch?ref_type=heads)

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### Author: ![Nicholas\_Yue](https://discourse.vtk.org/user_avatar/discourse.vtk.org/nicholas_yue/32/3751_2.png) [@Nicholas\_Yue](https://discourse.vtk.org/u/Nicholas_Yue)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://discourse.vtk.org/t/how-to-enable-usd-io-module-build/16368/4 "2026-04-02T22:01:23Z")

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Thank you @cory.quammen , indeed, I was stuck with the pegtl issue. Thank you for the patch.