Katana 8.5v3 Release Notes

Release Date

25 June 2026

Previous Releases

Feature Enhancements

Katana <> Nuke

  • ID 619074 - Support for Nuke 15.2 has been added to the Nuke Bridge.
    This is a belated addition, as Nuke 15.2v1 was released in February 2025.

Katana To USD

  • ID 617702 - The positions of UsdShade nodes were not converted correctly between the NMX Node Graph and USD (via KatanaToUsd, UsdIn or UsdMaterialBake).

USD Native

  • ID 615514 - A new icon was added for the USD Nodegraph prim type, which previously fell back to the generic icon in all prim-type icon locations.

UsdSuperLayer

  • ID 618889 - When loading a scene containing a UsdSuperLayer node, property parameters that were no longer valid for the current state of the node were not cleared, causing stale parameters to appear in the Parameters tab.
  • ID 618890 - Parameters in UsdSuperLayer-based nodes now show a "connected to" label if their associated USD Attribute is connected to a source.
  • ID 618891 - ParametersHandlerPlugin plug-ins for UsdSuperLayer-derived nodes can now define a wrench menu for individual parameters displayed in the Parameters tab.

Bug Fixes

Katana To USD

  • ID 618902 - The CameraCreate node would create incorrect aperture info attribute names for the use of conversion to USD.

Licensing

  • ID 619273 - Katana could fail to aquire a render license (katana_r) on specific host machines.

Node Graph

  • ID 621815 - When the rename editor (select node and press F2) was used to rename a node in the Node Graph tab, attempts to dismiss the rename action by pressing Esc were ignored.
    This was a manifestation of a broader regression introduced in Katana 7.5v1 where global application keyboard shortcuts would prevent key press events from reaching to correct widget.

Python tab

  • ID 610725 - When the autocompleter in the Python tab was present, attempts to dismiss the popup by pressing Esc were ignored.
    This was a manifestation of a broader regression introduced in Katana 7.5v1 where global application keyboard shortcuts would prevent key press events from reaching to correct widget.

Quality of Life

  • ID 615295 - When registering a supertool with the 'nativeusd' flavor now correctly shows the native USD node styling (a blue chip and dark blue coloring) instead of the default.

USD Import

  • ID 618732 - When a USD attribute with an unsupported primvar type was converted with UsdIn, an arbitrary group attribute corresponding to that value was being created.

UsdSuperLayer

  • ID 609418 - When setting animation curves programmatically in the UsdSuperLayer or UsdGaffer's parameters, internal messages were shown in the terminal. 
  • ID 617595 - When using the NodeGraph node context menu USD > Save Serialized Engine Tree to Disk, it did not correctly serialize engine trees containing UsdSuperLayer or its descendants. 
  • ID 619386 - When a USD Attribute with a connection was shown in the parameters editor of a UsdSuperLayer-based node in the Parameters tab, a local state badge could be shown even when the attribute had no authored value.
  • ID 619387 - When the local state badge in a parameter of a UsdSuperLayer-based node was toggled off, potential connections in the associated USD Attribute would be inadvertently cleared; now only the authored value is cleared, preserving connections.

Known Issues

Hydra Viewer

  • ID 580249 - When manipulating transformations for both Geolib and USD locations/prims at the same time, the manipulator handle will ping to the center of the USD mesh.

USD Native

  • ID 579376 - Currently, Pattern-Based Collections does not support the use of the  include  and  exclude  widgets in conjunction with the  membershipExpression  widget on the UsdCollection node. This is due to a known issue with USD
    NOTE: More info can be found on the USD thread:  https://forum.aousd.org/t/problems-with-pattern-based-collections/1197/7. Katana's Pattern-Based Collection widget computes collection membership using membership expressions, therefore it does not currently handle relationship-mode collections correctly.
  • ID 586965 - USD's stitch method for stitching layers doesn't retain blocked attributes.
  • ID 587515 - The Centre of Interest manipulator is currently not supported in conjunction with USD prims. 
  • ID 588881 - The pivotTranslate parameter on the UsdTransformEdit node currently have no effect.
  • ID 618268 - After setting a transformation for a light within the UsdGaffer, the option Disable Interactive Transforms becomes unavailable from the treeview's right-click context menu. A workaround is to disable transforms within the Transform subtab by setting the makeInteractive property to No.

System Requirements

Officially Supported Operating Systems

  • Windows 11
  • Linux 64-bit operating system (Rocky Linux 9)

Hardware Requirements

Minimum Recommended
CPU Dual-core processor
Storage 3.5+ GB available for installation
System RAM 1+ GB available
Graphics RAM 1+ GB available 2+ GB available
Display   1920 x 1080
OpenGL OpenGL 4.5+ (see note below)

Note:   AMD-based graphics cards are currently not officially supported.

Tested Workstation Hardware

The configurations listed below are those that Foundry have tested with Katana. Due to the constantly changing nature and wide variety of computer hardware available in the market, Foundry is unable to officially certify hardware. The list below can be used as a recommendation and does not guarantee that it meets your particular needs.

  • NVIDIA Quadro RTX 4000

  • NVIDIA Quadro RTX A4000

  • NVIDIA Quadro RTX A3000

  • NVIDIA Quadro P4000

Please download and install the latest graphics driver from the NVIDIA website.

If you encounter any issues, please contact Customer Support directly through the Support Portal at the following address: https://support.foundry.com.