3dsMax USD plugin beta 0.3 has been released. It introduces USD Stage workflow and a new USD Export SDK. Think about USD Stage like a USD Xref. Instead of importing all USD data in 3dsmax, 3dsmax only imports a reference to this USD file. Making your scenes lighter. Can be an even more capable Xref system for 3dsmax.
For a very good USD explanation and to see the scope of this new integration in 3dsmax, you have a great explanation from Shawn Olson, 3dsmax Product Owner in charge of USD implementation in 3dsMax.
- USD Stage Node is now supported in 3ds Max. Reference a USD stage directly into 3ds Max to create a scene with USD assets from an existing file. Using this workflow, you can view and render USD data directly in 3ds Max.
- File > Reference > USD Stage….
Create Panel > Geometry > USD > USD Stage - Stage Masking support
- Full access to working with in-memory stage data. You can build Python, C++ and MAXScript tools to interact with the data inside a USD Stage Object. The stage has a read-only property called CacheId that can be used to access the stage from a global USD cache. Using this you can directly manipulate and interact with USD data (moving prims, changing visibility, etc.)
Some videos from changsoo showcasing it in motion:
https://youtube.com/shorts/G0E-nrZu-j4?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/bIDhPquRIIM?feature=share
Here you have the 3dsMax updates post.
And here the 3dsMax release notes