Using "Save Edits" forces save as binary

[mrharris]

Describe the bug
Doing a "Save Edits" in the layer editor forces the file to be resaved in binary format, even if the original file was ascii.

Steps to reproduce
1.) Open a .usd (ascii format) file as a stage in maya
2.) Make a minor edit to one of the prims
3.) Right click on the layer in "Layer Editor" and choose "Save Edits"
4.) Observe the ascii in the file is now binary

Expected behavior
I would expect Save Edits to not change the existing format. ASCII files would stay ASCII and binary files would stay binary

Specs (if applicable):
Windows 11
Maya 2024
maya_usd 0.35

[santosg87]

thanks for reporting this @mrharris,

this seems to be a conflict with the preferences - we have introduced some time ago the option to set a default format for saving your USD files - if you go to the preferences, under USD, and set the "save usd Files" section to ASCII, does the problem still occur for you?

[mrharris]

Hi @santosg87 yes setting the default save format to ascii does resolve this for me - ascii files remain ascii, and binary files remain binary. Thank you

We can certainly work with this - but it still feels like a bit of workaround though, it'd be great if it had this behaviour regardless of what default format preference is.