Public works loads a hydrant payload whose manufacturer default height is outdated. How should they correctly override that weaker composed value?

Payloads contribute deferred, relatively weak opinions that stronger local opinions can override. When public works loads a hydrant payload whose manufacturer default height is outdated, the correct fix is to author an explicit stronger opinion on hydrant height on a local stronger layer above the payload. That keeps the manufacturer asset reusable across the city while the municipal twin displays the corrected civic height. Composition—not asset surgery—is the intended OpenUSD pattern for local corrections over shared content.

Editing the manufacturer’s published asset in place fails conceptually: it mutates a shared catalog so every consuming city project inherits an unvetted change, breaking vendor update workflows and multi-tenant reuse. Removing the payload arc and modeling a new hydrant from scratch each project fails because it abandons deferred reusable content and creates unsustainable per-project remodeling cost. Storing the corrected height only in a spreadsheet attached to the ticket fails because values outside the stage never become composed opinions—inspectors and renderers will still see the outdated payload default.

Exam caveat: stronger local override is preferred over mutating published assets or recording fixes outside USD. Operational check: after writing the local height opinion, confirm the hydrant prim’s winning height comes from the stronger local layer, reopen a clean stage without that overlay to prove the manufacturer payload is unchanged, and verify other city projects still resolve the original catalog height until they opt into the municipal overlay.