I have a tree USD file that I want to import into my scene. The leaves on the tree make it too heavy for the viewport so I would like to generate a proxy version. In the geometry component dive target I can create a proxy version. For the render version I would like to pass through the USD file unchanged but when I do it doesn't show up in the scene. It seems like I have to unpack the USD file to polygons but then I lose materials and possibly instancing. In the component geometry node if I change the source to "Referenced Files" I can reference the USD file but I don't have a proxy USD file. I suppose I could make one in SOPs. I'm just wondering if there is any way that the component geometry node can handle this situation - render purpose: pass through untouched imported USD file, proxy purpose: created in the sopnet.

This is currently not supported; you can switch the Component Geometry source to "Referenced Files", to pull in USD files separately as-is, so if you wrote out the proxy geometry to disk, then you can reference them both into the scene. Otherwise, yes you'll need to convert the USD geometry to polygons, and essentially re-author it via Component Builder.