# Crate: Is primChildren all encompassing?

**URL:** <https://forum.aousd.org/t/crate-is-primchildren-all-encompassing/1918>\
**Category:** USD\
**Tags:** file-format\
**Created:** [October 16, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/crate-is-primchildren-all-encompassing/1918 "2024-10-16T16:55:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dhruvgovil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.aousd.org/dhruvgovil/32/3_2.png) [@dhruvgovil](https://forum.aousd.org/u/dhruvgovil)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/crate-is-primchildren-all-encompassing/1918/1 "2024-10-16T16:55:24Z")

</div>

In the Crate document, prims have the `primChildren` and `properties` field.

Are these considered the source of truth of what children a prim path might have? If they do not include a path that does exist in the file, should that path be ignored?

e.g lets say I have a prims at path `/foo`, `/foo/eggs`, `/foo/spam` but primChildren only lists `eggs`.

Does that mean that `/foo/spam` is essentially an orphaned path that doesn’t factor into the stage?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![amohr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f475e1/32.png) [@amohr](https://forum.aousd.org/u/amohr)\
**Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 11:59pm UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/crate-is-primchildren-all-encompassing/1918/2 "2024-10-17T23:59:35Z")

</div>

Yeah `primChildren` is definitive about the prim spec children a given prim spec has – that’s defined by the Sdf schema.

I’m not sure what exactly you mean when you say you have prims at paths `/foo`, `/foo/eggs`, `/foo/spam` but yes if `/foo`’s `primChildren` only has `eggs` then it does not have a prim spec child named `spam`.

In a crate file, it’s totally possible to have paths in the path table that do not correspond to extant specs. For example, if `/foo` had a relationship `rel` with the target `/foo/spam`, then `/foo/spam` would appear in the crate file’s path table, despite there being no spec at the path `/foo/spam`.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dhruvgovil](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forum.aousd.org/dhruvgovil/32/3_2.png) [@dhruvgovil](https://forum.aousd.org/u/dhruvgovil)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 12:05am UTC](https://forum.aousd.org/t/crate-is-primchildren-all-encompassing/1918/3 "2024-10-18T00:05:12Z")

</div>

Okay that’s great , thanks Alex. I just wanted to make sure I codified it accordingly.