The location of the button corresponding to the mesh importer beta has changed in Studio. It has moved from the Plugins ribbon tab to the Home ribbon tab and is now accessible from Home → File → Import 3D. The icon is different but the plugin functionality remains the same.
This change takes effect when using Studio versions 552.0 and above. You can check your Studio version by navigating to File → About RobloxStudio.
Thank you for being a beta tester and for all the great feedback you have shared with us regarding the mesh importer!
Here is the list of issues discovered so far in this process, none of which result in a “fix.”
The armiture’s first bone is “RootPart”, but this is turned into a part. The next bone becomes the first bone. Not going to lie, I know about this bug, and named the first bone appropriately. “RootPart” is a workaround.
One of the skinned meshes receives a Motor6D that is receives both Part 0 and Part 1 as that mesh. The Animation Editor immediately rejects the model as having a circular reference.
Animations loaded via Mesh Importer are automatically saved. There is no option to turn this off. You cannot delete unused animations. I am sitting at around 100 bad animations in my inventory because of a single bad load.
LEGACY issue! Mesh parts are loaded with empty animation data. See below.
Animation loaded via mesh importer is upside down! RootPart is a bone and receives animation data, even though it is converted into a part. Body.002 is a mesh, and should have no animation data.
Both meshes have been flipped 180 on the z axis. Removing both tracks fixes the flip. (This is the difference between loading from the importer and loading from animation editor via FBX)
Animation errors #1! IK bones are not recognized (or translated) by either mesh importer or animation editor. This might be because the IK bones are not skinned, and unskinned bones are abandoned by the importers. I have to include a dummy rider with the tiger, or the rider bones disappear, and I have never seen a foot control translate into roblox.
Workaround: In blender, I can bake an action and get the IK movement recorded.
Animation errors #2! Mesh Importer misses some animations/bones. Maybe there is a limit? It misses far more than the Animation Editor.
I’m less worried about this, because it seems to be a side effect of issue 2. Yes, I do have to manually fix the model and rig to get them to work in Roblox.
What does bother me, is that the mesh I fix for #2 has weird alignment issues. It’s almost right, so this is the version I will fix/save!
Animation preview in mesh importer only shows one working skinned mesh instead of both. In my case, the first mesh alphabetically is used.
Summary: Animation Editor is still superior (recognizes more bones) for animation loading. Part animation data (model flipping) can be fixed. IK data must be baked.
any news on importing multiple skinned mesh animations through one fbx file? I have had 0 luck with it so far. (edit i saw something saying it must be in a group tc so I’m going to test that) (edit2 it didn’t work)
