We are excited to announce that our 3D Importer can now help version your models using packages!
This is a significant step towards our ongoing goal to make asset iteration great on Roblox. With this new feature, you’ll have the option to turn your imported models into new packages or create newer versions of existing packages. We anticipate this will significantly simplify the workflow for those of you that need to use packages since all the tedious steps of converting imported models to packages are done as part of the import process.
Let’s look at how it works.
To import your model as a package, you simply toggle on the Import As Package option in the File General properties. The default behavior is to create a new package for your model (see Figure 1)
Figure 1: Importing your model as a new package in Studio.
You can also easily update an existing package. There are two ways to do that:
If the package already exists in your Studio place then you can select its ID from the drop-down list in the Existing Package ID field (see Figure 2).
If this is the first time you are using the package in your Studio place, you can get its ID and paste it into the Existing Package ID field.
Figure 2: Updating an existing package with a newer version of your model.
What’s Next?
We know the importer is getting additional features to help you improve your workflow, and it may take time to configure all of the right settings to get the import behavior you are looking for. We are actively working to improve the import configuration experience in Roblox in future updates, so stay tuned.
Finally, we’d like to thank the engineer that built this! @tasavix
This is great! I’ve been waiting for something like this. I often end up needing to tweak older meshes of weapons and vehicles to fix minor issues/oversights with them and to make them match the quality of newer meshes, but copying and pasting values used to get old fast until now.
This is great! I’m looking forward to being able to use it.
But I do have to ask, are there any plans to do this with images and the like? There are many times where I have to upload several versions of the same image while I’m working on UI for my projects, and it really clutters my inventory having the several versions of the same image only with minor tweaks to make sure it’s how I want it to be and having to constantly switch asset IDs.
We hear this request it’s something we’re looking at! Unfortunately we cannot provide an exact plan or timeline yet but just know we see these issues and will work towards alleviating them.
I want to know when this will be fixed because whenever I try to import a rigged model, it always becomes invisible and I am unable to use it. I have tried every solution and have watched numerous tutorials on how to fix it, but none have been successful.
We’re aware of this issue and are looking into a fix! If you haven’t filed a bug already, feel free to DM me the file you are using and any pertinent repro steps; those would help with our investigation.
Yes, animation import through this importer is something we’re currently working on improving too. Feel free to DM me or make a feature request with your ideas!
Yes, there can be multiple textures in an FBX file! It’s just that each mesh in the file can only have 1 texture image associated with it. So for example: for an FBX with 3 cube meshes, each cube could have its own texture image and the importer will get all of those.
We also support SurfaceAppearances for each mesh, you can read more about that here.
When can we expect this importer to stop uploading them as models under the respective place owners inventory? This can sometimes severely impact workflow when you’re utilizing uploaded assets and frequently updating them, having to scroll down two ages to the bottom to periodically update assets is more annoying than you might believe.
I really really want to use this importer because its a great tool, but this reason alone is what prevents me and my team from using it and its causing quite a lot of frustration (for them, because I specifically request them not to use it ) when uploading large amounts of meshes.
If this is already fixed then I would love to know, thanks!
This is a really useful update. It was always a pet peeve of mine that my assets were all so cluttered with different versions of the same meshes, this will definitely help streamline things!
You can upload the model as an existing package as described above, and it’ll just create a new version of that asset as opposed to creating a new one in your inventory.
If you just want a model inserted into the place without uploading anything or adding anything to your inventory at all, you can toggle the “Add Model To Inventory” setting (uncheck it).
We’re working on making the settings language more clear and also giving you the ability to configure the importer the way you want so that you don’t have to toggle such checkboxes for every import, but hope that helps!
Oh nice, glad there’s an option for that! Would it make sense if this option was unchecked by default or is there a particular reason that it has to be turned on by default?
There’s no particular reason it has to be, but sensible defaults are different per workflow (for example, someone using packages would need it checked by default). I think the real solution to this is to allow everyone to set their own defaults, which is something we’re working on with the import configuration stuff mentioned above.
it’s something we’re looking at! Unfortunately we cannot provide an exact plan or timeline yet but just know we see these issues and will work towards alleviating them.
) when uploading large amounts of meshes.