FBX export guide

Unity supports FBX files which can be generated from many popular 3D applications. Use these guidelines to help ensure the most best results.

Select > Prepare > Check Settings > Export > Verify > Import

What do you want to export? - be aware of export scope e.g. meshes, cameras, lights, animation rigs, etc. -

• Applications often let you export selected objects or a whole scene
• Make sure you are exporting only the objects you want to use from your scene by either exporting selected, or removing unwanted data from your scene.
• Good working practice often means keeping a working file with all lights, guides, control rigs etc. but only export the data you need with export selected, an export preset or even a custom scene exporter.

What do you need to include? - prepare your assets:

• Meshes - Remove construction history, Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons - e.g. triangulate or quadrangulate
• Animation - Select the correct rig, check frame rate, animation length etc.
• Blend Shapes / Morphing - Make sure your Blendshapes (Maya) or Morph targets (Max) are assigned / set up the export mesh appropriately
• Textures - Make sure your textures are sourced already from your Unity project or copied into a folder called \textures in your project
• Smoothing - Check if you want smoothing groups and/or smooth mesh

How do I include those elements? - check the FBX export settings

• Be aware of your settings in the export dialogue so that you know what to expect and can match up the fbx settings In Unity - see figs 1, 2 & 3 below
• Check Animation / Deformations / Skins / Morphs as appropriate
• Nodes, markers and their transforms can be exported
• Cameras and Lights are not currently imported in to Unity

Which version of FBX are you using? use the Latest Version of FBX where possible.

• Autodesk update their FBX installer regularly and it can provide different results with different versions of their own software and other 3rd party 3D apps
• See Advanced Options > FBX file format
• If you have any issues you can revert to 2012.2 if necessary

Will it work? - Verify your export

• Check your file size - do a sanity check on the file size (e.g. >10kb?)
• Re-import your FBX into a new scene in the 3D package you use to generate it - is it what you expected?

Import!

• Import into Unity
• Check FBX import settings in inspector : texures, animations, smoothing, etc.

See below for Maya FBX dialogue example:

Fig 1 General, Geometry & Animation

Fig 2 Lights, Advanced options

Page last updated: 2013-11-08