# Best practices for versioning a skeletal mesh?

**URL:** <https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/best-practices-for-versioning-a-skeletal-mesh/351628>\
**Category:** Character & Animation\
**Tags:** Versioning, unreal-engine, question\
**Created:** [March 24, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/best-practices-for-versioning-a-skeletal-mesh/351628 "2016-03-24T15:38:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![borbs727](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@borbs727](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/borbs727)\
**Post date:** [March 24, 2016, 3:38pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/best-practices-for-versioning-a-skeletal-mesh/351628/1 "2016-03-24T15:38:40Z")

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Hello! So I’m doing the rigging/animation for my first UE4 project and I was wondering if there were any best practices for versioning?

Right now, I export my skeletal mesh from Maya and give it a version: character\_v001. I import it into the engine where another artist can do whatever they want with it. While they’re doing that, I’m still updating the rig, adding bones, painting weights, etc. When I export a new skeletal mesh I version up to character\_v002. In UE4, I delete the old skeletal mesh and import the new one. I’m not too familiar with how Unreal works, but I can see this causing connection issues later on.

Should I just keep overwriting the existing skeletal mesh asset when I export and not worry about versions?

Thanks for any help!

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**Author:** ![Speuzer](https://d3kjluh73b9h9o.cloudfront.net/original/4X/2/8/5/28502927f1d97ba1051b3b47ccfe17233bf41ef0.png) [@Speuzer](https://forums.unrealengine.com/u/Speuzer)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2016, 10:25pm UTC](https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/best-practices-for-versioning-a-skeletal-mesh/351628/2 "2016-04-08T22:25:16Z")

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> Should I just keep overwriting the existing skeletal mesh asset when I export and not worry about versions?

Yes. If you want to keep a history of versions you can “reverse” the version numbers when saving from Maya (easiest to do through script because file renaming is involved) so that the latest always has the suffix removed (character). The next oldest would start as version 1 (character\_001). This way you can always right click \> Re-Import from the content browser with the latest update.

If possible, its best to let a source control system (like Perforce) handle your version numbers under the hood. There are many additional benefits to using source control in your projects, here are the docs on how to set it up…

> **[Collaboration and Version Control in Unreal Engine](https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.3/en-US/collaboration-and-version-control-in-unreal-engine/)**
>
> How to setup Perforce or SVN so that you can share assets with other on your team.