In my game, the player can place objects. When placing objects on a wall, the object needs to have the correct rotation. This is much easier to achieve if all the static mesh assets have the same initial rotation.
I have two static mesh assets that I have imported, one from the starter content and one from Fab. The one from the starter content is rotated such that if I rotate the actor I use the static mesh for based on the normal of the wall the object is placed on, everything is fine. The Fab static mesh has a 90 degree rotation on it however.
Rather than have a huge data array recording rotation offsets for every asset, it would be much easier to just rotate the Fab asset in Unreal Editor so that it has the same initial orientation as the starter content asset.
How do I rotate a static mesh asset in Unreal Editor?
I have seen that there is a setting to rotate on import, but the asset comes from Fab and I don’t have the original file used to create the asset.
This link suggests exporting to the desktop and then re-importing. I cannot find an export option.
Another post at the same link says:
If you try to Reimport from the context menu, right-clicking at the asset, it will ask you for a file. You don’t want this if you have the asset from the marketplace. Therefore, press that button in the static mesh editor.
When I press the button in the static mesh editor, it asks me for the original FBX file which, obviously, I do not have.
Ok, so it is a bit non-obvious how to export static meshes. You need to do this:
In the content browser, drag the static mesh into the level to create a new actor.
In the level, select the new actor.
Under the “File” menu, select the “Export selected” option and save to a PBX file.
You can now re-import it, and in the import dialog, you can set the import rotation. I then needed to fix the material and delete the broken material that got imported along with it. And then delete the original static mesh and rename the new one.