I’m trying to import an aircraft mesh, the wings have non zeroed transform and pivot … so it can rotate correctly along side the wing shape, but when importing everything is reset to 0,0,0 and pivot to origin! I’ve tried changing the “Transform Vertex to Absolute” and “Bake Pivot in Vertex” but it wont work! (I think I’m doing something wrong)
The aircraft meshes are in one file together. also I can’t use joints.
Is there a way to import the file while retaining mesh transform and pivot?
Hello!
That’s wierd. In the 3D file, the wings are in the center of the world? (Not the point of origin, but the center of the geometry itself)
When you import a 3D asset to Unreal, always puts the center of the object at 0,0,0 of the 3D space in the file.
Then, for example, in this Blender Scene (This applies to every 3D program) the center of the object is in the red circle, but if I export as a .fbx and import to Unreal, it will give the point of origin to the blue point.
Let me know if this helps you!
Hi Asfan,
Like Angel mentioned, the pivots are usually retained. One think I can think of is to uncheck the ‘Combine Meshes’ bool on UE Import.
I’d also try exporting a simple test in whatever 3D creation tool you are using.
Best-case is that everything imports with expected pivots, but there are some tools with the new Modeling Mode for help with hand-authoring pivots. (Select Mode button in upper left of screen)
Cheers
Hello Angel,
I got even more confused 
… let me rephrase my question,
I have this demo airplane, wings, flaps, etc. the local pivot of each model is placed as hinges. In this example, the flap’s pivot is oriented in a way that when the X-axis is rotated it rotates alongside the wing, I have done so to control the flaps by just editing the X-axis value.
Now when I import the FBX into Unreal, the pivot is sent back to the world origin (0,0,0) which will break my work as I can no longer just change the X-axis rotation to control the wing! the mesh itself is in the correct location and rotation, but the pivot is down center at (0,0,0)!
So my question: is there a method to import the mesh with the pivot not at (0,0,0) so I can keep the pivot transform? (model exported from Blender … note I’ve tried to import the file into Maya and the pivot is located and oriented as it should be)
I hope this clarifies my question!
Cheers,
Joe.
Hello Astrotronic,
I think I didn’t explain my problem correctly the first time, I’ve rephrased my question in the reply to Angel’s post. I hope that clarifies my question! thanks for the help <3
Tagging myself, personal account.
Update,
So I’ve imported the same demo model into Unreal, ‘Combine Meshes’ bool is false, and as you can see the pivot is at world origin! is this normal? or am I doing something wrong? I’ve kept the default import settings!
Thanks
I have no idea what’s going on in here!
Simple Maya cube export! (switched to Maya just to make sure)
A cube with transform of:
Location (10, 20, 30)
Rotation (10, 20, 30)
Scale (10, 20, 30)
pivot is centered and export as FBX, import to Unreal with default settings.
in Unreal, the pivot is at (0,0,0) ?!?!?!
Try from the main menu of the editor file → “import into level”. It should import your fbx file with all of it’s offsets.
Hello!
The correct way to import it is, in Blender, to make all the pieces “clear” their locations, and you, from the Engine, rearrange everything. This is pretty simple, in Blender [Alt] + [G] / [R] / [S] (Location, Rotation, Scale) reset their values to zero.
So, select everything, clear all transformations from blender, and import to Unreal to rearrange from the engine.
Maybe it is a way to import a mesh and that it respects its point of origin regardless of its position in the 3D program scene, but the correct way, or at least what I’ve always seen, is to reset everything to 0,0,0 from the beginning.
Best lucks!
That does not make sense! from Unreal engine that is … what if I have hundreds of small parts models that need to fit together? In the 3D software, I have more control and tools to anchor and position the parts! I’ve worked with unity for example and I can import normally!
I’m not convinced! I need to look more into it, appreciate your efforts.
I can’t understand what you are talking about regarding the modeling mode!
but there are some tools with the new Modeling Mode for help with hand-authoring pivots. (Select Mode button in upper left of screen)
can you please elaborate on the subject, thanks.
One more thing, I’ve tried to do a simple test
Sure,
So this plugin is probably on by default, but if not enable the ‘Modeling Tools Editor Mode’ plugin.
Then in the upper left of your screen, click the ‘Select Mode’ dropdown to go into modeling mode.
Under the ‘Transform’ section you will see “Pivot” tool.
What you are showing in your images with the single rectangular cube is expected behaviour. (With this technique you could have many individual meshes that fit together so long as all of their positions are “zeroed”) What you’re running into is trying to rotate your aileron around the origin/pivot.
So, changing the pivot in-engine should definitely get you where you want to be.
Let us know if you have more troubles with this!
I did some reacher and found the plugin and I’ve tried it, and as you said I could move the pivot and it will 100% fix the issue, BUT that’s not a suitable method of improving the pivot! if what I’m looking for is a let’s say a door and I just want to put the pivot on the side to make it rotate on its hinge … ok that’s more than perfect!
But in my situation, each airplane has a large number of movable parts hinges, doors, flaps, wings, nobs, switches, gears, and more! it will take a tremendous period of my time to manually adjust the pivots.
I think epic should fix this and make the import function take the original baked pivot from the 3D software!
Imagine going through all of this manually bit by bit in the engine!
This can’t be done with joints (“bones”) … I think!
So it leaves me with nothing but pivots from the 3D software!
Thanks for your help, I think what I’m asking for is missing from the engine, so I need to find another method, a plugin, or something!
You’re welcome. I did a bit of googling, and it looks to be a common pain-point.
Ultimately, you probably are going to want to just have one ‘BP_Switch’ (With all the interaction/animation functionality) and then instance that.
There is a ‘socket’ system for meshes in UE, so if it’s possible to export that socket location data from Maya into UE you could use those as attach points for all the things. (Seems less fiddly to me)
Exporting sockets!! that’s new to me! yea I can work with this … it’s something 
Thanks a lot, much appreciated.
