We’re exploring Interchange pipeline automation where import settings are derived from asset naming/path conventions. This works well for textures: we can add a second Blueprint pipeline on top of the default stack and reliably override settings.
However, for skeletal meshes, we’re struggling to control extra asset generation, specifically PhysicsAsset creation.
What we want
Use a default pipeline stack + an additional BP pipeline to enforce studio rules per asset path/name, including toggling PhysicsAsset generation on/off deterministically.
Observed behavior / issue
When using the default asset pipeline with “Create Physics Asset” enabled:
In our additional BP pipeline, trying to override it does not work:
SetCustomCreatePhysicsAsset(false) on the skeletal mesh factory node does not prevent PhysicsAsset creation.
SetSkipNodeImport() on the PhysicsAsset factory node also does not prevent creation.
Then we tried the opposite approach:
Duplicated the default asset pipeline and disabled PhysicsAsset creation there.
In this setup, we were unable to force PhysicsAsset creation from an additional BP pipeline (i.e., could not turn it back on in a controlled way).
Question
Is there an intended/native Interchange workflow to control PhysicsAsset generation (and potentially similar “extra asset” generation logic) from an additional pipeline?
Are we missing a recommended pattern or API for this use case?
I had some time to investigate this and if I have understood your requirements correctly, something as follows might work:
I added a new Editor Blueprint Pipeline to the stack
I used the default settings on the DefaultAssetsPipeline.
In the Blueprint Pipeline, I have overridden the Scripted Execute Pipeline function.
[Image Removed]Here you can put whatever filtering you need to do based on the Skeletal Mesh UID.
[Image Removed]Let me know if these would suffice for your needs or you will need something more customizable. To deterministically create Physics Assets can be controlled via enabling/disabling the InterchangePhysicsAssetFactoryNodes during execution of the pipelines. Based on this the Factory to create those assets will be skipped so, it’s okay to leave it enabled in the Generic Assets Pipeline and later on disable it in your custom pipeline.
Feel free to reach out should you have further questions or need clarification.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to investigate this - this was very helpful and it works for our case!
The key insight for us was realizing that PhysicsAsset creation is already represented as its own Interchange asset and that it can be deterministically filtered by enabling/disabling the corresponding `InterchangePhysicsAssetFactoryNode` during pipeline execution, rather than trying to control it via skeletal mesh factory options. We were indeed approaching this from the wrong angle.
This also clarified the general pattern for controlling creation of other derived assets in Interchange, which wasn’t obvious to us before and unlocks much more flexible pipeline behavior.
I’d really recommend to include this pattern in Interchange tutorials or samples. Most existing examples focus on trivial settings overrides, while this case provides a deeper look into pipeline execution and asset filtering.
Thanks again for the detailed explanation - much appreciated.
I am glad I was able to help! Also, thank you for letting us know about the lacking documentation and examples. I will let the appropriate team know about this to see what can be done to improve our documentation.