This should be avalible to us, yet it still is not. Why are we not able to export LODs of a mesh?
Hello KR2211.
Do you mean you want to export LOD’s from a mesh inside UE4 engine?
Yes that’s what he means. It’s a really needed feature.
But before they are inside UE4 you need to import them so you have them already as FBX right?
Not always. A lot of the content you buy from marketplace need adjustment and you don’t have the source files for those.
Or sometimes you lose the source file and need to export out from the engine.
+1 to this 
+1 this isn’t a feature, this is an issue imho.
You can do this for any Actor in the level, already.
Add your LOD model to the world. Select it and go to File > Export Selected > Save as Type: LOD Export (*.lod.obj)
When the LODs are created by Unreal using the AutoLOD feature, the export using Tim’s method is always the TOP level / Base LOD, not the reduced LOD’s.
Is there way to Export the AutoLOD’s LOD levels as an FBX or Object?
There is no reliable method in UE4 to export LODs, still an issue in 4.19.
Hi everyone, this has been bugging me for a while too. I wanted to export all the LODs at once, in one file, not just the visible LODs. The “export level of details” in the FBX file was promising enough, but no sofrware could read it (Maya, Max, Blender, Meshlab, 3d builder… all to no avail). Suspiciously though, Max had empty layers with the LOD names.
The saving grace came in the shape of 3d paint. Yes, microsoft 3d paint.
- In Unreal, save as FBX → tick “level of detail”
- open your saved FBX in 3d paint
- Save it as a 3d object (FBX again)
Tadaam! You can now see and edit your object in your preferred package.
This is quite a way around though, I’d rather avoid using 3d paint as part of my pipeline.
You can use Rhino3D instead of Microsoft 3d Paint
I was trying to export some Paragon Character LODs and found out that if you convert the model to Static Mesh in another folder and export it as 2018 fbx to Maya you get all the LODs. Try it, let me know if it works for other stuff too!
You can use Blender to get all of the LODs and it’s absolutely free, forever.
I am sorry that doesn’t work sadly. Tried converting to Static Mesh and Maya sees empty folders nothing in them
Paint 3D cant open the fbx…
I have been in need of the same functionality. I am exporting animations from Unreal then importing them into my game engine. However, the game engine I am using can not import animation .fbx files that have no preview, and the preview has to be under 10k triangles. So without being able to export a specific LOD of a skeleton rigged mesh, or without being able to select the LOD used as the preview mesh, I am forced to try and export from Unreal, import into a 3rd parts, decimate, then export from 3rd party, and import into my game engine. Not only is this a LOT more tedious, but some 3rd party, like Blender cause weird things to happen. If Blender would act decent, I would just export a character mesh from Unreal, load it up into Blender, selecton only a low LOD, then re-import into Unreal, to use as the preview mesh, however, once I export from Blender, and try to re-Import into Unreal, it says the Skeleton Hierarchy has been modified, and it gets all messed up.
It actually saves all the LODs with proper face/vertex and even uvs. To make it visible, just create any primitive shape first, convert it to Editable Poly and select Attach option(3ds max) and select your Hidden LOD from your layers or Hierarchy menu. It will show up.
You will have to rename the mesh later as it takes the Primitive’s name. Eg: Box001, Sphere001, etc.,