I know that one draw call is 1 object and 1 material, but is it necessary to connect multiple identical objects when importing into unreal, or will 100 identical objects also count as one draw call?
upd: it’s not about the foliage tool
If you import 1000 objects as one object, then it will be one draw call. But you won’t be able to do anything with those objects later, because it will just be one object.
If you import one of those 1000 objects, and instance it in the engine ( to make 1000 ), you get the best of both worlds. You can maneuver the objects independently, and still stay low on draw calls.
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Drawcall is a group of polygons sharing the same material.
A mesh with 2 material IDs is 2 groups of polygons sharing the same material 
So simpler than what you used to think.
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the best solution is to import a blockout of these objects, then import one object out of a hundred (because they are the same), create a blueprint from one object and paste the remaining 99 objects into this blueprint exactly like in the blockout?
It really depends what you want to do.
If you’re going to have a grid of cubes that never moves, then just import it as one thing, done.
If you want 1000 cubes that can move independently, import one, and make the others as instances. Because instances are all drawn in one go.
But it really needs to be tailored to your specific use.
Making them all blueprints in a solution that’s kind of in between these two.
PS: There are many ways of doing instancing in UE5 now, this vid is just an example. You can also just select all the meshes, and convert them to instances, for example.
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