Re-importing datasmith geometry loses applied materials

[cra_gna]

Hi.

Whenever I re-import revised geometry into the project, all the applied materials in Ue5 are lost. I’ve lost hours of work on material pplication. How do i fix this quicky please?

[Arii (Ari)]

this is the way datasmith is programmed to work and there is no option for now at least to override this behavior.
what you can do however is create a blueprint utility widget that substitutes imported raw material from your modeling program to material of your choice in unreal. for this to work you need to apply named materials in in your dcc for your meshes. and in unreal create a substitute data table.
look at the post below

Datasmith-imported materials - Most efficient way to replace with UE5 ones?

I am using the Direct Link plugin from Sketchup 2021 to the latest version of Unreal Engine 5. It works well, but the best way that I’ve found to replace Sketchup’s materials with UE5 ones is to select a mesh, “Select All with Same Material”, then click in the Details pane to replace one material at a time. Is there a better way in UE5 please? A Python script? A plugin (paid is fine with me)? There used to be an (expensive) plugin called Optim; what else is similar in UE5 that works well? …

[cra_gna]

Thank you for your help. I will check this source. I figured a way to do something similar though visual dataprep tool.