We are currently using a .fbx model with separate geometry, and were unsure of how to access individual geometry.
Thanks for your help.
I am having the same problem. I can`t access the individual geometry pieces of the whole fbx file imported. Unreal is treating it as a single mesh piece. Please help!!!
I am facing this problem too. HELP!!!
Hi everyone,
When you import a .fbx file, make sure to uncheck the “Combine Meshes” box in the advanced menu. Please remember that the pivot point of your objects will be in the 0,0,0 of your entire .fbx scene, not the individual geometry.
1 Like
Thanks for the help !
Thanks. that helped. Now, the problem I am getting it is that all the pieces have the same center. I want to send their local position to another software so that the same model can be recreated. How can I do that.
I tried to find something like a local mesh position. But, failed to find it. I want to know the solution to this as well. Thanks for the help in advance.
Hi everyone,
This is expected behavior. You will have to adjust the pivot point within a 3D modelling program to be able to adjust this for individual components.
Hi. I am using Maya to import stuff in Unreal. Now, in Maya, every piece of the model has the pivot at the local center of the piece. But, the moment I import it to Unreal(by un-checking the combining meshes), every piece has the pivot centered at the center of the whole geometry.
On a side note, can you tell me the order in which Unreal rotates objects. Pitch, yaw, roll, OR Yaw, pitch, roll?
Thanks for your help in advance.
Hi ,
UE4 does not recognize local pivots from other programs, and when exporting will move the pivot to the origin point for the entire scene. UE4 does pitch, yaw, roll in that order. Have a great day!
I just noticed a crazy thing in rotation. If I rotate an object by 90 degrees in y axis, followed by a rotation of A degrees in z axis, Unreal automatically changes the rotation values as: Y=90 , x= -A degrees, and z=0 degrees. How is this possible?
This is related to the specific math behind the rotation widget. Technically it is correct, it just doesn’t look quite right in relation to everything else.
I can`t just figure out the why is it right?
The problem is that I have to pass these rotation values to an another software, and the yz rotation is getting changed to xz, which is messing the objects in the other software (a software that my company has made).
Please help!!!
I basically need to simulate physics on some objects, and send their positions and orientations of these objects to an external software.
I dont know man...cant figure it out. Any comments ?
Hi,
I’ve put together some images below to better explain what’s going on and how to setup this up for export from your modeling software into UE4.
In this image you will see that I have made two boxes. Both of these boxes are the same with the same pivot point in the front bottom left corner.
In this image I’ve turn you can see that I’ve turned on the grid for my modeling software. You can see that the box on the right has it’s pivot point from the previous image lined up at the 0,0 world origin point. The box to the left has it’s pivot point in the bottom left of the box but it’s not sitting at the 0,0 world origin. This will affect how it’s handled when imported into UE4. The red circled 0,0 world origin is what UE4 recognizes as the pivot point no matter where it was set to be in the modeling software.
Follow along below to see these two boxes imported into UE4 and how they are affected…
…Continuing onward!
Now that my boxes have been exported from my modeling software to FBX I can import it into UE4.
When you import there are several options to give you different results.
In the advanced options of the FBX import options you can select “Combine Meshes,” Usually enabled by default if you’ve not imported anything prior in this project.
Doing this will combine what was originally the two objects in my modeling software into one. The pivot point will be the world origin of the modeling software (0,0) The pivot points of the individual pieces no longer exists.
…More images and post to come
The next option is unchecking the “Combine Meshes” will give you two separate objects (number of objects based on number of individual objects in your FBX file.
This give me the two boxes. One box has it’s pivot point at the 0,0 world origin point. The second has it’s pivot there as well but the box is still off to the side. That’s because UE4 recognizes where the box was located in the FBX according to the 0,0 world origin, not its pivot point. It is for this reason that it is recommended for you to place objects at the world origin when exporting.
This is the individual mesh with it’s pivot at the 0,0 world origin.
This is other mesh that was offset from the world origin. You can see that the pivot is set to the 0,0 world origin despite it’s pivot being different in my modeling software.
This is expected behavior.
While these objects can be imported and not combined the pivot will always be 0,0 world origin for the modeling software and not relative to the object. The models placement will always been relative to this.
You can however in perspective viewport use the middle mouse button to temporarily move the pivot by grabbing the white orb at the connection of the XYZ on the placement tool. You can move this to better orient the model but when you click away it will go back to its original position.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
I want to get their pivots centered at their respective local origins.
One solution I could think of was that I could bring the pieces in the scenes, and then change their pivots to be at the local center. But, to do this, i need to be able to change the pivots using C++ that could change the pivots of all the pieces. Can I do that? If yes, I would dance a bit. 
The other problem that I am having is that if I rotate an object along yz axis, and click enter, unreal automatically changes it to a xy rotation.
Rotation Input: X=0, Y=90, Z=20, Unreal changes it to X= -20, Y=90, and Z=0
Hey, I get what you are saying. But, I would love to somehow retain the original pivots of the individual pieces, like Unity3D does.
The thing is that I need to do some calculations based on the local positions of the individual pieces, and that can`t happen unless I can reset the pivots. I know we can press middle mouse and move the pivots around. is there a way to do it automatically?
Thanks in advance.