Spawning & Manipulating Assets

This section describes spawn asset in detail, concepts of filtering, how we name things, how Convert To Linked and Convert To Editable can be used in your scenes to maximize efficiency and asset related features that we ship in aquatiq.

Spawn Asset

Spawn Asset button can be used to spawn a single asset. The model will always spawn at the current 3D cursor location.

Spawn Asset Dialog

• Asset to be spawned is the main part of the user interface. It is a preview image representing the asset that will be spawned after clicking the OK button. If you want to spawn another asset click on the image and a list with all assets fitting your filter will appear.

• Use aquatiq collection checkbox. When checked the asset will be placed in a category collection under a aquatiq collection. If the collections do not exist they will be created. This makes all of aquatiq content end up in one place for your convenience.

• Make editable checkbox. When checked the asset is appended to the scene, otherwise, linked instances will be created. We recommend having this option disabled to save memory. It is possible to make assets editable afterwards. For more information read the Convert To Editable section.

Filters

Spawn asset list of models can be filtered by a text input provided by the user.

Search

Use this field to search for a model by keyword. For example, if you write keyword only assets with keyword will shop up in search. This is a quick way of getting the asset if you know what you are looking for and don’t want to scroll through all assets.

Multiple keywords

Search filters can take multiple words split by a space for more complex queries. You can use search filter A B C and all assets containing A, B or C will be displayed.

Category

aquatiq assets are sorted into multiple categories according to their type. Only assets from selected categories will appear in the assets to be spawned. All other filters apply after this one.

Editable & Linked Assets

Objects in aquatiq can be in two states. Either linked or editable. Linked objects save memory and are easily updatable. On the other hand editable objects can be customized to your liking. aquatiq assets should get nice render results out of the box, thus linked variant should be used in most of use cases.

Optimization tip

We have a complete section that describes benefits of using linked assets on the advanced topics page.

Limitations of linked assets

Linked assets are limited in terms of customization. There are only a few attributes that we can feed into shaders. The amount of data will always be limited. We try to choose a commonly used customization and support that even on linked assets. Keep in mind that for bigger changes you will have to convert to editable.

Convert To Editable

This button converts selected objects to editable and makes them local to the scene. This way you have complete control of the objects, you can change the mesh, textures, materials, apply custom modifiers, animations, etc. On the flip side, this affects the performance of the scene so use this function wisely.

Convert To Linked

This button converts selected objects back to their linked variants. Works only on polygoniq assets because we know where we can locate the original variant. Doesn't work on particle systems.

Destructive operation

Converting to linked can be destructive. All local modifications to the asset will be removed (mesh changes, materials changes, animations) and the default aquatiq asset is going to replace the existing one!

Utilities

The following section describes utility features that can minimize duplicates in your file or help

Remove Duplicate Data

Having multiple editable assets can result in many duplicated materials, node groups or textures that reference the same things. Duplicate data are indicated with the .001, .002, ... suffixes. Remove Duplicate Data button merges all duplicate data into one datablock (data deduplication). This applies to materials, node groups and textures.

Optimization tip

Having less materials, node groups and textures results in smaller .blend file sizes, saves memory, bandwidth and makes your scenes clean.

Automatic deduplication checkbox

If checkbox located next to the Convert To Editable button is checked in then data deduplication is done automatically for each aquatiq asset converted to editable.

Find Missing Files

Looks for missing files in the aquatiq installation path you have set in preferences. Quick way to fix broken references to images, materials, collections or other aquatiq related datablocks.

Missing models

If you are missing models (collection datablocks) you need to Save and Revert (reopen) the .blend file in order to reload them back into the scene.

Missing Files can't fix everything

Find Missing Files can't solve everything. There are certain cases when it is necessary to respawn the asset or fix the paths manually (advanced). This can mostly happen when there was a major update to the naming of the assets, textures or related. But firstly please make sure that the aquatiq installation is valid.