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 botaniq.

Some sections like filters are applicable to scatter.

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.

• Common name is often rendered into the preview. Useful when you are not familiar with the latin names. Those names are supported in the search filter.

• In most preview images there is a measure included. You can look at the measure to get an idea of approximate size of the asset before spawning it. One step is equal to 1m (3.28ft), small assets have the measure downscaled so one step is 10cm (3.9in).

• Latin name is displayed under the preview and comes handy for landscape architecture. Latin name is more specific than common name and it can help you to choose the right model for a given area.

• Use botaniq collection checkbox. When checked the asset will be placed in a category collection under a botaniq collection. If the collections do not exist they will be created. This makes all of botaniq 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.

Seasons

To filter assets by seasons tick the desired season boxes. Assets can also be displayed in multiple seasons. For example, some evergreen shrubs will be the same in spring, summer and autumn, so they will appear in all of these seasons.

Some models don't have all seasons

Some assets are not available in every season. This is reflected from real life. For example, it does not make sense to have a cactus in winter.

Under the hood

Notice that the season is part of the name of the asset. If the name is changed, then some features like randomize variant may not work correctly.

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 filters

The category and the seasonal filter are still active next to search filter. If you search for tree that was already filtered by other filters it won't show up. For example if you search for maple in the tropical category there will be no matching 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

botaniq 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 botaniq 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. botaniq 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 botaniq asset is going to replace the existing one!

How to update asset

Assets change over time as we add new functionality. In some cases you have asset that has been already spawned with older version and is missing some data necessary for it to work correctly. In this case you can update the asset by converting it to linked and then back to editable. Asset will effectively be respawned with all the data from the current version.

Snap To Ground

Snaps selected objects to the ground below. Works on all selected objects including non-botaniq assets.

Multiple ground objects

Make sure that there is another object under the selected one. If there are multiple objects below then the selected object should be snapped to the uppermost one.

Non-botaniq linked assets & bounding box

Snap to ground works also on linked assets. It is calculated using the bounding box, so make sure that origins are in correct place.

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 botaniq asset converted to editable.

Find Missing Files

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