Who Don’t Need It?
If Blender is your only toolchain, you don’t need this add-on.
Who May Need It?
Game developers
Who need to import FBX files into Blender and export FBX files to game engines.
3d digital artists
Who need to share your 3d artworks to other 3d digital artists who use other 3d softwares, or you want to sell your 3d artworks in various digital markets.
What is it?
Blender is lack of native FBX support, when we import some older and newer FBX files, it often fails.
So I made a better FBX importer and exporter with official FBX SDK from scratch.
The add-on is compatible with all FBX versions, from ASCII to binary, from FBX 5.3 to FBX 2020.
I have tested the importer and exporter with about one hundred commercial FBX files which made by 3d digital artists in 3ds Max, Maya or Cinema 4D, the add-on can import and export these FBX files successfully.
The exported FBX and DAE files have been verified in Unity Engine 2021, Unreal Engine 4/5 and Godot Engine v4.1.1 with no issues.
Features
Supports Blender v2.82 – v4.1.0 Alpha.
Supports importing PBR material from 3ds Max & Maya.
Supports exporting PBR material to Unity Engine, Unreal Engine and Godot Engine.
Supports Blender Renderer, Cycles Renderer, and Eevee Renderer.
Supports N-Gons (Polygons consisting of more than 4 vertices).
Supports importing FBX, DAE, OBJ, DXF and 3DS files.
Supports exporting FBX, DAE, OBJ and DXF files.
Supports exporting FBX smoothing groups.
Supports automatic bone orientation.
Supports armature deform animation.
Supports exporting non-linear animation.
Supports shape key animation.
Supports multiple material sets.
Supports multiple UV sets.
Supports multiple vertex color sets.
Supports meshes attached to bones.
Supports mesh instances.
Supports generic node transform animation.
Supports dummy nodes.
Supports camera.
Supports lights.
Supports custom properties.
Supports importing vertex animation of Maya format(.mc/.mcx) and 3ds Max format(.pc2).
Supports exporting vertex animation of Maya format(.mcx) and 3ds Max format(.pc2).
Compatible with all FBX versions.
Supports exporting from any generic rigging system.
Supports exporting game-friendly armature from Rigify Auto-Rigging System.
Supports importing Blender friendly armature and 3d models.
Supports exporting game engine friendly armature and 3d models.
Supports importing multiple files in batch.
Supports exporting to separate files in batch.
Supports exporting multiple actions or multiple NLA tracks.
Supports concatenate multiple animations into single animation.
Supports UDIM mapping.
Supports Unity Engine 2021, Unreal Engine 4/5 and Godot Engine v4.1.1.
Supports Windows, Linux and macOS.
Limitations
Does not support IK bones*.
Does not support custom bone shapes.
Does not support multiple bind poses.
*IK Support
The add-on can export and import basic IK constraints since v4.1.10.
You can only use empty object as the target object, if you did not assign a target object, the add-on will create an empty object as the target object automatically.
The add-on can import basic IK constraints from Maya correctly, but the exported IK constraints are not compatible with Maya.
To import the basic IK constraints into Maya, you need to insert at least one keyframe of any object, for Maya treats IK constraints as animation data, if there isn’t any animation data, the IK constraints will be ignored.
After imported the basic IK constraints into Maya, you will find that the bones can’t be driven by the effector correctly, this is caused by the wrong pole vector value. To fix the issue, you need to copy the rotation value to the ‘Pre-rotation’ value for every bone between the IK chains, and reset the rotation value to zero, for Maya use the ‘Pre-rotation’ value to calculate the pole vector value.
As 3ds Max can’t export and import IK constraints at all, you can’t import and export IK constraints for 3ds Max.
Interface
Importer:
To import an FBX file, navigate to File->Import->Better FBX Importer (.fbx/.dae/.obj/.dxf/.3ds).
Then you can select leaf bone style, set scale value and other parameters, select the FBX file, click ‘Better Import FBX’ button to import the FBX file.
Exporter:
To export to an FBX file, navigate to File->Export->Better FBX Exporter (.fbx/.dae/.obj/.dxf).
Then you can select FBX version, set scale value and other parameters, enter a filename, click ‘Better Export FBX’ button to export to the FBX file.
Showcase
Here is an imported robot warrior in Cycles Renderer of Blender 2.79b, you may notice that his shield and weapon have already been attached to proper bones automatically, and all bones orientations have been corrected automatically, while the armature deform animation remains not changed.
Here is an imported ancient Chinese soldier in Eevee Renderer of Blender 2.80, you may notice that his spear has already been attached to the right-hand bone automatically, and all bones orientations have been corrected automatically, while the armature deform animation remains not changed.
Here are three characters in the Editor of Unity 2018, note that Santa’s eyes, mouth and face are driven by shape key animation, and his body is driven by armature deform animation.
Here is one character in the Editor of Unreal Engine v4.22.3, the scene is the famous starter scene – ‘Table, Glass And Chairs’, note that Santa’s eyes, mouth and face are driven by shape key animation, and his body is driven by armature deform animation.
Here is one character in the Editor of Godot Engine v3.2, the exported character(*.dae) and animation work properly.