Preview generation for 3D models

How to generate previews to browse assets visually.

Read time 2 minutes

The Unity Asset Manager can generate previews of your 3D assets to facilitate visual browsing. This feature is available to all subscription tiers and supports all compatible formats. The generated previews include:

  1. Thumbnails: Takes four screenshots of your assets from different camera angles and assigns one as the primary preview image.
  2. 3D Preview: Generates a lightweight preview of your model in .glb format, for viewing in the Unity Asset Manager web viewer.

The thumbnails and 3D previews are generated in the output dataset of both pipelines and referenced in the preview dataset. You can download them at any time.

How to generate previews of your 3D models

Using the API

Trigger the pipelines using the StartTransformation endpoint:

  • Thumbnails: Use the thumbnail-generator pipeline.
  • 3D preview: Use the glb-preview pipeline.

Using the Asset Manager web interface

To generate previews of your 3D asset with multiple files, follow these steps:

  1. Select the 3D asset you want to preview. A side panel appears.
  2. On the top right corner, select Edit.
  3. Go to the Files tab.
  4. Select the More (...) menu on a supported file format.
  5. Select Generate previews. The previews are automatically generated.