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  1. Unity Cloud Documentation
  2. Asset Manager

Preview generation for 3D models

How to generate previews to browse assets visually.
Read time 1 minute
Last updated 8 months ago

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.
Note
The 3D preview file is capped at a maximum of 500,000 polygons and is optimized for a better preview experience. If you want to convert your asset to
.glb
format without losing the integrity of your original asset, use the Optimize and Convert feature.
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:
  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.
Note
  • Asset Manager automatically generates previews for any 3D asset upload containing a single 3D file.
  • You can also choose to upload your own preview content while editing your asset.

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  • On this page
    • How to generate previews of your 3D models

      • Using the API

      • Using the Asset Manager web interface


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