#Uploading Your Own Props

Drop in a 3D model and EVT3D turns it into a clean, optimized, ready-to-use library product.

Real designs need real props — your own scenic builds, your client's specific lectern, the custom truss spec you can't find in the global catalog. EVT3D's upload pipeline accepts 3D models in the formats you actually have (GLB, glTF, OBJ, FBX, SketchUp) and runs them through a normalization pipeline that converts them, optimizes their textures, generates clean UV maps where they're missing, grades their quality, and stamps them with the metadata they need to play nicely with the rest of the platform.

#What it accepts

Drag and drop any of these into the Upload Prop window (or click Choose file…):

• GLB — the native format; pass-through.
• glTF bundle (zipped) — a .gltf with its .bin and textures in one folder, zipped together; the pipeline packs everything into a single GLB. ZIP is for glTF bundles only.
• OBJ — auto-converted to GLB.
• FBX — auto-converted to GLB.
• SketchUp (.skp) — converted to GLB right in your browser.

3ds Max and Maya scenes can't be uploaded directly — export to GLB, glTF, OBJ, or FBX first.

Max file size is 400 MB (FBX files run large, so the cap is generous). For non-native formats, the upload window shows "Converting yourfile to GLB…" and then renders the converted result in the live 3D preview so you see exactly what the publish pipeline will produce.

#What happens during upload

Every uploaded prop goes through a normalization pipeline:

• Conversion to GLB. OBJ, FBX, SketchUp, and zipped glTF all become a clean, packed GLB.
• Texture optimization. With Auto-resize textures (recommended) on (the default), oversized textures are resized with high-quality resampling to sensible caps — 2K for base color and emissive, 1K for normal, ambient occlusion, and metallic-roughness maps. Each finding gives you a Skip this one checkbox for hero textures you don't want downsized.
• Manual texture sizing (optional). The Resize Manually… button on the Textures tab opens a per-texture inventory where you can pick exact dimensions for each map.
• UV generation. Missing UV maps are auto-generated with a clean box projection so the prop accepts materials and graphics out of the box.
• Slot inspection. Each mesh and material slot is catalogued for editing later.
• Quality report. The prop is graded A–F across seven categories: Textures, Geometry, Draw calls, Materials, Hierarchy, Animation, and Scale. Findings flag actionable issues — "this texture is too large," "this prop has 47 unique materials," "this model is 1.2km wide." The report appears on the Overview tab beside the preview so you can fix issues at source.
• Duplicate detection. If you've uploaded an identical model (or one with the same name) before, the system catches it and opens Replace Existing Prop: Replace updates the prop you pick, and Create New asks for a different name and publishes it as a separate prop with Rename & Upload.

#Edit before you publish

The upload window isn't just a file picker. Once your model is in the preview, you can:

• Pick a slot and edit the material on the Materials tab. Color, metalness, roughness, emissive, opacity, double-sided, and texture maps (base color, normal, roughness, metalness, AO, emissive). Edits show live in the 3D preview.
• Rename slots with user-friendly names ("Seat Fabric," "Chrome Frame," "Tabletop") that show up wherever the prop appears.
• Check the UVs. The UV OFF / UV ON button on the preview (tooltip Show UV checker) overlays a checker pattern so you can see how textures will wrap.
• Capture a thumbnail. Frame the prop in the preview, pick a background color with the swatch, and click Capture Thumbnail. That image becomes the prop's tile thumbnail in the library.
• Set forward orientation. On the Mesh tab, use the Forward (Y) slider to set which direction the prop "faces" when it's first dropped in a scene. Double-click the slider to reset to zero.
• Stage edits, publish once. Material, slot-name, and lock edits queue up ("Material edits queued — will apply on Upload.") and bake into the prop in one pass when you click Upload — not N round-trips.

#Edit after you publish

Published props stay editable forever. From the library, double-click any prop you own to open the Prop Editor, which gives you the same material, slot, and preview tools you had at upload time — plus:

• Reproject UVs. Pick a strategy — Keep authored, Planar, Box, Triplanar, Cylindrical — with per-strategy parameters, click Apply Preview, and verify the result with the UV checker before publishing. (Admins.)
• Publish All Changes. Edits in the Prop Editor stage into a pending buffer; one Publish All Changes button bakes the whole set into a single normalized publish. (Admins.)
• Save Thumbnail. Re-shoot the prop's library thumbnail from the editor preview.
• Reprocess. On the Mesh tab, under Reprocess pipeline. Runs the prop back through the normalization pipeline. Useful if you want to apply newer conversion improvements. (System Admin only — each reprocess uses your one undo slot, so it's gated to prevent accidental destructive runs.)
• Replace Model… Also on the Mesh tab. Swap the source file (a .glb or a glTF .zip) without losing the prop's name, category, and library slot; the new file goes through the same publishing pipeline.
• Undo Reprocess. If a reprocess produces something worse than what was there before, one click swaps back to the previous version. Each prop keeps one undo step. (System Admin only.)
• Resize Textures. On the Textures tab (Admins), open a per-texture inventory and downsize individual maps from a dropdown — useful when a 4K base color is overkill for a small prop.

#The Quality Report Card

Every published prop has a Quality grade visible in the editor and in the admin library view. It's graded across seven weighted categories:

• Textures — sizes, formats, and whether each map's resolution matches what it's being used for.
• Geometry — triangle count, mesh density, bounding-box sanity.
• Draw calls — how many separate draws this prop will cost the renderer.
• Materials — material flags that cost performance, such as transparency on materials that are actually opaque.
• Hierarchy — depth and structure of the scene graph inside the GLB.
• Animation — skeleton bone count and morph targets, if the prop carries any.
• Scale — the prop's overall dimensions; flags props that are wildly too big or too small.

A "B" is typical for a clean prop with one or two minor warnings. An "A" is a polished, hero-ready prop. An "F" usually means the prop has fundamental problems that will hurt your scene's performance or behavior — it's a signal to either fix it or pick a different model.

Venue-class props get a relaxed scale check (up to 1km diagonal) so a real convention hall doesn't false-positive on every upload.

#Reversibility

Every published prop keeps one undo step. If a reprocess or replace gives you something worse than what was there before, a System Admin can click Undo Reprocess to swap back to the previous version.

#How you use it

1. Open the Library, Props tab, set scope to My Stuff (or Global if you're a System Admin).
2. Click Upload. Drag your file into the Upload Prop window. It accepts GLB, zipped glTF, OBJ, FBX, and SketchUp files.
3. Watch the preview. The 3D preview loads (with a "Converting … to GLB…" indicator for non-native formats). The quality report card appears on the Overview tab.
4. Fix what's flagged. Auto-resize textures (recommended) is on by default; tick Skip this one on individual findings if you want certain textures left at full resolution. Use Resize Manually… if you want exact control.
5. Edit if you want. Open a slot, edit color or PBR values, swap a texture, rename the slot.
6. Set the metadata. Name, category, vendor (if applicable), discipline, keywords, description.
7. Capture a thumbnail. Frame the prop, click Capture Thumbnail. (Optional.)
8. Set the forward yaw and preview background. Use Forward (Y) on the Mesh tab and the background swatch on the preview.
9. Click Upload. The pipeline runs end-to-end; the published prop appears in your library, ready to import into any project.

#Why it matters

Most 3D tools treat upload as a yes/no gate — your file is either accepted or rejected, and what shows up in the library is just your file with a new label. EVT3D treats upload as a pipeline — your file is the starting point; what ends up in the library is a normalized, optimized, graded, editable product that integrates with materials, looks, instancing, share mode, AI Enhance, and everything else the platform does. Spend a few minutes at upload time and every downstream feature works better.