How to Cleanup Mesh in Unreal Engine

This guide is part of the RapidPipeline 3D Plugin Actions Knowledge Base. It shows how to Cleanup Mesh on Unreal Engine; if you'd like to know more about it, please check out the following links:

• Learn more about the Cleanup Mesh
• Learn more about Unreal Engine

• Use the Unreal Engine Plugin
• Select a part
• Run an Action
• Examine the results

This tutorial shows how use the RapidPipeline Processor Plugin in Unreal Engine to clean up model´s geometry and fix frequent mesh issues. This page will guide you through the use of the Action Clean Up Mesh with a CAD model example with faulty normals/winding order.

See below an overview of the performed fixes during this tutorial: the normals and winding order of the mesh, wrong in the original file, have been fixed in the output.

Clean Up Mesh Action

1. First step is to make sure the RapidPipeline Processor Plugin for Unreal Engine is installed and ready to use.
2. Enable the Plugin inside the Plugin Browser (under Edit / Plugins)
3. Open the Plugin Window by selecting RapidPipeline in the Window drop-down menu.
4. Select the faulty meshes by clicking on it in the Viewport, all the model, or do not select anything (all the scene will be processed).
5. Inside the Plugin window, choose the Action Clean Up Mesh.
6. Enable Fix Winding Order in the Action´s settings.
7. Press the Run button.

These settings are optimal for this model, as it has wrong winding order. For other models with faulty mesh normals, the setting Fix Winding Order will not be needed. In that case, simple use Recompute Input Normals. The angle at which recomputed normals will be considered “hard” is controlled with the Normal Hard Angle Threshold setting.

Examine the Results

To inspect the winding order fix in Unreal Engine, select the option Normals from the Mesh Components section in the Show Dropdown (eye icon). You’ll see small lines representing vertex normals and tangents on the mesh surface. You can follow the same steps for the input and the output model to examine the winding order fix closely.

Next Steps

To optimize your model further, try the Remove Occluded Parts action!

To get started with 3D data conversion and optimization today, sign up for a free account!

If you have any questions, feel free to chat with our human team.

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