Publishing assets

Updated October 2026 · Artist workflow

Describes how to publish instances from a DCC to Unreal, how to fix validation errors, and how to follow and recover a publish in DousenDesktop.

Worked example: publish a crate and leave the pallet

This example uses a saved scene with two instances, a crate and a pallet. Names and folders come from your project’s conventions. Screenshots on this page use a sample project.

1. Prepare DousenDesktop, the DCC, and Unreal as described in Before you publish.
2. In the DCC, open the Publish tab. Check the crate and clear the pallet. If the list doesn’t show your objects, click Reset.
3. If the crate’s type is wrong, right-click it and choose the type under Set Type. Point to the crate’s name to see its Unreal destination. If your conventions require other tags, such as a variant, set them with Set Up Asset when you create the asset.
4. If your project uses a material catalog, assign a material to the crate. See Materials and textures.
5. Click Validate. If the crate fails, expand the failed rule, fix the source, click Reset if you changed the scene structure, and validate again.
6. Click Publish. In DousenDesktop, watch the crate in Publish history until it shows Imported and saved in Unreal, then open the asset in Unreal.
7. Change the crate’s geometry, save, and publish the same instance again. The existing Unreal asset reimports. The pallet stays out of both publishes.

If you later add a mesh to the crate instance, a normal reimport doesn’t import it. Use Review instance topology in the Unreal Content Browser instead.

Before you publish

1. Sign in to DousenDesktop and select the correct studio and project.
2. In Settings, check the project’s source root, Perforce workspace, and Unreal project path.
3. Select the Jira task, check its changelist, and launch the DCC from DousenDesktop.
4. Save the source scene. Set the instance’s type, convention tags, and material assignment if your project uses them.
5. Keep the Unreal editor for the project open. If Unreal isn’t running, Desktop can import through UnrealEditor-Cmd instead. To allow this, turn on Auto-import via UnrealEditor-Cmd when UE is not running in Settings → Unreal.

Collect and choose instances

When you open the Publish tab, Dousen collects the publishable objects in your scene and lists them as instances. Only checked instances are published. If you change the scene, click Reset to collect again. Group by Type only changes how the list is arranged. In Blender, the list is under Refresh Instances in the Dousen sidebar tab. For what each application collects, see What becomes an instance?

In Maya and 3ds Max, right-click an instance and choose a profile under Set Import Profile to set how Unreal imports it. The choice overrides the scene’s import_profile tag, and (none) clears it. The submenu appears when the project defines import profiles, and never on texture instances, because profiles only apply to meshes and animations. See Interchange. Blender and Houdini have no per-instance control yet.

In Maya, + Instance from Selection creates an instance from the selected objects. To change an instance’s type, right-click its row and choose Set Type. Point to each instance to check its name and Unreal destination. If two checked instances would export to the same file, Publish is unavailable until you rename or retag one of them.

Validate and resolve errors

Click Validate to check the checked instances without exporting. Failing and warning rules appear first. Expand a rule to see the affected instance and read the message. Click Select Invalid to select the failing objects in Maya or 3ds Max, or Repair if the validator offers a fix. Validate again after you edit.

Click Publish to validate and export in one step. Any error on a checked instance, including a naming or destination error, stops the publish. If only warnings remain, Dousen asks whether to publish anyway. The rules that run, and their severity, come from your project’s configuration, so ask your project admin if a rule seems wrong.

Each validation you run from the Publish tab is recorded in the portal’s Validation history under your email address. See Validation history.

Follow a publish in Publish history

Open the Publish history tab in DousenDesktop. Each row shows the asset name and the Unreal project, a status line, and the stages the publish has passed, for example validated > exported > delivered > imported. A row appears when DousenDesktop’s relay accepts the export, so its status line starts at Delivered. The chips at the top show which DCCs and Unreal editors are connected. A connected editor doesn’t mean the import succeeded, so check the status line of the row.

The stage list includes validated only when validation ran for that publish. A save-triggered publish skips that stage because it doesn’t run the validators.

Publish history lists exports from the Publish tab, from Blender’s Publish Checked Instances, and from auto-publish on save. Other exports don’t get a row: the Houdini shelf export tools, Substance Painter’s own export dialog, the the export-only buttons on the Substance Designer Export tab, and the Send to Painter buttons. If a publish never shows up, click Show connection events at the bottom of the tab to see recent relay traffic, or check the Logs tab.

Recover from a failed publish

If a publish fails, Publish history may offer Retry publish, which resends the original export. The button appears only while you’re signed in as the same user and have the same Unreal project selected. When you click it, DousenDesktop checks the exported file first, and the button tells you what it found:

Retry doesn’t add or remove meshes in an imported instance. Use Review instance topology for that.

First-publish checklist

• The source is saved and only the instances you want are checked.
• The project, task, workspace, and Unreal project are correct.
• Validation passes and no destination conflicts remain.
• Publish history shows Imported and saved in Unreal.
• The assets exist at the Unreal path that your conventions resolve.
• The task’s changelist includes the source scene and the exported files. For Painter and Designer publishes, add the exported files yourself.

Continue the workflow

See DCC addons for what each application collects, Asset validation for validator configuration, Perforce for changelist submission, and Unreal Interchange for import profiles and reimport.