Send to Unreal - Allow path variables

[Ares9323]

• Addon: Send to Unreal
• Steps to Reproduce the Problem: I clicked Pipeline > Export > Send to Unreal
• Error Log: No error
• OS: Windows
• Addon Version: Send to Unreal 1.8.4
• Blender Version: Blender 2.93
• Unreal Version: Unreal 4.26.2

I need to create several models so I created a collection containing the 4 default collections (Mesh, Rig, Collision and Extras), when I toggle the option "Use collections as folder" in the "Paths" settings, meshes are moved correctly in my folder but I encountered several problems, I'll make an example to better explain the problem:

• Set your Mesh folder to "/Game/_Main/Meshes/" and the Animation folder to "/Game/_Main/Animations"
• Create a main collection called for example "Category" and drag the four default collections inside it
• Put the skeletal mesh inside Mesh and the armature inside Rig
• Click Pipeline > Export > Send to Unreal

Here's what you get:

• Skeletal mesh, skeleton, physics asset and materials are inside the "Category/Mesh" folder (And that's fine, but I'm already in the "/Game/_Main/Meshes/" folder so I really don't need to repeat "Mesh", but this is not the main problem
• Animations are in the default "/Game/_Main/Animations" folder and not in the "Category" subfolder, so if they have the same name (Pretty common thing if they are called Attack, Idle, or something similar) I get errors and I have to move it or rename them manually.
• If I have something in the Collision folder it goes inside the "Category/Collision" but as far as I know collision should be renamed "UCX_SK_MeshName" for example and they shouldn't be imported as side-models

Possible fix:

• If the "Use collections as folders" checkbox is checked apply the hierarchy to animations too.
• Export the animations inside the meshes folder, for example create both "Category/Mesh" and "Category/Animations" inside the "/Game/_Main/Meshes/"

[james-baber]

@Ares9323 yes this might be able to be improved by a variable in the path. Maybe support something like {MESH_FOLDER_UNREAL}/animations in the animation folder field and it could just append on a sub path to the mesh path. Would that fix your issue? path variables could be added to support referencing the other paths as well...

[Ares9323]

Thank you for your answer, that would be a perfect solution for my issue (I tried to implement something similar by myself, but I ended up hardcoding the "/animation" folder inside the mesh folder if the "Use collections as folders" option is enabled).

Thank you again, I really appreciate that you are considering my suggestion!

[alexclaydon]

This would be fantastic - I've come to rely heavily on send2ue and this feature would be a huge time-saver! Any thoughts on whether it's something that might make it up the priority list? Thanks!