Release Notes

Release date: October 16, 2023

Whether you're a Unity developer, a 3D data preparation specialist, or a 3D technical artists, you can leverage the new features and enhancements of this release to perform critical 3D data preparation tasks faster, so you can spend more time creating innovative, immersive real-time experiences in Unity.

Major new features and enhancements

Availability from the Unity Package Manager

Pixyz Plugin for Unity is now now available directly in Unity’s registry. You can install this package from the Unity Package Manager. You can now add Pixyz Plugin for Unity faster to your projects, and spend more time to focus on your day-to-day work with Pixyz and Unity.

From the Package Manager window, install Pixyz Plugin for Unity, and then restart the Unity Editor. To start using Pixyz Plugin for Unity, you need an active license.

If you work offline and haven't direct access to the Package Manager, download Pixyz Plugin for Unity and install it using the legacy procedure, that is, from tarball files.

Support of Universal Render Pipeline and High-Definition Render Pipeline

Pixyz Plugin is now fully compatible with these render pipelines:

• Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
• High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP)

Leverage the import and optimization features for all projects, whatever the targeted rendering appearance or performance requirements:

• Import 3D files into URP and HDRP projects. Pixyz converts materials and textures into compatible assets.
• Optimize models using the Toolbox features, including features that modify materials through the baking of textures. Pixyz now supports all the shaders that are used in Unity's default render pipelines.

Read more about support for Unity render pipelines.

Improved compatibility with prefabs

The compatibility of features with Unity prefabs has improved.

You can now use all the Toolbox actions to modify prefabs for optimization purposes or staging purposes:

• Perform actions on prefabs without the need to unpack them first.
• In Prefab mode, directly edit the assets that are contained in a prefab.

The integrity of prefabs is now guaranteed in the process. Pixyz doesn't delete existing references, such as scripts, overrides, and Unity Forma variants.

You can now generate nested prefabs at import.

CAD files often include parts or subassemblies that are instantiated repeatedly across the model. This structure eases the management of the hierarchy and modifications of design. An example is a door assembly that is instantiated multiple times across a building. For more flexibility when manipulating the hierarchy and geometries, you can systematically create, at import, nested prefabs from these instances, instead creating a single prefab for the whole imported model. For example, you can assign a material override to a prefab without losing instantiation. You can replace the mesh of a tree once within a prefab, and see the modification spreading automatically across the scene:

New asset import workflow

Using Pixyz Plugin for Unity, you can import 3D models within the Unity Editor in two ways:

• Directly import models into the scene.
• Copy the source file in a Unity project and keep a continuous link. With the link, you can easily reimport models. Read more about asset import.

The latter method has been improved, based on Unity's scriptableObject class. You can now import a source file from any location on a disk or a server. Pixyz stores the link to that file without cloning the file in the project. Using this method, Pixyz processes files that you import as follows:

1. Pixyz generates the assets (meshes, materials, and textures) separately.
2. After import, these assets remain in the project. You can modify these assets individually.

You can reimport the linked 3D model, but Pixyz doesn't automatically reimport it anymore. You have more control over the refresh of models. The model remains the same if you share, between stakeholders, projects that involve models that have been imported with Pixyz Plugin for Unity.

Other new features and enhancements

• Pixyz supports the latest software versions of these proprietary file formats:
  • Revit 2023
  • SolidWorks 2023
  • NX2212
  • Inventor 2024
  • Catia V5_6R2023
  • Parasolid 35.1
  • Solid Edge 2023
• The user manual is now included in the package documentation, in addition to the API reference documentation.
• Use the new Extract Prefabs Assets tool to extract assets from prefabs by their types: mesh, material, texture. You can access this tool from the Pixyz menu.
• The License Manager and the license activation workflow for the product have been improved.
• The undo and redo mechanisms have been reworked to prevent potential data loss or crashes.
• Read the list of changes in the changelog.

Known issues

• The MergeByRegion action may cause crashing.
• The import of VRED files may not work as expected.
• The import of PLM XML files may not work as expected.