The Blender Multi-Exporter can be found here:

The 3DS Max Multi-Exporter can be found here:

The Settings panel allows you to setup the glTF export settings for Blender. On this panel the following sections should be edited:

• Textures: Here you can choose to keep the original textures - for those cases where you have a texture library in the package and re-use the textures - or you can supply an output path for the textures if they are to be included with the aircraft model glTF. As an example of placement for textures in the project, it would be like this (although a lot will depend on how you have set up the aircraft package):

  PROJECT ROOT\<PackageName>\PackageSources\SimObjects\Airplanes\<AircraftName>\common\<CompanyName>\Exterior\texture

• Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024:
  • Use Asobo Unique ID Extension - This should be checked to ensure that everything has a unique ID.
  • Generate TextureLib - This should be checked to generate the texturelib XML file.
  • Reset Origins - These options are almost always required to be checked if exporting parts for modular aircraft as they reset the root node transforms, which means that the parts can then be attached correctly when the aircraft is created in the simulation.
  • Remove LOD Prefix - This should be checked and will remove the LOD prefixes from all the objects, which is necessary to be able to reference them correctly using the different model behavior templates.
• Animation: The animation mode should be set to NLA Tracks.
• Optimise Animations: Here you want to check the Optimise Animation Size option and the Disable Viewport For Other Objects option.

Note that you can save these values as an export preset by clicking the + button at the top of the Settings window, which lets you set up different presets to be used depending on the group of objects being exported. These are then applied to the export groups, as explained in the Creating Preset Groups section, below.

Reset Root Node Transforms

An important thing to be aware when setting up your exports, is the possible need to reset the root node transforms of each aircraft part. For modular aircraft, it is normal to have each part attached to each other part in a hierarchy of attachments, for example: root helper node > airframe > wings > engines. However, in 3DS Max the root nodes of these parts will normally be offset from the (0, 0, 0), and after exporting and generating the aircraft in the sim, the offset from the (0, 0, 0) position will become the offset from the attach point position of the previous object in the attachment hierarchy. Therefor it is important to reset the root node transforms for each attachment, and this should be done before export, using the Transform Properties, which are explained here: Transform Properties.

On the User Defined Layer Based Export tab, you can click on the Export Options button to setup the 3DS Max export preset for the aircraft. From the following window you will need to check these options:

• Export Materials: This should be checked to ensure the aircraft exports the materials with the objects.
• Remove LOD Prefix: This should be checked and will remove the LOD prefixes from all the objects, which is necessary to be able to reference them correctly using the different model behavior templates.
• Use Asobo UniqueID: This should be checked to ensure that everything has a unique ID.
• Animations: Here you want to select Export Meshes And Animations.
• Textures: Here you will want to set the Texture Path to the location of the "texture" folder within the project that you made earlier (see here). The path should be something like this (although a lot will depend on how you have set up the aircraft package):

  PROJECT ROOT\<PackageName>\PackageSources\SimObjects\Airplanes\<AircraftName>\common\<CompanyName>\Exterior\texture

• Use Pre-Export Process: In this section make sure that the Bake Animation Options are set to Bake All Animations

Note that you can save these settings as an export preset by clicking the + button at the top of the Settings window, which lets you set up different presets to be used depending on the group of objects being exported (after creating a new export preset you can change its name by simp,y clicking on the name field). These settings will then be applied to the export groups, as explained in the Creating Preset Groups section, below.

Reset Root Node Transforms

The other important thing to be aware of is the possible need to reset the root node transforms of each aircraft part. For modular aircraft, it is normal to have each part attached to each other part in a hierarchy of attachments, for example: root helper node > airframe > wings > engines. However, in 3DS Max the root nodes of these parts will normally be offset from the (0, 0, 0), and after exporting and generating the aircraft in the sim, the offset from the (0, 0, 0) position will become the offset from the attach point position of the previous object in the attachment hierarchy. Therefor it is important to reset the root node transforms for each attachment, and this should be done before export, using the Object Properties, which are explained here: Object Properties.

In Blender you need to ensure you have pushed the actions of the animated empties down into the NonLinear Animation Panel, and that the tracks have been named the same for the grouped animations, for example:

You should also note that you have additional options for your textures available from the Image Properties, and - if required - you should ensure that the appropriate flags have been set (although in most cases this isn't necessary, but it's important to be aware that the options exist).

IMPORTANT! While Blender permits negative keyframes for animations, the simulation does not, and as such the plugins will show an error when exporting animations with negative keyframe values.

In 3DS Max, you will need to ensure that you have set up your Animation Groups correctly, where all objects that animate together are in one group and the frames are correctly defined:

Additionally, in the multi-exporter window, if this is the first time you are exporting and you have made no changes to the textures, you should ensure that the Generate_TextureLib option is checked so that the tool generates the required texture XML files on export.

The Presets panel allows you to create Export Presets that will make it easier to export a large numbers of different objects, animations and more, without having to constantly repeat the same steps over and over. This exporter relies on Collections to be selected and added to a Preset, so you will need your scene to be split into relevant collections.

On the presets tab, the first thing you will want to do is add a Group, and set the export path - which will always be to a model folder within the modular aircraft package - and export preset (as explained in the Setup Export section above), and also rename it for clarity:

For each group you can then add one or more presets to it, by clicking on the + button beside the group (using the Add Preset button at the top will add a unique preset to the top-level, not to the selected group). As with the group, you can name the preset, set it's path if needed (it will have inherited the group output path automatically), and also apply a different set of preset options if required.

When ready, you can then click on the collections ☐⊕ button and add the required items from the scene into it:

The User Defined Layer Based Export view allows you to create export presets - and groups of presets - that will make it easier to export a large numbers of objects, animations, etc... and assign them all specific characteristics without having to edit them individually.

In this window the first thing you'll need to do is click the Group button at the top, then browse to the folder where you want the exporter to save the glTF files for the part(s) in the group. After that you should rename the group to something appropriate for the part(s) being exported, and select the Export Options you want to use (as explained in The Export Setup section, above):

The next thing to do is - with the group selected - click on the New button to add a new preset to it. This will open a browser window and here you can give the name of the glTF file that is going to be exported by this preset, and then you can select the contents of the glTF from the Layers section to the right of the window: