Skip to content

Nanite Assembly baking

Pivot Tool supports pivot baking on Static Mesh Nanite Assemblies, with two transform combinations that cannot be represented and are blocked before any asset is modified.

Unreal Engine version

Static Mesh Nanite Assemblies require Unreal Engine 5.7 or later.

What is a Static Mesh Nanite Assembly?

A Static Mesh Nanite Assembly is a static mesh that holds multiple referenced part meshes. Each part is placed with a node transform inside the assembly asset. Unreal Engine renders the combined geometry as a single Nanite mesh at runtime; each part stays an independent, reusable asset.

When you place an actor using a Nanite Assembly mesh, the viewport shows the base mesh (if any) and all part nodes together. Pivot baking works the same as for ordinary static meshes, except for the two constraints below.

What baking does to a Nanite Assembly

Clicking Bake on an actor using a Nanite Assembly mesh applies the same transform to three targets:

  1. The base mesh geometry (if the assembly has any).
  2. Every static assembly node transform, keeping part positions consistent after the pivot moves.
  3. The actor's pivot offset, which resets to zero once the mesh origin matches the position you set.

Socket positions and collision geometry follow the same rules as for ordinary meshes.

Blocked combinations

Two transform combinations cannot be represented inside a Nanite Assembly. Pivot Tool blocks them before touching any asset and shows a warning.

Non-uniform scale with a rotated assembly node

What it means: Freeze Scale is on, the bake scale is non-uniform (X, Y, and Z differ), and at least one part node has a non-zero rotation.

Composing a non-uniform scale after a rotation requires shear. Unreal Engine's assembly node transform cannot represent shear, so continuing would silently corrupt part placement.

What to do:

  • Use a uniform scale (the same value on all three axes) and bake normally.
  • Remove the rotation from the affected assembly node in the Static Mesh editor, bake, then reapply the rotation.
  • Freeze rotation and scale in separate bake steps so each uses a supported transform.

Keep Actors In Place with instanced-component references

What it means: Keep in Place is on, Duplicate and Bake is off, and the level has an Instanced Static Mesh (ISMC) or Hierarchical Instanced Static Mesh (HISM) component referencing the same mesh.

Keep Actors In Place compensates each component's world transform after the mesh changes. Per-instance compensation for instanced components is not implemented. Skipping those components silently would leave them visually shifted after the bake.

What to do:

  • Disable Keep in Place if you can accept repositioning other references manually.
  • Enable Duplicate and Bake so only the initiating actor gets a new mesh copy; all other references, including instanced components, stay on the original mesh.
  • Remove the ISMC/HISM references before baking, then restore them.

Vertex snapping on hybrid assemblies

A hybrid Nanite Assembly has both base-mesh geometry and part nodes. Vertex mode operations — snapping the pivot to the nearest vertex, or picking a pivot preset in vertex mode — draw from both the base mesh and all valid part nodes. You can snap to any vertex across the full assembled geometry.