Can't import .blend files in 2019.1, worked fine in 2018.3

[Tymianek]

I upgraded project from 2018 to 2019 and I get this error for every Blender file in my project

Blender could not convert the .blend file to FBX file.
You need to use Blender 2.45-2.49 or 2.58 and later versions for direct Blender import to work.

I have Blender 2.79 in my PATH and it worked fine in 2018.
Any ideas why it happens and how to fix?

[esbenjon]

Exact same issue for me. It worked fine before upgrading to 2019.

[problemecium]

I also have this problem. I have found no documentation by Unity or Blender indicating the cause of this.
I have verified that manual FBX export/import works just as before, and I have verified that my Blender installation is fully functional and (aside from this one problem) recognized by my OS and Unity - in fact, if I double-click the error message in the Unity console, it successfully opens the file in question in Blender.

[LoveToLoose]

Same problem here. After the update all of our meshes are just gone even without throwing any error messages.

[Friedemann_A]

Same issue here.

[dkollmann]

Same here. My blender set up was not modified from when I was using Unity 2018.

[jotapeh_1]

2 fixes:

1. Try Blender 2.80beta. The reason Blender broke, is that they tried to add support for it, and the python file doesn’t find Blender 2.79(or lower) any more

2. Find and replace your Unity-BlenderToFBX.py with an older version (eg., 2018.3.) Its location varies by platform.

Edit: see Upgrading to 2019.1.0f2 troubles [.blend import broken] [workaround]

[IamTirion]

I just tested this. I am able to import the model using Blender 2.8. However, Unity 2019 still messes up the animation, which works correctly in Blender 2.8. This still needs a fix.

[jotapeh_1]

@IamTirion

I just tested this. I am able to import the model using Blender 2.8. However, Unity 2019 still messes up the animation, which works correctly in Blender 2.8. This still needs a fix.

If you could describe it more precisely, someone might be able to help you with a workaround? My animations were “messed up” but I realized that Blender 2.8 just names them differently in the FBX export (vs. 2.79), so I had to go reselect source takes.

[IamTirion]

@jotapeh_1

If you could describe it more precisely, someone might be able to help you with a workaround? My animations were “messed up” but I realized that Blender 2.8 just names them differently in the FBX export (vs. 2.79), so I had to go reselect source takes.

I did not export my model as an FBX file. I used the .blend file directly. I have only made a walking animation in Blender. The imported animation in Unity has the positions of the armatures wrong. The arms are clipping through the body and some parts of the animation look missing. I also tested the animation in Blender 2.8 and it looks like the same as it was when I made it in 2.79.

[Gobey]

The older python scripts don’t do anything for me. I’d like to move my work to the 2019 version ASAP, but not being able to use .blend files from 2.79 is a deal breaker…

[o1o101]

Same issue here, had to downgrade.

[nixedd]

same problem here. please fix it!

[BlueBananaProductions]

I recently updated Blender to 2.8 and Unity to 2019.2. Having a similar issue where many of the .blend files are importing with incorrect animations, but also scales, rotations. But not every .blend asset has this problem, it seems kind of random. Is it an issue with Blender or Unity?

Somewhat related: when updating to Unity 2019.2 all of the mesh collider components stopped working in my project. I’m having to remove and re-add a mesh colliders to get them colliding again.

Are these known issues?

[o1o101]

@BlueBananaProductions

I recently updated Blender to 2.8 and Unity to 2019.2. Having a similar issue where many of the .blend files are importing with incorrect animations, but also scales, rotations. But not every .blend asset has this problem, it seems kind of random. Is it an issue with Blender or Unity?

Somewhat related: when updating to Unity 2019.2 all of the mesh collider components stopped working in my project. I’m having to remove and re-add a mesh colliders to get them colliding again.

Are these known issues?

It could be either, or both. I hope at some point,Unity naively supports blends, if that is possible at all.
For an engine partly targeted towards indies, beginners etc. who are likely using Blender and not Max or Maya for 3 zillion dollars a year, it seems odd to me that they do not better support or care for Blender, possibly this is a competition thing?

I could be wrong but AFAIK, Unity just opens Blender in the background and exports as FBX, the benefit being you don’t need to have 2 versions of each mesh, the disadvantage is shitty import times for .blends.

[BlueBananaProductions]

@o1o101

It could be either, or both. I hope at some point,Unity naively supports blends, if that is possible at all.
For an engine partly targeted towards indies, beginners etc. who are likely using Blender and not Max or Maya for 3 zillion dollars a year, it seems odd to me that they do not better support or care for Blender, possibly this is a competition thing?

I could be wrong but AFAIK, Unity just opens Blender in the background and exports as FBX, the benefit being you don’t need to have 2 versions of each mesh, the disadvantage is S***ty import times for .blends.

I believe you are right about how Unity handles .blend files. Even when exporting them manually to FBX however there are still issues. I found one “solution” is to make sure that in blender you “apply” your transforms using ctr+a. This will, for example, take a cube that you scaled up and change its scale back to 1 while keeping it the same size. In other words it will reset the transform of the object without moving the vertices around at all in world space. This way unity doesn’t get confused by files that have complicated hierarchies of child/parents with different scales (or rotations or translations), that are then applied by Unity in unintended ways.