Documentation / Pivot Baker
Unreal Engine · Documentation

Pivot Baker

Permanent pivot baking for Static Mesh and Skeletal Mesh assets, plus pivot-based actor grouping for level editing.

27 presetsStatic MeshSkeletal MeshPivot Groups
Overview

Make pivot changes permanent in asset data.

Pivot Baker rewrites mesh data so pivot changes are permanent and do not rely on actor-only pivot offsets.

Asset editing warning

Pivot baking modifies asset data. Use source control or Duplicate Asset mode.

Universal Pivot Baker overview
Quick start

Five steps to a baked pivot.

  1. Enable the plugin in Edit > Plugins and restart the editor.
  2. Open Window > Universal Pivot Baker.
  3. Select one or more Static Mesh or Skeletal Mesh actors.
  4. Choose one of the presets or enter an XYZ offset.
  5. Click Bake Selected, or switch to Group for a group pivot workflow.
Pivot Baker quick start 1Pivot Baker quick start 2Pivot Baker quick start 3Pivot Baker quick start 4Pivot Baker quick start 5
Key features

Asset baking plus level-group pivots.

Static Mesh bakingPermanent pivot changes in mesh data.
Skeletal Mesh bakingRoot-track compensation for compatible animations.
27 presets3 × 3 × 3 preset cube plus manual XYZ offset.
Interactive previewViewport helper plus embedded 3D preview.
Batch bakingProcess multiple selected actors and optionally duplicate assets.
Pivot GroupsRotate multiple actors around a custom group pivot.
Pivot Baker feature overview
Pivot Baker

Define, preview and bake the pivot.

The 27 presets are arranged as Bottom, Middle and Top layers based on selection bounds. Presets target corners, edges, face centers and the bounds center.

Manual XYZ offsets are interpreted in mesh local space and applied as baked asset translation.

Interactive preview

Changing the offset can spawn a preview indicator in the level. The editor pivot also updates so you can test rotation behavior before baking.

Bake target

  • Original Asset: modifies the existing asset in place.
  • Duplicate Asset: creates a new asset with a _PivotBaked suffix and assigns it to the selected components.

After baking, the tool compensates placed instances in the current editor world so they do not visually jump.

Pivot baking workflow 1Pivot baking workflow 2Pivot baking workflow 3Pivot baking workflow 4Pivot baking workflow 5Pivot baking workflow 6
Skeletal Mesh baking

Animation and reference-pose compensation.

Skeletal Mesh baking requires extra processing because of skinning and animation:

  • Vertices are offset per LOD through MeshDescription when available, with a soft-vertex fallback.
  • AnimSequence assets using the same skeleton and containing a root track are patched by offsetting root translation keys.
  • The mesh is rebuilt and the reference-pose root translation is adjusted after Build.
  • Inverse reference matrices are recomputed to keep skinning consistent.
Shared skeletons

Shared-skeleton detection is based on currently loaded Skeletal Meshes. Duplicate Asset mode is recommended when a skeleton is broadly shared.

Pivot Groups

Create an editable group pivot without moving members.

A group uses an empty root actor at the pivot position. Members are attached with KeepWorldTransform and organized under the PivotBaker/ Outliner folder.

Pivot sources

  • BBox Center
  • From Actor
  • World (0,0,0)
  • Custom XYZ

Preview Group Pivot places a preview indicator and sets the editor pivot before the group is created.

Existing groups

You can add the current selection, remove members, rename a group and move its pivot to the current offset while preserving member world transforms.

Group roots are tagged PivotBakerGroup.

Pivot Groups workflow 1Pivot Groups workflow 2Pivot Groups workflow 3
Troubleshooting

Common issues

Bake button is disabled

Make sure the selection is valid and the offset is not zero.

The mesh did not appear to move after baking

Existing placed instances may have been compensated. Place a new instance to confirm the baked pivot.

Skeletal animations were not updated

Only AnimSequence assets using the same skeleton and containing a root bone track are patched.

A group is missing from Existing Groups

Only actors tagged PivotBakerGroup in the current editor world are listed.

Safety

Use source control and verify results.

The plugin can modify, rebuild, duplicate or re-save assets. Before production use:

  1. Maintain backups or source control.
  2. Test on duplicated assets or a project copy.
  3. Verify the result before committing changes.