assetkit-blender

Blender add-on for importing and exporting 3D assets through AssetKit

👉 Blender 5 removed the built-in COLLADA/DAE importer and exporter. AssetKit-Blender brings DAE support back to current Blender releases, while also adding a fast, native path for other formats like glTF/GLB, OBJ, STL, PLY, and 3MF import/export.

Formats

• glTF / GLB (2.0+)
• COLLADA DAE (1.4+, 1.5.0+)
• 3MF
• OBJ
• STL
• PLY (including Gaussian splat import)
• SPZ (import)
• L-GSC (standalone .lgsc and glTF/GLB import)

Gaussian SPZ, L-GSC, PLY and glTF import preserves scale, rotation, opacity and spherical harmonics as PointCloud attributes. Blender builds with the native Gaussian splat type use it directly; other builds have an optional GPU preview in Solid shading. It draws oriented, transparent splats with view-dependent SH color, without creating meshes. See Gaussian preview for controls and the distinction from F12 rendering. SPZ uses the optional assetkit_spz decoder bundled with the native bridge. L-GSC uses AssetKit’s built-in C decoder.

Geometry Nodes

In the Geometry Nodes editor, use Add > AssetKit for file sources, existing objects, point cropping and splat opacity. File sources output the selected scene’s geometry as instances; an optional node path selects a subtree. The file source is also in Add > Input > Import > AssetKit File / Sequence.

Numbered file sequences follow the Blender timeline and share a memory-budgeted cache. Helpers are created only when added; ordinary import does not enable them. No custom Blender build is needed. See Geometry Nodes for selection, sequence and cache settings.

Install to Blender

After a release a tag e.g. v0.1.0, GitHub Actions builds package for multiple platforms then attaches the generated platform zip files to the GitHub Release for that tag automatically.

1. Download the zip for your platform from: https://github.com/recp/assetkit-blender/releases/latest

2. In Blender, install it with: Edit > Preferences > Add-ons > Install from Disk

3. Enable the add-on.

4. Follow repo to get/report bugfixes and get new features asap

Benchmarks

Here are local benchmark results from an M1 Max MacBook Pro, measured with tools/benchmark_review_imports.sh.

DAE Blender builtin results are measured with Blender 4.5.10 LTS because Blender 5.x no longer includes the COLLADA importer. Other Blender builtin results are measured with Blender 5.2.0 LTS.

File	AssetKit + Blender native bridge	AssetKit-Blender (Total)	Blender	Blender / AssetKit Blender
BrainStem.dae	27.9 ms	52.2 ms	6294.3 ms	120.50x
Duck.dae	0.7 ms	1.6 ms	5.8 ms	3.58x
GearboxAssy.dae	21.9 ms	44.4 ms	230.2 ms	5.19x
NodePerformanceTest.glb	119.6 ms	12080.7 ms	216220.8 ms	17.90x
BoomBox.glb	0.3 ms	2.0 ms	13.0 ms	6.48x
DamagedHelmet.glb	0.3 ms	2.3 ms	29.9 ms	13.05x
WaterBottle.glb	0.3 ms	1.9 ms	10.6 ms	5.70x
ABeautifulGame.glb	12.0 ms	46.3 ms	828.7 ms	17.89x
AntiqueCamera.glb	0.4 ms	3.0 ms	45.6 ms	15.41x
MosquitoInAmber.glb	0.5 ms	3.4 ms	44.8 ms	13.09x
xyzrgb_dragon.obj	17.8 ms	23.6 ms	61.1 ms	2.59x
dragon_vrip.ply	26.3 ms	47.5 ms	122.3 ms	2.58x
3DBenchy.stl	3.5 ms	8.6 ms	31.5 ms	3.67x
…

The script uses AssetKit shading mode AS_IS and texture loading IMMEDIATE.

Reproducing the Benchmarks

Run the review benchmark script:

tools/benchmark_review_imports.sh

The script downloads the benchmark assets into the ignored benchmark-assets/ cache and writes JSONL results plus a Markdown table to benchmark-results/.

By default it uses:

• Blender 5.2.0 LTS for glTF, OBJ, PLY, and STL comparisons
• Blender 4.5.10 LTS for DAE builtin COLLADA comparisons
• AssetKit shading mode AS_IS
• AssetKit texture loading IMMEDIATE

---

Build

Build AssetKit, then build the native Blender bridge with Blender’s Python:

cmake -S deps/assetkit -B deps/assetkit/build -DAK_SHARED=ON
cmake --build deps/assetkit/build
cmake -S . -B build -DASSETKIT_ROOT=deps/assetkit -DPython3_EXECUTABLE=/path/to/blender/python
cmake --build build

The bridge is written to src/assetkit_blender/ as _assetkit_blender.*. If it is not present, the add-on can still use the configured AssetKit shared library through ctypes.

Production package

Build and validate a Blender Extensions package zip with one command:

python3 tools/release_extension.py --blender /path/to/blender

To include Blender 4.5/5.0 support in the same platform package, add Python 3.11:

python3 tools/release_extension.py --blender /path/to/blender --extra-python python3.11

The zip is written to dist/.

For repeat packaging after the native bridge is already built:

python3 tools/package_extension.py --blender /path/to/blender --platform auto

The release script stages the extension so blender_manifest.toml and __init__.py are at the zip root. Native bridge binaries and optional AssetKit decoder libraries are packaged as platform wheels under wheels/.

Release assets

Pushing a tag such as v0.1.0 runs the package matrix on GitHub Actions and attaches the platform zip files to the GitHub Release for that tag automatically.