Centralized Asset Browser

With Dash's Content Browser, you can tag all your assets, making them easy to find and also create a Centralized Asset Browser. Meaning that you can access all your UE5 assets from any Unreal project.

Tip: If you want more information about the Dash Content Browser, you can check this page for full details: Content Browser Basics

Part 1: Tagging Your Assets - Making Them Searchable

Why would you use Dash to browse your local content, when UE's content browser is right there? Because, Dash makes it more convenient to sift through your content by using AI to tag all your content, making it easy to sift through, no matter how good or bad the naming convention might be.

Tagging your assets is super easy, and below you will learn how:

1. Open the Content Browser from the Content icon in the Dash bar. Then use the Library dropdown in the top right of the Content Browser to switch to the Project Library tab. This will bring you here where you will see a folder hierarchy on the left which corresponds to the one you have in the UE content browser, and the count on each is the number of static meshes available in the folders. To be clear, the assets you can see here are the assets in your Content folder, i.e. the assets you have added to this current project.

1. If you click on a folder, a button will show up suggesting you to compute the assets in the folder, and use AI to tag them. Running a computing process means you will get access to these assets directly through the Dash Content Browser. You can select any of the folders, including the main Content folder, but if you have a lot of assets, it is better to compute one sub-folder at a time.

1. We only compute static meshes and blueprints by default, though you can also compute materials. To do it, locate the specific folder that contains your materials in Dash's Content Browser folder view, then right-click on the folder, and select Include Materials. An icon will show up to indicate that the folder will now have its materials computed. From Dash 1.9.0 and onwards we do compute materials by default as well. But you can right click on an folder and exclude them

1. You can enable or disable AI tagging by using the checkmark on the compute button. This is relevant since the tagging process is financially costly for us which means there is a monthly limit on the Dash licenses, controlling how many assets one can AI tag per month. The good thing is though, that even if you compute your asset folders with AI Tags or not, you are on your way to setting up your Centralized Asset Browser experience in Unreal Engine.

Part 2: Centralized Asset Browser

Once you have computed some assets in Project 1 (we call it Project 1 as an example), you will automatically be able to browse, search, and use these assets in all your other Unreal Projects without first importing them to these projects.

In Project 2 (or any other project), open the Content Browser and in the Library Dropdown in the top right, you will now see Project 1. Opening this tab will show you all the assets you computed in Project 1. And now you can browse, search, and use these assets however you like! Once you use an asset in Project 2, we handle the import process from Project 1 to Project 2 in the backend for you.

If you don't see the view for Project 1 or any other UE project where you have computed assets, you need to link the paths. --> In the Project Library tab within the Content Browser, open the menu on the right and select Manage Project Libraries. You'll be shown the preferences window, and in there you can add the path of Project 1, or any other UE projects where you have computed assets. Manually or automatically with a search button.

UE5 is forward compatible, but not backward. In the case of browsing external content, this means that if your current project is in UE5.3, you'll be able to access the content of all versions below it, but not above it.

Pro Tips:

1. If you add all your assets to one single UE project, perhaps named Asset_Library_Project and then compute all the assets in this project. You have just created a Centralized Asset Experience for yourself. As now in any other UE projects, you no longer need to import a bunch of asset folders and bloat your projects. You only have to search among all your assets through the Dash Content Browser and use your preferred ones while we handle the import process in the backend for just these actually used assets.

2. If you want even more structure, another way of going about this is creating separate UE projects based on asset themes. For example forest_assets_project, city_assets_project and indoor_assets_project. Then you can add the relevant assets to each project, and compute the assets in each. Now in your other Unreal projects, you will instead have separate tabs in Dash's Content Browser, perhaps making it feel more organized as you can choose to only search or browse through the forest assets without seeing the city assets. If the amount of tabs becomes too many, you can open the Dash preferences and uncheck certain projects, to not have these assets visible in the Content Browser.

3. If you are a studio that wants a Shared Centralized Asset Browser/Experience, you only need to make sure the UE asset projects where you have computed the assets are shared among your team and also that the caches where we store the compute/tagging information are shared among your team. In the Dash preferences you can choose your custom cache path, just change the "Metadata Path" to any local or cloud location. From Dash 1.9.0, the default metadata path is directly within your Unreal project, so then you don't have to worry about sharing the metadata cache, it is always included when you share the Unreal projects.

FAQ

How do I show the asset names?

If you click on the Content Browser's menu (dots icon, top right corner of the content browser), there's an option to view asset names.

Can I view the asset's details before importing it?

Yes, if you click on the Content Browser's menu (dots icon, top right corner of the content browser), there's an option to view asset details. Once it's enabled, selecting any given asset will show the you following properties about it:

• Texture resolution.

• Triangle count.

• Asset scale. This is represented by a square with a character for reference, and hovering over that scale will display the width x height x depth scale.

Can I make the thumbnails bigger?

Yes, hold CTRL with your mouse over the Content Browser's view, then use the scroll wheel to scale the thumbnails up or down.

Can I view the triangle count of an asset before importing it?

Yes, if you click on the Content Browser's menu (dots icon, top right corner of the content browser), there's an option to view asset details, which will ensure that the triangle count of that asset is visible when you click on it.

How to use the Favorites feature?

On hover, every asset will show you a star icon to set or unset an asset as favorite. Once you have some assets that are set as favorite, a star icon will show up on the right corner of the Content Browser's search bar. Click on it, and all your favorite assets will show up at the top.

Can I edit an asset's tags?

Yes, right-click on the asset, then select Asset Details, or double click on an asset and a panel will open up, showing all the asset's details, including a list of tags it has.

You can then start typing in tags, then hitting enter to register them, or hover over them, and double-click on the X icon to the right of each tag to delete it. Once you're happy with your changes, hit the Save button at the bottom left.

Can I add or remove tags to multiple assets at once?

Yes. Use SHIFT+Click to select multiple assets, right-click on any of them, then select Batch Tag Edit. This will open up a panel in which all the tags of all the assets are visible, and any new tag you add will get added to all of them. Any tag you remove will also get removed from all of them. Once you're happy with your changes, hit the Save button at the bottom left.

I can't seem to get the CTRL + Drop right to scatter from the Content Browser

Click (or SHIFT+Click for multiple objects) on an asset, then start dragging it onto the viewport. You'll notice the Content Browser will shrink in size to give your viewport more space. Before releasing the left-mouse button, hold CTRL, then release. And you should see a menu pop up with a couple of options, including one to scatter.

Do I need the Content Browser to scatter assets?

No. Dash's Content Browser is a highly convenient way of managing your content, but all our scatter tools work without it, too. We briefly cover the scatter workflow right here.

How to scatter along a curve when drag & dropping from the Content Browser?

Select the curve in the viewport, and with your asset selected, hold CTRL and drag and drop the asset onto the viewport. In the popup menu, pick Scatter on Selection.