Universal Bridge: Marmoset — Documentation

Blender 3.3–5.2 · Marmoset Toolbag · Windows

A bridge from Blender to Marmoset Toolbag for baking and look-dev. Tag your high- and low-poly meshes, and the bridge exports the FBX, writes a version-tolerant bake script and opens a ready baking scene in Toolbag — with the baker already configured. It reuses a running Toolbag (and launches the exact version you pick), and can pull the finished maps back onto your Blender mesh as a Principled material. Nothing needs installing on the Marmoset side.

Requirements - please read before buying

• Windows only. The add-on detects and launches Marmoset Toolbag through Windows paths and processes. macOS and Linux are not supported.
• Blender 3.3 - 5.2 - Extension on 4.2+, classic add-on on 3.3-4.1.
• Marmoset Toolbag is required and sold separately. You need your own licensed copy from Marmoset. No Marmoset Toolbag licence is included with this product - it is the Blender-side bridge only, and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or a reseller of Marmoset.
• skipped rather than failing the bake.
• Network: none. Blender and Marmoset Toolbag exchange files on your own machine - the add-on opens no network connection.

Installation

Blender 4.2+ (Extension): Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ drop-down ▸ *Install from Disk…* → pick universal_bridge_marmoset-x.x.x-blender4.2-5.2.zip, then enable it. Blender 3.3–4.1: Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ *Install…* → pick universal_bridge_marmoset-x.x.x-blender3.3-4.1.zip.

The panel is in the 3D Viewport sidebar (press N) under the Universal Bridge tab, in the Marmoset section. Open the add-on preferences and check the Toolbag version dropdown — it lists the installs found on this machine; pick one, or set toolbag.exe by hand for a custom location.

Getting started

1. Select your low-poly and click Mark as Low; select the high-poly and click

Mark as High. Matching base names pair into one baker group.

1. In the Maps group, tick the maps you want and set the resolution / format

in Output.

1. Click Create Bake Scene in Marmoset. The FBX, bake script and (if you turn

on Bake Immediately) the baked maps land in the bake folder.

1. Back in Blender, select the low-poly and click Import Baked Maps to build a

material from the results.

Poly roles (High / Low)

• Mark as High / Mark as Low — tag the selected meshes and rename them

with _high / _low. The header and the Poly group show the current count.

• Untagged meshes are matched by suffix too (_high/_hi/_h, _low/_lo/_l), so an

already-named set bakes without tagging.

• Clear Role — remove the bake role from the selection.
• Baker groups are formed by base name (suffix stripped), so crate_high and

crate_low bake together.

Output

• Res — 512, 1024, 2048, 4096 or 8192.
• Bits — 8-bit or 16-bit output.
• Samples — 1×, 4× or 16× anti-aliasing.
• Padding — edge padding in pixels (0–64).
• Format — PSD, PNG, TGA or EXR.
• Bake Folder — Browse to a folder, or leave blank for a bakes folder next

to the saved .blend (a temp folder while the file is unsaved). Default restores the blank setting; the folder icon opens it. A relative // path can follow the project when it moves.

• Bake Name — base name for the FBX, script and maps (e.g. T_Bucket →

T_Bucket_normals.png). Blank uses the .blend name. Name From Low-poly fills it from the low-poly mesh with its suffix trimmed.

• Save File — a full path that overrides the folder and name above; the

Format is used when no extension is typed.

Bake Maps

Each map has an on/off toggle and its own options; enabled maps are written into the Toolbag baker:

Every map also has Dither and a Suffix override (blank = Marmoset's default filename suffix).

Modifiers

• Apply (High / Low) — bake modifiers such as subdivision or bevel into each

role on export. Turn a side off to keep, for example, the low-poly cage exactly as modeled.

• When Apply is on, a per-modifier picker lists the active mesh's modifiers with a

checkbox each — only ticked modifiers are baked; All / None set them at once.

Create Bake Scene

Create Bake Scene in Marmoset exports the tagged meshes to FBX, writes a bake script and opens a ready baking scene in Toolbag:

• The script is compatible with Toolbag 3, 4 and 5 — settings a build doesn't

support are skipped instead of failing.

• If Toolbag is already running, the meshes are sent into it with no new window

(via a resident listener registered on Toolbag's periodic-update callback); otherwise the bridge launches the version you picked and keeps it open for reuse.

• Fresh Scene in Marmoset starts a new Toolbag scene rather than adding to the

current one. Bake Immediately runs the bake as soon as the scene is built.

Send Objects

For quick look-dev without a bake, the Send Objects panel imports the selected meshes, empties and armatures into Toolbag (import only):

• Apply Modifiers — bake modifiers into the mesh, or keep them live.
• Send Materials — include materials and embed textures, or strip them.
• Save File — export the sent objects to a specific FBX, or use a temp file.

Import Baked Maps

Import Baked Maps looks in the bake folder (or the Save File's folder) for the maps Toolbag wrote and builds a Principled BSDF material on the active low-poly mesh — base colour, metalness, roughness, normal (through a Normal Map node), height (through Displacement), emission, alpha and AO (multiplied into base colour). Files are matched by filename suffix.

Preferences

• Toolbag — the version dropdown, a Detect Toolbag rescan, the active

install, and a manual Toolbag Executable path for a custom location.

• Bake Output Folder — the same folder setting as the panel.
• Show Marmoset Toolbag Panel — hide the section from the tab if you don't need it.

Shared Universal Bridge tools

Registered once and shared with every other bridge you own, on the same tab: Preflight (scale/rotation, UVs, materials, n-gons, non-manifold) with safe fixes (apply transforms, Smart UV Project), a Naming convention helper (low / high / LOD / UCX / socket), Selection Sets, Send History with re-send, Versioned Files, and a Command Palette with Send Each Collection for batch sends.

Troubleshooting

• Toolbag not found → set or detect the executable in the add-on preferences;

the bridge scans Program Files\Marmoset.

• No high/low meshes → use Mark as High / Mark as Low first, or name

meshes with _high / _low.

• Marmoset needs a low-poly to bake onto → tag at least one low-poly mesh.
• No baked maps found → check the bake folder shown under the Output group, and

that the bake actually ran (turn on Bake Immediately or bake in Toolbag).

• Two versions installed → pick the one you want in the Toolbag dropdown; the

bridge launches exactly that build.

Button icons

The buttons in the bridge panels use a drawn icon set rather than Blender glyphs borrowed from elsewhere. Preferences ▸ Button Icons controls it:

• Brand Colours (default) — each bridge in its own colour.
• Mono — every icon in one accent colour you pick.
• Blender Built-ins — no custom icons at all, exactly as before.

Colour-code Status keeps the link and modifier icons green / amber / red, where the colour is the message; turn it off and they take your accent too. Blender's own glyphs are kept wherever they are already the familiar thing — the trash can, the folder, the warning triangle — so the panels still look like Blender.

Support

Join the Discord: https://discord.gg/SuSqbZMDk5 — include your Blender and Toolbag versions.

Part of the Universal Bridge line. Works on its own, and the free Universal Bridge Manager hub add-on is included with your purchase.

THE INTERFACE

Create Bake Scene

High / Low Tagging

Bake Maps

Output Control

Send to Marmoset

Import Baked Maps

Reuse & Auto-Detect

Universal Bridge Tools