Substance Painter Bridge

Send a mesh to Painter, texture it, and bring the maps back into Blender as connected materials. Keep mesh revisions, texture updates and export settings close to the asset you are working on.

Windows · Blender 3.3–5.2 declared range · Painter required separately

Use a licensed installation of Adobe Substance 3D Painter. Painter 8.2+ is required for the complete baking workflow. No Adobe software or license is included; Tachyon Studio is not affiliated with Adobe.

Send the mesh. Keep the project moving.

Choose your meshes and use Send to Painter to transfer them through FBX. Set the project resolution, normal convention and UV workflow from Blender. The companion plugin connects the project controls in both applications.

After a mesh edit, send again with Reload Mesh in Open Project enabled. Painter reloads the geometry and reprojects the existing layers. Live Push can send revisions automatically; review your painted result after major geometry or UV changes.

Bring the textures back onto the right materials

Get Textures from Painter exports compatible PBR maps and builds or updates Principled materials. In Per Texture Set mode, texture-set names match Blender material names. Keep those names consistent when your asset has several materials.

Live Textures exports after a Painter save; Texture Watch follows changed image files. Use the live folder for iteration and export final maps to a permanent project folder.

Export for the destination you need

Choose separate PBR Metal/Rough maps for Blender, packed ORM and DirectX normals for Unreal, or metallic/smoothness packing for Unity. Export all three into separate folders when you need several deliverables.

The packed Unreal and Unity templates are export workflows. Use separate PBR maps for automatic material return to Blender. Unity smoothness needs an alpha-capable image format such as PNG, TGA or TIFF.

Bake in Painter or reuse the maps you have

Configure the mesh maps, pairing and ray distances, then send the low meshes with their _high meshes and optional _cage meshes. Painter performs the bake with the installed companion plugin.

Already baked elsewhere? Point the bridge at your mesh-map folder and send those resources into Painter. Keep material names and map suffixes recognizable, and save the Painter project after importing them.

Reuse your setup across assets

Work with an existing .spp project or a .spt template. Named presets keep commonly used panel settings ready for the next asset. Check asset-specific paths when changing projects.

Selection sets, send history, preflight checks and versioned exchange files support repeated transfers. Review fixes before applying them to your scene.

Choose brand colors, a single accent or Blender’s built-in icons in the add-on preferences.

Your first round trip

1. Install one compatible bridge ZIP, enable it and choose your Painter executable in preferences.
2. Use Install / Reinstall for the companion, enable tachyon_painter_bridge in Painter’s Python menu and restart Painter.
3. Open the bridge in Blender’s 3D Viewport sidebar, select a UV-mapped mesh and send it.
4. Paint in Painter, then use a separate PBR export and Get Textures to update Blender.

The full documentation covers installation, material mapping, controls, permanent texture paths and troubleshooting. The demonstrations above are edited workflow sequences, not performance benchmarks.

Included and compatible

The bridge download includes the Blender add-on, its Painter companion, Python source, icons, documentation and changelog. Install the package format that matches your Blender version; consult the download and installation section for the currently released filenames.

Windows only. The declared Blender range is 3.3–5.2, with Extension packaging starting at 4.2. Mesh transfer uses FBX; it does not transfer Blender procedural shader graphs. Painter is purchased separately. Preserve your Blender and Painter projects before major edits; Blender Undo does not undo external file writes or Painter saves.

Choose the seats you need

Individual: For 1 person (1 seat). Commercial use included.

Team: For a team of up to 6 people (6 seats). Commercial use included.

Studio: For a studio of up to 20 people (20 seats). Commercial use included. Need more than 20 seats? Contact us directly.

All three options include the same complete features and downloads. The software is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later. For help, use Superhive messaging or the Tachyon Discord.

MORE BY TACHYON STUDIO

Build out your workflow.

Rizom Uv Bridge

Unwrap and pack UVs in RizomUV, then bring them back to Blender.

Marmoset Toolbag Bridge

Move high and low meshes into Toolbag for baking and bring the maps back.

Optional products, sold separately. External applications are not included.