<cat>Dev.Model</cat> <title>ModelDoc FAQ & best practices</title> # Frequently asked questions ⤶ ### > Can you import/port MDL/FBX/SMD/Models with X? ⤶ ## > Can you import/port MDL/FBX/SMD/Models with X? Yes you can, ModelDoc supports: * Valve's own formats: DMX (should be version 22?), and SMD (technically deprecated, but usable) * Typical 3D formats: FBX, OBJ, VOX * Source 1 and GoldSrc MDL ModelDoc doesn't support: * Multiple actions/animations per file automatically (you can however use the same FBX file as the source of more than one animation, and trim the frame ranges accordingly; this is done with the Citizen's shotgun reload) * Vertices with more than 4 weight influences (weights will automatically get culled, which isn't ideal; best to plan for it from the start) ⤶ ## > How do I decompile a compiled model (VMDL_C)?⤶ There is no good way right now, you can open the asset in view-only mode and export only the mesh, or use [Valve Resource Format](https://github.com/SteamDatabase/ValveResourceFormat/releases) to also export animations, though they will need some clean-up.⤶ #Best practices * When working with others, or when distributing your source files, your FBX files should be binary, and not ASCII. This is because Blender users can only import binary FBX files. * Keep the download size of your addon in mind. Compress your files and masks up to the point that's needed. Your character model shouldn't be 300 MiB on its own. See the Material Editor category on this wiki for more information.⤶ * Keep the download size of your addon in mind. Compress your files and masks up to the point that's needed. Your character model shouldn't be 300 MiB on its own. See the Material Editor category on this wiki for more information.⤶ ⤶ * If your model has multiple materials, name them accordingly; If a material has a period in its name everything after it will get omitted, resulting in multiple materials of the same name, which gets collapsed into only one when imported *(example: Blender naming materials .001, .002, etc. when using the same names)*