This guide walks you through optimizing your GLB model, covering both the scene cleanup you’ll perform in Blender and the command-line steps you’ll run afterward.
1. Scene Cleanup in Blender
Before exporting, clean up your scene to reduce complexity and prepare the model for compression.
1.1 Geometry Cleanup
Remove unnecessary vertices from your model, paying particular attention to:
- Flat surfaces, where extra geometric detail adds no visible benefit
- Areas not visible to the customer in the configurator (e.g., internal or hidden faces)
Reducing vertex count in these areas lowers your overall polygon count without affecting the visual quality of the parts customers actually see and interact with.
1.2 Mesh and Material Organization
Separate and organize your meshes according to their materials. To do this:
- Group geometry so that each mesh corresponds to a single material where possible
- Create individual materials for each texture, rather than sharing one material across multiple texture sets
This organization makes your model easier to manage in the plugin’s editor and helps you avoid material conflicts that can occur when multiple textures are mapped to a single shared material.
1.3 UV Mapping
Create and adjust your UV maps so they properly align with your existing baked textures. This ensures textures display correctly on your geometry after you’ve reorganized meshes and materials as described above.
1.4 Texture Resizing
Resize all textures directly within Blender to 1024×1024. Doing this before export keeps your working files manageable and ensures your exported GLB doesn’t carry oversized texture data that you’d otherwise need to correct later.
1.5 Base Color Channel Adjustment
Remove the texture from the Base Color channel on relevant materials. This step is necessary if you want solid colors to apply correctly through the configurator — if a texture remains assigned to the Base Color slot, it can override or interfere with solid-color swaps applied by the plugin.
2. Command-Line Optimization
After exporting from Blender, process your model using gltf-transform. Follow the steps below.
2.1 Run the WebP Conversion
gltf-transform webp resized.glb output.glbThis is the command you should rely on for texture optimization. It converts your model’s textures to WebP format, reducing overall file size while preserving texture quality.
2.2 Set Your Blender Export Settings
When exporting from Blender, leave the Compression option (Draco) unchecked, per the existing guide. This setting alone is sufficient — you don’t need an additional compression step at the Blender export stage. Leaving Compression disabled here is what allows the downstream compression to be applied correctly.
2.3 Avoid This Command
gltf-transform meshoptDo not run this command. It currently produces a “Failed to load model” error when tested in the plugin.
What to do instead: Skip gltf-transform meshopt entirely. Rely on your Blender export settings (Compression disabled) combined with the gltf-transform webp command above to produce a working, optimized file.
3. Quick Reference
| Step | What You Do | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Blender – Geometry | Remove unnecessary vertices on flat/hidden surfaces | Reduced polygon count |
| Blender – Materials | Separate meshes by material; create individual materials per texture | Cleaner material structure |
| Blender – UVs | Adjust UV maps to fit baked textures | Correct texture alignment |
| Blender – Textures | Resize all textures to 1024×1024 | Smaller texture footprint |
| Blender – Base Color | Remove texture from Base Color channel | Solid colors apply correctly |
| Blender – Export | Leave Compression (Draco) unchecked | Enables downstream compression |
| CLI | Run gltf-transform webp | Textures converted to WebP; file size reduced |
| CLI | Skip gltf-transform meshopt | ❌ Avoids “Failed to load model” error |
4. Recommended Workflow
Follow these steps in order:
- Complete all Blender-side cleanup: remove excess geometry, organize meshes by material, adjust UV maps, resize textures, and update the Base Color channel as needed.
- Export from Blender with the Compression (Draco) option unchecked.
- Run
gltf-transform webpon your exported file. - Do not run
gltf-transform meshopt. - Test the resulting file in the plugin to confirm it loads correctly before submitting.