Launching Project Asset Manager
After importing Project Asset Manager there are a few things you may need to do to get started. The most basic feature (browsing downloaded packages) is available without any configuration at all. The first time you open Project Asset Manager it will automatically find any package you have already downloaded from the Asset Store. To open the tool click on Tools->Asset Manager
Importing Packages
There are two ways to import packages: quick import and interactive import. Interactive import behaves the same way importing an asset directly from a file or via the package manager works. The import dialog will pop up allowing you to choose what files from the package you want to import. Quick import skips the interactive dialog and imports all files from selected packages. This is a great way to import multiple packages at once when starting a new project. When you are ready to import packages, select the packages you want and hit the quick import button.
Adding Downloaded Packages
One of the primary goals of Project Asset Manager is to help you manage your packages that you may have purchased outside the Unity Asset Store alongside your Asset Store purchases. Out of the box UAM only shows assets that you have downloaded from the Asset Store. To include your local packages you need to add asset search paths On the Packages tab, click the cog button. This will bring you to settings for Packages. Here you can see where your Unity Asset Store packages are stored. Additionally there is a button to add new search paths. Click the add button and find any directory you may have downloaded assets to. I generally keep assets from external sources like CGTrader and the Synty Store in a directory in Dropbox for easy access.
Adding Advanced Features
Out of the box only a subset of Project Asset Manager’s features are turned on. The ones that are generally easiest to understand and use. There are additional more advanced or beta features available for you to try. As of now the modules available are:
- Audio – Manages audio files allowing you to preview files that you have stored on disk before adding them to your project.
- Credits Editor – Uses PAM’s installed asset tracking feature to provide you a list of assets you have installed with the option to format that list however you please
- Symlinks – An advanced feature for symlinking directories into your project
- Essentials- A tool to autoimport your favorite packages that you use with every project automatically when you import PAM.
- Packages – The main package browsing feature (on by default)
- Package Manager – A tool to provide a list of packages from disk without having to import each package individually via Unity’s import disk package
- Git – Provides a tool to import git repositories directly into your project and displays some basic git status info in Project views.
