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LD Assistant 2 LD Assistant 2

LD Assistant 2

Documentation, guides, and technical support for LD Assistant 2 in Unreal Engine.

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Overview

Actor tools & Utilities:

  • Linear, Grid, Around, Spline & Scatter duplication with live previews!
  • Dynamic duplication with smart location and rotation (snap to ground/terrain)
  • Place and focus around a reference actor
  • Apply customizable random transforms to your selection
  • Add in-level WIP notes
  • Advanced selection & rename features, outliner auto-organization, static mesh swapper
  • Distribute assets in 3D space, align along axes, uniform/random rotation

Asset Batch & Automation:

  • Smart rename assets in content browser with auto-prefixes and batch duplication
  • Clean unused assets and empty folders
  • One-click material creator with auto channel packing support
  • Custom editor shortcuts and outliner selection lock

Launch the LD Assistant

If you don’t see the toolbar icon be sure to have the plugin enabled in Edit > Plugins > Installed

Once enabled, launch the LD Assistant directly from your Unreal Engine editor toolbar to access all level design tools.

Layout Tips

Editor Layout & Workflow Tips

Right-click on the tab to hide the title or dock the tab into the Unreal Engine Sidebar system.
Enable 'compact mode' for shortcuts in plugin settings.
To toggle the outliner column, right-click any column header and toggle 'Selection Lock'.

Duplication Modes

Linear Duplication:

  1. Select actor(s) to duplicate
  2. Enable preview, set offset and quantity
  3. Click Duplicate

Grid Creator:

  1. Select actor(s)
  2. Configure X/Y offset and grid count
  3. Click Create Grid

Duplicate Around:

  1. Select center actor, then select actors to duplicate around it
  2. Configure radius, rings, and angle
  3. Click Duplicate

Duplicate Along Spline:

  1. Select actor(s) and click Create Spline
  2. Adjust spline points, set count, and click Duplicate

Scatter Duplicate:

  1. Select actor(s), choose shape, size, offset, and random seed
  2. Click Duplicate

Smart Location & Rotation

Smart Location: Uses a vertical line trace above actors to dynamically follow terrain slopes during duplication. Z offset and trace length can be adjusted in settings.

**Smart Rotation**: Evaluates surface impact normals to rotate duplicated actors so they naturally conform to ground slope angles.


**Live Preview**: Real-time bounding box and static mesh wireframe previews ensure precise placement before finalizing duplication.

Duplicate as Instanced Static Mesh (ISM)

Batching as Instanced Static Meshes: After duplication, LDA2 can automatically convert static meshes into Instanced Static Meshes (ISM).

Instanced meshes share draw calls and significantly reduce rendering overhead for dense foliage, architectural props, and repetitive set pieces.

LDA2 utilizes Unreal Engine’s native Merge Actor framework with customizable cluster parameters.

Edit Actor Tools

Reference Actor Placement:

  • Pick a reference actor (first selected actor becomes the pivot).
  • Place selection around the reference actor with a custom radius.
  • Set focus to make selected actors orient toward the reference target.

Randomize Transform:

  • Select actors and specify variance ranges for Rotation, Scale, and Location offset (X/Y/Z).
  • Click Randomize Transform for natural variety in scatter props.

Level Design Utilities

  • Selection Tool: Select an actor and instantly match all similar actors by class, tag, or name.
    • Batch Rename: Bulk rename actors with sequential numbering and customizable prefixes.
    • Outliner Organizer: Group level actors automatically into organized folders with a single click.
    • Static Mesh Swapper: Swap out mesh assets across the entire level while preserving transforms.
    • Scale & Measure: Place measurement gizmos or spawn human skeleton references to gauge scale.
    • Scene Statistics: Instant triangle budget and static mesh counts for the active selection.

In-Level Notes System

Attach WIP Notes to Scene Actors:

  1. Select an actor and click Add new note to this actor (creates a BP_Note child actor).
  2. Type your note text, customize text color/size, and click Update Note.
  3. Re-target notes to different actors anytime using Set as target actor.
  4. If notes drift during object transform changes, click Refresh all notes.

Viewport Transformation Tools

Viewport Transformation Utilities

Rotate actors locally by exact increments or apply randomized rotation across chosen axes.
Distribute actors uniformly along X, Y, Z, or 3D axes between the first and last selected actor.
Align actor pivots along X, Y, or Z based on the average center of your selection.

Content Browser Asset Tools & Batching

Batch Rename & Prefix Map:

  1. Select assets inside the Content Browser.
  2. Configure naming rules and auto-increment numbers.
  3. Click Add Prefixes to automatically apply standardized engine prefixes (e.g. BP_, SM_, M_, T_).

Quick Material Creator

  1. Import textures following standard naming conventions.
  2. Open Quick Material Creator and select your texture set.
  3. LDA2 automatically parses maps and constructs the master material and material instance.

Channel Packing (ARM): If texture filenames include arm, LDA2 automatically routes:

  • Red: Ambient Occlusion
  • Green: Roughness
  • Blue: Metallic

Custom Editor Shortcuts

Configure custom hotkeys and commands directly in plugin settings:

  • Windows & Tabs: OpenOutputLog, OpenLightEnvMixer, OpenPlaceActor, Viewports (1-4), Details (1-4), Outliner (1-4), StatsViewer, MergeActors
  • Functions: RestartEditor, OpenMarketplace, ConsoleCommand, OpenSettings, OpenIDE, OpenURL, OpenEUW, OpenLVL

Scripted Asset Actions & Project Cleaner

Scripted Asset Actions: Select assets in the Content Browser, right-click > Scripted Asset Actions > LDA2 to run batch operations.

Project Cleaner: Clean directory trees, resolve redirectors, and purge orphaned references safely.

Selection Lock System

Freeze and unfreeze actors in your viewport to prevent accidental selection during box-selection (Alt + Ctrl + Drag).

Locking methods:

  • Click the lock icon in the dedicated Outliner column
  • Use custom hotkey binding from Editor Preferences
  • Right-click actor > Lock selection actor

Plugin Configuration & Smart Trace Settings

If the smart settings results isn’t behaving the way you want to, tweak the plugin settings until it suits your use case.

  • Prefix Map: Map native C++ or Blueprint classes to custom prefixes.
  • Smart location: By default a line trace is created above the actor, but if your actor is very large you might want to use a box trace based on the actor bounds.
  • Prevent smart duplication: If the line trace hits an actor with a tag LDA2NoDupli (can be changed in the plugin settings), LDA2 can skip the duplication above this actor.
  • Smart rotation: Based on the bound size multiplier, 4 line traces are created above the actor. Depending on your use case:
    • Normal based: The smart rotation will be based on the average impact normal to create a rotation (so if every surface is horizontal/flat, the average normal is horizontal/flat).
    • Location based: Creates a rotation based on a plane rotation created from the 4 impact points.

Hotkey Reference

Reference
LD Assistant 2 default hotkey mappings