Substance3DInBlender doesn't work properly

[mutanzom]

Hi, I recently downloaded the Substance 3D add-on for Blender in Substance 3D add-on for Blender - Adobe Substance 3D along with the integration tool (version 2.1.1). After installing the add-on in Blender 4.3.0, the installation process went smoothly. I set up the integration tool via the add-on's preferences and configured my settings.

Next, I opened the Shader Editor, accessed the "N" panel, and pressed the "Load" button provided by the add-on. At the bottom of Blender, I received the message:
"Substance 3D in Blender: SRE Initialized successfully in [2.171] seconds."
However, no file browser appeared for me to select an SBSAR file.

I then tried using the add-on in Blender versions 4.2.3, 4.0.2, and 3.6.0, but the same issue occurred in all of them.

Could you help me understand what might be causing this issue?

[Cyril Dellenbach]

Hi @mutanzom,

Thank you for the message.

Considering Blender Add-on latest update was a year ago, I suppose it hasn't been updated for our latest engine. I'm going to move this thread to "Substance Plugins", so they can help us with this issue.

Regards,

[Aldo_3D]

Hi @mutanzom , the Blender addon is not currently compatible with Blender 4.3, but we we do have a compatible build in development. We are just starting the build and release process for it. We will share an update on this community board when the addon is released. My soft estimate is about a week if there aren't any hiccups in the process. Stay tuned.

If you need to work on anything with the addon urgently, please use Blender 4.2 in the meantime, as the addon is compatible with that version.

Best,
Aldo

[mutanzom]

Thanks for the information about the new update.

About using Blender 4.2, I've already stated that I get the same result with total of 4 different versions of Blender, including 4.2. This leads me to think that there is an another problem and I'm unsure if it's on my end.

[Aldo_3D]

Interesting, there are a few things that we can try. First is manually removing the integration tools. Most of the time this kind of problem is due to a problem with the tools install, because it is not shutting down properly or there is some kind of caching issue. Try to remove the Substance3DIntegrationTools folder from the following directory

• Windows: C:\Users\(username)\AppData\Roaming\Adobe
• Mac: /Users/(username)/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Substance3DIntegrationTools
• Linux: /home/(username)/Adobe/Substance3DIntegrationTools

Then restart Blender and reinstall the integration tools via the add-on preferences menu.

If the issue persists, you can open the system console to diagnose the issue further. To do that, start Blender using the instructions here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/command_line/launch/index.html
Or if you are on Windows, simply start Blender and go to Window > Toggle System Console.
Then when you encounter the error, please share the output of the system console here.

Best,
Aldo

[mutanzom]

I have reinstalled the integration tools but the same issue persists.
Below is the system console's output on Blender 4.2
Substance 3D in Blender: INFO - Plugin initialization...
process - Alias not found.
Substance 3D in Blender: INFO - Toolkit Initialized...
Substance 3D in Blender: INFO - [Code_Response.server_already_running] Server already running...
process - Alias not found.
process - Alias not found.
Substance 3D in Blender: ERROR - [(<Code_Response.toolkit_not_running: 2>, None)] The SRE cannot initialize...
Info: Substance 3D in Blender: SRE Initialized sucessfully in [2.223] seconds

[Aldo_3D]

Interesting, the "Alias not found" error is a new one for me. Have you by any chance renamed your Blender executable? And are you working on Mac?

The "Server already running" issue may also be due to the remote engine not closing completely. When Blender is fully closed,  can you check task manager for a "substance_remote_engine" process that might be runnning? If one exists, please terminate it and try again.

[mutanzom]

Nope, I didn't rename the executable, and I'm on Windows 10.

After pressing the "Load" button and closing blender, I see the "substance_remote_engine" process is still running. I terminated it like you said and tried again but nothing happened. Also "substance_remote_engine" is not running while the Blender is opened and even after pressing "Load" button, it only starts to run when Blender is closed. I don't know if it's suppose to work like that so just saying.

[Aldo_3D]

Got it, it definetly should not be running when Blender is closed and it should be starting after using the load button. You can try to froce sart it when Blender opens by opening the add-on preferences and enabling "Automatically start the Substance Remote Engine". So start with Blender fully closed and verify that remote engine is terminated. Then open Blender with that setting enabled and check to see that the process did start as intended. If it did, try loading a material again to see if it still prints and error.

[mutanzom]

I enabled the auto start, and it starts it as intented but it still gives the same console output as before, and doesn't close the engine after closing Blender. I tried it on an another PC and I literally have the same problem and the same console output.

[Aldo_3D]

Hello, I did some further digging on this since it is not an error printed from our addon. On Windows 10, this usually type of issue is usually related to Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI or WMIC) if your Windows configuration did not have this set up properly. And I believe this might be the case since you mentioned it occurred on on 4 other installs on your computer. I'd recommend trying to follow the troubleshooting steps here to start: https://www.thewindowsclub.com/wmic-is-not-recognized-as-an-internal-or-external-command. You may also need to repair the WMI repository, but be cautious if you are not familiar with running commands in CMD. If none of that works, it may require further Windows 10 troubleshooting.

[mutanzom]

I installed the WMIC and now everything works as intended, thank you.

[ChristianLL]

I'm also having issues in Blender 4.2 and 4.3. The add on installs just fine, seemingly. But when I load a material in, it gives me an error "Substance 3D in Blender: An error ocurred while setting the material [material name]. [0.007] seconds". And the material just renders flat black. It took me embarrasingly long to check the node editor to realise it's creating the shader nodes, but not connecting them.

4.2 seems to just fail connecting the nodes.

4.3 fails to connect nodes, but also isn't setting any inputs or outputs on the texture group.

[Aldo_3D]

Hi @ChristianLL , sorry to hear about the issue. It's odd that the nodes just won't connect. Lets try looking for more info. Can you please repeat the process with the System console open and show us the readout when you get the error? That will give us more details than just the single status line.

As mentioned above, you can start Blender using the instructions here: https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/advanced/command_line/launch/index.html
Or if you are on Windows, simply start Blender and go to Window > Toggle System Console.

Additionally, does this happen with every material you try or is it limited to a specific .sbsar?

[ChristianLL]

Hi Aldo_3D, thanks for the response. Here's a screenshot of the console when opening and then trying to load in a .sbsar.

This happens on every .sbsar, including ones I make myself and ones downloaded from the Adobe Substance Assets library.

If it makes a difference my system specs:
AMD Ryzen 7 7700

Nvidia RTX 4070 Super

Windows 11 Pro

Thanks for your help!

[ChristianLL]

I should add that I then tried loading a second material, hence the last three lines in the console screenshot. Both materials in the materials list in the add on UI were hanging with '(rendering...)' appended to the names.

[ChristianLL]

Okay, things are a bit confusing. Here's a screen recording of my actions and the results (which actually differ from my first screenshot).

The project you're view is getting urgent, and I'll be depending heavily on Substance materials. Let me know if there's anything else I can provide.

[Aldo_3D]

Hi @ChristianLL , based on the first screenshot it looks like you are using Blender 4.3, which is not compatible with the current version of the plugin. We do have a fix coming out soon. The video is a bit blurry, but it looks like it might be Blender 4.3.2. For now can you please share the results when trying this in Blender 4.2?

[ChristianLL]

Oops! You're right, I've been using 4.3.

I just went to redo the screen recording in 4.2, but I was getting really really strange errors in the console, so I uninstalled and reinstalled the entire Substance add on before recording, and that actually fixed all my issues! It's working for me now in Blender 4.2.

Sorry for the messing around, and thank you for your time Aldo_3D.

[Aldo_3D]

Glad to hear that switching down to 4.2 fixed it for you! For future reference, you may see errors when uninstalling and reinstalling the addon in the same session due to how Blender caches files. A quick restart should fix it. Always happy to help!

[Bret5CFA · Accepted solution]

My Solution for Substance for Blender not working in 4.3.1 was as following.
I installed Adobe Substance 3d add-on for Blender version 2.2.0 and Substance 3D intergration tools 2.1.1.
The plugin showed in the tabs on the right hand side, but when I clicked on "load" it would just turn blue and nothing would happen apart from a message the bottom "SRE Intialized Sucessfully in 2.309 seconds"
Neither did any of the shortcuts.
I click on load again with the system console open and noticed the error message

"wmic is not recognized as an internal or external command"
Apparently windows 11 no longer installs WMIC as default and it has to me installed manually.
This is done by going to Settings - System - Optional features
Selected "view features" then select " Add Option feature"
This will bring up a new window, scroll down the list to find WMIC, tick the checkbox, then press next, in the next window press Add.
You should now to be taken to a new window which shows the progress of the WMIC install under recent actions.
Note this will take a while to download, it not frozen, it took about 15 - 20 mins for me.
After this reset your computer and should be fine, when you click on the load in the substance tab, the file browser window should now display.
Hope this helps anyone who was pulling their hair out like me.

[Aldo_3D]

Hi @Bret5CFA , thanks for sharing your solution steps. The WMIC issue is something that users come across frequently, and fixing it through the command prompt is not always straightforward. This method seems more user friendly.

On our end I'll check and see if we can print a unique status message when WMIC is not found on the host machine to help with troubleshooting.

[[CFK]Tender Vittles]

Thank you so much! This was a big help.

(now to vacuum up all this hair...)