Using the asset library

Character and Editor share an asset library along the bottom of the screen. The shelf is a picker, not a storefront: it lists exactly the assets you can use right now — free assets, the packs you own, and your own creations — in one flat, sortable row. Drag a tile, or click its Insert (+) badge, to send it to the editor on screen. Ownership comes from your store account or TJA_ key; while offline, the shelf shows its last cached state until it can refresh.

The bottom shelf#

The library is a full-width bottom shelf (labeled My Library), not a side panel. Its header carries the library label, an "N assets" count chip, a category pill row, a Search your assets box, a Sort picker, and a Browse all button. Toggle the shelf open or closed with the Library button in the header; drag its top edge to resize its height (double-click the edge to reset). Both the open state and the height persist between sessions.

Search and the category pills filter the shelf instantly and client-side — they run over the cached catalog, so filtering stays snappy and keeps working offline.

In Map mode the shared shelf folds away, because the Map Builder has its own bottom shelf scoped to the assets you can place. Everything below describes the cross-tool shelf you see in Character and Editor.

One flat inventory, sorted your way#

There are no sections on the shelf. Free assets, assets from the packs you own, and your own exported creations sit together in a single row, and you find things by category pill, search, and sort rather than by scrolling to the right group.

The Sort picker offers three orders:

The choice persists between sessions, as does the shelf's open state and height.

Two things follow from this. Locked assets never appear on the shelf — no gem badges, no prices, no Get pack buttons in your working row. And the header chip counts what you have, reading "N assets", not what the catalog contains.

The one merchandising affordance is a single tile at the end of the rail. Signed in, it's Get more assets, which opens the fullscreen browser. Signed out with nothing owned, it's a Sign in tile instead ("Sign in to see the packs you own.").

Category pills carry live counts, and only categories you actually own something in appear. With nothing to show, the shelf says so directly — "No assets yet — Browse all to add free packs." when you're empty, or "No assets match — try another category or clear the search." when a filter is too narrow.

Tiles, previews, and inserting#

Each asset tile shows a thumbnail, a triangle count, a colored category dot, and the asset's name. Because every tile on the shelf is one you own, every tile is fully live:

• Hover preview — rest the pointer on a tile for a moment and a live 3D turntable preview of the asset opens. It's decorative and best-effort; if it can't load, it stays quiet.
• Drag — drag a tile into the viewport to place it.
• Insert (+) — the badge on the tile drops the entitled original into whatever editor is currently on screen.

Inserting routes the asset to the active editor. If you're on a surface with no editor to receive it (Home, or Map), the Studio prompts you to "Open the Character or Model editor to insert an asset."

Character mode accepts rigged assets only#

The Character tool animates rigged characters, so in Character mode the shelf scopes itself to the character category and hides the category pills. If no character models are in the catalog yet, the shelf tells you so and points you at importing your own: bring in a Mixamo-rigged .glb from the Character panel. A non-rigged asset dropped into the Character editor is rejected with its own message; unrigged creations are left out of the Character scope entirely.

The fullscreen browser#

Buying lives here, and only here. Click Browse all on the shelf (or the trailing Get more assets tile) to open the fullscreen Asset Library browser, which shows the whole catalog — what you own and what you don't. It gives you:

• a Search all assets and packs box, and a Sort control (Name, Complexity, or Pack);
• a grid ⇄ list toggle; list view is a compact one-line-per-asset layout with the same actions, and the choice persists across sessions;
• an ownership filter at the top of the left rail — All, My library (everything you can use now: free assets, your packs, your creations), or Store (the locked packs you'd buy) — each with its own count. It only appears when there is something left to buy;
• a category rail below it, with per-category counts and an "All Assets" entry, scoped to the ownership filter you picked;
• a card grid where owned/free cards carry an Insert action and locked cards show a "locked" (or "locked · $price") badge with a Get pack button that opens that pack's checkout on threejsassets.com in a new tab;
• an owned/locked summary pill ("N owned · M locked").

Press Esc or Close to dismiss it. Inserting from the browser behaves exactly like the shelf — it drops the asset into the active editor.

"Edit in Studio" from the site#

You can also start from the store side. On the site, Account → Downloads lists your individual assets, and each row has an Edit in Studio button next to its GLB download. It opens the Studio in a new tab at #/editor?asset=<slug>.

What you get is a fresh Editor document, named after the asset, with that asset already inserted — not a merge into whatever you had open. That is the part that surprises people: the deep link deliberately resets the Editor to an empty project first, so the asset arrives on its own rather than landing on top of your restored last project. Your previous project is untouched and still on Home.

If the asset isn't on your account, nothing downloads. You get a message saying you don't own it, with a Get the pack action that opens that pack's checkout. An unknown slug or an unreachable library each say so too, rather than failing silently.

Offline behavior#

The library caches the most recently loaded catalog, so its cards remain available for browsing if the connection drops. Ownership may be out of date until the next successful refresh. When the catalog is unreachable, the shelf falls back to "Library offline — showing your local creations" and a message offers Retry; your own creations stay available because they do not depend on the site.

Where to go next#

• Signing in & your projects — get into the Studio and switch between tools.
• Your account & customer perks — how ownership and perks are resolved.
• What's in an asset pack — what a pack contains on the store side.