Docs

Troubleshooting

Common questions and fixes.

The “Pipe It” button is missing from the toolbar

Open Project Settings → Plugins → Pipe It and turn on Show Toolbar Button. See Settings.

The kit menu is empty (or missing kits)

The kit menu has a Show Plugin Content toggle. Turn it on to list the kits that ship with PipeIt. If you expect your own kits, make sure they are saved in the project.

The hint panel does not appear

Select a Pipe Network. If it still does not show, check Show Hint Panel under Project Settings → Plugins → Pipe It.

A “Pipe It requires virtual textures” warning appears at startup

The shipped kits use virtual textures, so PipeIt checks the project’s Virtual Texture Support setting when the editor starts. Click Fix on the warning to enable it (the editor then needs a restart), or enable it yourself under Project Settings → Engine → Rendering. If you only use your own non-VT kits, Ignore Forever dismisses the warning for this project.

The pipes are the wrong size

There are two size controls. The actor transform scale changes the network’s footprint; the Mesh Scale Multiplier changes how fat the pipes look without moving nodes. See Mesh Scale & Render Modes.

Disabling or removing PipeIt

When a plugin is disabled, Unreal cannot load the actors that plugin defines. This is engine behavior and applies to every plugin, not just PipeIt. What happens to your Pipe Networks depends on the map type:

  • Classic maps (no World Partition): the Pipe Network actors fail to load and are removed from the level in memory. The map still opens and everything else works. If you save that map, the pipe actors are permanently deleted; the editor does not warn you, and re-enabling the plugin will not bring them back.
  • World Partition maps (One File Per Actor): each actor lives in its own file, and opening or saving the map does not rewrite those files. Your Pipe Networks come back when you re-enable the plugin.

If you plan to stop using PipeIt in a project, do this while the plugin is still enabled:

  1. Bake the networks you want to keep (see Baking & Exporting), or delete the ones you do not.
  2. Save all affected maps.
  3. Only then disable or remove the plugin.

Re-enabling the plugin is always safe as long as no map was saved while it was disabled.