Documentation — nordvader.com

Scanning

The Scan tab finds eligible Static Mesh sources and groups repeated meshes/material setups into build candidates.

Scanning is the read-only stage of the workflow. It does not build generated components and does not modify source actors.

Choose scan scope

Scan scope selection

InstanceForge can scan different source areas:

Scope	Use case
`Selected Actors`	Safest first pass. Only selected level actors are scanned.
`Current Level`	Scans eligible sources in the current level.
`InstanceForge Volumes`	Scans sources inside InstanceForge include/exclude volumes.

Use Selected Actors when testing a new scene or asset pack.

Scan filters and source options

Tags control which actors/components are allowed into the scan.

Recommended setup:

Required Tag: IF_Instance
Exclude Tags: IF_NoInstance

Setting	Purpose
`Required Actor/Component Tag`	Only matching sources are considered. If empty, all eligible sources can be considered.
`Exclude Tags`	Matching sources are skipped even if they match the required tag.
`Include StaticMeshActors`	Allows simple `AStaticMeshActor` sources.
`Include StaticMeshComponents inside Blueprint actors`	Allows `UStaticMeshComponent` sources inside Blueprint actors.

Blueprint Static Mesh Components may need component tags unless actor tag inheritance is enabled.

Scan results

Click Scan Sources, then check the result text.

A useful scan should show ready candidates and groups.

If the scan returns 0 ready candidates or 0 groups, open Troubleshooting.

InstanceForge groups compatible sources before build.

A build group is based on:

This keeps generated ISM/HISM component defaults representative for the whole group.

Use one broad production tag for normal work:

IF_Instance

Use an exclude tag for objects that must never be converted:

IF_NoInstance

Use manual-pass tags only when you intentionally want separate scan/build passes:

IF_Build_ISM
IF_Build_HISM