# Getting started

> Install Texture Exporter, turn on updates with your licence key, and check the tools it uses.

Texture Exporter docs · https://tools.ashthornton.dev/blender-texture-exporter/docs/

## Install

> **Check your email for your download**
>
> After you buy, Payhip emails a receipt to the address you used at checkout. It has the download link for the platform zips and your **licence key**. If it isn't in your inbox, check your spam folder.

Texture Exporter is sold on Payhip. Your purchase comes with one zip per platform and a **licence key**, which gets you updates inside Blender. There's no limit on how many of your own machines you use it on.

1. Download the zip for your platform, e.g. `texture_exporter-<version>-windows_x64.zip`.
2. In Blender, open **Edit ▸ Preferences ▸ Get Extensions**. In the **⌄** menu at the top right, choose **Install from Disk…** and pick the zip.
3. Go to **Add-ons**, search for *Texture Exporter*, and expand it. Its preferences hold **Updates**, **KTX-Software**, **glTF Validation** and the **Report a Bug** button:

   ![The add-on's preferences: Updates with a Licence Key field, KTX-Software showing ktx 4.4.2 found and bundled with the add-on, an optional glTF-Validator path, and Report a Bug.](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/_astro/prefs.D2G8jFoV.png "Preferences ▸ Add-ons ▸ Texture Exporter")

The add-on is ready to use now. Next: [the quick start](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/blender-texture-exporter/docs/quick-start.md), or set up updates first.

## Turn on updates

1. Turn on **Allow Online Access** in **Preferences ▸ System**. Without it, **Enable Updates** stays greyed out.
2. Paste your licence key under **Updates**. It's in your Payhip receipt email.

   ![The Updates box before setup: a Licence Key field and an Enable Updates button.](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/_astro/prefs-updates-off.B0If-pkW.png)

3. Click **Enable Updates**. This checks the key, adds the *Texture Exporter Updates* repository with the key as its access token, and reinstalls the add-on from it, keeping your settings.

   ![The Updates box after setup: Updates are on, with a Change Key button.](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/_astro/prefs-updates-on.DAe6ucXP.png)

From then on, new versions show an **Update** button in **Get Extensions**. Blender checks on startup, or straight away with **Check for Updates** in the same **⌄** menu. **Change Key** replaces the key if you get a new one.

### If updates don't work

- **"Licence key not recognised, or the purchase was refunded."** Copy the key again from your Payhip receipt, without spaces around it. Refunded purchases stop getting updates.

  ![The Updates box showing the error: Licence key not recognised, or the purchase was refunded.](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/_astro/prefs-updates-error.DoyBov8f.png)

- **Enable Updates is greyed out.** Turn on **Allow Online Access** in **Preferences ▸ System**.
- **Get Extensions says "HTTP Error 401" for Texture Exporter Updates.** The key stored on the repository isn't accepted any more. Paste your current key and click **Change Key**.
- **"The licence check is unavailable right now."** The update server or Payhip is down. Your installed copy keeps working; try again later.
- **Offline machines.** Install the zip from your purchase. The add-on works fully offline; only updates need online access.

**Setting up the update repository by hand**

In **Get Extensions ▸ Repositories ▸ + ▸ Add Remote Repository**, enter

```text
https://tools.ashthornton.dev/blender-texture-exporter/index.json
```

tick **Authentication**, paste your licence key as the access token, and tick **Check for Updates on Startup**. Then uninstall the copy you installed from the zip and install *Texture Exporter* from the new repository.

> **Watch out**
>
> Two copies installed at once will clash. Keep only the one from the repository.

## Overview

Texture Exporter writes your scene's textures as separate **KTX2**, **WebP**, **AVIF** or **PNG** files, with settings for each texture, and links them from the glTF / GLB that Blender's own glTF exporter writes. In Blender it's listed as **Texture Exporter (KTX2 / WebP / AVIF)**.

You use it in two places:

- **Properties ▸ Scene ▸ Texture Export**, where every texture in the scene is listed with its settings, a preview, and buttons to export and update the glTF.
- **File ▸ Export ▸ glTF 2.0**, where a **Texture Export** section in the sidebar encodes every texture as part of the export.

![The Texture Export panel in Blender's Scene properties, listing a sofa's 13 textures with a mix of formats and scales, and the details of the selected texture.](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/_astro/scene-panel.Og5r-UWe.png "Properties ▸ Scene ▸ Texture Export")

## What you need

- **Blender 4.2 or newer.** Writing **AVIF** needs **Blender 5.2**; on older versions the format shows a warning.
- **Windows** (x64 or arm64), **macOS** (Apple Silicon or Intel) or **Linux** x64.
- Nothing else: the platform zips include **KTX-Software 4.4.2**, which encodes KTX2.

## KTX-Software

KTX2 encoding uses KTX-Software's `ktx` tool. The platform zips include it, and the **KTX-Software** box in the preferences should say *ktx 4.4.2 found · Bundled with add-on*. WebP, AVIF and PNG don't need it.

If it isn't found (for example with the universal zip, or if the bundled copy can't run on your machine):

- **Install KTX-Software** downloads the official release from GitHub into the add-on's own folder, after checking its SHA-256. It needs **Allow Online Access**.
- **Custom ktx Path** points at your own install (version 4.3 or newer).
- Or put `ktx` on your system PATH.

**Test Encode** encodes a small test image to check everything works. **Re-check** looks again after you change something.

## glTF-Validator (optional)

**Validate** always runs a built-in check on the glTF it updates. If you also have the Khronos [glTF-Validator](https://github.com/KhronosGroup/glTF-Validator), set its path in the preferences (or put `gltf_validator` on PATH) and Validate runs it too.

## Where next

- [Quick start](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/blender-texture-exporter/docs/quick-start.md): Export a GLB with web-ready textures, then tweak textures without re-exporting.
- [Texture settings](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/blender-texture-exporter/docs/texture-settings.md): Every format, codec and quality setting, and when to use it.
- [Loading in three.js](https://tools.ashthornton.dev/blender-texture-exporter/docs/threejs.md): KTX2Loader setup, the shared texture cache and loading progress.