Build Output Naming That Won’t Fight Your DCC

Most "pipeline pain" isn’t about file formats - it’s about file paths.

If your DCC links keep breaking, your builds feel chaotic, or your team can’t tell which output belongs to what, this is usually a naming and destination strategy problem.

Know How Gaea Names Files

By default, exported files follow this pattern:

<Name or NodeName>_<PortName>.<extension>

That’s good news: it’s predictable and scales well if you keep names disciplined.

A Practical Naming Strategy

Node naming

Use short, meaningful node names that read well in a folder:

• Mountain_Base
• Volcano_Crater
• Erosion_Primary
• Masks_Slope

Avoid:

• final_final2
• test123
• lol

Port selection

Only export what you will actually use downstream.

• Use Primary Only when you don’t need every diagnostic port.
• Export wear/flow/deposits only when your material setup depends on them.

Tiles (if applicable)

If you’re doing tiled builds, set tile naming so it plays nicely with your tools:

• Tile Suffix Pattern like _y%Y%_x%X%
• Add Leading Zeroes for consistent sorting
• Start Numbering from 1 if your pipeline expects 1-based indexing
• Organization: consider "folders for each node" to prevent collisions

Avoid Roundtrips

A "roundtrip" is when you rebuild and your DCC links break because the output folder changed.

If you use an incremental destination pattern like [+++], you keep build history - but you also change the folder every build.

The best practice is:

1. Keep the incremental build folders (history).
2. Enable Maintain a static folder with the latest copy.
3. Point your DCC to the Latest folder.

Now you get:

• stable links in Maya/Houdini/Unreal/etc,
• full build archives for rollback.

Recommended Output Layout

• _builds/Final/001/ ...
• _builds/Final/002/ ...
• _builds/Final/Latest/ ...

And your DCC always references:

_builds/Final/Latest

That’s it. No relinking, no guessing, no lost history.