Live Link to Blender (CGlivelink)

CGlivelink connects CGpainter to Blender so the material on your model updates live as you paint. CGpainter exports the textures and rebuilds a Principled BSDF material in Blender over a local connection — no manual export, import, or node wiring. It works in both Cycles and EEVEE.

Both apps run on the same computer — CGlivelink talks over a local (localhost) connection only, so there's nothing to configure on a network.

1. Open the CGlivelink window

In CGpainter, choose Link › CGlivelink…. A floating window opens with three tabs: Export (connection, settings, texture sets, and the Send / Update buttons), Channels (which maps to send), and Clients (install the Blender add-on).

2. Install the Blender add-on (one time)

Go to the Clients tab. Under INSTALL CLIENT, pick your Blender version from the list (installed versions are detected automatically) or Browse… to Blender's add-ons folder, then click Install.

Now switch to Blender and enable it: Edit › Preferences › Add-ons, search for CGlivelink, and tick it on.

Re-run Install after you update CGpainter so the add-on matches the app. If you don't see the panel in Blender after enabling, restart Blender.

3. Connect

In Blender's 3D viewport, press N to open the sidebar and select the CGlivelink tab. It shows the status:

Listening on port … — the add-on is running and waiting.
Connected to CGpainter — the link is live.
Not connected — use the Reconnect button (CGpainter must be running with the CGlivelink window open). Disconnect drops the link.

Back in CGpainter, the Export tab's CONNECTION section shows your Blender in the App dropdown once it's connected.

4. Send the material

On the Export tab, pick the texture set to send under SETS, and (optionally) use the Channels tab to choose which maps go across (MAIN channels like Base Color, Roughness, Metallic, Normal, plus OPTIONAL ones). Then click Send.

Blender builds — or rebuilds — a Principled BSDF material on the model, wired up with your exported maps, and applies it to the mesh.

5. Keep it live

After the first Send, use Update to push your latest changes to Blender at any time. For a hands-off round-trip, tick Live Update (auto-send while painting) — CGpainter re-exports and pushes to Blender shortly after you stop painting, so the model in Blender keeps up as you work. It's off by default; leave it off to update only when you press the button.

6. Settings

The GLOBAL SETTINGS section (Export tab) controls how the textures are written:

Path — the folder the maps are exported to before they're sent. Defaults to a scratch folder next to CGpainter; Browse… to change it or Open to reveal it.
Preset — Standard (one texture per channel) or a packed / ORM layout (ambient occlusion, roughness, and metallic combined into one image's R/G/B channels).
Colorspace — how each map is tagged (sRGB for color maps like Base Color and Emissive, Non-Color for the rest). The defaults are correct for Blender.

7. Send a mesh from Blender to CGpainter

You can also push geometry the other way. In Blender's CGlivelink sidebar panel, select an object and click Send to CGpainter. CGpainter receives the mesh and opens it as a new project so you can start painting it right away.

To keep you from losing work, CGpainter only accepts an incoming mesh when no project is open — close the current project first, then send. Once it's painted, send the textures back with Send / Update as above.