Skip to content

quick-start.md

Latest commit

 

History

History
90 lines (55 loc) · 2.82 KB

quick-start.md

File metadata and controls

90 lines (55 loc) · 2.82 KB

Quick Start

← Home

Before You Begin

BuildLens reads the output of a completed Unity player build. If you want to explore the tool before running a build, use Demo Mode instead.

Step 1 — Run a Player Build

  1. Open File → Build Settings.
  2. Select your target platform.
  3. Click Build (not Build and Run).
  4. Wait for the build to finish. Unity writes Library/LastBuild.buildreport on completion.

BuildLens reads from that file. It is updated on every player build and is not a BuildLens file — Unity owns it.

Step 2 — Open BuildLens

Window → BuildLens → Open BuildLens

The minimum window size is 920 × 580 px. If the window appears blank, resize it.

Step 3 — Run Analysis

Click ▶ Analyze in the top-right area of the toolbar.

BuildLens runs three phases:

Phase What Happens
Loading build report Reads Library/LastBuild.buildreport. Extracts all PackedAsset entries.
Scanning dependencies Calls AssetDatabase.GetDependencies() per asset. Builds a directed graph of forward and reverse references.
Saving snapshot Serialises the snapshot (nodes + graph) to BuildLensData/snapshots/. Updates the history index.

When complete the status label shows:

✓  312 assets · 67.17 MB

Step 4 — Read the Overview

The Overview tab is active by default. It shows:

  • A treemap (left): every asset as a rectangle proportional to its compressed size, colour-coded by type.
  • An asset list (right): assets ranked by compressed size.
  • A filter bar: toggle type chips to isolate categories.
  • A summary bar: platform, asset count, compressed size, uncompressed size, capture time.

Click any treemap rectangle to select that asset.

Step 5 — Inspect a Dependency Chain

After selecting an asset, click the Dependencies tab.

  • Left column — Dependencies: what this asset needs.
  • Right column — Dependents: what caused this asset to be included.

Use the Depth selector to control traversal depth (1, 2, 3, Full). Click any row to navigate to that asset.

Step 6 — Export (Optional)

When a snapshot is loaded, the toolbar shows ↓ JSON and ↓ CSV. A save dialog opens with a pre-filled filename. The JSON export (schema v1.1) includes per-asset dependencies and dependents arrays.

Next Steps

Goal Document
Filter and sort assets Overview Panel
Understand dependency chains deeply Dependency Panel
Compare two builds History Panel
Explore without a real build Demo Mode
Understand what BuildLens cannot do Limitations