3d App to Unity intended workflow? (import settings, etc)

Hey everyone. I'm fairly new to Unity and have only just now begun seriously importing meshes from Maya LT. While I've successfully imported a mesh, I'm not sure what the intended workflow is from there. So, if anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate it:

Workflow:

1. Upon importing a mesh I have a 'Import Settings' mesh in my asset folder which contains a mesh and an 'Avatar.' Since this is an environment model, I suspect the first thing I do is open up the import settings and turn the rig off. This removes the avatar. For non-animated meshes, is this the right thing to do?

2. Now, assuming I've got that squared away, how does Unity intend for me to use this imported mesh? Do I drag it into the scene and begin using it as is? Or does the import setting mesh act as the source only and I'm actually supposed to drag it into the scene, break the connection and generate a new 'clean' prefab that I would then use in the scene? If the latter, it seems like the import settings version is a lot of baggage to keep around.

Other issues:

1. Despite setting maya's units to meters and the export settings scale factor to 1 (or automatic), the imported mesh's scale is always .01. Changing the 'import settings' mesh's scale factor to 1.0 fixes this, but when dragged into the scene, the instance in the scene's scale is .01 (despite appearing correctly sized).

2. Any instances of any imported meshes that I have in the scene cannot be selected. I can select them in the hierarchy and then move them around, scale them, etc. But If I try to actually click on the gameobject in the scene or create a selection box around it, nothing happens.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help spell out the intended workflow for me or knows what's up with these other issues.

 

Yes.

Just drag it into the scene. It will have a link back to the fbx, so if you were to change any import settings or the model itself, all of your models would update. If you want to make it into something more complex(such as adding mesh colliders, audio sources, particles, ect), it may be wise to make it into a prefab so that it could be re-used throughout your game.

The imported mesh will always default to an import scale of .01, regardless of what setting you exported it with. Unity doesn't really have metric units, it just has generic units you can assign whatever meaning you want to it. However, the general practice(for things like default camera settings, physics, ect) is to have these units be in meters. I guess that that Unity making everything .01 is because it is assumed that you would be working in centimeters in your 3d software- so that .01 scale is converting it to meters. I believe that you could make a script in to override this .01 value upon import if you really wanted to. What I usually do is just work in cm in 3ds max or maya and leave the import scale value at .01, so that way I don't have to worry about it.

Make sure that you're in the "scene" view and not the "game" view.

 

Thanks for the information.

It seems as though I'll be making all of my meshes into prefabs then, which is an additional step. Curious you can't simply import as a mesh only and go from there.

Anyway, with regard to the selection issue, it's definitely not game view. I've tried importing a bunch of different models and they all demonstrate this behavior. I simply can't select them in the scene view, only via the hierarchy. Google isn't helping either.

 

Solved the selection issue. Was a quirk of one of the assets I purchased from the store. Oi.