N00b question about ETS2 vehicle mods

[Tazling]

I do not yet have a copy of ZM3 but am thinking about getting a license and learning the software so I can create alt vehicles for ETS2 and ATS.

My question is, can I start with an existing vehicle mod and load it into ZM3? that is, if I have the zip file for a vehicle mod and I unpack it into a folder hierarchy, can ZM3 read that folder hierarchy and import the model? or can it only read models from the base game extract?

I was hoping to use some available vehicle mods as starting points, rather than starting from scratch with vanilla vehicles from the base game.

I hope this question makes sense...

[Reinhard]

Yes, you can. Provided the mod isn't "locked" by pseudo-password protection. So you should first take the mod in question and extract all its content to a folder, to check everything can be accessed without complaint.

Some mods can't be extracted, while the game is able to load them, nevertheless. These can't be loaded by Zmodeler, for obvious reasons.

[Oleg]

Also, when importing a mod unpacked to some folders hierarchy, you should specify correct folders setup, so ZModeler can load files from unpacked "Base" (if needed) and from unpacked mods folders hierarchy. The unpacked base folders hierarchy is specified next to "Base folder", the unpacked mod hierarchy should be specified at "Mod folder". For example, "Mod folder" should be set to "D:\Mods" when you import a mod like "D:\Mods\vehicles\trucks\upgrade\sideskirt\sideskirt_mod_1.pmd"