Yes — for the 3D preview. The tool reads the base freemode ped from your own game files (it never redistributes Rockstar assets). Both Legacy and Enhanced/Gen9 editions work. You can still open and edit projects without it, but you won't get the ped preview.

Yes. Items are per-gender and there's a Male/Female toggle throughout the UI. Use Copy to other gender to duplicate an item across both.

Yes — import .dctproj projects directly. Items, slots, genders, drawable numbers and all referenced models/textures come across, de-duplicated into a clean self-contained project. See Importing Projects.

Everything you import is copied into the project's assets/ folder, with paths stored relative to the project. That means you can move, rename or zip the whole project folder and nothing breaks. Your original source files are never modified.

Open the preview's ⚙ Options and raise Brightness / Ambient fill. The default lighting suits most garments, but very dark materials benefit from a nudge.

Usually the model has no UVs, or the texture format/naming doesn't match. The tool tells you which when you attach a texture. See Common Errors.

Up to 128 drawables per component slot, per gender within your collection. Because the tool builds an add-on collection, that space is your pack's own — it doesn't collide with vanilla GTA. Just watch the total number of collections/.ymt a server loads across all packs. See Game Limits.

No. Set the slot, number and gender in the editor; the tool writes the exact GTA filenames when you Build.

Yes — there's built-in Git source control, version history and per-item merging. See Team Collaboration.

The app checks for new versions on launch and can update itself in place. No manual reinstall.

The wider community references are a good deep-dive:

• docs.gta.clothing — clothing limits, naming and workflow.
• docs.sollumz.org — the Blender toolchain for GTA models.