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From my experience - the fewer programs you can go through the better, but I haven't tested Twinmotion up to UE in a long time. Probably easiest to apply basic textures in VW just to get them created and applied to the correct objects, and then once in Unreal, work on the textures dialed in to get the right color, glossiness, normal maps, etc. There is DMX support in UE and templates with moving lights and lasers. My tests showed that if you are running just a handful of lights, it works okay, but if you are trying to cue a song through a big rig, you're going to want to look at Carbon for Unreal to do that effectively. To the OP: I spent a few months last year learning Unreal in 2024 and it is amazing and frustrating at the same time 🙂 My stuff was coming from Cinema4d, but I'd be interested in learning more about VW directly to UE. I think for quick fly thrus and reviewing design with creative directors and artists its valuable. That said - I never found going through Cinema4d difficult or a lot of work to prep for UE, but a direct workflow in some cases could be better. Following with interest.

Yes - Forgot to mention - to Jeff and Wesley's points. For years, I ran a PC just for VW and Cinema4d rendering and used a Mac for email, browsing, Word, etc. If you can afford both and have the office space, it's not a bad way to work. Jeff also makes a good point about fonts too - apple definitely has the upper hand here.

Long time Mac user, I switched to PC in 2017 when gpu rendering became a real thing for Cinema4d. No regrets and have never looked back. Working on PC isn't as bad as people make it out to be. That said, the downside is windows itself. Not as nice as Mac OS especially Explorer compared to Finder. Worth it though for higher end internal parts that you can swap out and upgrade yourself (talking tower more than laptops) at a cheaper cost. I love my 4090 RTX and 128 gb of Ram without breaking my budget. I'm sure someone will come along and say the exact opposite in the next post. Pc Mac "wars" still rage on. Coke/Pepsi. Canon/Nikon. Gibson/Fender etc.

Ryan, I have one of these (on my PC) and the read/write time works fast enough to use it like a hard drive. It's tiny and quiet. https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/portable-solid-state-drives/portable-ssd-t7-shield-usb-3-2-4tb-black-mu-pe4t0s-am/?gQT=2

Thanks much for your kind words! My training is on my Youtube Channel. It's impossible to answer the core question, because everyone's needs and interests are so different. As Jeff said earlier - if you need one or two renders a year, think about outsourcing. If you need a small handful - get as good as you can with Renderworks and if you need a lot, then look to outside software to work in conjunction with Vectorworks. For me, personally, I only use VW for modeling and laying out drafting plates. I do all the materials, lighting, cameras, and rendering in Cinema4d (Corona or Redshift) or Blender (Cycles) or Unreal Engine. I've found these paths more robust to me then working directly inside of Renderworks, but that is a very personal view and not right for everyone. For many, what Renderworks offers is enough and for others, plugging in Enscape or Twinmotion does the trick. No matter what the software delivery system, the things that matter most are: good Modeling with details, well structured Materials from good source material, and motivated indirect Lighting. Pick your workflow and than focus on getting good at those things: the best way to improve is to spend as much time inside the software as possible and make as many images as you can.

I couldn't disagree with this statement more! Now is the time to raise your expectations - we are in a golden age of render engines. Look at the possibilities out there - multiple GPU/CPU render engines, node based systems, AOV pass systems, AI denoising, Game engine integration, a plethora of post processing composition software options, hardware advances and development, etc. Leaps and bounds have been made on render times - I haven't waited two and half hours on a still in a decade with most complex scenes taking a few minutes to clarify. This is the greatest time in history to do renderings and it's still expanding rapidly. Vectorworks and Cinema4d/Maya/3D Max/etc are different animals - apples to oranges and all of these advancements in rendering are happing outside the inner workings of CAD. It's great that programs like VW can continue to develop and advance their internal render systems as other technologies mature. The OP is working within the Renderworks system and is looking for help improving within that system.

Paul, this post is 22 years old.

Hard to say as this is really specific to the scene file and your hardware specs. Have you run the purge command? Resources (symbols, materials, hatches, etc.) remain in the resource manager even if deleted from design layers and contribute to file size. Are the resources from Manufacturers all imported mesh items? Some of these can be quite heavy and inefficient.

I'm having an early Black Friday sale thru Dec 1st. on the Full ML Light Kit. Use the code MLFRIDAY at checkout to get the full kit for $50 - a savings of $25. https://www.evanalexander.com/ml-lightkit

Nope. This has been asked for many times over the years. Would be so great.

Do the objects have Fill in their attributes?

I'll toss my hat in here. I use Vectorworks on music festivals and concert tours everyday. I have a YouTube channel of tutorials here - Vectorworks and also Cinema4d. This is also a great place to ask specific questions about tools or workflows, so don't be afraid to ask here if you are stuck on something specific. The more precise you can be with your question, the better results you'll get. Just remember, there are lots of ways to build things in Vectorworks and everyone uses the program slightly differently, so you have to do some of your own trial and error to find the workflow that makes sense for you! e.

This is what the Clip cube is for. Live sections. Find it in the View menu.

This doesn't look twisted to me, it just looks like the Orthogonal view making a bit of an optical illusion. The Top/Plan view shows all the lines parallel. Try switching to normal perspective mode and take a look there. It takes a while to get used to working with orthogonal views on angled stuff as they mess with the perspective. e.

Yes - I hadn't thought about it like that, but you're right - the parametric history still holds onto that name until you "flatten" it. Still - annoying 🙂