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Hi All I'm working on a project where I am looking to use Unreal Engine as my rendering environment for a design that is modeled in vectorworks. Ideally I would like to use the Datasmith Direct Link feature built in to vectorworks so that I can edit my model and update changes without re-importing everything. I'm using Vectorworks 2023 SP4, and currently the datasmith direct link doesn't initialize in Unreal 5.1. Using Unreal 5.0 I can start the direct link and import my geometry. However no import is successful and I am met with a message log stating that any static mesh that was in Vectorworks could not be found. If anyone has had success using the direct link please let me know any advice for the right workflow. Thanks in advance

This is previously discussed in this other thread, however that one is more about the general workflow issues whereas I am looking to highlight the specific 'too many children' issue here when exporting a Vectorworks file to Unreal Datasmith. I am using VW 2023 SP3. When I have a group in Vectorworks, the group is given it's own parent for the group. That makes sense, but then each of the meshes as apart of the group have their own actor & child mesh-actor. This middle actor can be removed. It serves no purpose. For reference, here is this group. It's 2 solid subtractions & 1 extrude. This will currently export as this: <Actor name="Group_Doors_20" label="Group_Doors_20"> <Transform tx="0.0" ty="0.0" tz="0.0" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="0.0" qy="0.0" qz="0.0" qw="1.0" qhex="0000000000000000000000000000803F"/> <tag value="Empty Actor" /> <children visible="true"> <Actor name="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_73" label="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_73"> <Transform tx="0.0" ty="0.0" tz="0.0" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="0.0" qy="0.0" qz="0.0" qw="1.0" qhex="0000000000000000000000000000803F"/> <tag value="Empty Actor" /> <children visible="true"> <ActorMesh name="Instance8589611062427493340_16736547581515919266" label="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_8589611062427493340_16736547581515919266"> <mesh name="Mesh16896199164350926892_7180970239964908936Sub0"/> <Transform tx="677.549194" ty="-998.677795" tz="101.535332" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="-0.000104" qy="0.000321" qz="-0.951752" qw="0.306866" qhex="7B5CD9B89F89A8390DA673BF991D9D3E"/> <tag value="Mesh Actor" /> </ActorMesh> </children> </Actor> <Actor name="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_58" label="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_58"> <Transform tx="0.0" ty="0.0" tz="0.0" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="0.0" qy="0.0" qz="0.0" qw="1.0" qhex="0000000000000000000000000000803F"/> <tag value="Empty Actor" /> <children visible="true"> <ActorMesh name="Instance15365997431380323710_86819806465637521" label="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_15365997431380323710_86819806465637521"> <mesh name="Mesh279954500711682462_8339932488154455650Sub0"/> <Transform tx="677.549194" ty="-998.677856" tz="101.614708" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="-0.000104" qy="0.000321" qz="-0.951752" qw="0.306866" qhex="7B5CD9B89F89A8390DA673BF991D9D3E"/> <tag value="Mesh Actor" /> </ActorMesh> </children> </Actor> <Actor name="Extrude_Doors_21" label="Extrude_Doors_21"> <Transform tx="0.0" ty="0.0" tz="0.0" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="0.0" qy="0.0" qz="0.0" qw="1.0" qhex="0000000000000000000000000000803F"/> <tag value="Empty Actor" /> <children visible="true"> <ActorMesh name="Instance1600644069928305191_10288283762171703730" label="Extrude_Doors_1600644069928305191_10288283762171703730"> <mesh name="Mesh10132752585299418352_16003714575914235506Sub0"/> <Transform tx="677.549194" ty="-998.677795" tz="101.455956" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="-0.217061" qy="0.673218" qz="-0.672763" qw="0.216914" qhex="24455EBE02582C3F383A2CBFB91E5E3E"/> <tag value="Mesh Actor" /> </ActorMesh> </children> </Actor> </children> </Actor> But should instead export as: <Actor name="Group_Doors_20" label="Group_Doors_20"> <Transform tx="0.0" ty="0.0" tz="0.0" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="0.0" qy="0.0" qz="0.0" qw="1.0" qhex="0000000000000000000000000000803F"/> <tag value="Empty Actor" /> <children visible="true"> <ActorMesh name="Instance8589611062427493340_16736547581515919266" label="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_8589611062427493340_16736547581515919266"> <mesh name="Mesh16896199164350926892_7180970239964908936Sub0"/> <Transform tx="677.549194" ty="-998.677795" tz="101.535332" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="-0.000104" qy="0.000321" qz="-0.951752" qw="0.306866" qhex="7B5CD9B89F89A8390DA673BF991D9D3E"/> <tag value="Mesh Actor" /> </ActorMesh> <ActorMesh name="Instance15365997431380323710_86819806465637521" label="Solid_Subtraction_Doors_15365997431380323710_86819806465637521"> <mesh name="Mesh279954500711682462_8339932488154455650Sub0"/> <Transform tx="677.549194" ty="-998.677856" tz="101.614708" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="-0.000104" qy="0.000321" qz="-0.951752" qw="0.306866" qhex="7B5CD9B89F89A8390DA673BF991D9D3E"/> <tag value="Mesh Actor" /> </ActorMesh> <ActorMesh name="Instance1600644069928305191_10288283762171703730" label="Extrude_Doors_1600644069928305191_10288283762171703730"> <mesh name="Mesh10132752585299418352_16003714575914235506Sub0"/> <Transform tx="677.549194" ty="-998.677795" tz="101.455956" sx="1.0" sy="1.0" sz="1.0" qx="-0.217061" qy="0.673218" qz="-0.672763" qw="0.216914" qhex="24455EBE02582C3F383A2CBFB91E5E3E"/> <tag value="Mesh Actor" /> </ActorMesh> </children> Hopefully it is clear how this is far more useable & clear.

I'd been looking at alot of the Unreal Engine Archviz tutorials, mostly centered around import from 3DS. https://learn.unrealengine.com/home/LearningPath/90586?r=False&ts=637516509308327332 I had been exporting VWX scenes as .dwg and using the Unreal Engine Beta plugin "Datasmith CAD Importer" to bring the scene into Unreal. The biggest issue was that all of the geometry was brought in as separate pieces, IE. a shelf created with VWX Shelving Unit tool would come in with all the shelves, side and rear pieces individually so in Unreal you'd have to select multiple meshes at the same time to move the single shelf unit. Using the new SP3 Datasmith exporter, looks to have exactly the same result, so a window, door, cabinet or any UNIT created by a VWX tool to act as a single unit in VWX, exports to the .udatasmith file and imports into Unreal as a collection of individual meshes. I had assumed that a VWX Datasmith pipeline would allow export / import of these units AS units, and have multiples of the same unit be recognized as instances which is what appears to happen with the 3DS Datasmith pipeline. https://learn.unrealengine.com/course/2436637/module/5375271?moduletoken=UHxxnDLPW8QKRagLoM92H41Ml3gdWXuCVq5HhTaJLjIgwKNffDOfVIj523as6Um9&LPId=90586 Does the VWX Datasmith pipeline do these things and I'm missing some procedure to get the functionality?