Exporting VW as any 3D files

[AlanW]

When exporting any 3D file from VW and keep hierarchy i find that each item say a wall & door is exported as lots of objects rather than a single objects as in VW a wall for instance, seems to break the wall into components. Is there a way to have these items exported as single items rather than all the components?

.

Is it possible to do this????

[zoomer]

Is this Twinmotion ?

Via Datasmith export ?

 

Is it the same for FBX or C4D export ?

 

For the Wall,

for me it looks like VW does this as a simple Wall, overall, could have

3 Material assignments, left side, right side and for the slim sides.

 

 

9 hours ago, AlanW said:

exporting any 3D file from VW and keep hierarchy

 

For classic exports/exchange by FBX to Modo or C4D to Cinema,

keep hierarchy worked great. As you usually worked with or changed

geometry in the 3D App.

 

No with never real time renderers like Twinmotion, I tend to a less editing

workflow and more often dumb the geometry down to by Material.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

Your question is one of the ages.  It is always a push/pull question, from Vectorworks to "what application".  It is very seldom ever the same.  As Zoomer asked, more information is needed for an accurate assessment.

 

But, I will share a method I have used for over twenty five years using Vectorworks, often disregarded as antiquated.  For this explanation I will use CINEMA 4D, but not using the "Send to C4D" command.

 

With a wall and a window or windows, 

Give every part that you want separated in 2D view a different pen fore color.  

Convert these objects to 3D polygons.  

They will lose their class information, reassign if required.

Export out as DXF text (not Binary)

import via DXF in.

In Cinema 4D all objects with the same color will be a solid object and retain the class information.

[rDesign]

3 hours ago, VIRTUALENVIRONS said:

With a wall and a window or windows, 

Give every part that you want separated in 2D view a different pen fore color.  

Convert these objects to 3D polygons.

The advice to ‘convert these objects to 3D polygons’ should only be followed if you are working on a copy of your working file, as doing this will destroy all history of your object and essentially make it uneditable in Vw.
 

What was a parametric hybrid 2D / 3D object (wall, door, window, etc) will become a bunch of 3D polygons; This may be useful / helpful for the target 3D application, but it is not very useful for typical VW BIM workflows.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

34 minutes ago, rDesign said:

but it is not very useful for typical VW BIM workflows.

Yes that is of course true, thank you for adding that.  I was going to put that in, but figured it was understood, but perhaps not.

 

 

[AlanW]

Hi, I currently export as Cinema 4D by Texture which works fine for Twin Motion.

BUT it would be good to not have all the Vectorworks file explode when you export and keep hierarchy.

I have raised this on a few previous occasions but Vectorworks has been silent on my questions.

Datasmith is the same, it keeps the VW hierachy and explodes everything.

 

If i have to open doors i simply don't show the doors in VW in 3D and put them in in Twin Motion.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

[AlanW]

Been looking at Archicad and you can set separate layers and Archcad via Datasmith stacks all the meshed in layers.

I guess i can save layer states but datasmith explodes everything.

Is there a way similar in VW to Archicad????

[tdiamond]

Hello Alan,

 

As there doesn't appear to be a way to break apart objects grouped by material in Twinmotion, I would approach the issue a different way.

 

To animate swinging doors in TM, here is their recommended workflow as outlined in Archicad (as you elude to above). To get a similar result in Vectorworks I would create a saved view without doors.

 

I hope that helps.

[tdiamond]

Hello again Alan,

 

Instead of a Saved View, another way to approach the pre-export hidden doors is via a Data Visualisation. Below is the approach I would take when using WinDoor…

 

1. Using the WinDoor 'On Schedule' setting…

 

2. You can then select the objects using the Display Criteria below…

 

3. Change all WInDoor object Attribute Values to none

 

4. Here is the result imported into TM as materials…

 

5. Start inserting your animated doors in TM…

 

Cheers