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Datasmith & direct link to Twinmotion revamp?


Flair-Studio

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Hi,

I am running VW 25 on a mac with Twinmotion 2025.1.0 and still experience the same issues with the datasmith and direct link from 3 years ago. I can import the geometry but after a couple of updates, the link breaks and now I didn't find a way to link it back to the datasmith. I have to export the hole geometry if I want to ensure capability to update the model outside T M, but then all materials needs update.

Thank you

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Hi,

 

I've only ever found the Datasmith Direct Live Link is only functional for plans <50MB and useful for talking in near realtime with clients.

 

For any serious plans (50MB+ and iterative versions) then an independent export of a Datasmith file (Hierarchical Export)

 

Material bindings are tricky and in my experience follow these rules;

  • Exported objects from VW contain a unique identifier and a bound material.
    • As long as the object remains the same (same UID) then material changes you make in TwinMotion will be retained when the object is moved.
    • New objects however will not have materials updated automatically in TwinMotion.
    • For example;
      • If you export 5 Red Cubes from VW, then in TwinMotion replace that Red Texture with Bricks the 5 Cubes from VW will retain this information if they're moved around or resized.
      • If you duplicate a Cube in VW to make a 6th Cube and then either update the Datasmith Live Link, or re-export the file, the 6th Cube will not automatically have the Brick Texture applied.
    • You can make use of the Texture Substitution feature of TwinMotion on very large projects to avoid part of this however that's quite a rabbit hole in itself.
  • Backup files have all new UIDs.
    • I'll have to check if there's actually a bug report / feature request on this however if you have to restore from a Backup File all UIDs of objects will be different, meaning that if you create a new Datasmith Export from VW all material bindings will be gone.
  • Lastly, when exporting to Datasmith (either Live Link or Manual), the 'Quality' setting you choose must remain the same between all exports.
    • Different Quality settings also seem to have different UIDs for the object (which makes sense that VW exporting a Cylinder with 64 Faces on Medium is a different object to a Cylinder with 128 Faces on High).

Even though I personally would like to see continued development of the Datasmith Direct Live Link and its capabilities I think realistically for any Venue / Building / Site renderings that you'd be doing from Vectorworks to TwinMotion you're realistically better off doing iterative structured exports in stages (even for size / management doing it Hierarchical by Saved View Sets).

 

Below: Examples of a recent finished project (The Regent Theatre - Melbourne, Australia) which contained quite complex asset and texture management.

Image4_001.thumb.png.80f1ebae1e4d4a284162d243074f8256.png

Image2_001.thumb.png.4c01da76212631e3c99958e877b74bbb.png

 

Happy rendering - hope that helps.

 

Cheers,

 

James

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Thanks for sharing your experiences and observations.

Seems to make sense.

 

And sounds like the Datasmith path would not work for my usual projects,

that were so far done (successfully) by VW/C4D Exchange and had constant updates.

 

1.
I could import real C4D Materials into VW Resource Manager to assign to my geometry in VW.
They might look simpler in VW, I could even overwrite them for VW, but when exporting to C4D, C4D will use the original C4D Material definitions. That means you do not need to care of overwriting/keeping Material changes at all.

2.

If I create new VW Materials or get them in from Library elements, I can overwrite these in C4D by C4D Materials. These overwriting will stay future exchanges.

3.

If I create new elements in VW and assign an existing Material, after exchange, it would bring in again the VW Material.

But my C4D Materials were sorted in Layers, VW Materials come in without Layer but usually same name. So I could easily ALT+drag overwrite them with the C4D Materials again.
This was the worst situation, not comfortable but manageable.

4.

In the worst case you could define a separate C4D File, with Materials with same names as the imported Materials and replace/overwrite these from the Material file in one go after each re-import.

 

This Setup was all manageable.

 

So if I create new objects, even if you copy a Wall or add/remove a Window in Wall (?) (I think that also means a new GUID), I can easily find the incoming old Materials and can overwrite them.

 

 

But in Twinmotion you usually overwrite VW Material imports by own TM Materials and their own Material Names.

If a Datasmith Exchange is not as reliable as C4D Exchange, and I would get in geometry with partly lost/old/changed Material assignments - I could not handle that for larger projects.

 

When Datasmith was introduced, or even before (?) my first VW to TM attempts and tests of how updating (FBX ?) exports into TM would keep Material overwriting, I had mixed results.
I had a few PIOs and Solids and also a Curtain Wall. In TM I assigned a few materials like a wood floor and better glass for the CW panels. Then I went on modeling a few more things in VW and re-exported.
Suddenly material overwriting was not only partly lost but also assignments mixed up. Means that some of my CW panels changed from glass to wood and such.

After that I did only a few tests of how a project would come into TM and how it looks, but unfortunately never again really tested reliability of a re-import/exchange.

 

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Hi James and Zoomer,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience here, very useful !!

I wrote the above because I stopped using Twinmotion for a while, and when I picked it up recently I found the direct link has gotten worse. 

Exporting the datasmith file and then importing with the hierarchy checked is the way that works best, I tried with the collapsed mode and every mirrored symbol changes material, there is no way to change it then.

Thanks again

Federico

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