Real time connection with Maxon announced

[EAlexander]

Saw this and watching with interest:

 

https://www.maxon.net/en/article/maxon-introduces-new-real-time-rendering-and-cinematic-previews-solution-for-architects?srsltid=AfmBOor4hyBzua_1Vy5wp7JNAvYGcN1IPLN5wCfadfMw7xUPnV01nN0p

 

Mentions Vectorworks specifically. Let's see where it goes. Previews in early June. 

Edited May 15 by EAlexander

[grant_PD]

Sounds lovely. Trying to stem the tide of users heading for the unreal engine?

[Dave Donley]

Yes we are very excited to work with Maxon together on this initiative.  As mentioned in the press release this is a combination of efficient workflows, assets, and cinematic quality real-time rendering.  Cross platform not just PC.  Optimized to your highest priority workflows in particular.

 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

@Dave Donley  Will this replace, work in conjunction, or remain separate to the  "send to C4D" command.

[Dave Donley]

When you connect to Maxon's new solution you can export to C4D from there with full fidelity in what you are seeing.  Existing Send to C4D in Vectorworks will be adjusted over time.  We are working closely with Maxon engineering to improve all aspects of our use of their technology.

[EAlexander]

@Dave Donley Just promise to keep Export to C4d (3d only) alone. 😂

 

Do what you will with Send to... 

 

Thanks for more info. Watching with interest. 

[grant_PD]

Would love to see mapping of material replacements on transfer, so that c4d knows to replace material X from vw with material Y from c4d.  

[Ross Harris]

Very interesting indeed!

[JohnWebbe]

Curious to see how this compares with workflows using Unreal or Twinmotion. Also seconding @grant_PD’s point about material mapping—having a smart material handoff would be a huge time-saver.

Looking forward to testing it out in June!

[P Retondo]

Dave, thanks for jumping in on this. I’m very interested to know your take on how this would compare with what I currently use, Enscape, which works off a .dll and runs in real time, parallel with Vectorworks, incorporating changes to the model without exporting. But it does take about a minute and a half to boot and generate a render, and although it creates convincing renderings, it can be a bit fuzzy.

[Christiaan]

On 5/16/2025 at 3:44 AM, grant_PD said:

Would love to see mapping of material replacements on transfer, so that c4d knows to replace material X from vw with material Y from c4d.  

 

 

https://architosh.com/2025/05/maxon-brings-hollywood-grade-rendering-to-architecture-market/

[Ross Harris]

Quote

Real-Time workflow — rendering happens in real-time in a separate plugin window sync’d with the primary Vectorworks viewports. As users work in either updates happen in the other window

This sounds very much like an Enscape type workflow... that would be epic, because it's so quick and keeps the VW file as the source of truth. Let's hope the pricing is competitive.

Edited May 17 by Ross Harris

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

16 hours ago, Ross Harris said:

Let's hope the pricing is competitive.

How much is Enscape?

[Ross Harris]

@VIRTUALENVIRONS Enscape pricing

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

CINEMA 4D subscription is ~800 US, a little more than Escape, but it's capability are vastly beyond.  

[Ross Harris]

C4d is a completely different animal... If I want an archvis render done in literally minutes, Enscape does this without disrupting my workflow in Vectorworks.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

9 hours ago, Ross Harris said:

Enscape does this without disrupting my workflow in Vectorworks.

Just talking here.  If I need a rendering, CINEMA 4D (also) does this without disrupting my workflow.   I guess the difference would be that you apply textures in C4D as opposed to VW's.  

 

I had a chance to see Enscape in action recently and I can see why it is popular.  This is one time when there are no visuals due to an NDA.  The company that contacted me used A-CAD, Soft plan, Revit and Enscape.  A full 3D workshop, yet it was still not enough.  To compete for a new project they needed more and that was the Vectorworks/CINEMA 4D combination.

[P Retondo]

Virtual, since you are very familiar with C4D, I wonder if you could check for me.  Is the program you are running a .exe file, or a .dll file?  That would be the difference between a program that requires export and import, and a program that works with the .vwx file directly.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

@P Retondo  It is not the same process.  It is different than Enscape.  Hard to explain. Enscape is largely the end of the process for Vectorworks, where if you need C4D, it is  only the beginning.

 

Late here.....will have more tomorrow.

 

[Ross Harris]

3 hours ago, VIRTUALENVIRONS said:

Enscape is largely the end of the process for Vectorworks

I would 100% disagree with this. 

If you are using Twinmotion, Lumion or D4 then yes. The livesync the these products as a partial one way process - you activate the live sync tool and it exports your VW geometry to the renderer - any change you make or asset you place in the render engine stays in that program, any change in VW will sync back to the renderer, but that's all. You then have to save your work in that render engine as its own file. Any further work on the VW model then needs to be live synced again running the risk of duplicate geometry and reapplying textures, so by virtue you would save any work to be done in in TM, Lumion or D4 as close to the end as possible. I'm assuming this is also how send to C4D works.

With Enscape you use it any point of the design process to see a rendered view, placing assets puts proxies into the VW model, textures from Enscape get mapped to become Renderworks textures so your workflow does not get split across a VW and render engine file. The VW file is always the single source of truth - which is what makes the Enscape workflow so compelling.

I can open the same project after a couple of days work in Enscape and there are zero issues. It looks the same, 3d assets and textures load every time. It means I can send a render to a client while they are on the phone or on a teams call sharing a screen.

Edited May 22 by Ross Harris

[Jeff Prince]

3 hours ago, VIRTUALENVIRONS said:

Hard to explain.

That's ok, @Ross Harris nailed it.

Twinmotion is supposed to work like Enscape, but it's like the programmers decided to go on holiday before the job was done, like some of the other software we all use 🙂

[line-weight]

With Enscape, is it primarily Enscape's responsibility to make sure their plugin keeps working properly with VW? Is Enscape basically reading and writing to a VW file for the most part?

 

My impression with the Twinmotion approach is that it also relies on VW keeping things working from their side - presumably because VW is continually exporting data to a format that TM can use.

 

It's useful to understand what's happening behind the scenes because I feel more secure using something where the people responsible for keeping stuff working are the ones who have an interest in me continuing to pay for their plugin. 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

@P Retondo  I was just thinking.  If you are talking about the recent release about C4D real time Archive, that is not released yet as far as I know.

 

I am talking about Redshift and Send to C4D.  Different process though, but great results quite quickly.  Not sure if as fast or faster than Enscape, but definitely fast enough.

 

Why I use C4D.   When I get to the point that Enscape gets you to, it is only the beginning of where I need to be.  From there, many other operations will take place that are not part of Enscape's core functions.

 

If you are thinking Twin Motion and/or Unreal, then C4D comes into play again.  Anyone that I know who used either of these programs is so happy to get the files from C4D.

 

The short video below shows the process.

 

 

 

[line-weight]

11 hours ago, Ross Harris said:

The VW file is always the single source of truth

@VIRTUALENVIRONS do you understand what the above concept means? This is what the discussion is centred around and it's a crucial point when understanding the various options and why they some are much more attractive for certain workflows.

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

@line-weight  Not really.   You do understand that @P Retondo asked me to explain my process.

 

As you bring it up.  Enscape is.... what it is.  If falls right into Hybrid tools category and that is great for the majority of designers on this planet, but like Hybrid tools there is a creativity ceiling.