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Twinmotion Plugin + Sync


Tom Klaber

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But it seems that Twinmotion Direct Link will really happen at some point. Listen to Dr. Biplab Sarkar speaking about it in his 2020 Design Summit presentation (min 13:45).

 

Also the fact that Redshift renderer, recently acquired by Maxon is coming to Vectorworks is very exciting. Listen to Dr. Biplab Sarkar at min 13:30. Also check out this article that briefly mentions it: https://gfxspeak.com/2020/05/07/maxon-actually-several/  

 

I'm also very much thinking of saying goodbye to Apple and making the move to Windows. Hardware is just much less expensive and the ability to be able to work with Nvidia RTX graphics cards and AMD's Thread Ripper CPUs just leaves Apple hardware performance very far behind. Just go to Puget Systems and try configuring your custom PC, by paying much less you get much greater performance.

 

I'll wait until the June 22 Developers conference and hopefully a new iMac or iMac Pro comes out and that real time raytracing is in some way brought to the Mac. But neither of that is likely to happen and that's when I shall definitely wave goodbye to Apple.

 

I hoped that today some new graphic cards where to be announced on GTC 2020 but sadly that did not occur but Nvidia's Omniverse development is amazing.

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As long as there is no real Exchange,

has anybody experience with "refreshing" VW Models in Twinmotion ?

Like by C4D or FBX export.

 

So far I tested mostly with FBX from Bricscad.

I have most Materials overwritten in Twinmotion.

After I added new Geometry and refreshed in Twinmotion,

some of my Glass Panels in Curtain Walls randomly got a Wood Material

from my Furniture and such things.

Edited by zoomer
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On 5/14/2020 at 8:04 PM, zoomer said:

As long as there is no real Exchange,

has anybody experience with "refreshing" VW Models in Twinmotion ?

Like by C4D or FBX export.

 

I've been playing with export from Vectorworks as C4D. Provided you have the entire VW model set up so all components are in appropriate class, and textures set to "by class", and all classes have textures defined - then it works perfectly if you export with "by texture" checked. Make changes in VW, export, click "update" in Twinmotion and everything responds as you'd want. But I may just have been lucky! I'm looking forward to a direct link - mainly to be able to navigate using Vectorworks, as native navigation in Twinmotion is terrible.

Edited by MogTheSmilingCat
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4 minutes ago, Diego-Resuelvectorworks said:

Low level means it would be deeply integrated into the Metal API and will be much faster that way

 

 

Yes, opposed to older OpenGL Versions, Vulkan and Metal are low level graphic APIs

that allow more direct access to a GPU's hardware. So faster but in case of Vulkan

much more complicated to work with.

So lower level in this case means better.

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21 minutes ago, MogTheSmilingCat said:

then it works perfectly if you export with "by texture" checked. Make changes in VW,

 

For C4D or FBX from VW I use always export "keeping VW hierarchy".

Usually I do also import VW exports by keeping VW hierarchy into Twinmotion.

 

Just Bricscad's FBX export, while geometry wise very good,

doesn't even translate Layer hierarchy nor naming (beside for Blocks).

So just a mess of separate objects when importing.

Therefore there isn't much other chance than sorting by Materials while

Twinmotion import.

 

Maybe that import with sorting by materials in Twinmotion is error prone (?)

Maybe more likely Bricscad tends to change object's numbers or IDs

with every export which confuses Twinmotion's Material Assignments.

Edited by zoomer
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4 minutes ago, zoomer said:

 

For C4D or FBX from VW I use always export "keeping VW hierarchy".

Usually I do also import VW exports by keeping VW hierarchy into Twinmotion.

 

Just Bricscad's FBX export, while geometry wise very good,

doesn't even translate Layer hierarchy nor naming (beside for Blocks).

So just a mess of separate objects when importing.

Therefore there isn't much other chance than sorting by Materials while

Twinmotion import.

 

Maybe that import with sorting by materials in Twinmotion is error prone (?)

Maybe more likely Bricscad tends to change object's numbers or IDs

with every export which confuses Twinmotion's Material Assignments.

I just export C4D Sort by Textures, no need to do a lot of extra work in classes. And then import into TM as Collapse by material. The import update button works fine.

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I think I have to play a little more with "refreshing" FBX.

 

Basically, as long as C4D/FBX exports have proper hierarchies, like those

from VW, I usually keep these object hierarchies when importing.

As that has advantages if you need to modify things later in Twinmotion

and as Twinmotion is able to deal with such complex hierarchies.

(Much better than Modo !)

 

So normally an Import "Collapsed by Material" for me is a Workaround

where absolutely necessary. But if that's more reliable I have to rethink.

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36 minutes ago, zoomer said:

I think I have to play a little more with "refreshing" FBX.

 

Basically, as long as C4D/FBX exports have proper hierarchies, like those

from VW, I usually keep these object hierarchies when importing.

As that has advantages if you need to modify things later in Twinmotion

and as Twinmotion is able to deal with such complex hierarchies.

(Much better than Modo !)

 

So normally an Import "Collapsed by Material" for me is a Workaround

where absolutely necessary. But if that's more reliable I have to rethink.

What advantages are you gaining in terms of modifying in TM?  Are you just talking about being better organized in the Scenegraph? Have you found advantages of using FBX instead of C4D?

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I haven't seen any problems in FBX translations.

But I think C4D is even more advanced. Also you can improve your file

and materials already in Cinema4D.

 

Well, as long as there is no real Exchange to Twinmotion, I see it more

like an Export at a certain VW file state and going on working in Twinmotion.

Like changing material assignments, moving parts and such.

"Collapsed by Material" will left you with a single large mesh object per material.

Maybe there are workarounds but looks more complicated.

 

Like I use C4D Exchange all the time and I do a lot of changes beside material

replacements there. 

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TM can fake 4D Scheduling (not the actual scheduling but the pre-viz of a build) with the Phasing Tool in the latest update. In the events/entertainment world, this will be immensely helpful with planning outdoor concerts/festivals, and communicating with parks, gov agencies, and site services... someday.

 

@JuanP any exciting news for us tomorrow? Next Tuesday? Week after that? No pressure... 😉

 

 

Edited by Mark Aceto
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What’s also disappointing is the complete silence from VW on this - apart from Dr. Sarkar saying that TM and Unreal Engine integration was happening. @JuanP @Dave Donley can you give any form of an update? It should hardly be a secret as every other major platform already has direct link, and in terms of Graphisoft, bundle it with their subscription... A bone has got to be thrown to Mac users.

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19 minutes ago, JuanP said:

@Mark Aceto & @Aspect_Design As we have shared in the past, we are actively working with Unreal Engine developing a Direct Link between Vectorworks and TM. And even though I don't have an exact date to share now, let me reassured you of the progress on this task. I will share more info with all of you as it becomes available.

 

Thanks, @JuanP. As far as managing our expectations, the milestones that we're looking at along the VW roadmap are the release of VW 2021, followed by SP3. Obviously, we don't expect any plot spoilers in the weeks ahead but if it looks like it won't be until the release of VW 2022, it might be better for us to receive that news sooner than later.

 

As others have pointed out, it's not just about having the (direct-link) option to use TM vs other external renders; it will be our first and only option as Mac users. If nothing else, it would be good to know which we should expect first: internal Redshift (that supports AMD GPU) or TM direct link. There's been a lot of talk about both for the past year or two that they're in development but we have yet to see anything come to fruition (over a year after Lumion direct link availability).

 

Edited by Mark Aceto
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marc:

 

All good points but while we're watching paint dry (for years),  given a choice of resources, I'd take a redo of the trainwreck that is the stair tool any day over direct link of TM to Vectorworks even if it means constantly having to re-import vwx files into TM as I work... 

just sayin...

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2 minutes ago, jnr said:

marc:

 

All good points but while we're watching paint dry (for years),  given a choice of resources, I'd take a redo of the trainwreck that is the stair tool any day over direct link of TM to Vectorworks even if it means constantly having to re-import vwx files into TM as I work... 

just sayin...

 

No reason why we can't have both. It's not a zero sum game.

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7 minutes ago, jnr said:

marc:

 

All good points but while we're watching paint dry (for years),  given a choice of resources, I'd take a redo of the trainwreck that is the stair tool any day over direct link of TM to Vectorworks even if it means constantly having to re-import vwx files into TM as I work... 

just sayin...

Well... I just have to agree with you 100% I'll rather have just ONE  decent stair tool in Vectorworks than 100 Direct Link with any apps, the inly think keeping me in Vectorworks these years are the Worksheets, I'm using Revit for MEP design because don't have any useful tools for MEP, once Revit improve his Reports, I'm out of here even paying more for the licenses than waiting for Vectorworks to improve the Stair or the Walls or the Doors and Windows....

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20 minutes ago, DBrown said:

Well... I just have to agree with you 100% I'll rather have just ONE  decent stair tool in Vectorworks than 100 Direct Link with any apps, the inly think keeping me in Vectorworks these years are the Worksheets, I'm using Revit for MEP design because don't have any useful tools for MEP, once Revit improve his Reports, I'm out of here even paying more for the licenses than waiting for Vectorworks to improve the Stair or the Walls or the Doors and Windows....


Guys, we’re in a 3-year old thread about Twinmotion integration. There are other threads dedicated to how badly the stair tool needs to be updated. Let’s keep this on topic, so relevant comments don’t get buried.

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