Direct Link to Twinmotion resets all my materials each time.

[adam covell]

Hi , We are loving Twinmotion with VW22 but we are finding that whenever we change something in our VW model , hit the direct link button and then go back to Twinmotion , that the materials have been reset to the way they were when we imported them. For example the glass of our building comes into Twinmotion with the material name given in VW. I then go to drop a Twinmotion standard two sided glass onto the VW material swatch. this works fine until I go back to VW to change some geometry (change anything in fact) and when I hit direct link again the materials are all back to the way they were when I imported. Thanks A

[zoomer]

Thanks for testing.

As I would need a working TM Exchange in a few days too.

 

I had only one initial test with Exchange with the first Datasmith export

and having both Apps running beside each other.

But soon both Apps froze when I tried to quit TM. That was on M1 Mac Mini.

 

Tried another time on the PC and realized that quitting TM, with a < 500 MB file,

also looked like freezing, but successfully closed after about 20 minutes.

[Dave Donley]

@adam covellWe are aware of this issue and have a potential fix for it for Service Pack 2, we are testing with the latest Twinmotion 2021.2 to make sure.

 

A workaround for now would be to modify your VW file, save the VW file, close it, open it again, and then sync it to Twinmotion.

 

[zoomer]

On 10/4/2021 at 4:24 PM, adam covell said:

hit the direct link button and then go back to Twinmotion , that the materials have been reset to the way they were when we imported them.

 

I went the unconventional and risky way today.

Just exported Datasmith again and have overwritten the old Datasmith files.

Opened my TM file, it took a while to load.

(the updated - but not complete model - appeared)

Did a Datasmith refresh in TM.

Model is updated with current VW Visibilities (EDIT : nearly)

 

And it seems like I did not lose any Material Assignments overwritten in TM.

(Like my VW Glass is still a TM clear glass)

Edited October 5, 2021 by zoomer

[Dave Donley]

@adam covell This bug is fixed by Twinmotion 2022.1 Preview 1 (available now from the Epic Games Launcher app) and Vectorworks 2022 SP2 (due to go out end of this month).  HTH  Thanks for the bug report!

 

[zoomer]

31 minutes ago, Dave Donley said:

Twinmotion 2022.1 Preview 1 (available now from the Epic Games Launcher app)

 

I have never found any non official version there.

Maybe because you have a developer account ?

(at least yesterday ...)

 

EDIT :

OK, now it is there for me too .... 🙂

Edited November 2, 2021 by zoomer

[Dave Donley]

Ah OK good!  There are changes we made in VW too, that are in SP2 that help.  Any other problems you see let us know please.

 

[zoomer]

On 11/3/2021 at 2:09 PM, Dave Donley said:

Ah OK good!  There are changes we made in VW too, that are in SP2 that help.  Any other problems you see let us know please.

 

 

 

2022.1 Preview works fine with VW 2022.

I got my Materials with stencil maps now, also my basic ImagePops assets,

Materials Settings and overall quality looks better too.

Looking forward to VW SP2.

 

BTW

Unfortunately no Path Tracer for Mac, nor Apple ARM version so far.

Even more pity,

TM Path Tracer immediately crashes on my PC too 😞

Looks like because of AMD GPU and/or AMD drivers.

[line-weight]

This resetting of materials was a problem when I last tested VW / TM live link.

 

But I'm pleased to see it seems to be fixed now (thanks @Dave Donley). Today I've tested with VW2022 SP2 and Twinmotion 2021.1.4. I've also tested it with Twinmotion 2022.1 preview.

 

@zoomer have you been using TM 2022.1 preview on your mac much and have you had problems? According to the Twinmotion site:

 

https://twinmotionhelp.epicgames.com/s/article/TwinMotion-System-Requirements?language=en_US

 

They say using it on M1 macs is "not recommended" although it does seem to run ok on mine (I've not used it a lot though). Also they say Monterey is not yet supported.

 

As you say, various features of 2022.1 aren't available on mac such as the path tracing and also 3dconnexion support (as far as I can see).

 

If 3dconnexion support comes to Twinmotion on mac then this might be the point I start considering using it seriously. I can't find much info on whether that's expected soon though.

Edited December 6, 2021 by line-weight

[zoomer]

Yes, 2022.1 preview on M1 Mini and PC

(I already uninstalled previous official versions)

 

I personally have not noticed any problems wit Monterey 12.1 Public Beta.

What ever that means.

 

 

And today I read that they are working on and expecting a native ARM version

in "early" 2022 already (no Path Tracing) and are working on AMD GPU reliability.

[DCB]

Hi, I'm running VW Landmark 2022 sp 2 and Twinmotion 2022.1 and I'm having an issue with plant substitutions in Twinmotion being overwritten when the VW direct link synchronization is executed. The plant substitution is removed and the plants revert back to the image props from VW. The Direct Link Settings in Twinmotion is set to Enable Substitution. Does anyone know how to prevent this from happening? Thanks.

[tsw]

On 11/2/2021 at 2:28 PM, Dave Donley said:

@adam covell This bug is fixed by Twinmotion 2022.1 Preview 1 (available now from the Epic Games Launcher app) and Vectorworks 2022 SP2 (due to go out end of this month).  HTH  Thanks for the bug report!

 

 

@Dave Donley I'm still encountering this bug when using the Datasmith Direct link Synchronize tool with Vectorworks 2022 SP2.1 and Twinmotion 2022.1 (Windows 10 64-bit). Sometimes the material substitutions stick for a few updates, but most of the time they revert to their original state.

 

I'm not certain, but it seems to happen most frequently when adding new textures or objects to the VW file. Deleting or moving existing objects doesn't seem to cause the materials to lose their substitutions.

 

Are others still experiencing this bug? Is there any workaround at this time? Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[grant_PD]

I've seen this happen on a project I'm working on.  Also having issues with objects just not importing.  It seems to be related to nested symbols....but I haven't verified it.  

[Murawski_Studio]

Sadly I am also getting the same issue with materials reverting back to the Vectorworks settings and overwriting the ones I had spent time and effort getting right in Twinmotion.  I've tried using an export option (overwriting the previous linked file) and the direct link, and the same issue keeps happening.  Very frustrating - Twinmotion is a great piece of software but this issue keeps setting me back and is making me question whether it's worth persevering with.

[grant_PD]

I'll be trying it today with "subsitution" checkbox on as the TM docs say that keeps the materials from overriding.  

[DCB]

@grant_PD I tried the sync with the Direct Link Settings in Twinmotion set to Enable Substitution and this did not resolve the issue.

[grant_PD]

Unfortunate.  I've seen better performance since setting that, although there is still some unexplained missing textures and pieces occurring..

[line-weight]

On 1/27/2022 at 12:43 PM, Murawski_Studio said:

Twinmotion is a great piece of software but this issue keeps setting me back and is making me question whether it's worth persevering with.

 

Same here.

[grant_PD]

Update on my progress w/ Twinmotion for a current project:

-Using the substitution check box seems to solve most material problems.  I find that there is better luck with materials that have an image file in channels rather than shaders, so even for colors I have used color block .pngs.

-Raytracing in TM is the biggest killer.  I had to abandon it after a while because my computer kept crashing.  

-The replace object command is pretty cool, but I find that because VW sets the object axis differently things can end up in weird places.  

 

[zoomer]

24 minutes ago, grant_PD said:

-The replace object command is pretty cool, but I find that because VW sets the object axis differently things can end up in weird places. 

 

 

Noticed that too !

For me especially the replacing objects where rotated.

(3D's Y axis up vs CAD's Z axis ?)

 

I had even existing parts suddenly rotating after just playing with Texture Scale !?

[grant_PD]

And....back again.  New project and TM resets the textures each time.  Specifically the reflection settings, glow settings and sometimes even the texture replacement.  I have substitution on, still not working.

[RitchieTheBrit]

Is there any roadmap for this being fixed @Dave Donley? The directlink feature is great, but this renders it virtually useless!

 

I also noticed in the VW docs the following information..

 

Quote

 

7. Click the tool and mode again to send the changes to Twinmotion, as often as needed during the design process.

 

If a Vectorworks model is changed, and then re-exported and -imported into the other program, any Twinmotion/Unreal scene and material overrides applied earlier remain unchanged.

 

Use the Twinmotion/Unreal Direct Link function to send changes made in that program to the Vectorworks file.

 

 

So obviously the material overrides aren't working, however it would seem the scene overrides do (the only one I have tested is location by moving it in TM).

 

It was the second point about sending changes back to VW that got me curious! I cannot see a way to do this, unless I'm missing something blatantly obvious.

Edited February 10, 2022 by RitchieTheBrit
tagged Dave Donley

[Dave Donley]

Hello all:

 

With Vectorworks Service Pack 3 (shipping next month) the Datasmith Direct Link tool will be a true automatic sync, where you don't have to press the Sync button as much.  There are many internal improvements as well in Service Pack 3 for this tool, and we think many of the issues you mention here should be improved.

 

I can share a link to Vectorworks 2022 Service Pack 3 so you can try out the new version and verify if it helps the issues you have been enumerating here.  Let me know with a direct message and I will share the link with you.  There are two more beta releases schedule for this before it ships next month.  We are finishing up final safe changes.

 

There are cases where Twinmotion material overrides will be lost with certain operations done in the Vectorworks model, and these cases will remain.  One case is if you change a plug-in object parameter, all objects are deleted first and then the plug-in script is run to create new geometry.  The information to link the object with the material override is lost in that case.  Another case is if you resize or do other operations to walls this is like recreating the wall sub-geometry which also breaks the link to material overrides.  And there are other cases.  Where we can, we are maintaining persistence so that material overrides don't change.

 

[Mark Aceto]

1 minute ago, Dave Donley said:

Hello all:

 

With Vectorworks Service Pack 3 (shipping next month) the Datasmith Direct Link tool will be a true automatic sync, where you don't have to press the Sync button as much.  There are many internal improvements as well in Service Pack 3 for this tool, and we think many of the issues you mention here should be improved.

 

I can share a link to Vectorworks 2022 Service Pack 3 so you can try out the new version and verify if it helps the issues you have been enumerating here.  Let me know with forum DM and I will share the link with you.  There are two more beta releases schedule for this before it ships next month.  We are finishing up final safe changes.

 

There are cases where Twinmotion material overrides will be lost with certain operations done in the Vectorworks model, and these cases will remain.  One case is if you change a plug-in object parameter, all objects are deleted first and then the plug-in script is run to create new geometry.  The information to link the object with the material override is lost in that case.  Another case is if you resize or do other operations to walls this is like recreating the wall sub-geometry which also breaks the link to material overrides.  And there are other cases.  Where we can, we are maintaining persistence so that material overrides don't change.

 

 

Is the recommended workflow still to Keep hierarchy?

 

Every tutorial I've ever watched from UE and TM recommends Collapse by material.

[Dave Donley]

I think if you choose collapse by material it will limit you to only being able to override all objects that use the same material at once rather than separately per-object.  Collapse by material should be faster for realtime performance, although I haven't noticed a difference in speed between the two.