Revit 2024 direct link to Twinmotion problem.

[astent2DG22]

HI,

I have just upgraded from Revit LT to the full version and have now installed Revit 2024 as well as the latest version of Twinmotion for revit, but when I try to use the open in twinmotion option it says twinmotion is not installed. I have tried re-installing Twinmotion and tried the workaround on the known issues with twinmotion page, but with no success.

I have also tried exporting a datasmith file to import to twinmotion, but each time the file only contains folder and lights, but no actual meshes, I have tried various different model files and import settings, but to no avail. 

I tried downloading a different direct link plugin from the twinmotion site, but they don't have one for revit 2024 yet. As I one of the reasons I upgraded to the full version of revit was to have an easier visualisation workflow, this is a bit of a problem, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Andy 

[ryan.duell]

From my previous post, you can navigate to the following location on your computer:

%LOCALAPPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Autodesk Revit 2024\Journals

Every time you launch Revit 2024, a new .txt file will be created. If you attempt to use the Twinmotion commands and then copy and attach the latest .txt here I can review the error condition. Otherwise, if you would prefer to search the .txt yourself, you can check if there is a Datasmith error (or similar) such as:

DatasmithWarningComment: Exception executing command The referenced object is not valid, possibly because it has been deleted from the database, or its creation was undone 

[kate]

Hi Ryan,

@ryan.duell 

Thanks for your reply. 

The issue I'm having is that when I click 'Twinmotion>Open in TwinMotion' nothing happens.

I had updated to Revit 2024 and Twinmotion 2023 when this issue first occurred, I had no issues with Revit 2023 / TM 2022.  When I couldn't open Twinmotion from Revit, I installed the Revit  2024.0.2 update and reinstalled Twinmotion to see if that would help, but I'm still experiencing the same problem.

I have tried the checks you mentioned on the 05/18/23 but that didn't work.

I read through the forum 'Known Issues for Twinmotion and Revit 2024 Interoperability' and my issue seems to be 'Twin Motion Commands are Enabled but not Functional'

I read through the checks but I don't know how to check items 1, 2 & 4.

Item 3 - C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine - I only have the Binaries and Content folder, there is no shaders folder.

I've attached the journal file after a recent attempt to open Twinmotion from a 3D view.

Hopefully you can find out what the problem is! 🙂

Thanks,

Kate

[ryan.duell]

Thank you Kate for the details and attached journal.

I see the following in the journal after attempting to use the commands:

'C 28-Jun-2023 09:35:53.797; 1:< DatasmithInitialization: GPU Check passed.
'C 28-Jun-2023 09:35:53.798; 1:< DatasmithInitialization: Skipping initialization because the directory 'C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine\Shaders' was not found.
'C 28-Jun-2023 09:35:53.999; 1:< DatasmithInitialization: Datasmith was not initialized. Can't execute the command.

I would recommend the following to resolve this if you have another version of Revit installed on the same workstation, such as Revit 2023:

1. Close Revit 2024 and Twinmotion.
2. From the Windows Add\Remove Programs, uninstall the Unreal Datasmith Exporter for Revit.
3. Download (if needed) Datasmith 5.0.3 from this link.
4. Install Unreal Datasmith Exporter for Revit.
5. This should replace the contents of C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine\ back to default.
6. Launch Revit, open the same Revit model, and try to launch Twinmotion again using the Open in Twinmotion command from a 3D view.

If you don't have another version of Revit installed (aside from Revit 2024), and you are just missing the Shaders directory, you should be able to simply extract the attached zip of the Shaders folder.

Just navigate to C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine and extract Shaders.zip to that directory; so afterward there should be 3 folders Binaries, Content & Shaders (and corresponding sub-folders).

Please let me know if either of these approaches help, and thanks again for the details!

[kate]

Hi Ryan

@ryan.duell 

Thanks!  This worked 🙂

I only had Revit 2024 installed so I added the Shaders folder and it seems to have fixed the problem.  I checked a new model and an existing model and I was able to open both.  I did have to restart my computer and it didn't work the first time, but it did after a second restart of Revit.

I noticed my C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine\Binaries folder is empty - is this correct or should there be sub folders in here?

And under C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine\Content - there is just the 'Slate' folder with the associated 'Slate' sub folders.

If I'm missing folders can you please send me these?

Thanks for your help - it's much appreciated.

[ryan.duell]

Thank you for the confirmation! And yes, correct:

C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine\Content (by default just contains a Slate directory)

C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine\Binaries (by default it is empty)

Another method which I wanted to mention which populates the C:\ProgramData\Epic\Exporter\RevitEngine directory and contents is installing Revit 2024. So as another option, you could uninstall Revit 2024 and reinstall Revit 2024; because Datasmith Exporter for Revit is built-in with Revit 2024 it will install these as part of the process.

[weinlandsammyjo]

 

[ben-msa]

  We are experiencing the same problem. We have downloaded Revit 2024 and twinmotion 2023.1.2. When we click on the open to twinmotion icon, nothing happens. The 3D model is not displayed when twinmotion is loaded.  The same result was obtained from two different projects just to make sure that it wasn't just the one file.

thank you.

I have attached below the journal file

[ben-msa]

We are experiencing the same problem. We have downloaded Revit 2024 and twinmotion 2023.1.2. When we click on the open to twinmotion icon, nothing happens. The 3D model is not displayed when twinmotion is loaded.  The same result was obtained from two different projects just to make sure that it wasn't just the one file.

thank you.

I have attached below the journal file

[ecjoseantonio]

BAIXE O ((((Twinmotion EDU 2023.1.2))))

[ryan.duell]

Thank you all for the updates. First, as a general recommendation, I would suggest installing the Revit 2024.1 update. This update includes a number of Revit + Twinmotion improvements & fixes. One of those adds a dialog which will display for cases where the Datasmith Exporter for Revit was unable to initialize but would silently fail previousy. This helps give some indication, along with the entries written to the journal, if the commands are not initialized.

The Revit 2024.1 release notes are available here.

Some specific questions\comments for recent additions to this post:

• weinlandsammyjo | To confirm; you are in a 3D view correct? The commands shown as disabled in your screenshot are only enabled in a 3D view in Revit 2024; otherwise in non-3D views they will appear as they do in your screenshot. Please let me know!
• ben-msa | Thank you for attaching the journal file. In your case, the journal does indicate Datasmith Exporter for Revit properly initialized:

DatasmithInitialization: Initialized successfully.

Could you confirm if the same behavior occurs after updating Revit 2024 to 2024.1? If so, could you please attach a revised journal after attempting to use Open in Twinmotion from a 3D view? Thank you.

[ben-msa]

Hello Ryan,

I downloaded the update for Revit 2024.1 and restarted the computer completely. I am coming up with the same problem at the end. I have attached the journal file below.

Thanks.

Ben

[ryan.duell]

Thanks Ben.

In looking at your Revit model file name (from the journal) the issue should be the comma in the file name. If you remove that, Open in Twinmotion (or manually adding a direct link) should work as expected.

There are some current known limitations with file names and special characters that cannot be parsed and can cause a direct link connection to fail.

I confirmed once removing just the comma, saving a copy of the model, closing and re-opening it, then doing Open in Twinmotion, it worked as expected.

The first section in this page mentions this type of potential conflict - Known Issues for Twinmotion and Revit 2024 Interoperability

Please let us know if this resolves your issue, thank you!

[dcarlsen8GY35]

TwinMotion starts , Direct Link dialogue box opens to select new or existing and options but Direct Link loading bar never appears and load does not occur - just the desert. For what it's worth something seems to be churning in the background - nothing visual - because elevated fan activity like it's working on something. That is not common on my computer.

[ryan.duell]

Thanks. Can you also double-check the Revit file name (example from the previous post)? This can be a common cause for direct link to not see the Revit model.

[asmayaichi1]

TRY TO OPEN IT WHEN YOU ARE IN THE 3D VIEW.. I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM BEFORE

[dcarlsen8GY35]

Thanks for taking time to reply. I am always in 3D to try opening. I have a number of projects which will open and a few that won't. One of the ones that won't is a fairly large project with about 20 linked Revit projects as it is a master plan for a development. The Direct Link dialogue never opens on the few projects. I've uninstalled and re-installed etc. It needs to open - it's the only thing that matters at this moment.  That said, Enscape trial version opens flawlessly. I'll probably go that way even at 46 a month because I need something that works without me being a tech genius. It's apparent to me that this is definitely a Twinmotion issue that they need to fix. There are way too many "yeah, it happens to me too" responses in this thread to be otherwise.

[ryan.duell]

Thank you for the reply.

One thing that would be a good confirmation. Instead of using the Open in Twinmotion command, instead just manually launch Twinmotion 2023.1.  Make sure you have this large Revit model open in Revit 2024 (the one with the 20 links). From Twinmotion, do a File > Import > Direct Link. Select this Revit model. Then, from Revit 2024, do a View > Twinmotion > Synchronize.

For very large models, it can take some time for the Twinmotion direct link progress bar to display. Revit is essentially exporting the geometry and data, and Twinmotion is importing it. This will help determine if it works this way (which is the manual approach to add the direct link).

If this model still doesn't work, I would just double-check the file name to make sure it doesn't have any special characters, etc. That is the most common reason direct link fails, when it cannot parse a specific file name.

Thanks!

[dcarlsen8GY35]

Thanks, I will try that. Before I upgraded to 24.1 I did try that and it didn't work either - the import route - but I'll give it another shot. Even if that works, I would feel the same about the product working as advertised - the easy, straightforward, intended way. Workarounds are fine but not really what we sign up for.

[dcarlsen8GY35]

btw - I did an "open in" at the same time as the earlier post - it still hasn't activated 2.5 hours later.

[dcarlsen8GY35]

I see no way to launch TM manually - no desktop shortcuts no icons no folders with an exec - probably just me but soooooo user unfriendly this program. Another btw - Enscape seems completely happy to open whatever file name I have including ones that absolutely have special characters and no I have no connection whatsoever with Enscape except that I am happy that I have a tool to put together the video presentation I'm hoping for. If I am able to manually launch at some point I will be happy to give it a whack