Twinmotion is another Real-Time Rendering program that you can use to render your views of your Revit model as you continue to refine it. Twinmotion is especially helpful for Mac users, because a Mac OS version is available that can work with your Revit models.
About Twinmotion
Twinmotion is a real-time rendering application that offers exceptional rendering capabilities to create photorealistic visualizations of your building models, including:
- Rendered images
- 360 degree panoramas
- Video walkthrus
- Virtual reality
You can install a special extension called DataSmith for Revit that will enable you to export your Revit models in a special file format that can be used in the Twinmotion application on both Mac and Windows computers.
If you're running Twinmotion on the same Windows computer as the Revit application, you can also create a direct link that allows Twinmotion to access the latest updates to the Revit model directly, so you have a live connection.
What's Required
The hardware requirements for using Twinmotion on Windows or Mac computers are summarized here:
In general, your computer will need a relatively powerful graphics card or graphics processor. The performance of the software will scale up or down depending on the power available for it to use.
Getting Started
You can download the Twinmotion application (Windows or Mac version) and get a free academic license here:
The plug-in to export your Revit model to Twinmotion (Datasmith for Revit) is installed as part of the Revit 2024 installation, but you can also download it here if needed:
Using Twinmotion
- Open a 3D view in your Revit model that includes all of the elements that you'd like to include in your Twinmotion rendered views.
- You can use the Visibility Graphics Overrides for this view to choose which elements should be included.
- Transfer the Revit geometry to Twinmotion:
- Option 1: File Export -- Open the View > Twinmotion > Export to Datasmith file tool to create a .udatasmith file.
- Option 2: Direct Link — Open the View > Twinmotion > Connections tool to set up an automatic synch between Revit and Twinmotion (available only if Revit and Twinmotion running on the same Windows computer)
- Open the Twinmotion application.
- Import the Revit geometry:
- Option 1: File Export -- Use the Import > Geometry command to import your Revit model elements.
- Option 2: Direct Link - Use the Import > Direct Link command to find the Direct Link on your computer and import your Revit model elements.
- As you make changes in your Revit model (altering the model elements or changing the materials assigned) you can re-export the updates to Twinmotion by:
- Re-opening the same 3D view of your Revit model that you used for the original export.
- Update the elements:
- Option 1: File Export -- Re-exporting the .udatasmith file.
- Option 2: Direct Link -- Using the View > Twinmotion > Synchronize tool (if you've established a Direct Link between Revit and TwinMotion).
