No FBX in Archicad 26

[Rex Maximilian]

Having downloaded Archicad 26 today, my first order of business was to see if they’ve included FBX export from the 3D window.

Nope.

Everyone, I’m at a loss for words. Imagine a word processing app not being able to save PDF, or an image editing program not being able to save JPG!

FBX is the industry standard for 3D model exchange and asset creation, and our $5K software with a $900 yearly price tag to remain current can’t save an industry standard format… SketchUp can… Revit can… Archicad falls short!

What are our options? A petition? An en masse open letter to major software publications highlighting this glaring omission?

Graphisoft has stopped responding to any forum post regarding FBX, and obviously from its lack of FBX exportability in Archicad 26, Graphisoft has ignored our repeated requests!

But guess what Archicad can export?

1. Electric Image (last release in 2013)
2. Piranesi (last release in 2007)
3. Wavefront (acquired by Autodesk in 2008)
4. Collada (last release in 2008)
5. VRML (last code update in 1997)

They offer us these antiquated and outdated formats, yet no FBX! What do we do next?

Graphisoft, you’re on the clock here. We need a response and we need it now.

[Rex Maximilian]

😂🤙

[Steve Jepson]

or invest in Lumion Lumion 3D Rendering Software | Architectural Visualization  ?  

[Martin Jules]

Thanks, @Steve Jepson ! I have two commercial licenses for Lumion. I use it for my architectural renderings.  

[Steve Jepson]

I have used the Demo versions for a long time, but not the most recent.  It looked to me like it would be really great for most things, but I thought it was limited for the occasional high-quality Rendering.  + Its too expensive for me considering all the other things I need.  

[Djordje]

... aaand the TM tech support was quick and to the point.

You should run the Archicad 25 5010 update, and then install the Datasmith 5_0_3 plugin. There are issues, and any should be reported to https://twinmotionhelp.epicgames.com/s/case-community-page

Just installing the 5010, let's see how it goes...

[Rex Maximilian]

I'm done with Datasmith, etc. I'm saving out SKP from AC and importing into TM. Already done it with v26 and it works.

Just incredible that we have to use a third party format to be able to maintain a workflow because of their shortsightedness regarding FBX.

[Minh Nguyen]

Hello,

Thank you all for sharing your thoughts regarding this issue!

This issue started when Epic Games moved away from FBX to use their own proprietary format in the newer Twinmotion connection. As I mentioned previously, we received this functionality from Twinmotion/Epic Games, thus it is not our Intellectual property to recompile it for later Archicad versions. Developing the support for another 3D format would take a lot of time and resources (especially since FBX is a closed format), thus it's a difficult question of how to allocate enough manpower to create this.

Furthermore, if the main issue is exchanging models with Twinmotion, I see we have different options for that. May I ask you why FBX export is such an important feature for you? Other 3D formats mentioned in this thread are also used widely by the industry, not to mention FBX is not exactly new either (created in 2006).

Best regards,
Minh

[Francois_MCD]

Hi @Minh Nguyen 

Thanks for specifically clarifying the origin for FBX in previous Archicad. It makes a lot of sense and I understood before that it's not as simple as others want it to be. There's always 2 sides to a story.

To your question "why FBX is so important" I can say this:

The main reason is that FBX is better in several ways than 3DS & OBJ to transfer a model to render software for example, whether from Archicad or any other modeling software.

• ie. FBX transfers textures way better. 3DS & OBJ very often map the textures wrongly to the mesh or some times not at all.
• FBX also gives a better quality transfer. You have to do more work from 3DS & OBJ to get the quality back.
• FBX is much lighter in the receiving software (I'm not sure why, but it is).
• FBX has better support to do animations than 3DS & OBJ.

You'll see this in Twinmotion, Unreal Engine (probably Unity then also, I don't have experience here), Sketchfab & even metaverse platforms like Spatial & Decentraland.

While we talk about metaverse, we should add .GLTF .GLB formats to the list. These formats are becoming main formats in CGI, VR, AR (XR) & Web3.0 because it has been optimized for the most current tech & workflows. I really think Graphisoft should at least support these formats soon. It's a good thing that many CGI artists prefer modeling in Archicad over ie. Sketchup.

This is all related to visualization workflows and important for 3D Artists. 

I hope this helps. 

[Minh Nguyen]

Hi Francois,

Thank you very much for the detailed explanation! I have added your comment to the wish. I really hope that we will be able to bring back this function in the near future!

Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions!

Best regards,

Minh

[Martin Jules]

Great, @Minh Nguyen, and thanks for following-up on this request. Adding the option to save as FBX format in Archicad will help us with our 3D models when the time comes to render them using other specialized software for that. This option is also available in Revit, Sketchup, and Rhino for the benefit of their users. Again, congratulations on doing that!

Here are some advantages of the FBX extension by Pasquale Scionti: