Twinmotion DirectLink failing to update project

[mhmorgado]

So, I have this complex project: 200MB, total polycount 7million; 6 Hotlink Modules for multiple parts of it with other nested ones, etc. Despite all this I got ArchiCAD to smoothly sync various times the project with the scene as the workflow progressed.
However, now I get all sorts of crashes. Sometimes error "parsing the file", others twinmotion won't even bother to open effectively. Most of the times however I get these bug reports which are impossible to interpret. I forwarded the issue to Twinmotion forums also.

Anyone had an experience solving these sync issues? I tried deleting all Direct Link IDs from all the hotlinks in the project file and from it inclusively. Still no luck. Any ideas on how to fix this? Will gladly share additional information.

If not, then maybe you can help me with a workaround! Another thing I have been struggling with is that for some reason I don't seem to be able to break link, unlink or even delete the imported ArchiCAD geometry from the Twinmotion file after save. If I could, then I would just merge back that file after syncing to a new scene and voilá problem solved.

This is infuriating to be honest. Everywhere I go with these issues there are two kinds of people only: those without a single problem; those who can't even sync at all. Has anyone been on both sides?

Thanks in advance

[Carstenem]

I am not sure about your hotlink problem, strange it first worked and suddenly stopped. As for deleting, this is a strange one, you have to rename the link, then you can delete it !

Cheers Carsten

[mhmorgado]

This is very strange indeed. At the ArchiCAD-Talk forums there's no one with this problem, it seems. However, when I go to ask directly to the Twinmotion community at facebook, it seems like no one is managing to do the live sync correctly from ArchiCAD. Everyone keeps recommending the .fbx export workflow and some even SketchUp. Some even claim this method won't lose texture assignment work (?!). Without any other means to troubleshoot this issue, I guess I will just try that.

P.S.: Unfortunately changing the container(s) name(s) in Twinmotion (I guess that is what you were referring to) still wouldn't let me delete the previously synced Archicad Container. There are two containers automatically generated it seems (Add-In) which is the main container for the "Project.pln" container. Couldn't get to delete either of them.

Thanks anyway, let's hope something comes in which I can mark as an answer

[Carstenem]

That sounds pretty annoying for you. I do have to say I had not too many problems yet even so the models are quite large. Some take up to 10 min. to sync but there is a lot of data, it still worked.

I can recommend to open TM first without having AC open, then try the rename and delete. I have to say we should be able to delete the link anyway without renaming so that has to be a bug.

Hopefully you will get some answers from the EPIC games forum as this is certainly not good enough.

Let the users of this forum know if you get anywhere that would be helpful.

Cheers Carsten

[mhmorgado]

EDIT: Well, false alarm. Crashes are back. Occasionally I can sync. No idea what changes are responsible, seems random. I'll be back to my desktop soon in order to check if it still syncs there. On my lapotop I managed to do it only once. Then changed a material of a morph and the sync failed yet again.

Installing ArchiCAD 23 resolved the syncing issue at first on both my laptop and desktop. I got a message about project erros being solved when opening the project. Twinmotion asked me if I wanted to force sync the "different" project and it succeded.

Not exactly a fix but better than nothing!.. WIll move to the .fbx methodology if this keeps up though, without hearing further from Twinmotion...

Thanks for the help so far. Really wish I could get to delete the AddIn folder from the scene at least...Otherwise I'll just merge later but the file will get heavy...

[mhmorgado · Accepted solution]

Well, it is kind of lame to mark my own answer as an answer....

Regardless of that, thanks to the amazing Twinmotion community at facebook I managed to find out 3 things.
1) Many users of Twinmotion 2019 with Archicad 22 and 23 are reporting DirectLink issues. Some even pointed to only use the feature to wow clients in special occasions (when they dared!).
2) The only truly reliable workflow is .fbx export. This was vouched by Tianxiao Wang from TM's Community Manager department. She even assisted with finding out how to remove DirectLinked geometry from ArchiCAD. You have to MERGE to a new file so that geometry becomes editable/removable, etc.
3) If you use the replace geometry feature to an imported .fbx file (your project's outdated version, per instance) you can then relink to a new .fbx file, updating the project. This prevents you from losing texture editing work which was applied to the previous version of the project.

Hope this helps someone. Thanks to all those who tried to help, both in this community as in Twinmotion's. Cheers all!

[Carstenem]

Thanks for sharing your research and these updates that is very useful !

I would hope Graphisoft or EPIC games will fix these issues asap, no good advertising something unreliable.

Found this, looks like EPIC game has a support site now:

https://twinmotionhelp.epicgames.com/s/?tabset-f276c=3

Cheers Carsten