FBX Export Archicad 25

[Coulouri]

Is there at plan to give us the option to export to FBX in the future?
I see that many users talk about it but turn it to that there now is a solution to it by Datasmith to use with Twinmotion. But not all of us work with Twinmotion.

I work with 3D Studio/VRay and Unreal for many of our projects and sure Datasmith is nice to have in Archicad, but not to have the chance to export to FBX for 3D Studio or Blender is really a bummer. To not have the opportunity to have linked projects with FBX-files makes revisions a really hard days work.

FBX-Files is used by many 3D software and gives Archicad projects the chance to go in many different ways for presentation to clients. To just say we have Datasmith is to say that we only work with Twinmotion and Unreal, I don't just want to work with those, I want my projects to have the opportunity to expand in many other 3D applications. 

Maybe I missed something but I cant find the Export FBX anywhere.

[Rex Maximilian]

While OBJ works for some apps, it's not a universal import/export format for many modern apps. It's about saving out to a format that is most universal and high quality for general purpose use (3D warehouses, etc.), VR apps, etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Maya/comments/ak2dd1/whats_the_difference_between_obj_and_fbx_and_when/

Also, it's been mentioned earlier in this thread the differences between FBX and OBJ, specifically in the textures and UVs. The first reply in this Reddit thread really explains it well. 

[POTS]

I was just looking for the FBX export option and stumbled upon this.

the FBX format is owned by Autodesk, I dont know how the decision was made, to take out FBX from Archicad , but it is a really bad decision. FBX is probably the best 3d exchange format in the industry, saying from years of my own experience. Its becoming really off putting (to say it gently) how these corporate wars (Autodesk vs Graphisoft) are getting in the way of working efficiently in the name of profit or getting clients.

[Coulouri]

Didn't dig deep to see who owned the FBX format but that might explain some. Thanks for the reply.

[POTS]

Buy out the competition works out quite nice for autodesk, as much as for adobe (latest one is substance painter). There's close to zero real development in some software cases, same goes sometimes to Graphisoft which dont put enough attention on fixing bugs - view crashes, ifc export etc'. the redshift render looks like something from the early 90's, wake up Graphisoft !!

[Rex Maximilian]

The issue you bring up has been brought up before, but as we further discussed, DWG and RVT formats are also owned by Autodesk, and Graphisoft exports out to those, as well as a multitude of other products exporting to FBX.

They did announce publicly online that they would develop the plug-in "very" soon, but that could mean anything. The current solution I have found that supplies the richest file is to save to SketchUp, then from SketchUp to FBX. Of course that requires a SketchUp license, and a caveat of NOT saving to SKP 2021 format from Archicad 26 as there is a bug with GS's exporter.

[Rex Maximilian]

What happened is that Graphisoft relied on Epic to write the Twinmotion export add-on which saved out an FBX file. After Epic switched to a datasmith format for Archicad 25 and 26, Graphisoft simply let FBX exportability fall into the cracks. Again, hopefully their promise to have it "very" soon will happen before year's end... or at least not have us wait until Archicad 27.

It really is quite a major shortcoming since EVERY other major software writes out and reads in FBX.

[POTS]

With Archicad 23 you can still directly file > 'save as' fbx. Doesnt this mean Graphisoft had the fbx export native to Archicad without depending on the Epic plugin ? Like said here fbx is very common in the industry because all the other formats are rather limited, with fbx you can also reload and update your progress. In terms of stability and possibilities of Archicad Graphisoft is quite a disappointment for me, good features are taken out, the program is less stable. 

[Eduardo Rolon]

The one in 23 was written by Epic not GS.

[jc4d]

We have implemented the Archicad-Unreal-Blender workflow. Is not as straight forward as having a native fbx format from Archicad. One important thing, use ue5.1 since 5.0 wasn't retaining the objects name when exporting fbx.

[Romans]

There is another 'workaround' possible and maybe produces a much better model than .skp:
Save to Rhino (3dm) and from Rhino to .FBX. 
Rhino generates the best-quality models on the market. I would recommend avoiding SketchUp as much as possible.

https://docs.mcneel.com/rhino/7/help/en-us/index.htm#fileio/motionbuilder_fbx_import_export.htm