The new Datasmith Direct Link feature enables you to open Twinmotion or your Unreal Engine application in a window, then simultaneously open a window for a program like Revit, and transfer data from Revit to your application without going through all the files. Just make the change in Revit, click a button, and you’ll instantly see that change update in your application.In the future, we’ll make it even easier by removing the click—these updates will occur live, automatically in real time. An upcoming feature—AutoSync—will enable our Datasmith exporter plugins to send incremental design changes to a Datasmith Direct Link connection without user intervention. Initially, we plan to roll out this capability for SketchUp, Rhino, SolidWorks, and Archicad, but others are planned down the road.
Datasmith Direct Link (and AutoSync) will enable you to connect your application with multiple data sources live at the same time. You could have Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, and others, all sending data in real time to the same instance of an application that you’ve built in Unreal Engine.
Architectural design and engineering firm Foster + Partners have already leveraged these new workflows to improve their Unreal Engine-powered tools.
“The Advanced Research and Development team at Foster + Partners constantly explores cutting-edge technology to enhance the design process,” says Francis Aish, Head of Applied Research and Development at Foster + Partners. “The ability to simultaneously analyse and visualize spatial experience is crucial to our collaborative design process.
“High-fidelity visual representation is a key part of both analysis and its communication. We have developed several toolsets to instantaneously analyse design changes using real-time and ray-tracing technologies. We’re linking live design models with real-time 3D environments using Datasmith’s run-time tools to extend our analytical, XR, and digital twin toolsets.”
What’s in store for the future
These new features are the beginning of something truly transformative for Datasmith. We envision a future where Datasmith goes beyond being a file format, and starts to enable live updates and the ability to have multiple connections simultaneously.
Similarly, plans to put Datasmith functionality on the cloud—not only for sharing but also for crunching of data and optimizing—would enable powerful new workflows.
Epic has an ethos of connecting tools and opening out workflows. We’re making it easy to not only bring in any type of data to Unreal Engine, but increasing the possibility of what you can do with that data, with things like our bridge between Twinmotion and Unreal Engine.
Source: Unreal Engine Blog