Hey there @MostlyHarmlessCA! Welcome to the community! I’ve never worked with CEVR, but it sounds like there could be an issue with the name of the object referenced (which is likely the core of the import due to that name) or some export/import settings that are misconfigured.
I would probably look into verifying the datasmith file type version you’re exporting is compatible to UE4.27, since if you’re using the the CityEngine 2024.1 it’s possible the file types may not be backwards compatible. I’d backdate CE to 2021.1 and try to follow it, as the tutorial is based around it. If that works, this was likely the culprit, and there could be a “compatibility” export option.
Another possibility, is if we take the naming error literally (it’s unlikely but not the first time I’ve seen this happen), there could be special characters, or too long of a filename when referencing the data itself, causing the data to be loaded incorrectly.