Hello guys,
I’ve been using Twinmotion for 5 years and I’d say I’ve become quite good at it.
One of my usual workflows is modelling in 3ds max, placing materials (now OpenPBR Material), export and FBX and import it into Twinmotion. I do 4D construction visuals, so the same project may have 10 different phases.
One of the reason why I chose Twinmotion over Lumion was the fact that I could import the FBX and use the scene materials, saving so much time!
With the new Twinmotion 2026, all is gone south! Let me show you an example:
- I import the context/working area FBX and put the materials:
- I then try to import the next phase for the context/working area FBX (which has got the same identical materials as the previous one), hoping to keep the same materials I’ve already placed:
- this is the result: a placeholder material is created! I can’t edit the material, and I really wanted to change it from Twinmotion, I’d need to use the modelling tool, having to select tens of triangled surface for each side.
- If I import and say to keep both materials, it does (at least it doesn’t give the same placeholder material to all of the geometry) but I need to replace all of the materials, which is not ideal!
On the good side, if I refresh an existing FBX, it retains the materials with the same geometry (something it didn’t not happen before) but as soon as you add new geometry, it goes back to placeholder material.
Is there any chance somebody has a solution for this? I’m in the middle of a submission and this issue is doubling my usual working load because I need to deal with hundreds of material replacement.
Thanks for your time and help.
Cheers,
Pierluigi
Temporary solution found.
TL;DR - Enable “Legacy Importer” in 2026.1 import settings.
I was having the same issue. After messing around with various files and checking and unchecking various settings I have found that the issue lies within Twinmotion’s new proprietary import functionality - Interchange, which was introduced in 2026.1. It’s included in the release notes here:
We are gradually shifting away from our legacy importing pipeline towards a proprietary importing pipeline called Interchange. The benefits of this importing method are a better control on the fidelity of initial imports, as well as on reimports with objects in the scene that have undergone overrides. The first two file formats we are introducing Interchange with are FBX and OBJ imports.
Additionally, we are deprecating the function Collapse by material as its original main function was to optimize the file on import. With new features such as Lumen and Path tracer, this function has caused issues, and due to limitations are not resolvable. There are many workarounds to have the same control and optimization as Collapse by material. Users can use Collapse all and still apply materials to identical materials with the Replace material option for material application. Please review the list of known bugs for reference.
We added a new Use legacy importer option in the Preferences panel under Import in the Settings tab. When the checkbox is selected, all imports for the .fbx and .obj file types fall back to the legacy importing pipeline. Keep in mind that this checkbox will remain selected when you close and reopen a Twinmotion project or window. You will need to manually deselect the checkbox to return to the Twinmotion Interchange importing pipeline. This feature is a temporary preference option designed to help users who are encountering issues with the Interchange import pipeline.
Deprecations
Collapse by material
New features with Interchange for .fbx and .obj file types
Reset transform on selected
Reset material on selected
Reimport deleted objects
However, the new functionality seems to be the cause of the Placeholder Material issues, since when it is turned off everything is miraculously OK.
In Twinmotion Import settings enable “Legacy Importer” to disable the (presumably buggy) new importing software and all the materials seem to copy across in the same way as in previous versions of the software. Will update if this stops working.
