When trying to visualize projects from Autodesk Civil 3D in Twinmotion, there are significant challenges because the projects are georeferenced. This means they don’t start at the coordinates 0,0,0 as in many other CAD systems. Instead, Civil 3D projects use real-world coordinates, so the elements are placed according to their actual global positions.
The issue with Twinmotion is that environment features like HDRI don’t seem to work properly in this context. The entire project would need to be moved within Twinmotion to function correctly with these features.
So my question is:
Is it possible to change the 0,0,0 origin point in Twinmotion, so the project can remain at its real-world location where it was designed and planned?
Thanks
Hi CADjumper - do you have access to 3dsMAX? You can use Civil View in this package to automatically import C3D to have the origin within the model. This method tells you the x/y shift it is applying. Or you can remove the Georeferencing and translate everything to be around 0,0,0 within C3D before the export. I use a combination of methods depending upon the objects and my needs, then fbx from 3dsMAX or use the Datasmith export. Never had a problem using these methods and have achieve fab results.
Thank you for the response.
I haven’t been using Civil 3D for very long yet, and I haven’t used 3DS Max in years.
I startet Civil 3D few weeks ago. For Rendering i´m using Twinmotion.
However, I do have access to 3DS Max. I haven’t really understood the workflow yet — how is the Civil 3D project supposed to be brought into 3DS Max?
I have initialized Civil View, but I don’t know how the project is transferred to 3DS Max.
Is it synchronized like with Datasmith?
Thanks
Hiya, In C3D you have a couple of options. the easy option I use most of the time is to switch off GeoReferencing so that you can move the data away from it’s locked coordinates. I then do a save as and shift the whole model so that 0,0,0 sits roughly central to my model. Open 3dsMAX and Import the dwg file. You can then export as datasmith or fbx into Twinmotion. Other option is to keep the GeoReferencing on in C3D and go to Output and then choose Export to 3ds MAX. This saves it as a VSP3D file. You can then go to your Civil View pull down in 3dsMAX and use Geometry Import, Civil 3D (VSP 3D) file and then choose what you want to Import. 3dsMAX will then look for the centre of mass of your data and use that as 0,0,0 for object importing. It will also give you a read out of the shift it has applied. Same principal then for the export to Twinmotion. Good Luck