Setting Up a Clean Revit 3D View for Efficient Twinmotion Visualization and Direct Linking

All right, now that we have Revit open, let's open and then let's go to our downloads folder where we where I have saved the starting dataset. You might have saved it elsewhere, but for me it's in my downloads folder. Find the starting dataset folder and let's open BIM 371 apartment Revit model.

We'll want to open this file. So the first key to a clean workflow between Revit and Twinmotion is understanding that only what is visible in your active 3D Revit view will transfer into Twinmotion. If you forget this rule, you'll end up with a cluttered visualization full of grids, levels,  objects that you really never want to see.

So before you even think about linking, let's take some time to really set up a dedicated 3D view just for Twinmotion. Now that we have our Revit model open, you can see here that there is a an element. This isn't the whole thing.

This is what I already pre-set up. If I go back to my project browser and I scroll down to 3D views, let's click this cover sheet view image. This is the entire building right here.

And so if I was to direct link this entire building, it will come in with all of the information that is in here. And it will be whatever's in this 3D view. If I am if I do a direct link and I set this up, which I'll show how that's done in a little bit.

Learn Interior Design

• Nationally accredited
• Create your own portfolio
• Free student software
• Learn at your convenience
• Authorized Autodesk training center

Learn More

For right now, let's just hypothetically say if I was to direct link this thing, this entire image and all the information that's in here would transfer over. So what I like to do is I like to use my property toolbar here and under the view template or my visibility and graphics, which you can click visibility graphics overrides. This is where you can uncheck the different elements that you don't want in your building.

For example, maybe you don't want fire protection or you don't want lighting devices or even furniture for that matter. And then obviously annotation you can you can check off all the different annotation elements. Typically annotations don't really carry over any sort of text line work doesn't carry over only 3D objects carry over.

The other thing to think about is down here in the lower left is detail level fine. So sometimes if we're in a medium detail level, we're not going to get the detail of a of a window as much as you would. You can also change this from more of the realistic to shaded just to kind of give it a more of a technical kind of understanding.

And then you can obviously click this to thin the lines up to be a little more crisp. So I've already pre created this 3D view for Twinmotion export. How I got here is going back to my cover sheet view.

I like to create a section box. I click the section box button in my extents element on my properties tool, you can see that I have this box right here. If I was to click these little control little arrows, I can actually move this box over.

And as you can see is it starts cutting into my building. I want to isolate one portion of this of where I want to import the model. And so in this case, I want to import this space right in here, where I already have some furniture created.

That's this on this side. If you're if your roof deck is here on the right side, it's this room right here. If I was to kind of drag the section box over, just so I get to right outside of the of the walls here, you know, I want to include the bedroom walls.

And I can even bring this the top portion down so we can see more of a kind of like a floor plan element. You can see here that I want to enclose this so that way there's no light leak. Meaning that if I was to cut this section box into the space, you can see here that there this is basically would simulate more of an open environment, where there can be daylight getting into the space, I want to pull this so it's just outside the wall.

And it's kind of enclosed. You know, similarly, I can bring up the bottom so it's not all the way down, just to really tighten this up. And then now at the top, now that I have my space of what I want to bring in,  I can drag this portion up so I can get to of an enclosed type of ceiling type situation.

Whether or not I go all the way up to there, you know, all the way there, that's kind of however you want. Another thing to think about is in this element, there's a lot of things that I don't necessarily need to bring in. Prior to doing that, let's create a duplicate of this view.

So right click, duplicate view with detailing. And I would want to, you know, rename this 3D view for Twinmotion. If you're having trouble creating this, I've already pre-created one,  which is basically just exactly what I just did there.

Where I brought this brought this up all the way up to the ceiling level. Maybe that one was a little bit lower, kind of more around,  kind of in this kind of range. But essentially it's the same thing,  on the same kind of 3D model view of the space.

If I was to go back and forth between this one and this one, it's the same view. And so anything that's in here that I don't want to import,  I want to control with my visibility graphics. If I click my visibility graphics, I can see here,  like, I don't think I want stairs.

So I can go down to my 3D, my model categories to S for stairs, and I can uncheck stairs. And now as I can also go back to my visibility graphics,  I can either type my keyboard VV to bring that up to two V's back to back. I can scroll down to railings.

I can uncheck railings. These elements here are technically furniture. If I was to uncheck furniture, it will remove all of the furniture, which is that actually maybe something that I want to do, because I may not want to bring in these, this furniture from Revit.

Do you really want Revit's out of the box 3D elements, right? Do they want, you want their trees and cars or even furniture for that matter, right? Because Twinmotion has a much higher quality assets that you can add into those. We can hide them or we can turn them off specifically into our 3D view. So for these, right, I could hide these, you know, just to speed up my model, I can right click hide elements.

And, you know, the more things I eliminate,  the simpler the model gets imported and the lower file size would be in your Twinmotion model. Another tip is you can simplify your geometry. If you have extremely detailed families,  like mechanical equipment, or complex curtain wall mullions, you may want to create simplified versions for Twinmotion.

So simplified versions in Revit that would only be for the Twinmotion. It really kind of depends on your direct link. If you're direct linking something and it's coming in super heavy, hard to work with, you can go back into your Revit model and you can clean that up.

So by creating this clean, dedicated 3D view, you're making sure that what comes across into Twinmotion is only the geometry that matters. This step might take a few minutes, but it saves hours of cleanup later. So for this case, we're going to be operating in the created 3D view that I already set up.