Autodesk Revit users to get Twinmotion for free
Autodesk and Epic Games have announced a “strategic collaboration” to “accelerate immersive real-time experiences across industries”, with an initial focus on architecture, engineering and construction.
The initial result of the partnership will be that users of Revit, Autodesk’s building information modelling software, will have “free access” to Twinmotion, Epic Games’ real-time visualisation software.
The initiative, announced at Autodesk University 2022 alongside new ‘industry clouds’ Autodesk Flow, Forma and Fusion, will be extended to the firms’ media and entertainment customers in future.
Breaking down barriers between Autodesk and Epic Games tools
In its press release, Autodesk describes the partnership as being intended to help uses deliver projects faster, and at lower cost.
“This joint effort with Epic Games aims to make immersive RT environments easily accessible to designers, engineers and construction professionals, so they can deliver more innovative projects in less time.”
Epic Games frames it in rather less corporate terms, noting in a blog post that “our goal is to help creators do what they love best by breaking down barriers between tools”.
All Revit users to get free access to Twinmotion
Although neither announcement goes into detail about the financial commitments involved, one of the initial results of the partnership will be that an Epic Games product becomes available free to Autodesk users.
Subscribers to Revit, Autodesk’s BIM software, will have “free access” to Twinmotion, Epic Games’ Unreal Engine-based real-time visualisation software, as “part of an upcoming release”.
Autodesk describes Twinmotion as enabling Revit users to create test visualisations and documentation from Revit projects as part of a “fast, interactive design process”.
Although Twinmotion already has a Revit integration plugin, which provides a live link between the two applications, the free product is described specifically as Twinmotion for Revit.
We’ve asked whether it will be a new edition of the Twinmotion specifically designed to work with Revit, or actually integrated into Revit itself, and will update if we hear back.
Updated 29 September 2022: Epic Games tells us that it’s the standard commercial version of Twinmotion, so it will be possible to use it with other applications, not just Revit.
Expect similar developments for media and entertainment in future
While the initial focus for the partnerhip is AEC, it will be extended to the media and entertainment industry – visual effects, animation and game development – in future.
In its announcement, Autodesk namechecks the free Unreal Live Link for Maya – a new version of which has just been released – as an example of collaboration between the two companies.
While the Live Link is an existing development initiative, not a new one, Epic Games blog post confirms that: “In the future, we plan to jointly develop experiences for customers in M&E and manufacturing, bringing real-time content creation to new and diverse audiences.”
Release date, system requirements and price
Twinmotion for Revit will be available to “all Revit customers” as part of an “upcoming release”. Autodesk and Epic Games haven’t announced an exact date.
The current version of the software, Twinmotion 2022.2, is available for Windows 10+ and macOS 10.14.6+. New commercial licences cost $499. The Revit plugin is a free download, and is compatible with Revit 2018+.
Read Autodesk’s announcement of its new partnership with Epic Games
Read more about the partnership between Autodesk and Epic Games on the Unreal Engine blog