topic Re: Built-in 3D in archicad? in Visualization

Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 19:50:50 GMT

Hello I have question about built-in add-on inside of archicad for 3D. I don't expect much of this 3D (not 3ds max quality but some decent 3D that are representable). I guess I am a bit confused.

I know it has some sort of standard build-in 3D (it is just ok to me without making difference between elevation and that 3d tool). I am aware there is also Cinema 4D but I am little confused about how it is used. My intention was to create the 3d's inside of archicad and not using another software/application.

Isn't the Cinema 4D meant to be used integrated inside of archicad?

If not, is there another "free" addon that can be used inside?

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

Bricklyne Clarence — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 20:48:19 GMT

...

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

rm — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 20:37:58 GMT

I'm not sure why you received such a harsh response from the other user, I understood perfectly well that you were trying to understand what rendering capabilities are built in to ArchiCAD. Some like to make themselves seem wise by trying to make others feel foolish.

I cannot speak for others, but I have always found rendering inside of ArchiCAD slow, cumbersome and just not efficient use of time. There are quite a few good 3rd party rendering packages out there, of course as an added expense. BUT, if you are working in ArchiCAD and want to render an image in the background in another software package. This gives you access to better rendering engines and dual use of your computer, assuming it is fast enough.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

scottjm — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 21:40:10 GMT

you have the following built in 3D view/output functions built in to Archicad.
- the standard 3D window used for 3d modelling/editing, which gives rudimentary 3d views and can show textures, but lacks advanced light quality, transparency, reflectivity etc.

- the 3D Document - which is just a vectorial representation of a 3d view.

- Cinerender/Cinema 4D is the built in ‘Rendering’ tool. This includes Redshift rendering engine these days. While it is possible get good quality renders with it, I have always found it cumbersome and slow to get things looking good.

Newer real-time rendering applications like Enscape, Twinmotion or D5 are far superior and I’m able to get very impressive outputs which little or no additional configurations. So the return on investment for these other platforms is almost immediate over cinerender. They do however require a suitably powerful dedicated graphics card to run

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

Laszlo Nagy — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 23:28:43 GMT

As far as I know, and my AI buddy says the same:

"Twinmotion offers a fully-featured, unrestricted version free of charge for businesses with annual gross revenue under $1 million."

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

Lingwisyer — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 01:51:14 GMT

https://www.twinmotion.com/en-US/download

That is $1 million USD. Also free for students and educational institutions.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:43:45 GMT

lol aren't you grumpy. No I mean actually Cinema 4D 😂 exactly how archcicad itself refers to it? I know you had probably need to correct me, but I think I can explain myself well without "correct" terminology. Thankfully, the rest of people here understood it.

https://www.graphisoft.com/downloads/addons/cinema_4d/cinema4d_download/

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

jl_lt — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:59:56 GMT

i recommend twinmotion, it has been a complete game changer for us, specially if you need nice results while also working in rral time, but not necessarily strife for photorealism.

ive heard great things about D5, but havent used that one yet.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:54:28 GMT

thank you, I appreciate it! Maybe I did not use the correct terminology but archicad literally calls it Cinema 4D on their site so how am I suppose to know it is something else.
Anyway, Thank you for not entertaining the drama.

Regarding the renderings. My team use 3ds max for prominent rooms (open space, master bed, powder room..). For the standard rooms I have always provided elevations but the problem with that sometimes is, that the contractors/builders often miss a lot of details, swatch finishes, etc. (it does not happen all the time and all the rooms but it is common enough for me to do some "simple" renderings. But I prefer to do it in archicad.

also because I never used archicad for renderings in general, and did not like the "creative imagining" (have no idea if thats correct terminology but that's how I see it in archicad menu) , I did little research and found the Cinema 4D (or however else they call it).But It wasn't clear whether it Is another software or built-in archicad. Or if there is anything else I can't use for free. (to me the archicad is already quite expensive so I was hoping to have some reasonable 3D maker built in?)

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 19:56:26 GMT

thank you!

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 20:01:02 GMT

thank you! I am going to look over the Twinmotion. I know it is an "outside"software but I understand there is plug-in that transfer it live, without any issues and making it quite convenient? (Instead save as > import and export back and forward?

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

rm — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 23:16:44 GMT

Keep in mind I’ve used Twinmotion many times, on the macOS. It definitely runs better in the windows environment and offers better functionality. Even on a Mac Studio that is well spec’d, I can easily crash Twinmotion. Constantly save your file as you work in Twinmotion.

As a reference, I’m also a professional colorist for broadcast television sports. I run DaVinci Resolve with 6TB files, with no hiccups at all, and frankly ArchiCAD runs very well on the same Mac.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

jl_lt — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 01:15:06 GMT

@cocoloco wrote:

Hello I have question about built-in add-on inside of archicad for 3D. I don't expect much of this 3D (not 3ds max quality but some decent 3D that are representable). I guess I am a bit confused.

I know it has some sort of standard build-in 3D (it is just ok to me without making difference between elevation and that 3d tool). I am aware there is also Cinema 4D but I am little confused about how it is used. My intention was to create the 3d's inside of archicad and not using another software/application.

Isn't the Cinema 4D meant to be used integrated inside of archicad?

If not, is there another "free" addon that can be used inside?

this one is not going to be popular, but for some reason i actually like the creative image suite very much. Under certain circumstances and type of projects it can give you more than enough to work with.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

Erwin Edel — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 07:36:30 GMT

We use cinerender with custom scenes for several renders that we overlay in photoshop. It does reasonably well with a multicore CPU in my experience. Render times of 1 to 2 minutes for a 195x135 mm 300 dpi image (exterior render). We see no need to render larger images. Most images get viewed on devices and screens that are roughly HD and it still prints sharp on a full A4 sheet.

These are renders that we expect to reproduce many times over the course of a project for the client.

The out of the box scenes in ArchiCAD are (were?) really poorly optimised for cinerender.

A typical impression takes me about 5 minutes to piece together. They have more of a 'sketch watercolour' look than true photorealism.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

Lingwisyer — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:29:22 GMT

Yeah, people often don't consider how the image will be viewed and spend extra time rendering higher resolutions than needed with detail that would not be seen unless you are zooming into everything...

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

jl_lt — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 13:54:53 GMT

exactly, and sometimes those watercolor sketchy images is all you need, specially on early stages

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 15:59:31 GMT

Thank you, unfortunately macOS user here. I actually could not complete installing the twinmotion as I suppose to download first some other app (epic game launcher), and then download twinmotion - but the epic game was relaunching on loop for 30mins.😆

….
then I proceeded back to archicad with the ugly low res renderings and called it a day. 🥹🥲 it’s for secondary rooms so no hate (it explains the intend to builder enough) but I was definitely surprised of what quality Archicad makes. I know Archicad is not rendering software but thought it could do a little bit more.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

mikas — Sat, 25 Oct 2025 14:30:21 GMT

I believe cinerender was introduced in AC18. It was a huge step forward. I loved the new engine. I have used a lot and still do. Of course, I use Twin Motion too; it's ridiculously fast, and their latest Path Tracer improves the quality a lot.

I think you can use internal cinerender as of today still. It requires a lot of tuning with materials and lighting, and especially the rendering settings in interior scenes with lights. And you do need lights with interior scenes, otherwise they look dark and/or dull. But once get into it, it's pretty usable.

Or the advice given above in the thread, they are really good too. If you are good with more conceptual and/or sketchy/cartoonish types of visualizations, they can look pretty stunning too.

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

cocoloco — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 20:11:36 GMT

thank you! So cinerender is already in archicad? It is so confusing sometimes, but usually through the softwares we use, I would search a term and it would find me what I am looking for. Such as Cinerender. No results. Am I looking a wrong term? :))

PS: I am using so far "creative imagining" for renderings via archicad. Or just printscreen. very similar. 😄

Re: Built-in 3D in archicad?

Barry Kelly — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:41:31 GMT

Yes Archicad has its own photo rendering built in (search for 'photorendering' rather than renderingengine names).

I know you are not on 28, but that has learning content built in (see above).

I have a button for the photo rendering settings on my tool bar, but you will also find it in the WINDOWS > Palettes menu.

Once you have it open you will see the rendering engines you can use.

Basic renderer is just what you see in the 3D window and uses the basic (hardware) surfaces that you see on screen.

Cineware by Maxon uses the same 3D view but uses the alternate surface settings for Cineware (Cinerender) surfaces - you can't see these surfaces on screen until you do a render.

The sketch rendering engine uses the 3D view but produces sketchy line / painting style sketches.

If you have a high end graphics card, you may also get the option for a Redshift rendering engine (I do not have this).

Same surface settings as the Cineware surfaces.

Be warned there is much to set up with the surface settings and rendering settings.

And when using Cineware (Cinerender) there is no live view and you can not see the surfaces in the 3D window.

Also the Basic and Cinerender settings can be completely different.

You may see red bricks in the basic settings which is what you see in the 3D window, but in Cinerender it could be timber cladding and you won't know this until you use that surface in a render (that is an extreme example, but it can happen).

That is why some feel it is easier to use an external program such as Twinmotion, Enscape, Lumion, etc.

These are much easier to control as you have a live 3D view.

Barry.