Visualization
About built-in and 3rd party, classic and real-time rendering solutions, settings, workflows, etc.

Visualization & visual language - Conversation & feedback

Illes Papp
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Greetings Everybody,

 

Visualization and the visual language as a whole is a crucial phenomena when we communicate our ideas to the clients. Should that be vectorial, artistic, non-realistic, photo-realistic, 2D or 3D from classic quick shaded representations to high-end VR or XR, most of us would agree that the way we communicate our ideas is truly essential.

 

I would like to start a dedicated conversation and hear your feedback on this topic. Please let me know:

 

  • What type of visualization do you do? (Quick Shaded, Rendering, Animations, Real-time visualization, ...)
  • What is your current workflow for visualization? (In-house, Outsourced, Partially Outsourced, ...)
  • What are the main challenges or obstacles in your current workflow?
  • What third party solutions do you incorporate in your workflow if you do any?

 

Let me know if you have anything else in connection to this topic. Let's start the conversation.

 

Illés Papp
GRAPHISOFT Senior Product Manager
50 REPLIES 50

Like previously stated - it's great that the community engagement is increasing.

 

  • What type of visualization do you do? (Quick Shaded, Rendering, Animations, Real-time visualization, ...)
    • Sketch Renders in Archicad
    • Mid-level in Lumion or TwinMotion
    • High End in 3DMax+Corona or D5
  • What is your current workflow for visualization? (In-house, Outsourced, Partially Outsourced, ...)
    • All is done in-house but there are internal disagreements on workflow
  • What are the main challenges or obstacles in your current workflow?
    • Illustrators/Visual artists don't understand architectural workflow and thinks that everything needs a super high-end solution. There is a battle about whether images need post-processing or not, which unfortunately detracts from the ability to choose an effective workflow
  • What third party solutions do you incorporate in your workflow if you do any?
    • TwinMotion/Lumion
    • 3DMax

 

Erik Bjornhage : SwedishChef, ETTELVA Arkitekter, Gothenburg, Sweden
Architect : Digital Development : Graphisoft Cert. BIM-Manager
ETTELVA Arkitekter : Eriks LinkedIn
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Strawbale23
Expert

Please tell us that you updated the UI for BIMx with the last update so that mouse navigation controls can be inverted so that they are similar to FPS game controls! 


AC26
https://www.zendsign.fr/

@Strawbale23 wrote:

Please tell us that you updated the UI for BIMx with the last update so that mouse navigation controls can be inverted so that they are similar to FPS game controls! 


It was in the version I was testing.

I am not 100% sure if that is the version just updated - I haven't looked at it yet.

So if it is not there, now it should be soon.

 

Barry.

 

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aaronmy
Participant

Hello,

 

What type of visualization do you do? (Quick Shaded, Rendering, Animations, Real-time visualization, ...)

Typically I use Twinmotion the Real-time rendering software. It's very fast and easy and we do this in house.

What is your current workflow for visualization? (In-house, Outsourced, Partially Outsourced, ...)

We never outsource.

What are the main challenges or obstacles in your current workflow?

When rendering, we come across issues of not having the correct materials, the renders are slightly cartoony, twinmotion lacks the ability to match camera properties in the software with an existing image, it is difficult to work on one file between two people, and there's no easy way match an angle in twinmotion with an existing image.

What third party solutions do you incorporate in your workflow if you do any?

We use photoshop to blend existing and new, but also sometimes to distort the render, or adjust color.

 

 

Thanks

I think the conclusion is pretty clear that we need visuals built into AC to avoid all the work arounds you can see in this thread.

Some will always want to create high end images. However many of us don’t have the time or money to do that and instead just use AC as an everyday tool that creates images to help explain our designs to clients who are not prepared to pay for high end images.

On most projects we just need to create a presentation that shows the drawings and images in a multi-page PDF that we can print or share as part of a video presentation.

AC has always been great at creating the drawings from the 3D model, but 3D images have for a long time been poor or slow.

Tim Ball

AC26, iMac

User since V5
Strawbale23
Expert

Are big one for me tbat I would like to see others opions and experiences on is the creation of PDFs. At the moment the PDFs created come with huge amounts of information that considerably slows down PDFs. I wish there was a way to flatten images.You can see as the PDF is opened that there are many unnecessary layers being rendered, despite turning off layers in the PDF publisher settings. 


AC26
https://www.zendsign.fr/
s_p_b
Booster

 

What type of visualization do you do? 

We do a lot of simple shaded / white model views to explain the project to clients and builders. We get very productive discussions with clients when they see the live model at meetings in our office, as many people really don’t fully understand plans. We also like making isometric views to explain complex millwork or wall assemblies to builders. 
Presentation renders involve Blender/Octane or Enscape.

 

What is your current workflow for visualization? 

All in-house.

 

For simple shaded views we keep everything inside Archicad as much as possible so that we have live updates of views when models change. 

 

For presentation renders we pull content from different DCC applications based on their particular strengths: render inside Octane Standalone, pulling in the building geometry from Archicad,  Blender + plugins for landscape or vegetation, high detail surface/prop assets from Quixel Megascans, and some extra furniture and props from Sketchup’s 3D warehouse. 

What are the main challenges or obstacles in your current workflow?

Archicad’s shaded view is frequently disappointing and could use lots more customization. Sketchup for all its limitations makes shaded views that are attractive and easy to adjust with different user styles, it’s popular with architects for good reason, and would be worth studying. A crucial thing that Sketchup does that AC doesn’t is silhouette edges - a round column in AC or a library object with curves never looks convincing in the shaded view. The way that Sketchup has face-me components (that don’t require a rebuild to face the camera) allows them to make effective but low detail billboard representations of trees, people, and other objects. A simple screen-space ambient occlusion pass would also impart a lot of depth to images without a lot of added complexity (as long as certain surfaces like glass can be set as translucent to the AO effect.) 

As noted by other users, the appearance of a section or elevation should be associated with the view, not the section marker itself! It’s totally inconsistent with the way everything else is handled in AC.

I don’t consider CineRender even worth keeping in the software as there are much much better alternatives. The new FBX export option is a very very good development, but please allow the export to be limited to a selection rather than just everything visible. When rendering in an outside application you often want to make incremental updates to certain parts of the model, or just render a small chunk of the project. 

 

What third party solutions do you incorporate in your workflow if you do any?

We are using Enscape more and more. The integration with AC is good but Enscape assets that are added to AC look like trash (orange lines and no proper floor plan symbols), so we end up having to maintain a layer for Enscape furniture, another for AC furniture, which is silly. (I prefer adding all these assets in AC so that they can be controlled by renovation filters / design options)

A good solution would be if any AC object could be set as a proxy for a high detail Enscape mesh, just by setting a property of the object. Ideally there would also be some override on the render mesh’s rotation, scale, and position, since render meshes may be at different orientations from AC objects. 

I would really recommend that GS avoid trying to build its own high-end renderer, or anything to do with VR/AR. You are not going to out-do Chaos, Epic, NVIDIA or Otoy, and specific workflows are too diverse from office to office. Focus instead on interoperability (GS’s usual strength) and opening up the software API so that it’s easier to build integrations. Look at Rhino - it has a very powerful C# and Python API and its users have contributed mountains of good functionality as a result. Let users build the features they need rather than constantly pleading for something or other from the developers. 

 

Illes Papp
Graphisoft
Graphisoft

Thank you for all of your insights provided.

 

Please, if any of you, who wanted to add your insights but you may have forgotten or had no time to do so, let me call you to take a few minutes and add your thoughts to this thread.

Illés Papp
GRAPHISOFT Senior Product Manager
Strawbale23
Expert

I would just like to add something. 

 

 When presenting projects to  clients in 3D either directly or sending them a BIMX model,  I find it useful to have all the doors open in 3D to make navigation easier aswell as visualisation of spaces and access.

In sections and elevations the doors need to be closed.

 

An option for 3D doors openings in Graphic Overides  would be useful.  The ability to create preset door and window opening states, A,B,C etc and then call the required state in the GO.

 

thanks


AC26
https://www.zendsign.fr/

Fully agree. I have grumbled about this for years. I was hoping it might slip into an MVO update, it isn't really a GO issue, it has more to do with the physical representation. It could also be applied when exporting to BIMx so we don't have to freak client's out walking through doors. 👻 

Apple iMac Intel i9 / macOS Sonoma / AC27UKI (most recent builds.. if they work)