Enscape Export and File Format Options

With the multitude of ways in which designers work with clients and stakeholders, it is essential to have the ability to provide the most effective visualization elements at the appropriate time during the project’s design and construction phase.

Where some workflows require multiple tools to create still images, videos, and virtual reality, Enscape facilitates a way to keep all visualization efforts tied to the native design platform (e.g., Revit). In this article, we will dive into the range of Enscape exports and file formats included with every subscription (it's worth noting that Enscape is offered at an affordable price point, making it accessible to most design staff).

• Follow along: This post was written using the free Enscape-provided Revit model called Corner Building which can be downloaded by clicking here. Be sure to point to the custom materials folder (downloaded with the Revit model) within Revit’s Options dialog, in the Rendering.

When you consider them all at once, it’s impressive how many options Enscape offers to export high-quality visualization content. This post will examine eleven different export options in Enscape, including high-quality image options from popular CAD and BIM platforms such as Revit. 

The 11 Enscape export and file options covered:

1. Export Video

2. Screenshot

3. AI Enhancer

4. Batch Rendering

5. V-Ray Scene Export

6. Mono Panorama

7. Stereo Panorama

8. EXE Standalone

9. Web Standalone

10. Enable VR

11. Render Image (Into Document) only available in Revit

Let’s take a closer look at each of these export options; all of which work the same in Revit, SketchUp, Archicad, and Rhino – with one exception, as noted above.

1. Export Video  

Creating videos is the first Enscape export option we will cover. Bringing an Mp4 video file to a meeting or leaving it with a client, is a great way to curate an experience in a model that might not be complete or parts of the model are confidential/proprietary and not meant to be seen by a particular user group or the general public.

For an example of the quality possible using Export Video click here. Super cool! I can use so many adjectives, as I don’t work for Chaos. Although, I bet they use them too when they see their customer’s Enscape creations!

TIP: To play 4K video, I recommend using the VLC Media Player which performs very well.

When the Export button is selected while in the Video Editor, the resolution, compression quality, and framerate can be specified, as shown in the dialog below. The defaults can also be specified in the Visual Settings dialog. Exported videos use the same resolution setting by default as still image renders.

TIP: These videos often play very well for marketing purposes from a flash-drive directly plugged into a TV.

2. Screenshot (render image)

Screenshot is everyone’s go-to command to create high-quality still images as PNG, JPG, EXR, or TGA. I always say “it now takes longer to compose the view than it does to render and generate the rendered image file”!

Related post: For more on composing a view, see this post: Best Practices: Finding The Right Perspective.

It is helpful to know that the image's resolution can be set in Enscape’s Visual Settings dialog. By default, the resolution is set to Full HD 1920 times 1080 pixels. I like to leave this set at Ultra HD, so the quality is extra high, and I do not have to go back and recreate any images (see image below). If you have a slower graphics card (GPU) that may take too much time early on in the design process, a lower setting would be more appropriate.

Selecting Custom allows us to enter any resolution up to 8192 x 8192 Pixels. I have used high-quality Enscape-rendered images for the cover of several of my SketchUp and Revit textbooks. For a printed book cover, the resolution needs to be very high. The combination of an Enscape image and a high-quality printed glossy book cover is really amazing, as shown in one example below.

The file format can also be selected when creating screenshots. The default is PNG, which is what I usually use:

Here are a few other Render Image-related settings to keep in mind.

Keyboard shortcut (Shift + F11)

Be sure to take advantage of the Keyboard Shortcut. When composing a scene in Enscape, it is quicker to use the keyboard shortcut than the icons above, on the Enscape user interface.

Object ID, material ID, and depth and Alpha Channel

When post-processing is desired in an image editing application, such as Adobe Photoshop, the ID layers can save a significant amount of time and improve accuracy. When this option is checked within the Visual Settings dialog, as shown in the image below, Enscape will create four additional files. The main rendering image will be unchanged.

The image below shows the main rendered image (left) and the four “ID layer” images generated side-by-side for comparison. Notice that the sofa is a distinct color, making it easy to adjust in post-processing.

An alpha channel export is also available, allowing you to export an image with a transparent background (see image below). This simplifies and speeds up the process of adding a background in an image editor. This option does change the main rendered image.

Automatic naming

Use this option to easily create images in a rapid-fire fashion. No need to stop and specify a name and location of the image file about to be created. Files are saved to the default folder and include a timestamp in the name.

Use this option to create images in a rapid-fire fashion easily—no need to stop and specify the name and location of the image file about to be created. Files are saved to the default folder and include a timestamp in the file name.

Final Quality Tip

Finally, a rendered view results in a higher quality than what is seen on the screen, so avoid just grabbing a screenshot for final renders. Notice the difference in quality between the Enscape rendered file (left) and the screen grab (right) in the following image.

3. Chaos AI Enhancer

Enscape offers an option to significantly improve the quality of a static rendered image using artificial intelligence (AI). The Chaos AI Enhancer starts by rendering an image, similar to the Screenshot tool just covered, and then uploads that image to the cloud to be enhanced by AI. The AI-enhanced image is then automatically saved to your project folder.

Compare the before and after images below. Notice that people are much more realistic looking and the materials/textures and plants have additional definition. As with any AI tool, it is important to closely inspect the results for any mistakes or inappropriate content. In the example below, AI has appeared to age the woman which may not be ideal if this were a high school project.

4. Batch Rendering

Using Batch Rendering, it is possible to render several scenes and panoramas at once. Simply check the views you wish to render, and then select an output folder. Saved visual presets linked to a view will be used, which allows each render to have different settings, such as white mode and a custom skybox.

Three views selected in Batch Rendering dialog

5. V-Ray Scene Export

If you or your firm uses V-Ray, it is possible to export an Enscape model to V-Ray and pick up (mostly) where you left off in Enscape. Exported .vrscene files can now be imported into various 3D modeling applications, transferring geometry, assets, lights, materials, and some rendering settings.

6. Mono Panorama

Exporting a panorama is one of the most cost-effective ways to share an immersive 3D Enscape experience.

It is something between a still image and a VR/navigable environment, where the former may be limiting in some cases, and the latter requires a certain level of quality computer hardware. For a mono panorama example: click here.

A panorama is a fully-rendered, fixed point in space, where we can look around in all directions. This can be done on your computer, where you use your mouse to look around, or on a mobile device, where, when combined with a Google Cardboard Viewer, or Oculus Quest II, the user is immersed in the design. With a cardboard viewer in hand, you can send links, hosted by Enscape online, where your clients can view critical portions of the design and potentially sign off on proposed solutions much earlier than in the past.

Once a panorama is uploaded to your Chao Account it is possible to copy a link (URL), save a QR code, and open it in a browser as shown below. The image on the left is from the same dialog shown above after the panorama has been uploaded.

Using the Enscape Panorama Gallery, you can create and share multiple panoramas from the same project. Panorama tours can also be created from within Enscape itself.

Enscape’s Visual Settings dialog -> Capture Tab, offers Low, Normal, and High resolutions.

The following image is a screen capture from a mobile device so you know what to expect when using this export option. When you click the link to open a panorama or scan a QR code, this is what you see at first. A single image where you can move your phone around to see the entire space from the prescribed vantage point.

Mobile device display: initial Enscape panorama view

7. Stereo Panorama

This brings us to the next export option; a stereo panorama (for a stereo panorama example: click here)

As the name implies, the result is two images that are slightly offset from each other (about the distance between a person’s eyes). The perspective of each view is slightly different to improve the depth perception of the scene. This is a better option for panoramas but does take more time to render - which is directly proportional to the quality of your graphics card.

The following two images compare a downloaded Enscape panorama from the same vantage point: one Mono and the other Stereo. Notice the reference lines in the stereo image highlight the intentional “misalignment” between the two images. Again, this helps to simulate depth, just like our brain does based on the spacing between our eyes.

To see how my firm, Lake|Flato, uses panoramas as part of our workflows, take a look at this article I wrote: Creating and Using Panoramas at Lake|Flato Architects. 

8. EXE standalone  

To me, this is such an amazing gift from Enscape; they take the core engine of their software, along with your model, and package it up royalty-free to share with the world! While you can no longer edit your model live with the EXE standalone export, you – or any partner of yours - can inspect it in every way ‘Enscape connected to your CAD’ would allow you to do!

Not only that but as mentioned at the beginning of this article, we can even use this EXE file to facilitate a virtual reality experience. I like to include the Enscape version number, at least for my go-to sample projects. I want to keep those up-to-date so my demos always use the latest version of Enscape’s technology.

I recently shared an Enscape-generated EXE with someone who works in the VR world (but not directly in the AEC sector). The model was from my Interior Design using Autodesk Revit 2025 textbook. This person actually asked me if I used 3D cameras to create the architectural VR experience! This building does not exist, anywhere! It is totally made up for my books. That is how awesome the Enscape experience comes across to those outside of the AEC space, not familiar with Enscape; think, clients!

Surprisingly, the EXE file size is not extremely large. In this example, the 436 MB file includes the model, required textures, and the Enscape engine. Very reasonable. The EXE file for the Enscape-provided sample project can be downloaded here.

FYI: The Enscape EXE file does not require Revit, SketchUp, or Enscape to be installed to run. It only requires a capable computer and GPU for a quality experience.

Related post: For more on this topic see this post: Best Practices: How to Use Executables for Presentation

9. Web standalone

In addition to exporting a standalone file, it is also possible to export a web-based standalone. With this method, the model is exported to the Chaos cloud, and a unique URL (i.e. web address) is provided to share with just your client or the world!

Keep in mind this web-based experience still requires an adequate graphics card, as GPU processing and GPU memory are still required.

Web-based standalone exports may be accessed or deleted via the Manage Uploads command found in the Chaos Account command within Revit. In this dialog, shown below, simply click on an export to open it in your browser (which reveals the URL).

Enscape does not restrict the size or quantity of web-based exports – except for hardware reasons - allowed by licensed users and at this point never deletes them.

Related post: For more on this topic see this post: Best Practices: How to Use Web-Standalone Export for Presentation

10. Enable VR: Export to VR

In a sense, clicking the Enable VR option while Enscape is running, is an export-to-VR option. However, more to the point of this post, when combining this option with the Export EXE feature, we can create a VR-ready standalone EXE file.

No need for Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Archicad, or even Enscape! Just double-click the exported EXE file on a computer with a properly configured VR system, such as the HTC Vive, Meta Quest, or a Windows MR-based device, and that’s it – a pre-packaged immersive VR experience to send to a client or take on the road.

For more on presenting using Enscape and VR, see this blog post: Enscape Best Practices: Using Virtual Reality for Project Presentations

11. Render Image (into document, Revit only)

This is the only export option that is unique to Revit. Compared to the Render Image option, rather than saving a still image to a file, this feature saves the same information within Revit, as a rendering. This is the same thing Revit does when using the ‘Save to Project’ button via its rendering dialog. The results, from using this Enscape feature, can be seen in the Project Browser, as shown in the image below. A rendering can then be placed (via drag & drop) on a sheet and resized.

The size or resolution of the image is also based on the settings specified on the Capture tab in Enscape’s Visual Settings dialog.

For example, the image below shows two Enscape-generated renderings placed on the same sheet in Revit; neither has been resized. The one on the left, within the titleblock, was created at ‘Window’ resolution, while the larger one is based on the ‘Ultra HD’ setting. If the intent was to fill the sheet, one is too small and the other larger than needed. Scaling up the small image will cause it to print pixelated and the larger image is just making the Revit file unnecessarily larger than needed.

FYI: in this example, resizing the larger image would not be that big of a deal – but, I have seen billboard-sized images in Revit, then scaled down to fit on a sheet, which is unnecessary.

Conclusion

Now, you have a good grasp of all the export options and file formats within Enscape. On the surface, this real-time visualization tool is super simple and easy to use. And, when you stop and look a little deeper, you will see there are many additional opportunities to collaborate with the design team and engage clients and stakeholders. With the inspiration of this post, you can now try these export options and even impress your colleagues, supervisor, and clients!

To learn more about Enscape’s export functions, click here for the official help page.