When you think about it, panoramas are some of the most multifaceted tools when it comes to presenting your project to clients. It’s easy to underestimate how many ways they can be applied and how effortless it is to integrate them into every step of your workflow. They’re a great addition to still renderings, giving your clients an immersive 3D experience by literally taking a look around your designs. For a step-by-step guide on how to create panoramas in Enscape, take a look at our Knowledge Base article, although we will also cover some of the basics here in this article.
Everything associated with the panorama is simple: they are easy to send, access, and view. No matter what software you use, Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Vectorworks, or Archicad, everything you need for creating panoramas is within Enscape and you don't need an additional tool.
Panoramas can often be a happy medium between still renderings and a full 3D walkthrough. Viewing them doesn’t require high-powered hardware; you can have a VR experience using a smartphone. It’s effortless to upload them to the cloud and share them via a web link or QR code. Integrating panoramas into your building plans, presentations, or promotional material couldn’t be easier. For this post, we gathered examples of how creative Enscape users get with their panoramas. Check the exciting use cases to get inspired on how to add panoramas to your next project.
Using panoramas during the planning process
Many Enscape users add panoramas to every step of their workflow, starting during the planning phase. Before you even begin construction on a project, you can show your client exactly what the end result will look like in 3D. It just takes a few clicks to export a panorama that you can send to a client in seconds. Export any view in Enscape as a panorama: forum user Paul Russam (David Maxwell Architects) detailed his workflow for exporting all of his panoramas from one project in a recent forum post.
First, he starts Enscape and surveys his model for the best views of the project. He saves these views and names them “Pano-01, Pano-02, Pano-03, etc” for easy reference. Paul then renders his panoramas in two steps: first the outdoor scenes, then the indoor scenes. This process allows him to tailor his exposure settings for the outdoor scenes, then the indoor views, for the best result.
Using a workflow like Paul’s will leave you with a collection of panoramas which are a great way to present your project to the client. Oftentimes you’ll be faced with the common problem: how to present your project to the client dynamically without extensive and high-powered hardware? When you meet with a client, you don’t always have the option of bringing the hardware necessary to show a live 3D walkthrough or use VR. But in these cases, you don’t have to compromise. Panoramas can elevate the presentation to a memorable experience for both you and the client, anytime, anywhere.
Use your cursor to pan around the image
The great advantage of panoramas is that they provide you with the opportunity of a VR-like experience using minimal hardware. Travel light by saving panoramas on a tablet and showing them during key points in your presentation. Your client can swipe around the panorama using their finger, allowing them to focus on the areas that are most important to them. Or view the panoramas on any laptop, navigating with the cursor. Alternatively, upload your panorama to the cloud and download a QR code. You can add these to posters and quickly scan them at the right moment, provided you have internet access, of course.
Between presentations, sending panoramas is a great way to keep your client up-to-date on your progress. This is in no small part due to how easy it is to distribute panoramas. You can of course send your client the image file to view on their computer, but you can also simply send a web link that they can open on their smartphone and view anywhere. Enscape user Steven Garubba says that he sends panoramas to his clients so that they can “get a good idea of the space that [he] just designed for them.”
They can easily view it on their phone and quickly get back to me with new ideas/changes without having to be on a computer which makes the process much faster.
Steven Garubba, Criterion Workshop
The construction phase
It can be easy to write off panoramas once you leave the planning phase and enter construction, but a survey of Enscape users on our forum shows that this is where you can really get creative. This benefits not only your client, but also the workers. This is where panoramas distributed via QR code can be most useful. Once you have your floorplans ready, navigate your model in Enscape and export panoramas of key areas. Then simply upload these to the cloud and download the dedicated QR code. Adding this QR code directly to the floorplan can bring clarity to the design and help you avoid miscommunications about the direction of the project.
As Steven Garubba puts it:
I plan to place QR codes right onto the construction document seeing that the field loves to see the space before building it out and it generally gives the workers an end result to work towards.
Steven Garubba, Criterion Workshop
Adding a QR code to a 2D plan brings your project to life like never before.
Credit: Space Architects
Combine the detail of a 2D plan with the imagery of a 360 panorama viewed immediately on a smartphone for a clear, comprehensible overall representation of the project. Printing QR codes in brochures to send out gives your project an even greater reach: anyone with a smartphone can see your idea in seconds.
Enscape user dsmith utilized QR codes during an on-site client presentation for memorable results with little effort. First, he used Revit with Enscape to develop “certain areas of the building that were of significant importance to the client (reception areas, classrooms).” For each important area, he then created an informational poster, which showed the area in the floor plan and also provided the dedicated QR code for the panoramic view of that area.
Add QR codes to your construction site walkthrough for an immersive experience
Credit: Noviun Architects
The client could then walk around the building site and scan the QR code with their phone to immediately see the impression of what the finished product would look like. This approach allows a client to clearly see what the area will eventually look like, even if large parts of the design are still missing on-site. As dsmith put it:
This was particularly useful for giving an idea of space before any partitions were installed on site. It worked really well and all the clients were extremely happy with the final outcome.
Enscape Forum user, dsmith
During the development of the showroom, QR codes have been printed out, laminated and placed at key areas within the showroom so that the people working on it have a good idea of what the end result should look like.
Enscape Forum user, Gadget
Marketing and promotion
3D panoramas can benefit your firm beyond the development of specific projects. They can also be an invaluable tool to convey your ability to potential clients. Collecting panoramas of a past project is a great way to immediately showcase your design style. The most straightforward way to do this is to host panoramas of your past projects on your website. Check out the bottom of our Knowledge Base article on panoramas for guidelines on how to do this; you’ll find it under the heading “Embed into Webpage”.
One firm using this technique to showcase their designs is David Maxwell Architects. In the Portfolio section of their website, they use a mix of hosted panoramas and still renderings to show the kinds of stunning projects they have worked on in the past.
Host panoramas on your website to give potential clients an overview of your work
Another easy way to host panoramas and reach a wide audience is via Facebook’s 360 photo upload. It is just as easy as uploading a normal photo to Facebook, but allows the viewer to pan around the image with one click or tap. It couldn’t be easier to share your work on your timeline to reach an even wider audience. Just upload the panorama as you would upload a normal picture and Facebook will automatically recognize it as a 360 photo. You can then set your starting view and post to your timeline with one click!
Render interactive panoramas in seconds
Post interactive panoramas to Facebook in seconds
A great way to take your QR codes up another notch is to personalize them to fit with your corporate identity. The QR codes that Enscape generates are functional and effective, but sometimes you might need something less nondescript. In this case, online QR code generators are perfect tools. Simply upload your panorama to the cloud to assign it a web link. Then pick your favorite QR code generator.
Create QR codes to share your panorama
As far as the free sites go, I find QR Code Monkey incredibly versatile and easy to use. You can use your company color, or even add in your logo. Drop in the URL from Enscape and these personalized QR codes will link directly to your panorama.
Exporting Panoramas from Enscape
Panoramas exported from Enscape can be saved locally as a file. They can also be uploaded to the Chaos Cloud for further functionality, such as the creation of virtual tours and the addition of annotations and highlights to guide a user around your project. Mono panoramas from the same CAD project can be combined to make a gallery or a virtual tour that can help showcase a project.
Individual panoramas are assigned a QR code which can be scanned to open the panorama on a mobile device, for example. Once a panorama has been uploaded to the cloud, whether single panoramas or sets of panoramas that are created as either a gallery or vittual tour, they can be shared via a link, a QR code, or direct via email. These can then be viewed with a web browser on both desktop computers or mobile devices.
Managing panoramas in Enscape and Chaos Cloud
Panoramas created in Enscape can be managed via Upload Management within Enscape itself (accessed via the Enscape toolbar in the CAD - go to the cloud icon with the up arrow). They can also be further managed within Chaos Cloud, where you can upload, share, move, rename, and delete panoramas, as well as create virtual tours, where multiple panoramas from the same project can be linked together.
To access your Chaos Cloud account, first, click on Upload Management within Enscape. Next, navigate to the bottom right-hand corner to 'Go to Uploads'.
Users working in an organization can gain access to the Enscape uploads once they have been invited by their account administrator.
Creating a panorama
To create a panorama, of course, you'll first need a project loaded into your CAD. Start Enscape, open the Visual Settings window, and set the Projection to Perspective. You can also adjust the panorama resolution in the Visual Settings’ Output tab. Higher panorama resolutions will take longer to export.
Next, navigate to a position in the Enscape Viewport where you want the panorama to be captured from. Click the Render Panorama button, which will export a Mono Panorama by default.
💡 For further information and guidance on how to use panoramas in Enscape, be sure to read our detailed Knowledge Base article.
Virtual tours in Enscape
Another way to integrate panoramas into your marketing materials is by creating a virtual tour. This is obviously also great for client presentations or during the planning stage, and hosting a panorama tour on your website makes a great first impression on potential clients.
Not only does this give a similar effect to a real-time walkthrough, but you can also annotate the panorama tour; the viewer can then click selected elements (we call them highlights) for more information. Hotspots also help the viewer "move" between the images, providing a handy and easy-to-use navigational element.
With Enscape 4.1.1 and above, you can manage your virtual tours within your Chaos Cloud account.
Once you have uploaded a panorama to the cloud, a project will be automatically created using the same name as the CAD project the panorama has been exported from.
To create a virtual tour, start by clicking on 'My Projects', and then opening a project folder to access a feature that allows you to create a tour made up of multiple panoramas or images.
You can refer to this Manage Uploads article to understand how having a Chaos Cloud account will allow you to log in and access this feature.
How to share a virtual tour
To share a virtual tour with someone, click the three dots on the bottom right of the tour folder. From the dropdown menu click Share. A window will pop up and you will be able to choose from various sharing options.
Conclusion
As you have seen, the ways to integrate panoramas into your workflow are almost endless. This underrated tool can enhance your project presentations, and between client meetings, it’s the easiest way to share updates with clients who might not have the graphics card to handle an executable standalone.
Beyond the planning stage, you can easily view panoramas, even on the construction site, via QR codes. Personalize these to fit your company image, or use the Enscape-provided codes for even more ease. Printing these codes in your marketing materials or uploading a panorama to your Facebook page allows you to make an impact on even more potential clients than ever before. Long story short: adding panoramas into your workflow takes little effort and yields big results.
If you’re new to Enscape, the panorama export is included in our 14-day free trial.
