Real-time visualization is quickly emerging as a must-have tool for today’s architecture and design firms. From design iteration to client collaboration, there is plenty that this technology can improve.
Here we look at five compelling reasons why you should consider integrating an easy-to-use architectural visualization tool, like Enscape, into your design workflow.
Enscape rendering credit: Vilhelm Lauritzen Architects, Liljewall Architects, and Lasse Herbo Madsen.
1. Rapidly explore ideas with minimum effort
Design iteration typically takes longer and substantially more effort when you use separate tools for design and visualization. But when you integrate the two, you can enjoy an incredibly effective way of designing and testing ideas.
With real-time visualization technology that plugs directly into your modeling software (such as Enscape 😉), you can rapidly change and review design options with incredible ease.
You can quickly assess the impact of different façades and lighting for example and see how certain materials will impact the look and feel of a space. Or if you're in the earliest stages of design, you can test and review rough ideas in white mode before diving deeper into a project.
Enscape rendering credit: Samir Mujovi, Architect and 3D Artist, Enscape
Changes are then rendered in real time, giving you accurate visualizations and instant feedback on your modeling data so you can explore ideas far more efficiently. Unlike other visualization tools, Enscape allows you to see your rendered views from your actual modeling software in its own rendering window. There is no need to export or import files, providing you with a much more efficient design and visualization process.
"Enscape supported us in testing, experiencing, and presenting our concepts to the client with speed in producing media that we never experienced before" explained Gautier Pelegrin, a Director from award-winning architectural and design firm Viewport Studio, when talking about designing the world's first-ever spaceport with the help of Enscape.
Enscape rendering credit: Spaceport America, by Viewport Studio
2. Win more clients with visually impressive design pitches
When you’re submitting project proposals, you need design imagery that wows. Real-time architectural rendering tools can quickly create visuals that offer a whole new level of realism and beauty. Much like the way modern video games translate 3D models into beautifully animated worlds, real-time visualization breathes life into architectural models.
Using NVIDIA’s advanced RTX technology, Enscape’s real-time rendering and visualization software is able to produce stunningly lifelike visuals of your models, assets, and environments. Imagery with an unparalleled level of detail can be created with crisper textures, richer depths, and more accurate lighting, shadows, and reflections.
Enscape rendering credit: Samir Mujovi, Architect and 3D Artist, Enscape
Aside from image quality itself, Enscape gives you an added edge in that you can make your design pitches with live walkthroughs, videos, panoramas, or even virtual reality. This can help your submissions stand out amongst other proposals and allows you to provide your potential clients with immersive experiences they won’t soon forget.
Giving them the chance to stand within your model and explore the space as if they were there physically makes all the difference in providing proof of concept. Just click on the image below to see what it's like to look around a panorama created in Enscape.
Click the image above to explore a panorama gallery and tour we created of our Enscape 3.2 project
The best part is that all of your imaging needs are covered through a single platform. Enscape allows you to produce a variety of different visuals and experiences, including:
- Still renderings
- Video animation
- Panoramic renderings, galleries, and tours
- Virtual reality
- Orthographic projections
- Photorealistic 3D renderings
- Real-time 3D renderings
- Simplified renderings (white mode)
- Exported rendered models
- Plus live model walkthroughs
Enscape’s real-time 3D visualization plugin gives your team the power to produce a wide variety of imaging types all in one place. You’ll be able to create robust presentations and proposals with all of the material necessary to help clients feel well-informed and confident about your designs.
3. Deepen client understanding and quality of feedback
Sometimes a client may not have much architectural knowledge or may even need help understanding and expressing their preferences.
Working with a real-time visualization tool allows you to bring clients into the design room with your team. You can show design options in a format they will understand and make adjustments on the go: review layout flow, materials, space functions, and potential interferences with their goals.
Giving clients the ability to see their design brought to life takes discussions from the abstract to the real world. They’ll be able to spot issues that may have gone undetected and realize when certain choices don’t materialize in the way they had imagined. Clients can get involved in the design process as it plays out, ensuring that changes made are better aligned with their vision.
Enscape rendering credit: COFFEE SHOP by Joel Guerra
Attaining this level of feedback and involvement can be hugely beneficial for both you and your client. Instead of producing countless design versions that may still miss the mark, your team will be able to fast-track design work with full client input.
Teams that have chosen Enscape as their preferred real-time architectural visualization platform have found it to be an invaluable tool for communicating with clients in this way. Pat Ganguly, the BIM Business Development Manager at Pan Gulf Technologies, shared in a recent interview how significantly they’ve improved client discussions:
We find with Enscape that we help our clients get to decision points earlier and more efficiently, which helps us control design alterations and save cost and time… It allows us to show to our client what the model will look like at a certain time of day and to do a visual study of the lighting in real time, which we could not do in the past.
Pat Ganguly, BIM Business Development Manager, Pan Gulf Technologies
Of course, one of the primary concerns with sharing design previews is whether or not the client needs to own the program themselves in order to view the files remotely. With Enscape, clients never need to worry about installing the software themselves. Renderings can be shared through a browser or via standalone .exe files. This dramatically simplifies the task of sharing design progress with clients and any other project stakeholders.
Enscape rendering credit: Contemporary Chinese-style Hotel by SHIZI
4. Improve collaboration across your team
It’s no secret that architecture projects are intensely team-built and interdisciplinary. From your own firm’s architects to BIM designers, engineers, and expert consultants, you’re often working with a diverse team of professionals, both in-house and third-party.
This can present significant challenges when it comes to making sure that everyone has optimal access to project information and models. Working out a smooth and efficient workflow requires using a real-time rendering and visualization program that is fully compatible with common design tools and enables effective collaboration. Most importantly, the software must be intuitive enough for anyone to jump on and use without the need for training - even when working remotely.
Enscape has all of these characteristics, making collaboration as seamless as possible in today’s industry. It is compatible with Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Archicad, and Vectorworks. The user-friendly interface allows any member of your team to come in and get to work immediately.
Once your team has Enscape up and running, the possibilities are endless. Multiple team members can quickly view your model in a fully rendered state, exploring it live to inspect the design and identify room for improvements. You’ll be able to resolve issues that aren’t obvious in drawings and in BIM models and have a realistic impression of the design’s layouts, orientations, and functionalities. See updates to your design as you make them and ensure everyone is on board with the changes.
Collaborative Annotation
Enscape’s Collaborative Annotation feature is a teamwork booster. Everyone in your team is able to make comments about the design right in the Enscape file, where they’re attached to the specific points that they refer to.
Have a suggestion for a flooring material? Pin a comment to your model’s floor. Need to come up with a solution to a friction point in the layout? Add your comment to the exact location. Comments can be attached to locally-stored sources or tracked via BIM Track.
This mode of commenting brings two major benefits:
- All team comments are stored in one place and can be found when working directly in the model. No sorting through emails, memos, or other communication channels to find out what needs to be done.
- Object and location-linked comments prevent any loss of context. As you work through your busy schedules, it’s easy to forget what specifically was being discussed and what certain suggestions apply to. Having comments attached to their subjects makes it easy to remember all of the relevant details.
BIM Information Panel
As your team inspects models, they will often need to access the design’s BIM data when considering alterations. But jumping back and forth between BIM software and a real-time visualization program can be clunky and slow down progress.
Working with Enscape allows for a consolidated workflow in which your team can easily access BIM data right in the rendering window. The BIM information panel can be opened up on the side of the Enscape window, revealing all of the project’s BIM data as it was organized in the BIM model.
5. Explore innovative design concepts in real-world settings
Architects and designers like to dream big. It’s easier to bring those dreams into reality when you’re able to visualize them as if they were already built. Real-time visualization delivers this experience and takes it a step further by instantly visualizing changes as they’re made.
Your team will be able to explore design fluidly when using Enscape. Immediately see the effects of modifying lighting, textures, materials, and layouts and see how those changes impact the design and experience of a space. Push design to the edge and allow your imagination to flourish.
Viewing your transformations in the midst of the process facilitates a playfulness that opens up more opportunities for innovation. Experiment with your design and uncover new possibilities, all thanks to the realistic rendering of your changing model in real time.
Enhance your workflow with real-time visualization
You may think that real-time visualization software comes with a hefty price tag.
But today, it’s possible to access this must-have technology without breaking your firm’s budget – enabling you to accomplish more, affordably. In the case of Enscape, you can get incredibly affordable licenses per user or per machine.
We’re always working to improve functionality and deliver the features your firm needs to thrive. If you’d like to experience how Enscape can remove friction from your design process and enable higher productivity, we invite you to try a 14-day trial for FREE.
