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Which programs are best for building architectural building models?


pdxdan11

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If a person wants to use a 2d plan they have drawn in autocad to create a 3d architectural building model on a site with no animation what is the best, easiest, quickest and most efficient way to produce a beautiful rendered model? There are so many different software programs out there that do so many things that it is very confusing. I have most of my experience in autocad so I thought building the model in autocad/desktop would be the best thing until I tried to render it. Since I have been told to use 3d studio max for the model, solidworks or pro/e for the site, possibly rhino or maya for other parts, maybe nugraf for import problems that occur when moving between programs and eventually maxwell render to finish up. Does anyone else think that this is a bit confusing or is this normal? There must be a simpler way to go about this. Thanks in advance for any helpful and useful answers.:roll:

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Have you tried SketchUp? I'm also an AutoCAD person but I'm beginning to learn it now. I think it's been demonstrated that it has a lot of potential.

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SketchUp is great for quick, easy-to-do models and can make basic rendering easy. You can also get them to look "sketchy" with edge extensions to give it a hand-drawn look. You can import CAD lines and use those to extrude your model quickly.

The big issue is with terrains. We're a landscape architecture firm, and we've been using it on one of our projects to show proposed grading and contouring, and it's finicky. The files also get pretty big when you start to add buildings and trees and other site amenities, so we've had to be conservative with the number of components we use in ours.

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Since I have been told to use 3d studio max for the model, solidworks or pro/e for the site, possibly rhino or maya for other parts, maybe nugraf for import problems that occur when moving between programs and eventually maxwell render to finish up. Does anyone else think that this is a bit confusing or is this normal? There must be a simpler way to go about this.

 

Solidworks and pro/e are engineering software programs. They are not going to be of any use to you if you're trying to model a site.

 

3D Studio Max and Maya are basically the same type of program. So you would really only use one or the other, but not both. And you can model your entire site with either one of these programs.

 

No need for Maxwell Render. If you're using Max or Maya, you can use the built in Mental Ray engine for rendering.

 

I have no experience with Rhino and I've never heard of nugraf?

 

At work I use Autocad, 3D Studio Max, Photoshop and Mental Ray for rendering. I've also recently started working with Vue for creating terrain and landscape.

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Most of my work is architectural 3-D modeling and presentation. I’m working with AutoCAD 2009 which as far as I know uses the same rendering engine as ACAD 2008. With a bit of experience and some effort you achieve very realistic renderings there. If you are already familiar with AutoCAD, why bother to start with a new Program?

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cheapest, would be Sketchup with a 3rd party renderer, Autocad based could be Autocad Architecture. It can be used as Autocad, or you can use the Architectural components to produce quick models.

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Rhinoceros with Vray is my choice for speed simpicty accuracy and interoperability

 

also you might look at Bonzai3d it has more power than Sketchup from my tests

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