“When we discovered Enscape it changed our world!”

Craig Krawczyk | Principal | LIVE Design Group

Who’s Craig?

I have a bachelors degree in Architecture from Auburn University (1997). I’m a Principal and lead design architect at LIVE Design Group in Birmingham, Alabama. I’ve been with the company nearly 17 years and I’ve been working with Autodesk Revit since 2006 and Enscape since since the spring of 2016.

My primary focus has been to develop strategies and workflows in order to maximize the ability of BIM to create efficient and compelling design solutions. And when I’m not being an architect I’m a dad raising three daughters in Birmingham.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Craig_Krawczyk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigkrawczyk

Why Enscape?

LIVE Design Group is a commercial architecture and interior design firm that was founded in 1987. We have a great deal of experience with projects of various typologies, sizes and complexities. Our specialties are assembly space design, such as contemporary worship centers, fine art theaters, gymnasiums, auditoriums and arenas.

Our LIVE design process is highly unique. We are less focused on the building and more on the process that creates a very client and service oriented methodology. We believe the earlier we can engage our clients, the better the outcome. Before our present process, we noticed the client was often confused by many rejected options and functions that can’t be understood within a specific design proposal. We discovered the client was confused because they were not part of the design process. We ultimately created the LIVE design process to give context and understanding to the client about the resulting design by deeply involving the client in the design process.

During our LIVE design sessions, we are modifying the design in real-time and
immediately validating the results with the client.
Craig Krawczyk 

Our LIVE design methodology allows us to collaborate and design live, with the client in the room along with the project team. This typically occurs with the client and other project stakeholders over a 1-2 day concentrated effort. During our LIVE design sessions, we are modifying the design in real-time and immediately validating the results with the client. Our process has evolved over the last 20 years from a highly analog to a completely digital workflow.

Overall, our LIVE design process is approached more like improvisational theater! Everything is tested in the model and everything is tried. The wonderful thing about this process is that it is far more successful and far less adversarial than your typical design development process that is hidden from the client. As the design program is being sculpted in 3-D blocks, we begin to pull building components from a vocabulary and vernacular that identifies and resonates with the client. Contractors in attendance will begin to immediately pull data from the schematic design.

We need to help the client accurately visualize the finished product.
Craig Krawczyk 

But our biggest challenge has been that Revit can be too “cartoony”, which doesn’t help the client accurately visualize the finished product. We needed lighting and shadow to really communicate and understand the spaces. Texture and material is also very important to our workshop process. The client would say they understood the building, but we really needed to help them explore the space and explore movement through the building to fully understand how the spaces will feel and function. Even though our early design studies are typically devoid of materials, the quality of light and shadow is exactly what we need.

Navigation in Revit isn’t ideal for our needs. We could drop in perspective cameras and orbit around the space. But visualization isn’t smooth and realistic. At best, we could take the project into a third-party application for rendering shaded shadow still images – but the workflow isn’t efficient. Anything less than real-time in real-time fails – whether you’re waiting for a rendering on the desktop or the cloud. Suffice to say, Enscape has completely revolutionized our process. There is a depth and quality in Enscape that you can’t get from any other application.

Enscape has completely revolutionized our process.
There is a depth and quality in Enscape that you
can’t get from any other application.
Craig Krawczyk 

The beauty of Enscape is that it doesn’t feel like a separate application from Revit. The results are beautiful and easy to navigate. As we make changes in Revit the Enscape environment updates automatically. We can modify the design in Revit and make other changes and Enscape updates without exporting. The navigation quality in Enscape is very responsive. Even when there’s no lights or materials in the project, Enscape is far superior without leaving Revit.

As you can imagine, a LIVE design process can be incredibly stressful – but it is also incredibly rewarding. I have never experienced the kind of rewarding, design feedback than I have received when collaborating with a client in the moment. It’s absolutely wonderful. At the end of the second day the client is literally high-fiving you and exclaiming, “I can’t believe what we have accomplished in two days”. Using Enscape, the client is far more engaged, far more excited and the process is far more satisfying. One client recently told us, “I don’t know why we do this any other way.” And we’ve got a client for life.

Thanks!

Glad to discuss how Enscape has dramatically improved our design process. When I say that “Enscape changed our world” it’s not an exaggeration!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post LIVE Design Group: The Earlier We Engage Our Clients The Better The Outcome appeared first on Enscape.

“From massing studies to finished renderings, Enscape allows us to completely integrate the design process like never before.”

Kimberly Fuhrman | BIM Manager | LSC Design

Who Are Kimberly and Travis?

[Kimberly] I got my technology start using CAD in civil engineering and architecture “way back when” and made the move to Revit about 10 years ago. Today, I have 23 years of in industry experience across both disciplines. This combination is pretty unique and it provides an integrated approach to building design. My background is particularly helpful within LSC design because we’re a multidisciplinary firm. My day to day work allows me focus on researching and implementing new companies and software, which I really enjoy. I’ve been with LSC since 2014.

[Travis] I got my architectural start when I was in elementary school! I really love drawing and art. By the time I got to high school, my counselor ask me what I liked to do. I told him, “I really like art and buildings” and he suggested I take a drafting class. My formal education began at Harrisburg Area Community College, where I attended for two semesters. Then I moved to Drexel University in Philadelphia. After graduating I began working for a civil engineering firm in Harrisburg. Although I’m a project manager I don’t just float above the technology– I actually use it on projects – you have to use the technology you’re talking about. I’ve been with LSC since 2012.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/LSCDesignInc
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/1199621

Why Enscape?

We’re a 50+ person architectural, civil and structural engineering firm. Although two thirds of our business is architectural related, we don’t specialize in any particular building typology. We’ve done churches, museums, conservatories, institutions, etc. Even private educational and higher educational projects as well as manufacturing, retail and health care.

What’s critically important to us is, “What does the client want and how are we visualizing and communicating that information?” At no point we want to show the client something that doesn’t fit within their budget and vision.

As far as technologies, our architecture and structural departments are strictly Revit. While we use Civil 3-D for civil engineering design, we started using Revit in 2008 for all of our architectural projects. It wasn’t a slow transition. We jumped in the deep end with both feet. One day the decision was made that all new projects were to start in Revit – and we haven’t looked back.

LSC is also very focused on the “I” in BIM. It’s not just about the design today and the construction tomorrow. We’re thinking ahead to the decades of operation and facility management. LSC takes a very long look at how technology can be used many years in the future.

It’s also very important to LSC to have a highly integrated design and production process. For many years we had a design department and another production department. The design department would focus on early design intent and renderings for visualizing the intent. Once design work was completed we pass it off to the production department. But the increasing complexity of projects and fast paced deadlines created a disconnect between intent and resolution that was incredibly disruptive and counterproductive to success.

With Revit, we have integrated the design and production teams and processes. Everyone on a project team is accountable from the very beginning. When we integrated the design and production process, we began doing a lot of rendering in Revit. But ultimately we discovered the process took too long. We began sending our projects to an external rendering service. But we soon realized the process took too long and it was difficult to control quality. Ultimately the process was also incredibly inflexible. We couldn’t accommodate necessary last-minute changes. So we started using the cloud for rendering.

But using the cloud for rendering is also too slow and disruptive. There is always a disconnect between what we were working on in Revit and what we’re presented in a finished rendering. The process was faster – but wasn’t fast enough. We still didn’t have time to re-render everything when we needed it.

Why do we use Revit? Because we want instant feedback and coordination. But if you think about it, we still allow for a different set of expectations about rendering and experiencing the project. Why is that? Why have a separate team of visualization “specialists”. Why not experience design decisions while you work as soon as possible – just like Revit? Ultimately, we needed a process that worked side-by-side with Revit and we finally found it with Enscape.

When we’re early in the design process we don’t want to show the client something that appears too realistic or finished. Paper mode is great going into meetings with clients early in the process. We used to create sketches by hand to give the impression that the design wasn’t too finished. Papermode in Enscape replaces this time-consuming in manual process of showing concepts that don’t appear too finished.

Once the project settles down and we know about more about materials, fixtures and other features of the building we can create more realistic, finished renderings. In Enscape, we’re able to do this nearly instantly. We’ve stopped using cloud credits for creating finished renderings. We only occasionally use cloud credits for energy analysis. But if Enscape was able to visualize energy analysis and other data, we probably stop using cloud credits altogether.

The other advantage of using Enscape is that we’ve been able to keep all of this work in-house. This allows a much higher level of control and quality. Whether it’s creating interior or exterior renderings or even cut away sections of buildings – we’re doing it all in Enscape.

We have been waiting for a process that is fast, flexible and high quality – and one more thing – inexpensive. Enscape gives us all of these features and more. Navigation alone is far more fluid and intuitive then Revit. And we like how Enscape doesn’t feel like another application. Nobody has time to learn another complicated rendering application. Enscape is just another tab inside Revit.

Thanks!

You’re very welcome. We’re incredibly excited to be using Enscape I look forward to the broad adoption of Enscape in the AED industry. Let’s catch up in a few months and we’ll give you an update. Or better yet – let’s catch up at Autodesk University!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post LSC Design: Higher Quality, Lower Cost and Faster. appeared first on Enscape.

“Enscape gives you the advantage of spending more time designing and exploring.”

Connor Gatzke | Architectural Student | Iowa State U

Who’s Connor?

I’m a second-generation Revit user. I grew up around Revit for as long as I can remember. My dad is architect Mike Gatzke – a well known early Revit adopter and architectural instructor. My earliest memories are of my dad using Revit around 2004 to design our house. At the time I was only nine years old and Revit was way over my head. I was just intrigued by its use as a medium for ideas from the head to be generated and constructed into something that can be experienced in physical reality. Like a lot of kids my age interested in 3D, my earliest design interest came from drawing, SketchUp and Minecraft.

When I was a senior in high school I decided to take some design classes. We started out using Chief Architect, which in my opinion was a total waste of time. It didn’t get interesting until we started learning how to use AutoCAD and Revit. And of course I had the advantage of being able to ask my dad technical questions! I ended up using Revit to enter an affordable housing competition during my senior year and the final project turned out really well. Becoming a finalist in the competition was a big confidence booster for me.

When it was time for college my dad really wanted to make sure I was aware of the facts of architecture school and the profession: long hours, late nights and other economic realities. My initial visits to Iowa State were spent checking out the engineering program. I didn’t have as much of a passion for engineering but I had a knack for math and knew it would be better pay. My final visit was checking out the design programs there and architecture just seemed like the perfect fit.

My freshman year I did design work which I had to put together into a portfolio to apply into the very competitive architecture program at ISU. Getting the acceptance letter into the program is one of my favorite memories. I’m 21 years old and will be starting my fourth year of college (third year of architecture school) this fall at Iowa State. I plan on finishing my fifth year and then getting my masters degree.

Web: www.cgatzke.com
Snapchat: connor.gatzke
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/connor-gatzke-3990a7126

Why Enscape?

The studio professor I had my first semester in the program preferred everything be hand drafted. It definitely took much longer. I found that kind of frustrating– using the computer isn’t cheating. If anything using 3D makes the design process harder because you quickly become accountable for the entire design rather than isolated plans, sections and elevations. I really wish my early studio professors let us embrace Revit sooner.

The second year of architectural school I was using Revit on a regular basis. Rather than make the design process easier, Revit simply gives you more time to improve your design earlier. At that point, professors pretty much wanted images to be printed out rather than displayed on screen. So I’d export from Revit and put trace paper over the images. Then my professor and I could sit down and draw overtop those images, “redlining” any necessary design modifications. It was a strange kind of hybrid digital process that often impeded my design development.

I only learned about Enscape at the start of last semester. My dad had forwarded me a link to an article he thought I would find interesting. Needless to say, I did. I started using Enscape right away. There really wasn’t any learning curve since you’re actually doing everything in Revit and simply exploring in Enscape. My competition partner was also much more happy to use Enscape rather than having to learn another rendering tool. As a result, we were fortunate enough to entirely bypass the process of “click and wait” to render in Revit. This gave us an advantage of spending more time designing and exploring. Our project turned out much better because of Enscape.

For anyone that’s been to architectural school, you know it’s a pretty competitive environment. As a result, we kept Enscape very close to the chest. It was kind of our secret weapon. Students not using Revit envied the ease of rendering we had with Enscape. Enscape allowed us to explore the project from any direction and make adjustments while immediately seeing the results in a high quality and real-time rendered model.

When another student was using Max, SketchUp or Rhino, they were constantly jumping between different applications to get things done. Getting renderings out of any of those tools was a painful process that required a lot of time and patience – something in short supply during architecture school.

I recall once hearing a professor admonish their students, “Do a rendering every night before you go to sleep – and then it’ll be done when you wake up”. In other words, you are pretty much a sitting duck for 8+ hours while your computer puts all of its power into generating a single still image.

As Caleb and I were working on our spring design competition, we weren’t having any of that. Other students would start rendering days before the deadline. They still had post production to do in a Photoshop! As final review day approached, other students would ask, “When are you going to start doing your renderings?” We just kept refining the design and quietly reviewed the results in Enscape.

We owe the success of our final project to being able to review the project and make changes in a live, fully rendered view. Our professors were really interested in our working process. We’d walk through the design with them in Enscape in realtime and show options to them during a live review. Our professors really loved the ability to resolve issues in the moment and at a far higher level of detail and feedback.

If there were more extensive changes that had to be made, we could quickly and painlessly screenshot the Enscape image and print it off for him to draw on top of. The whole process took less than a minute. Good luck doing that with another rendering program!

When it was finally time to export our final images, Enscape really pulled through. Our final presentation board size was 44″ x 14′. On it, we had a 6k render from Enscape which was 2′ x 4′. We were able to save the image from Enscape in under five minutes. If you’re using Revit, it only makes sense to use Enscape.

Thanks!

Glad to chat and looking forward to using Enscape on my design projects next year. I’ll keep uploading images to my online portfolio. Please check in from time to time!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Connor Gatzke: If You’re Using Revit It Only Makes Sense To Use Enscape. appeared first on Enscape.

“We were not doing renderings in Revit prior to Enscape. We simply didn’t have time to push the rendering button and wait.”

Dave Wilde | VDC Operations | Aspen Group

Who’s Dave?

I’m a Senior Architect and Virtual Design Manager for the Aspen Group, a 40-person, fully integrated design/build/furnish firm headquartered outside of Chicago, Illinois. Aspen Group started more than a decade ago. We’re exclusively focused on serving the church and ministry market, primarily working with churches in the Midwest and Southeast regions.

I have more than 25 years experience in the architectural profession, and I’ve been using Revit since 2009. At Aspen, we use Revit throughout the project development, and we engage with MEP and Structural partners in Revit as well. We do as much virtual coordination as possible prior to construction.

Churches are incredibly personal spaces that have to adapt to meet a wide variety of uses for multiple generations. Because of our design/build/furnish approach, we have the unique experience and ability to carefully shepherd the building process from concept to completion. Fit, finish, detail, and budget are all Incredibly important to us and our clients.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/Aspen_Group
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidhwilde

Why Enscape?

We take pride in the amount of detail that we put into our Revit projects, including finish products so the client can visualize what the actual materials will look like in their new space. But prior to using Enscape, we weren’t doing renderings in Revit. We simply didn’t have time to push the rendering button and wait.

As a result, we used to outsource rendering of still images, but the turnaround was never fast enough. Additionally, still images don’t fully communicate the design–they’re simply frozen snapshots.

Revit allows for robust coordination, but it lacks in the ability to visually explore designs with the owner. Enscape, however, has solved this problem. We’re using Enscape from early design visualization through high-resolution, finished explorations.

We’re also using Revit to indicate material selection much sooner than we did previously. For our projects, materials and lighting are incredibly strategic. And clearly communicating our design decisions to committees is always a challenge. Enscape helps us visualize designs with actual materials, flooring, and finishes. Clients can ask to see variations within the context of the virtual space, so Enscape helps create a flowing and flexible process.

Most importantly, we’re not spending time learning to use another stand-alone application. What we present to the client in Enscape is simply a byproduct of what we are doing in Revit, rather than a disconnected, separate, or parallel process.

We always design to the budget, and Enscape helps us display materials, finishes, and content so that the client can interact with and respond to actual finish choices, furnishings, colors, and lighting that fall within their budget. Simply being able to adjust the lumen and indirect lighting within landscape when we present designs using Enscape is amazing—quite frankly it blows the clients mind!

When we work with a church, we create a roadmap to help them understand what they can afford. We also have to create a variety of worship environments that can accommodate multiple uses and generations. Communicating all of this design information is incredibly complex, but we’re having a blast using Enscape to help do this.

In the end, you can’t simply show your client pictures. You have to help everyone involved begin to experience the space while pointing out issues that impact fit, finish, and pricing. This is not about rendering—it’s about understanding. It’s about creating a compelling and complete decision-making process that gives the client confidence to move forward.

We’ve understood for a long time that in order to communicate design concepts properly, we need to convey information within context. You can’t show the client a material board and then point to a colored floor plan and expect them to piece it all together in their head. Maybe that was fine 5 years ago, but not anymore. The client may say they understand, but in our experience, they often were picturing something different. These misunderstandings eventually create a lot of stress for everyone involved.

For the first time, Enscape helps us help the client really understand and experience the project before the design is built. In fact, we had a meeting a few weeks ago where we were able to get sign off on 150 decisions in about 3 hours. Not only did Enscape save everyone involved enormous stress, time, and money, but we’re confident that the client really understands what the final product will look like.

To put it another way, Revit is great for coordinating—but Enscape is great at communicating and inspiring. The client and project team need to explore and experience the space before the design is built. As far as we’re concerned there’s no other way to do this than Enscape.

Thanks!

Our mission at Aspen Group is to create space for ministry impact. Enscape has become an important part of our overall workflow and a key tool for helping us accomplish this. We’re grateful for this incredible technology.

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Aspen Group: Revit Is Great For Coordinating; Enscape Is Great For Inspiring appeared first on Enscape.

“Enscape could replace any rendering engine for interiors visualization.”

Nick Craver | WGM Design | Charlotte, NC

Who’s Nick?

I’m an architect and 3D BIM specialist with WGM Design in Charlotte, North Carolina (www.wgmdesign.com). I graduated from the University of North Carolina Charlotte with a degree in architecture in 2001. Initially I went into graphic design but soon after moved into construction. I was hired by WGM 2004 and started using Revit in 2007.

During my time at UNCC I started working in 3D with Form*Z. Since then have learned to use a number of 3D modeling tools. To me, all the various 3D tools are pretty much the same. The advantage with Revit is that I also get control the final product and documentation at the same time as I’m modeling the building.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/WGMDesignInc
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nick-craver-883483a

Why Enscape?

As I mentioned before, WGM began using Revit in 2007. We do a wide array of projects. Our present focus is on commercial interior up-fits, private educational and religious projects. We’re not a very large firm – but I don’t consider this a disadvantage. Think of it this way: every large firm is really made of small teams, just like us. But our size gives us the advantage of being flexible when it comes to experimenting with and using new technology. Our fast adoption of Enscape (enscape3d.com) immediately helped our clients schedules by significantly reducing rendering times.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that it can take a large firm two weeks just to install a new application that someone wants to try out on a project. It’s almost like large firms have meetings just to schedule meetings! On the other hand, we’re encouraged to try new things. We can discover a new technology on Friday and begin using it on Monday. This is exactly what happened when we first saw Enscape.

Within the first day of using Enscape, I was publishing images from a university project to be used by the project manager for presentation with a client. I believe this kind of agility and attention to detail is what gives WGM an enormous competitive advantage over firms literally hundreds of times our size. When clients call us they’re immediately talking to the person working on their project. This kind of client focus is our key value – we don’t have all the layers and politics.

Clients love our ability to use Revit from the earliest point in design and Enscape helps us communicate and experience our designs like never before. We like to model everything the camera sees – even down to detailed fixtures and light switches. This attention to detail really brings the project to life.

With Enscape, we’re not doing anything different. We’re basically using Revit like we’ve always used Revit as if we were going to create still image renderings. If anything, I’m using Revit better than before because I’m more aware of how materials and lighting will look when the project is built and finished. But instead of waiting 8 to 10 hours for a 4K rendering to complete in Revit, I’m able to produce a better quality image in under five minutes with Enscape.

With the typical rendering process in Revit, you set up your camera along with all the other settings, while trying to “imagine” what the final product will look like. But with Enscape, you can see the final rendering before you create the image. You can even tweak the image settings in the live view and get an immediate feedback before saving the image. This advantage alone completely side steps time-consuming postproduction in Photoshop.

I’ve used a lot of rendering tools – including 3ds Max. I’m not exaggerating when I say that Enscape could replace any rendering engine for interiors visualization. But with Enscape you have the advantage of actually being able to explore your project from any angle and lighting condition.

To be honest, I really don’t like a lot of the materials that come out of the box with Revit. So I typically modify and customize my materials. And this is what gives Enscape powerful simplicity. When I’m changing materials lighting in Revit I can immediately see the results in Enscape. No more pushing the rendering button and waiting to see if I’ve made the right decision.

I really like Enscape’s simplicity with navigation. The PC game-like controls make it so easy to navigate the design model.

Thanks!

Glad we were able to talk about our experience with using Enscape. Let’s keep in touch and I’ll be sure to send over some more images from time to time for you guys to post on Twitter. Just don’t forget to mention where they came from – WGM Design in Charlotte, NC!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post WGM Design: Enscape helps us communicate & experience our designs like never before appeared first on Enscape.

“Enscape not only cuts down on hours spent producing renderings, but is offering project teams the ability to instantly experience the spaces they are designing while they work.”

Ian Siegel and Paul Renner | BIM Practice Specialists | Kohn Pedersen Fox

Who’s Ian and Paul?

We’re BIM Practice Specialists at Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) Architects in New York (www.kpf.com). The most enjoyable part of our work is finding solutions for teams of designers and architects that improve their problem-solving, modeling, design, and documentation processes.

Ian Siegel:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ian_siegel
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/siegelian

Paul Renner:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/pmrphotography
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pmrvisuals

Why Enscape?

Our design technology team has always recognized that rendering is an inefficient process. A typical rendering workflow usually requires a project be exported from the model authoring software – usually Revit or Rhino – into another application for rendering, followed by several hours spent preparing the model (materials, lighting, camera setup) just to hit the render button. While the finished results of this process are spectacular, it takes too long, can be extremely tedious, and does not accommodate rapid and last minute design changes.

When we first took Enscape (enscape3d.com) for a test drive, we were immediately impressed with how little time and effort was required to walk through our fully-rendered model like we were playing a video game, and producing high-resolution renderings was just a matter of clicking a button. In many ways, we saw Enscape as a tool that would help us get more mileage out of our Revit projects and reap more of the benefits of our investment in BIM.

We’re still in the process of rolling out Enscape, but so far, interest has been positive and organic. Once in a while, Paul will invite an entire design team over to his desk to let them take turns viewing their project in Enscape through the Oculus VR headset. In fact, one project team enjoyed this immersive experience of their project for the first time a few days before a major milestone deadline – it was refreshing for them to take a break from their work on two-dimensional drawings to move throughout the space and be reminded how their project is so breathtaking.

Although there’s been a tremendous amount of buzz recently around Virtual Reality, there are still plenty of people who have never experienced the technology. About a week or two ago, we pulled a site model of New York City from another application into Revit and highlighted the buildings in the city designed by KPF. This week we’re going to display the model in our gallery and fire up Enscape with the Oculus VR headset plugged in for anybody in the office to take their first virtual walk around town. So far, it’s been a great way of demonstrating the potential for VR to the handful of people who have asked about it, but we’re looking forward to introducing this technology to people who have only heard of VR and never seen it in action.

We’ve discovered we’re using Enscape as a kind of “digital prototyping” tool. For example, we now rotate through multiple design options for wall systems and lobby interiors in Enscape, all within the live Revit model. Any changes we make to the model update automatically and immediately in Enscape. We don’t feel like we’re rendering – it’s more like we’re exploring.

Our BIM team expects Enscape to continue to catch on very quickly at KPF because it’s easy for a user to pick it up and start exploring. Enscape doesn’t feel like it’s an additional software to deal with, it feels more like another viewport in Revit that contains a live-rendered 3D view. We’ve recommended a few settings to help designers achieve the KPF rendering “look and feel”, but the user interface and navigation is intuitive enough that we don’t expect a need for training.

We’re pleased to see that Enscape has added to the ability to export projects in a stand-alone viewing environment. This should really help with project reviews and client presentations that don’t require Revit.

As much as we love the “M” in BIM – the Model – the real power is in the “I” – the Information. We think Enscape can help us do a great job of experiencing the model and visualizing the data simultaneously.

Thanks!

You’re very welcome! We hope we can touch base in a couple of weeks and give you an update on KPF’s global rollout and share some more images!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Kohn Pedersen Fox: A New Way To Experience BIM appeared first on Enscape.

Enscape (enscape3d.com) version 1.5 was released this week with improved features and workflow. Just a few of the highlights:

• Photometric Lights: Lighting fixtures use real IES light profiles for extra realism.
• Sun Path: Revit’s date and world location is used to simulate sun angles
• Faster and Better Graphics: More fluid experience with less noise, better reflections on glass and water.
• Redesigned Settings: Grouped settings and partially re-settable tabs.
• Checkout Floating License: Checkout floating licenses for 24 hours.
• Oculus Rift: Plug and play with faster performance.

The full list of festivities is over here. Let’s go through each of the settings in this new release.

First of all, I’m going to drop my screen resolution. Enscape is fairly GPU intensive and keeping your screen resolution or window resolution to HD (1280 x 720) or so will dramatically improve performance on laptops. I run Enscape on a 2012 MacBook Pro via Bootcamp running Windows 7 (x64).

Let’s open the Enscape Modern Residence project.

From the Enscape tab in Revit:

1. Starts Enscape
2. Refreshes your Enscape window if necessary when changing settings.
3. Determines which 3D View in your project is generating your Enscape real-time environment. Whatever is visible in this view is visible in Enscape.
4. Allows you to load and place ambient sound sources around your project.
5. One button still image screenshots – way faster than rendering in the cloud.
6. One button export to create a fully explorable 3D standalone file.
7. Manages all your Enscape settings.
8. Provides feedback directly to the Enscape development team.

Sending email from this dialog is really helpful. It’s a great idea to include log files, which captures your computer hardware info and other settings.

9. About button.

This is where you’ll identify your Enscape version and enter license details.

1. Now let’s start Enscape. The Revit project is in the background (visible though on the lower left). The Enscape settings window is on the left and the fully explorable, live Enscape view is on the right. In this view the instructions and navigation tips are visible. Here’s what each of the settings do:

1. Determines the number of rendering cycles. They occur when you stop moving and allow the image to become more refined.
2. Indicates Flymode vs. Gravitymode. Flymode is free exploration and allows you to pass through geometry. Gravitymode will drop you to the nearest surface. You’ll only be able to pass through doors.
3. WASD are the keyboard controls for moving (respectively) forward, left, back and right. Although not shown, Q moves down and E moves up.
4. Use the Space Bar to toggle between Flymode and Gravitymode.
5. Hold the left mouse button and move the mouse to rotate.
6. Hold the right mouse button and move the mouse to change the time of day. You can also press and hold the middle mouse button to pan the view.
7. When you change the time of day, the time will be displayed in this area. The following series of images illustrate how the time of day effects your Enscape environment. And yes – that’s the moon peeking through the trees in the third image!

8.

While moving, hold the shift key to run and the CRTL key to fly. This really speeds up navigation when crossing long distances.

Keep in mind that keyboard controls can be used in combinations – allowing you to move in multiple directions simultaneously. And pressing the H key will quickly toggle the display settings on and off.

Now let’s go through each of the settings from the General tab.

Papermodel Mode keeps the material bumps and removes the textures from your view. This is the default setting. Line Thickness helps enhance geometry edges.

Line Thickness set to the least value.

Line Thickness set to the highest value.

Polystyrol Mode softens the material bumps and removes the textures from your view. This is the default setting.

This is the least value. Note the harder edge around shadows.

This is the highest value. Note the overall softened look and feel.

Depth Of Field is off by default and it’s probably best to leave this setting off when navigating through the model. Otherwise it’s hard to “focus” on what you’re viewing.

Once Depth of Field starts, Enscape has a number of settings to control the focal point in the view. In the image below, the objects in the background are in focus.

By changing these settings, you’ll be able to adjust the focal point to control the clarity of objects in the background or foreground. In the image below, the objects in the foreground are in focus.

The Field Of View setting widens or narrows your cameras view type.

If you decrease the value, the model will almost appear orthographic.

Increasing the Field Of View can dramatically exaggerate the perspective.

Adding a Skybox replaces the default ground plane and sky. The image below uses the white cubemap. There’s a selection of cubemaps that can be downloaded from Enscape over here.

Global Illumination simulates the light bounces in your project. Turning it off enhances performance – but will also decrease the quality of lighting. Note the interior shadows in the image below compared to the image above.

To improve image quality, increase the Rendering Enhancement Cycles. This setting goes into effect when you stop navigating the scene. The more cycles, the crisper and more refined image.

One more thing. The Reset All button allows you to reset all of the settings to their default value. The Reset This Tab button only reset this tab to the default settings.

In the image below, the Contrast is set to the default value.

Now the Contrast value has been set to the highest value.

Sharpening controls how the sharpness of the overall image. Decreasing this value make the edges appear softer and less resolved.

While increasing Sharpening accentuates the edges and material maps.

Decreasing the Saturation creates a completely grey scale image.

Increasing the Saturation really exaggerates the colors in the view.

Sliding the Color Temperature to the left gives a more reddish hue.

While sliding the Color Temperature setting to the right gives a more bluish tint.

The Color Temperature Strength increases and decreases the effect of theColor Temperature setting.

While you navigate the view, you’ll become aware of a subtle lens flair effect. You can turn the effect completely off by setting the Bloom and Lens Flare Intensity value to the least value.

Setting the value to the highest setting will make the lens flair more pronounced.

The default Brightness setting is shown below.

Decreasing the setting to the lowest value will dramatically darken interior scenes.

Fog Density increases the appearance of light rays bouncing off the atmosphere in the scene.

The light rays are completely removed by setting the Fog Density to the lowest value.

Increasing the setting to the highest value really enhances the mood of the view. This is where Enscape really shines compared to the trial and error of typical rendering processes. Enscape avoids the constant tweaking and test rendering to see an effect. In Enscape, you’re able to see the effect in real-time before exporting the image.

Cloud Density allows you increase the number of the clouds in the sky.

Setting the value to the lowest amount makes the sky practically clear.

While setting the value to the highest amount lets only a bit of blue through the cloud cover.

Shadow Contrast effectively increases the brightness of the sun, which in turn makes the shadows more pronounced.

Decreasing this value give a very evenly lit feel, not unlike a rainy and overcast day.

Increasing the Shadow Contrast dramatically brightens the areas that are lit by the sun.

Now let’s move to the Input tab.

The higher the value of the Mouse Smoothing setting, the smoother the mouse movements. The Mouse Speed Multiplier allows you to increase the mouse movements movements. The Movement Speed Multiplier enhances player movement through the scene.

On to the Advanced tab!

If you want to see the screen tips, check the Show On-Screen Help And Icons On Startup option. Of course you can also use the H key to toggle the settings on and off.

Compared to the image above, the vertical lines are parallel after checking theArchitectural Two-Point Perspective option.

Check the Enable Oculus Rift option for using the VR display headset.

Enable Stereo Mode to either Side by side or Post side by side for use with a stereo device. Post side by side has a lower performance impact when navigating the scene.

The Screenshot Resolution setting determines the resolution of an exported image. If set to the resolution of your window, images are saved almost instantly. Image resolution of 4k and beyond are possible.

Automatic Screen Naming allows you to automatically save the image with a time and date in the location of your choosing. It’s kind of like being able to walk around and take pictures.

When using this setting, the image below was saved in less than a second and given the file name, “Enscape_2016-03-12-10-11-23.png”. The full sized image is over here.

Enscape swaps out any Archvision objects in Revit when the Replace Archvision Content option is checked.

If you uncheck this Replace Archvision Content, the planer elements are shown.

Enscape also allows you to add ambient sounds to your scene. If you want to see them in your Enscape scene, make sure the Show Sound Sources option is checked.

The Camera Synchronization Behavior setting allows you to synchronize the camera in the Enscape View with a camera at the same location in Revit. The options are Off, On and Live. When you select and move the camera in Revit – you’re moving the camera in Enscape. This setting also helps highlight the location of the Enscape camera in Revit. If the setting is set to Live, moving the Enscape camera will move the camera in real-time in Revit.

So what are my preferred Enscape settings? I tend to adjust the Saturation, Brightness and Shadow Contrast settings. The view below has the default settings.

By decreasing these settings, the materials in the distant appear more rich and less washed out for my liking.

The same thing goes for interior view. The default settings are shown in the image below.

By decreasing these settings slightly, the materials seem more muted, natural and believable.

That’s it! I sincerely hope you’ve enjoyed the walk-though of Enscape 1.5. If you haven’t downloaded the two week trial head over to enscape3d.com to sign up. If you’d like to see the full-size images contained in this update, they’re available over here. The folder also contains the standalone EXE file of the Enscape Modern House for you to navigate and explore (no install required).

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Version 1.5 Update with New and Improved Workflow appeared first on Enscape.

“Rendering is dead. We need to visualize, explore and discover from any and every angle.”

Richard Lopez | VDC Manager | Hensel Phelps

Who’s Richard?

I work in Denver Colorado as the VC manager for Hensel Phelps Construction. I have an architectural background and although not licensed to have worked on a variety of large projects in the design build industry. I’ve also worked in the reseller space doing Revit training. I’ve been working with Hensel Phelps since the spring of 2010.

Primary job function at Hensel Phelps is to train staff and work with project teams to really dial in the architectural models. This means a lot of collaboration with superintendents. I also work a lot on the marketing side helping to prepare visuals and high and marketing images for proposals. I’ll typically prepare a lot of interior renderings for medical projects, high-end office buildings and hotel/hospitality. The bottom line is we need to show what it’s going to look like it before it’s built.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/omegalopez713
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-lopez-60aa574

Why Enscape?

Previous to using in Enscape I prepare a lot of walk-throughs in game engines. Not just for architectural work but also to review structural models. But once I started using Enscape, I’ve never looked back. Using Enscape, I’m able to quickly and easily give the project team an overall idea and then very quickly and easily focus in on the details. With very little effort I can produce fantastic results.

What’s been surprising is that even the superintendents are buying into using Enscape. They know how gaming works. They’re using these kinds of tools with their kids and even their grand-kids. The superintendents are not holding back, they’re really engaging.

In some ways using Enscape is better clash detection then some other purpose built class detection tools out there. Enscape is much more immersive, while the other tools are not. I get that being able to simply push a button to find clashes is a great idea. But in the real world it’s much more subtle, where you simply need to walk around and find problems. That’s where Enscape really shines.

I’ve also stopped using other rendering tools and now rely on Revit. Images from Enscape are very fast and look amazing and I don’t have to spend time in post-production. I zoom around live with the marketing team and when they see an image they’d like to have for rendering we just stop and I save an HD image in about 15 seconds.

The owners really love it too. In one particular case, I was working on a very high-end 42 story building and the finishes were very important to the owner. We were paying particular attention to very fine details and how materials wrapped. Even the edges of tile and grout had to match reveals in the wall which ultimately could be followed up to tiling in the ceiling. Everything had to be resolved before design was complete.

By using Enscape, we were making changes in Revit and visualizing the results on-the-fly. As we were in the meeting the owner exclaims, “This is amazing! What program are you using?” What I didn’t tell anyone was that I had no training. I’d downloaded the Enscape trial the night before. That’s how easy it is to use Enscape. At the end of the meeting, the owner states, “Wow you guys are doing exactly what we want.” There’s no better validation of success.

Being able to make changes in the Revit model and immediately see the results in Enscape is one of the reasons Enscape makes more sense than a “clash detection” program. We’re working on the construction model live in Revit. The other benefit is that people are willing to spend more time in Revit. Getting the model, the lighting and and the materials right is a worthwhile investment when you can see the results side-by-side with to your Revit model. It’s not about rendering, it’s about real world.

Using Enscape has been a great win for me. No more Exporting. No more Showcase. No more Max. No extra material libraries. No more complicated workflow. I think Enscape is a total game changer and I’m not kidding when I say I could see Enscape replacing Navisworks.

How I keep coming back to this but it’s really important. Clash detection isn’t just about clashes and you can’t push a button to figure things out. The great thing about Enscape is that it makes the project discoverable. You can walk around in the real world and discover problems that aren’t clashes.

The real beauty of Enscape is that anyone can pick it up and use it. I hope that never changes.

Thanks!

Really glad we were able to chat. I’m really looking forward to see Enscape develop in terms of features and functions. But I’m also looking forward to seeing Escape develop in terms of passionate user community. These guys really deserve to be successful, so anything I can do to help get out the word is great.

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Hensel Phelps Construction: No more Complicated Workflow – Enscape is a total game changer appeared first on Enscape.

It happened again! It used to happen often during my years at Revit and Autodesk: a customer wants to be able to do something that’s not in the box. Hmmm. Dig around a bit and wouldn’t you know there’s a nice technique to do that in Revit.

Just yesterday, an Enscape (enscape3d.com) customer said, “We’d really like to be able to override all the materials in Enscape. You know, like Enscape’s Papermode but with the ability to select any solid color or material.”

“In particular”, the customer continued, “We’d like to be able to simulate basswood, cardboard and clay.”

So Enscape doesn’t do this – but it does display what Revit is doing. Hmmm. Wonder if you can override all the materials settings in a project with a single color or material in Revit? Well – it turns out you can! And the results are beautiful!

First, create a new Phase Filter as shown. All the phases are set to Overridden.

Next, create a new material. In this case let’s call the material “Phase – Enscape”. This will position it alphabetically near the other materials related to Phase overrides. I’ve assigned a Basswood material (and bump) that is tiled to a 10’ x 10’ sample size. In a moment, you’ll see how this will subtly indicate units when viewing in Enscape.

Next, change the Graphic Overrides of the Phase and assign your new material.

Finally, set the Phase Filter in the view to Enscape.

Here’s the results in Enscape. Pretty cool, eh?! Looks very realistic – but keep in mind this is a real-time environment that can be fully explored. And any change in Revit is a change in Enscape!

So let’s mix it up a bit and add more detail by adding curtain wall, doors and more furniture.

Physical models often leave out any transparent objects, so let’s hide the Glass subcategories.

And the results in Revit. Useful, but not much of an experience or very explorable. How about Enscape?

Voila! This looks amazing! And the subtle 10’ x 10’ tiling effect isn’t distracting, while providing a useful and subtle sense of scale.

Alright – that was fun! What about some other materials?

Corrugated cardboard anyone?

Everything is chrome in the future!

Black, shiny plastic:

White matte plastic:

More of an off-white, clay tone:

High density fiberboard:

And finally – watercolor paper!

What do you think? Pros? Cons? Sure, this process is imperfect as it messes with Phases (which would have to be set back to their proper material assignments for actual phasing purposes). But I recon during early design this looks really stunning and setting phases back to their actual state would only take about a minute.

Here’s a link to all the full size images and files (including the Revit 2016 and Enscape stand alone, explorable EXE file).

What other material categories do you think would look great? And finally, don’t forget to add your own tips and tricks in Revit and Enscape in the comments below.

Enjoy!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Beautiful Physical Model Simulation in Enscape appeared first on Enscape.

Telling a great story with Enscape (enscape3d.com) isn’t just about being able to create beautiful renderings or side-by-side, real-time visualization. It’s about being able to focus on what’s really important. Enscape photorealistically shows you exactly what’s going on in your Revit file – flaws and all. And when you really need to zoom in on the details and turn off all the other noise in the project, there’s nothing better than the Section Box (full size here).

To section off what’s visible in your project in Enscape, simply turn on the Section Box in your Revit project. In the image above, the Section Box has been activated in Revit’s default 3D View. The image on the right is the result in Enscape. Pretty stunning, eh?

Another advantage of using the Section Box? Enscape only has to compute what’s inside it, which can dramatically improve performance on large projects. Especially if you have limited graphic resources.

But here’s a problem: once you turn on your section box in the 3D View, you’ve lost the rest of your project’s context. Wouldn’t it be great if you could still see your Section Box in context with the rest of the project and even move it around from room to room with Enscape only showing you what’s inside the Section Box? Well it turns out you can!

There are two options for this workflow. The first option uses the Select Previous command and the second option uses Filters (along with the ability to load a previously saved selection).

While you can’t directly show a Section Box in a 2D view, you can show it indirectly. To do this select the Section Box in the 3D View and then CTRL+Tab back to 2D View. The Section Box will display in the 2D View as shown in the image above (full size here).

Using the Move command (not press and drag), you’ll be able to move the Section Box in the 2D View and have the results display in 3D in Enscape. This technique makes it possible to see your Section Box in the overall project plan view, which provides great context for reviewing the design in Enscape.

Now you can quickly move around your Revit project without having to manually navigate through the building. As shown in the image below, when the Section Box is moved, the 3D View in Enscape updates accordingly (full size here).

You can even modify the size of the Section Box in the 2D View by pressing and dragging the grips on each face of the Section Box as shown below (1). Again, the view in Enscape updates (full size here)!

So what happens if you accidentally deselect the Section Box? Simply Right+Click and Select Previous to recall your last selection, and the Section Box will once again highlight in your plan view.

But what if you want to move the Enscape camera and Revit’s Section Box together? Moving the Section Box and Enscape camera together will keep you from having to manually navigate to the new location when the Section Box moves. As it turns out moving the Section Box and Enscape camera at the same time is possible as well.

First, you’ll need to display the Enscape camera in Revit by setting the Camera Synchronization Behavior to Live in the Enscape Settings Menu as shown above (2). Also, make sure the Generic Model Category is visible.

While the Section Box is selected, hold down the Shift key and select the Enscape camera. You can also do this from the 3D View while the Section Box is active – just make sure the camera is inside the Section Box so you can see it.

While both the Section Box and Camera are selected, activate the Filter tool to make sure you’ve only selected the Section Box and Camera. Then select OK.

Now select Save Selection from the Filter menu and name your selection as shown in the image below. Press OK.

Once the selection has been saved, use the Load Selection from the Filter menu to quickly select both Enscape camera and Section Box (or better yet, map the Load Selection command with a Keyboard Shortcut). This easily recalls the Section Box and Enscape Camera together as shown below.

Even though the Section Box will not appear to highlight as before, when you select the Move tool the selection fence will indicate the extents of the selection contains both the Section Box and Enscape Camera as shown below.

Vola! Now you can move the Section Box and the Enscape camera together! This can really help move things along during design reviews (full size here)!

If you need to resize your Section Box, just select it in the 3D View and then CRTL+Tab back to the 2D View for quick adjustment as shown below (full size here).

I hope this helps improve your Enscape experience for fast and easy navigation during project review. Please share your Enscape Tips and Tricks in the comments below!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Focusing On Your Project Details with Revit’s Section Box appeared first on Enscape.

“Enscape breaks the shackles of 2D rendering & animation.”

Kathy Kajaks | Associate, BIM-CAD Manager | Stephenson Engineering Ltd

Who’s Alex?

I’m a VDC engineer for McCarthy Building Companies, a national general contractor. My career started in architecture and engineering, but I moved to the “C” part of the AEC industry at the beginning of 2015. McCarthy has nearly 2000 employees and is dedicated to providing an Exceptional Client Experience.

This mindset provides a lot of freedom when finding solutions that have to satisfy multiple problems. It gives me the freedom to combine the right software with the right hardware and the right team. This is an incredibly important point – the right solution is not about technology: it’s about the team and the added value in terms of experience and expectations.

McCarthy performs a lot of work, and we need to be able to show highly technical conditions before they’re built as realistically as possible. With the pace of change on our projects, we don’t have time to create renderings.

The other challenge is a resistance by the design team to create detailed visualizations early to avoid showing something that is not feasible to achieve in scope or budget. To overcome this challenge, we simply set expectations and explain that things aren’t always going to be resolved every step of the way.

In other words, we don’t always need to have the entire building designed to understand how to solve a problem. Sometimes we just need virtual mockups and rapid design iterations. Enscape is fantastic at helping explain the pieces and parts that ultimately make up the whole.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/McCarthyBuild
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/mccarthy-building-companies-inc

Why Enscape?

The experience inside of Enscape (enscape3d.com) is incredibly polished. And if you consider the price point it doesn’t make sense not to use it. At the speed things move we don’t often have time to train people to use complex tools just before a major deadline. Enscape requires practically no training. If you can figure out how to use Revit then using Enscape is a no-brainer.

Using Enscape is not about real-time. In fact, I think that the term “real-time” is overused. We don’t have time to use real-time. But we have time to use Enscape. The fact that Enscape works side-by-side with Revit doesn’t make it feel like we’re using another separate application. It’s more like Revit finally has the functionality that it’s been missing all of these years.

For what we do, Enscape breaks the shackles of 2-D rendering and animations. In fact, when you think about it, both 2-D renderings and animations are fixed, static environments. On the other hand Enscape allows us to lose the barriers between merely visualizing something and really experiencing something. If a client needs a finished image, I can export it right there in the moment. That alone completely eliminates confusion about what the client is going to get when they request a rendering.

Another thing is that software companies that started out creating real-time visualization tools are now trying to do too much. On the other hand Enscape is focusing on one thing: be amazing at visualization. I’ve already got clash, measuring and other coordination tools in other applications. And none of those other coordination tools match what Enscape is doing in terms beautiful visualization.

Keep in mind that Enscape is also incredibly valuable when used side-by-side with Revit. When I’m in design review mode, I keep and Enscape open on one screen and Revit on the other. I’ll make a few design decisions in Revit and then explore and validate them in Enscape.

Thanks!

You’re very welcome! Let’s follow up in a couple of weeks and I’ll give you an update on our rollout of Enscape in 2016.

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Stephenson Engineering Ltd: Virtual Mock-Ups and Rapid Design Iteration appeared first on Enscape.

“Enscape has completely changed how we showcase our work.”

Kathy Kajaks | Associate, BIM-CAD Manager | Stephenson Engineering Ltd

Who’s Stephenson Engineering?

Stephenson Engineering is a 100+ strong Canadian structural engineering firm with offices in Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto. We started out as a small firm in Toronto in 1969. As of 2015 we have completed over 7,500 projects that represent some of the most complex structural projects in Canada.

Stephenson began using Revit Structure around 2006 and rapidly transitioned completely to Revit. Moving to Revit made complete sense to us as engineers in terms of collaboration, coordination and overall increase in productivity.

Twitter: www.twitter.com/stephensoneng
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/stephenson-engineering-ltd
Web: www.stephenson-eng.com

Why Enscape?

Our BIM development team at Stephenson was looking for a method to produce renderings of our structural models based on three parameters: the tool had to render quickly, someone outside of a drafting / engineering background had to be able to use it and the final product had to lend context to our work via realism.

In 2015 we brought Damian Mellin, Stephenson’s Communications Director into the BIM development team. With his creative background working with 3D design and pre-visualization software he understood that it was important to develop our own dynamic high quality images for our marketing, pursuit visualizations and creating presentation slides for PowerPoint.

When we looked into traditional rendering the processes take entirely too long. By the time you finish just a few project renderings the design changes and you have to re-render. We tried to speed up the process by exporting from Revit and rendering in Max but that just complicates the process even more.

When we discovered Brian Mackey raving about Enscape (enscape3d.com) on his blog (www.bdmackeyconsulting.com/blog) we were cautiously optimistic. It wasn’t long after we downloaded the trial and tested Enscape on a few of our projects that we purchased our first network license.

In the process we discovered Enscape motivates our design teams to do better work in Revit because any flaws are quickly discovered. You might think that it’s hard to get structural engineers excited about real-time visualization with Enscape. But you would be wrong! Enscape is user-friendly, fast and incredibly easy to use. It’s the first time we can remember our engineers being excited about rendering.

Even the principals of the firm are impressed. Their first question after seeing renderings we created was, “How long did this take?” Asking how long something took is a common question among engineers. So, when they found out each image took about 60 seconds they were amazed.

One of our first Enscape images ended up on the cover of our marketing brochure. We also showcase images from Enscape on the homepage of our company’s website. Enscape has completely changed the way we view real-time visualization and photorealistic renderings. This might be hard to imagine but our structural engineers are actually excited about making renderings in Enscape.

Enscape takes away all the stress from creating beautiful visualizations. We’re able to play with the time of day, materials and even reflections in real time. When we get everything in the view just right we export the image. There’s no guess work involved – and saving the high quality rendering takes about a minute. Once the rendering is complete there’s no Photoshop. Enscape produces beautiful renderings without the need for time-consuming postproduction.

Not only are we using Enscape to create practically all of our project renderings, we’ve begun using it to walk to through our projects in real time with the client, our contractors and our design partners.

Thanks!

Glad we were able to chat. Please keep Enscape beautiful and simple – and don’t get bought by you know who!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Stephenson Engineering Ltd: We’re Structural Engineers. There’s No Time To Render. But We Have Time for Enscape. appeared first on Enscape.

“Enscape helps you use Revit more thoughtfully. The feedback makes you go to the next level of detail.”

Brian Mackey | Owner | BDMackey Consulting

Who’s Brian?

I’m an independent information modeling consultant from Denver, Colorado. My professional start was in woodworking and construction. Over the years I have gained a great deal of practical experience that allows me to find unique approaches for each of my clients to help them advance their workflows and become more efficient and profitable.

At the first woodworking company I worked, I was really the only person even able to use the computers we had available. This was back when AutoCAD was first coming on the scene. To utilize the technology, the company decided I was the best person to attend a few community college courses to learn AutoCAD, which then led to CNC programming. I took to the technology and new workflows quite easily. As a result I quickly discovered that much of the work I was producing (mostly shop drawings) were more accurate than what architects were providing.

Eventually one of the architectural firms I often worked with offered me a position in their office. I took the position but due to my non-formal training, I quickly discovered that I had to overcome some amount of bias working among architects. Fortunately, I eventually transitioned to an architecture firm that valued my construction experience.

Eventually, my experience at these firms lead me to work for Autodesk reseller beginning in 2004, not long after the Revit acquisition. I remember when I first saw Revit. I thought, “Wow – Revit is going to completely change the industry.” I soon started using Revit and took to it even easier than when I learned AutoCAD. I stopped using AutoCAD in 2005 and I have never looked back.

During my time at the reseller I trained over 1,000 AEC professionals. Most were in the greater Denver area, but many in other regions of the country. In this time I developed countless relationships with various firms and was able to build on my knowledge and practical experience through helping those firms to learn and find their most profitable workflows.

I met my wife in 2009. Desirée is a structural engineer who grew up in her father’s GC firm. She was familiar with working in and running a family business. Desirée encouraged me to pursue my aspirations of moving beyond the reseller basic-level training and we opened BD Mackey Consulting in 2011. I have discovered that running my own business includes a great deal of stress, but also has numerous advantages. I am able to direct my work so I stay challenged, and therefore interested. One should never underestimate the detrimental nature of boredom! My clients hire me to solve interesting, high-level problems that are ever-changing.

Ultimately, this means I’m able work for the best clients, on the most interesting projects, and really enjoy what I do. In addition to my consulting work, I’m a pretty regular speaker at BIM conferences. I teach classes at RTC, BIM Workshops, and Autodesk University. I also am a member of the leadership committee for our local users group.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/therevitgeek
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mackeybrian
Company: www.bdmackeyconsulting.com

Why Enscape?

When I first saw Enscape (enscape3d.com) my thoughts were, “Holy crap this is cool!” It’s important to understand that many clients don’t have the time to use Revit to render. Even when rendering in the cloud is fast, it’s not fast enough and not very intuitive. The trial and error of rendering to see what your rendering will look like is a terrible workflow.

This is why I think Enscape has an advantage over Revit’s own rendering engine. Not only is it faster than cloud rendering, the user always knows exactly what the finished rendering will look like prior to saving the image.

Another reason I like Enscape is because it helps to use Revit more thoughtfully. The real-time feedback prompts the user to go to the next level of detail in Revit. As a bonus, the information is kept within Revit.

Let’s be honest, it is not particularly easy to explore Revit projects natively within Revit. Sure, there are navigation tools, but typically the user is on the outside looking in, and the visual quality while navigating in Revit leaves a lot to be desired.

Buildings are meant to be inhabited and Enscape allows the user to practically experience the inside of the building before it’s built. I’ve observed that clients love the immediate feedback, and they gain a sense validation that the design is headed the right direction. The camera tracking tool is enormously useful for giving context in Revit from the view in Enscape.

Whatever the Enscape team does, please don’t become another DWF viewer. I used to love that tool but then it got really bloated and overcomplicated. As a result, I basically stopped using DWF. I don’t need another coordination tool. I don’t need another measuring tool. Keep Enscape user-friendly and simple. People love Enscape for what it does: beautiful and easy to explore real-time experience. Enscape does not have to solve every problem to be successful. Keep improving on what Enscape already does.

Thanks!

I am glad we were able to chat. I hope our brief discussion will result in people downloading the trial and testing Enscape on their own projects. Once that happens, I don’t believe they’ll ever go back.

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post BDMackey Consulting: Better And Faster Than Cloud Rendering appeared first on Enscape.

Who’s Chris?

During the last decade and a half, I’ve learned that Revit shouldn’t be limited to design coordination and production. I’ve got first hand experience taking Revit files to CNC fabrication for millwork, casework, stairs and timber frame structures. The process is completely digital and eliminates the need for on-site as-built measurements or fabrication. The fit and finish tolerances are exceptionally high.

Even though I’m a firm of one, I’m very competitive (I even play ice hockey in my spare time). Architecture technology has evolved to the point that it’s not about having a large team but rather an integrated process that delivers high value and great design for demanding clients. I assemble my teams based on project requirements, then we collaborate from design through fabrication across wide geographies using a best-of-breed approach that offers on-demand expertise. I’m convinced this is the future of architecture, fabrication and construction. Over the next decade I expect to see the construction process actually evolving into more of an assemblage process.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Chris_Kozub

Why Enscape?

The value of Enscape (enscape3d.com) is the immediacy of feedback. Clients are becoming increasingly less tolerant of being unable to visualize a change as soon as that change has been made. Enscape allows me to help the client experience design changes and options on-the-fly in order to get a decision and then quickly move forward.

However, Enscape is not just about visualization, but about quality-control. It’s about being able to exceed client expectations. The client needs a real world level of detail that gives them a very clear and understandable image of the finished product. For the contractor, we’re able to demonstrate finish conditions that are surprisingly realistic.

Using Enscape is about making the project “real’ for the client. As much as they understand plans, sections, and elevations – or even 3-D for that matter – there is still a lot of confusion until they feel like they are “inside” the space in first person mode. I’ve used this approach for the site, the building and interiors in terms of entourage, finishes, fixtures and equipment. As an added benefit I no longer spend hours every week creating still image renderings. The real-time quality of Enscape in terms of lighting, materials and reflectively is nothing short of phenomenal.

Some design decisions are dependent on other design decisions and the client wants to be part of the process in terms of look, function and experience. Using Enscape, I’m able to quickly show the various phases and design options. This is more about communicating flexibility and process so that we can move on to the next level of detail. It’s more like digital rapid prototyping than real-time visualization.

If we need to explore various design changes, Enscape allows us to do that on the fly and then immediately see the results. This gives a lot of confidence to the client in terms of experiencing the space before it’s finished and avoids surprises or other changes leading up to and during construction. During reviews I simply export an image once we have client approval in order to memorialize decisions.

Overall, it’s about staying ahead of the schedule, particularly on a fast-paced design-build project. By using Enscape, client and contractor confidence is higher and the stress of having to make ambiguous decisions is removed.

I prefer the types of projects where we’re able to fabricate offsite and assemble on-site. We begin by modeling to very high level of detail in Revit. To keep file size down we might even fabricate the casework and millwork as a linked file limited to a single room. This linked file is then sent to the fabricator, who overlays the Revit model and typically remodels in their software that allows for CNC fabrication (Inventor, Solid Works, etc). Once they have completed remodeling in their software, they send us a copy of the file as a DWG or IFC file. Then we link their file into Revit in order to validate tolerances.

Once we give the fabricator go-ahead on their model, they fabricate, finish and pre-assemble entirely off-site. When they are certain that everything fits together properly we give them the go ahead to disassemble and travel for on-site assembly. Not only does this allow incredibly tight finishes but in some cases creates a digital shop drawing review process.

If Escape never changed I would still keep buying it because it’s worth it. It’s unbelievably easy to use and takes away so many other time-consuming processes from pre-design to fabrication validation. That said, I wouldn’t mind the ability to batch export 3D views of renderings from Revit. But in the meantime, the ability to export virtual walk-through environments has proved very helpful.

I don’t think Enscape should go down the road of trying to do too much and then not doing it well. Stick with immersive visualization and be the best. I don’t need more measuring tools. I don’t need more clash detection tools. All that kind of stuff is already in Revit or other applications that I use. I’d love to see Enscape be the best real-time design exploration tool in the world.

I’ve been using Revit and exploring real-time for over a decade and this is the first real-time expiration tool that has impressed my kids. While using Enscape, my kids told me (for the very first time, mind you) that my expensive BIM tools might actually be more interesting than Minecraft!

Thanks!

Very glad that we were able to catch-up. Check in next quarter of 2016 and I’ll give you an update on how we’re using Enscape.

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Vernacular Design: It’s Not Just About Visualization. It’s About Quality Control. appeared first on Enscape.

Who’s Rumen?

I’m a licensed, LEED Accredited and NCARB Certified Architect working in California. After graduating in 2008, I discovered that success in one area can support my interests in other opportunities. So I’m involved in several ventures simultaneously. In addition to teaching at local colleges Mt. San Antonio College and El Camino College, I’m running an architectural practice, Seeds Studios. My wife and I run a philanthropic organization. I also enjoy supporting the family restaurant. All of these various ventures really keep me energized! Being involved in several opportunities at once never get boring!

I picked up Revit pretty quickly in 2008 while in design school. At that time, there wasn’t much support from professors or other students so I pretty much had to figure it out myself. It didn’t take long to realize that using Revit in architectural school made perfect sense. There were huge time savings in producing plans, elevations, and sections directly within a single application rather than use separate programs like AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino, Photoshop, etc. I soon was submitting all of my work in Revit.

Overall, I find the daily demands of taking on many, various interests to be more joyful than the settling for one thing and not being interested enough. I’m really enthusiastic about what I do and the impact I can have doing many things successfully I hope!

Twitter: @seedsstudios
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rumeneremiyskis

Why Enscape?

I can’t imagine working any other way. Enscape (enscape3d.com) is completely integrated with my Revit workflow. I don’t have time to push the rendering button and then wait. I need to be able to show my clients the design in a way that makes complete sense to them. The kind of work I do is very personal and the client wants to be completely involved. Enscape gives me and the client the ability to experience the space from any angle as we would in real life. This is really important to build confidence and understanding for the client and everyone involved. It demonstrates I’m really thinking about the project in a holistic way.

Even early on in a project, Enscape allows me to show the client what the space will feel like before committing to materials or other finishes. Once we get to the material stage, we’re able to quickly look at alternative options, as well as fixtures, finishes, and furnishing. Enscape allows us to really get down to the details. This saves the client time and money by seeing the space as it will be built. Enscape helps them to make informed decisions. Revit’s really great at quantities and coordination, but really lacks a user friendly client experience without heavy rendering times.

The other thing I like is to keep my workflow really streamlined. The fewer clicks the more efficient and effective. I’d rather leverage a few tools to do a lot, rather than a lot of tools to do a little. In so many ways, Enscape is an extension of Revit as opposed to another application. And the learning curve is incredibly small.

My typical workflow is to use two screens, with Revit open on one screen and Enscape open on the other. The client can see plans, sections and elevations on one screen and the realistic, explorable view on the other. It’s the best of both worlds. Once you’ve used Enscape, there is no going back. And the same goes for the client. Showing the client their project in Revit is just not enough. They need to walk through it in Enscape to really experience it.

The greatest thing about Enscape is knowing that what I’m showing a client is actually what is inside their Revit project. In many cases, I’m doing presentations over a screen-share and may only show the Enscape view. Revit is happily running in the background and when I need to make changes they immediately update in Enscape for the client’s approval.

The bottom line is that I want to provide a great design through effective collaboration while giving the client a real peace of mind. Enscape removes any uncertainty about the the design and overall project before it’s built. Enscape completely supports the motto of Seeds Studios: “We help owners see the forest before planting the seeds.”

I think the power of Enscape is the combination of beautiful, amazing graphics with ease-of-use. I don’t need Enscape to become a coordination tool. Coordination comes intuitively through just using Enscape. Keep the focus on clear, precise and beautiful visualization.

Thanks!

Glad we had the chance to chat about how Enscape is really helping improve collaboration between me, my consultants, and my clients. I’m excited to see what’s in store for the future of Enscape!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Seeds Studios: Removing Uncertainty By Experience the Design Before It’s Built appeared first on Enscape.

Who’s Don?

I’m Don Bokmiller, senior VDC and BIM coordinator for Robins & Morton Construction. I’m located in the Charlotte, North Carolina and primarily work on projects around the southeast. However, Robins & Morton is a national firm and we have projects all over the US.

My background is actually in electrical engineering. I’ve been using Revit since 2005. I’m also the author of “Mastering Autodesk Revit MEP”, which is Autodesk’s official courseware for Revit MEP. I’m also an active speaker and have spoken at Autodesk University and RTC North America.

One of the great things about living in the southeast is that I can enjoy great riding weather practically year round. So if you can’t find me at work I’m probably out riding my 2012 Harley-Davidson. And you can find me on Twitter over here.

Why Enscape?

I use Enscape for three reasons: ease of use, speed, and savings. While Robins & Morton does a wide variety of project types, I am severely focused on medical work. For medical projects to be successful it’s essential that everyone on the project team have a very clear understanding of how everything has to work together and function. Not only the core building systems, but also the fixed immovable equipment needs to be properly located. 3-D is great, but we need to really experience how the space will be used.

Enscape gives us the ability to quickly discover and eliminate unforeseen coordination issues. For example, sometimes Revit users inadvertently mirror rooms or equipment in the process of quickly laying out the building. This makes perfect sense in a 2-D CAD world but not in Revit. Mirroring medical spaces can create nasty problems when a piece of equipment is mirrored and but the configuration doesn’t actually exist in the real world. By allowing us to faithfully and realistically explore the building, Enscape helps us discover these kinds of problems that could easily cost us a lot of time and money and set the project back.

At the end of the day, words and drawings aren’t complete as physical mockups. Physical mockups cost a lot of time money. Just imagine the cost of flying a project team to a single location to review one physical mockup! Enscape allows us to do this digitally as well as save us the expense and time of travel by doing the project review online.

Mockups also give us an idea of how systems will fit together. But we need to save the time and expense of building physical mockups because physical mockups can’t be easily be changed. For medical projects to be successful, I need everyone to be clear and agree on where things are going to go and remove any confusion about what’s being proposed. I need to be able to show projects at the highest level of detail with any material or finish option as necessary. Enscape allows us to do this quickly and easily.

The beauty of Enscape is that you don’t have to really prepare the Revit model in any way – you simply start Enscape. Enscape is the WYSIWYG of real time. If I need to make a change in the middle of a meeting, it updates instantly in Enscape. This helps everyone visualize the finished condition, explore alternate layouts of equipment or MEP systems and then quickly move onto the next issue.

When the customer wants to be more immersed, Oculus headsets work great. The standalone Enscape *.exe file is really awesome when the customer wants to be able to review something at their own pace.

Enscape works great running side-by-side with Revit. The moment anyone tells me I should export something to the “cloud” to see my project in real-time you’ve lost my attention. Nobody has time to export their Revit project to the cloud and wait for it to process and hope to get something back when the customer is sitting there and waiting.

Thanks!

Glad we were able to discuss how Enscape is helping us collaborate better and faster with our design and construction partners. Don’t hesitate to call if you have any other questions!

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Robins & Morton Construction: 3D in Revit Is Not Enough. You Still Need to Experience the Space. appeared first on Enscape.

Revit & RPA Design:

“In healthcare, seconds can literally mean the difference between life and death. But we also want to care about the seconds from careful design decisions that can make a difference between a satisfying or stressful day as a nurse, doctor or other healthcare professional,” states Jacob D’Albora of RPA Design in Charlotte, North Carolina.

RPA Design embraced the decision to fully move to Revit in 2007 and hasn’t looked back. But it’s not just about Revit or any particular application but about RPA’s commitment to embrace technology as an integrated process that integrates teams – not simply technologies. According to D’Albora, “For example, our interior design is never an afterthought. Interior design is fully integrated from the very start. Jumping into Revit made perfect sense for us because were able to show key architectural features in context with materials and finishes as well as fixtures and equipment.”

Autodesk Revit

But after nearly a decade using BIM, RPA came to the realization that 3D is not enough. “Revit does an amazing job of helping everyone understand the constructibility of the building,” recalls D’Albora. “But we can’t wait until a building is finished to receive important feedback on the actual experience of working day-to-day inside a stressful healthcare environment.”

BIM and technology consultant Read | Thomas selected RPA Design as an early pilot partner with Enscape. “I’ll admit I was pretty skeptical at first.” D’Albora continues, “Technology can be such a distraction and RPA wants to avoid the kind workflow that forces people into becoming single application experts.”

“But when I saw Enscape for the first time – and then tried it for myself – I was completely blown away! We don’t to do anything different and there’s practically no training.” D’Albora continues, “Someone installs the plugin, opens Revit and starts Enscape.  Then I’ll put Revit on one screen and Enscape on the other. I’ll show them how to navigate and that’s pretty much it. And the results in Enscape are nothing short of beautiful.”

According to Jacob, the challenge is that design decisions are often built upon other previous decisions and without on-going feedback the project team risks having to stressfully roll back design in order to move forward. RPA needed a way to eliminate the kind of disruptive redesign that comes from not communicating frequently enough to each other, to their health care user groups and to the client.

Revit and Enscape

“Enscape is such a great way to experience on-the-fly design options, materials, finishes and other ideas. Whether it’s just for yourself, with your design team or even right in front of the client,” says D’Albora. “There’s an instant gratification and joy we experience when we bring our designs to life with Enscape.”

“Suffice to say that we’ve been searching for a way to immerse our end users and really help them experience the design. During this search we’ve spent more hours rendering than I care to remember.” claims D’Albora. “The final results of still image rendering might look amazing but the process is actually terrible. Ask anyone who renders as as much as we do. The constant tweaking of materials and lights, the anxious waiting – not to mention canceling renders midway through because something important about the design changed. The rendering process makes you feel miserable!”

Enscape does away with the horrible rendering process and replaces it with the ability to freely explore. “I can’t explain it – someone just has to experience it,” exclaims Jacob. “There’s a mind-gasm when you get to experience the design. Is is it okay if I say that?” D’Albora adds laughing.

As a matter of fact, RPA Design has been using Enscape as part of their RPA Pulse Initiative. In this scenario RPA uses Revit and Enscape side-by-side in order to simultaneously understand and experience the design with healthcare endusers and other project stakeholders. An example of this side by side design workflow and validation can be view on the RPA Pulse Vimeo site.

“The directors of RPA love Enscape! When Dave or Rick walk over to review a design they’ve stopped looking at Revit. They’re looking at Enscape.” D’Albora continues, “It may look like real-time computer games – but we are very serious about the customer’s experience. Enscape is allowing everyone to have the instant satisfaction of really experiencing the space.”

“But one more thing,” says D’Albora. “We’re are actually having a lot of fun in the process.”

“We’re regularly reminded by RPA leadership that great design is not only about building a building – it’s about building a lasting and long term relationship. That’s what RPA is all about.” D’Albora concludes, “Enscape is a critical part of that relationship.”

To contact RPA Design:

Jacob D’Albora
RPA Design
(704) 887-3500
jacob.dalbora@rpadesign.net

Phil Read – Read|Thomas – Author

LinkedIn –                  www.linkedin.com/in/readphil
Read|Thomas –         www.readthomas.com

hello@readthomas.com

The post Revit & RPA Design: Successfully Closing the Gap appeared first on Enscape.

Suppose you need a high resolution architectural rendering of the image above – something that you intend to print and put on a 30 x 42 board for customer meeting. Can you accurately predict what the final image will look like once rendered? How long would you expect to wait for the rendering to complete?

Helping our customers get deeply satisfying results from photo-realistic rendering is an incredibly subjective and time-consuming process. While the results often look fantastic – that’s not the real challenge. The actual challenge is process:

1. Rendering is often met with an incredibly long wait time made worse by the stresses of a rapidly approaching deadline
2. You never really know what you’re going to get until you finish with step one

So imagine the frustration of waiting hours for a high quality architectural rendering to complete only to be dissatisfied with the results. Imagine the frustration as a designer after hours of tweaking lighting and materials to end up with a rendering you’re not happy to show your team and project manager. Imagine the frustration as a project manager knowing that it’s going to take hours or more to create another rendering.

Do you risk re-rendering and missing the deadline or do you go with what you have and risk underwhelming the customer?

In reality neither option is a viable solution.

Or consider this. The image below is what you’ll stare at for the better part of 7 1/2 hours while waiting for a high quality rendering to complete in Revit. In other words you start with the image at the top the page, you press the render button and hope for the best.

The image below is the final rendering from Revit. Not bad for seven and a half hours. But if I was a project manager? The ambient lighting looks great, but I’d be pretty dissatisfied with the color of the furniture because it seems far more orange the the material assigned (and will confuse the customer). If your deadline is a few hours away there’s no time to change the lighting and / or materials and re-render. So it’s off the Photoshop for post-production.

Here’s the finished image at 4K resolution. If you’d like to download the image it’s over here.

Two of the reasons there’s so much interest in Enscape is because it removes the ambiguity and stress of real-time archichtectural rendering by letting you know what you’re going to get before you get it and then giving it to you in an order of magnitude less time.

In Enscape, your real-time architectural rendering is a live and explorable real-time window that runs side by side with Revit. To get the right vantage, you move the camera into just the right position (or base it on your camera in Revit). You adjust the lighting in real-time. And if you want to change the materials assigned to furniture, flooring or other fixtures you simply change the material in Revit and it updates in Enscape (which keeps everything nicely coordinated).

The image below is what you see in Enscape before pressing the Screenshot button. And after pressing the Screenshot button you wait for a lot less time. How much less? 1 minute and 16 seconds.

Let’s recap our real-time architectural rendering:

– Revit: 7 1/2 hours
– Enscape: 76 seconds

Here’s the finished image at 4K resolution. If you’d like to download the image it’s over here.

In my opinion each rendering has its pros and cons. I really prefer the reflectivity of the ceiling and ceiling based lighting fixtures in the Revit rendering. But I prefer the subtle shadows and rich material textures of the floor and furnishings in the Enscape real-time architectural rendering.

But what if I’m not satisfied with either image in Revit or Enscape? The real benefit of using Enscape is that it’s possible to adjust the lighting and the materials with real-time feedback and then save another high-resolution image in under two minutes.

This is a real-time architectural rendering process.

In other words it’s not just about result –  it’s about process.

You know what tastes great? Eating lunch away from your desk and with your team rather than stressing out over an incomplete rendering needed for a deadline. And you know what tastes even better than eating your own lunch?

Eating your competition’s lunch.

Or in the words of General George S. Patton:

“A good plan, violently executed now,
is better than a perfect plan next week.”

The post Real-time Architectural Rendering Woes: The Stress of Waiting Coupled with the Uncertainty of Result appeared first on Enscape.

Enscape does in seconds what takes hours and more and I’m never pushing the Revit rendering button again. Never will I spend countless and thankless hours with Revit renderings:

• Tracking “Cloud Credits”
• Cancelling renderings mid-render after realizing something was missed.
• Exporting from Revit to send to a 3D specialist only to wait hours or days to get back a high quality image.
• Tweaking, tweaking and more tweaking to get view angles, sun angles, materials, lighting, reflections, etc. “just right”.

And I’m never going back. It’s finally possible to walk-through a project with a quality that surpasses rendering. And the only person happier than me? The Client. Because for less than $500 (quite easily the time and expense of creating just one high-quality photo-realistic Revit rendering) you can purchase Enscape for an entire year.

Or consider this: the $45 monthly license costs less than the 15 minutes of billable time you’ll spend presenting, discussing and approving the purchase of Enscape with your project manager. Standalone and floating license pricing here.

Adam told me about Enscape last summer and my bullshit detector immediately went 4-alarm. Real-time visualization is amazing but the workflow is busted. By the time you export, post-process, add lights, tweak materials and more the design changes – and the whole time consuming process starts over. We still use the Unreal Game Engine for real-time visual simulation on incredibly large and complex projects. But what about the other 99.999% of building and infrastructure projects? Real-time takes hours and days but the customer expects something now. And the results in Enscape? Amazing. It’s like someone took Revit’s “Realistic” View to an entirely new level.

After downloading and installing the Enscape plugin for Autodesk Revit (2014, 2015 and 2016) over here, I launched Revit. Next, I pressed the Start button on the Enscape tab in Revit. My jaw hit the floor.

The Revit project looked like this:

But the Enscape pop-up window looked like this:

The image above is straight out of Enscape. No Photoshop. No bullshit. After spending decades honing rendering skills, I was immersed in a sublime quality and subtlety of material, lighting and reflectivity would normally take a rendering expert literally days of effort. And then I walked around. 

Enscape is not merely real-time. It’s real-time in real-time Revit rendering. No more exporting to update. Whenever I made a change in Revit rendering, the Enscape window automatically updated. As we used to say in Revit, “A change anywhere is a change everywhere!” Well, same can be said of Enscape.

Who’s going to love Enscape? All of us that expect a lot from Revit and know how to use it well:

• Me: Side by side with Revit on one screen and Enscape on the other. Instant feedback.
• My Team: Project Managers, Consultants and Builders that need to experience and explore in order to remove the time, cost and stress of uncertain and time-consuming decisions.
• My Customer: Owners that want to fully understand their design and see design options in order to make clear and actionable decisions. Nor do they want to waste days anxiously waiting for high quality renderings and marketing images. Open up a screen share, show them the view and save.

If your computer is able to handle Revit it’s probably more than capable of running Enscape. I’m running Revit 2016 via a 2012 MacBook via Bootcamp – not exactly a high end gaming rig. Most projects launch in less than 30 seconds and the navigation speed is more than impressive.

Training? What’s training? If you know how to use Revit rendering that’s pretty much it. Navigation in Encape is WASDQE and immediately familiar to those of us who’ve played 3D computer games. Whatever you see in Revit is displayed side-by-side in Enscape: Active Phases, Design Options, Visibility Settings, Levels of Detail – even Temporary Hide / Isolate. Gotta love that new Selection Box tool in Revit 2016 for quickly isolating a room or selection for viewing in Enscape.

But what if you want to export the real-time environment and go to a meeting? That feature is just around the corner too (via the @Enscape3D Twitter feed):

If you scroll down in the @Enscape3D Twitter feed, you’ll find some amazing images by major motion picture set designer @Bryan_Sutton. At the moment Bryan’s working on Star Trek Beyond and can’t post images of that project. But he has posted impressive images from previous set designs in Revit and they’re stunning to say the least:

For the last two months we’ve been passionately working with select early adopters to get real-world feedback and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. And last week we added more fuel to the fire at Autodesk University, where we were able to show some of the most amazing design companies in the world demonstrations of Enscape. Lots of high-fives and OMGs! Now it’s time to pop the clutch and push the pedal to the metal!

Suffice to say that Read | Thomas is incredibly proud to partner with Inreal Technologies GmbH to help bring Enscape to market. The Enscape team is really great but they’re in Germany and we’re in Charlotte, North Carolina. So if you’re in North America, we’re closer to your time zone and standing by to give your team an online presentation, answer questions and even provide technical support while using Revit with Enscape.

Then don’t be surprised if the next thing you do is download the trial, install the Revit plugin and join the future of real-time in real-time!

You’ll understand why I’ve stopped rendering. And you’ll stop rendering too.

The post Revit Rendering at the Speed of Now: Read | Thomas Proudly Partners with Inreal Technologies GmbH appeared first on Enscape.