Lumion offers a simple and efficient rendering solution that fits within your design process. Unlike other rendering softwares, that are usually difficult to lwarn, only work with specific CAD programs and could take days or weeks to complete, Lumion offers an intuitive interface that works with all the top CAD programs, and rendering outputs that could take as short of a time as 15 minutes. Lumion takes rendering a step further with the ability to render more basic concepts. With Lumion, you can now sketch an idea, model its basic shape and aesthetics in your CAD software and render your form studies in Lumion all in a mornings work.
Rendering of a maquette, rendered in Lumion by Carlos F. Marques (@carlosfmarquess).
Lumion visualization software brings the art of rendering into the everyday craft of the architect. It’s especially designed to nurture your creativity, diligence, and love for architecture. In this guide we’re exploring how Lumion fits seamlessly into your daily routine. You’ll discover how Lumion empowers architects to render at any stage of the design process, all while fueling a desire to achieve elegance and inspiration in the art of construction.
Incorporating Lumion into your design process
Lumion understands the design process within architecture to have many approaches, in terms of techniques, skills and technology used, it is with this in mind, that Lumion is designed to adapt to your unique processes and workflows, making this transition simple even for architects and firms who have never incorporated inhouse rendering into their practice before. You can use Lumion to test an idea, review how the light falls on a specific element of your design, analyze the form of a building within the context of its surrounding environment, or make polished and beautifully crafted renders to show your boss or client.
Only requiring a 3D model from your CAD program of choice (no matter the level of design and development), Lumion can be used to turn a design or idea it a strong visual that is beautifully rendered, right from the initial design stage to the finished product.
Functionalities for different types of context creation
Client expectations continue to evolve, and with the widespread growth of rendering technology, many are looking for the full visualization/immersion experience — images, animations, VR options — before approving a project and sending it into the construction phase.
Lumion guides the process of context creation, helping you capture the environment surrounding your design in a stress-free, pleasurable way. This includes residential exteriors and interiors, multi-family residences, commercial buildings such as museums or schools, and massive urban or landscape architecture projects.
City Center visualization, rendered in Lumion 11 by Fatih Ekşi. Project by Evrenol Architects.
Rendering emotion and atmosphere
Easily create your desired atmosphere with a variety of tools and objects found in Lumion. Create a gorgeous display of lighting easily by importing the IES profiles for all the Lumion spotlights in your scene. Capture the rich and expressive colors of your project with the help of a RAL color picker and other useful color pickers. Turn on the Precipitation effect and toggle the rain streaks slider to add beautifully detailed raindrops to your windows and other glass surfaces.
Residential building and landscape design, model design by Van Manen. With Lumion, expressing your unique vision as a beautiful, professional-looking render becomes an intuitive and satisfying process, and because Lumion offers real-time feedback and quick rendering speeds, there are no barriers to testing and exploring the ideas that will help you produce your very best work.
Rendering orthographic views
There are many benefits to orthographic projection in architectural visualization. By showing the building design from the front, end, and plan views, among others, architects have a powerful visual communication tool at their disposal to convey the project’s general form and function, leaving a simple yet powerful impression on the viewer.
With Lumion’s orthographic view effect for images and videos, you can bring this standard and ubiquitous type of illustration right into your rendering workflow, saving you time as you create your dossier of drawings and visualizations for the project.
Make sure to combine the orthographic views effect with other effects in Lumion’s Photo and Movie Mode, such as sketch and outline effects, Real Skies, animated 3D characters, and more, giving a personal touch to your next architectural presentation.
Testing different artistic options, rendered in Lumion by The Lumion Collective.
Animating all the parts of your design
Easily create animations with Lumion’s intuitive interface.Offering a variety of controls and functions, you can create desire animations with barely any learning time.
Embrace your creative process; bring renders into your workflows
Lumion is designed to support your craft, the everyday activities where you invest your time and energy. This could be solving social problems through design; it could be about aesthetics and expression. It could even be about precision, technique, and detail. No matter what you’re trying to achieve, Lumion gives you the clarity you need to take an idea and bring it to life.
