Real-time rendering and virtual reality from the Revit model with Enscape

Real-time rendering and virtual reality: beyond BIM

BIM is by now a reality that is steadily becoming established in the design and management of buildings.

Integrated design and graphic outputs, such as renders and video renders, are often not the product of a single process. How, then, should we approach the range of software that can take advantage of the modelling already done for BIM design? Several solutions have emerged in response, with the broadest and rosiest promises, but you need to study the capabilities of the tools in depth and make rational choices based on the output you want and the costs involved.

Rendering in BIM

Among the wide range of rendering software we use, the case study we analyse here is Enscape. Launched in 2015, Enscape is, of them all, the perfect meeting point between the needs and the wishes of every designer and BIM expert. Enscape also has dedicated plugins that interface with the most widely used BIM modelling software, such as ArchiCAD, Vectorworks and Revit, and it can also connect to the best-known modelling software, including Rhinoceros 3D and SketchUp.

Enscape is designed mainly for architectural visualisation through real-time rendering. It renders the graphic information without any loss of data, using the parameters and the LOD developed in BIM modelling, and shows the look of materials realistically in a very short time.

Real-time rendering

But why do we talk about real-time rendering? Any software designed only to render the content of a model needs an export in the right format; this can be done manually or through dedicated add-ins installed in the BIM software, which lengthens, if only slightly, the time needed to get a realistic visualisation. Real-time rendering firmly places itself halfway between the modelling process and the rendering process: it produces a realistic visualisation at the same time as you model, through a direct link with the BIM software, and shows the result instantly. This also means you always have a realistic view that is perfectly up to date with the model, without necessarily having to go through the export process again.

With its free plugin for modelling software, Enscape lets you start real-time rendering at the press of a button, showing the result of your changes immediately and staying constantly up to date.

The limitation of Enscape, that is, that the model's materials cannot be edited outside the BIM software in use, has a flip side: the advantage of “forcing” the modeller to set up materials, textures and lights correctly from the start, bringing forward the choice of some colour and compositional solutions.

Case study: design of a school in Russia

To speak knowledgeably about the advantages and limitations of a piece of software, you need to have studied it and used it on a project.

Below you can see the BIM modelling software Autodesk Revit in use, with the Enscape direct-link plugin, which appears in Revit as a dedicated ribbon tab.

In the project shown, among the software tools used for modelling, Enscape was the solution adopted for rendering, and it sped up the design process considerably.

After modelling and rendering, the images still need to be worked on with suitable editing tools such as Adobe Photoshop to achieve the desired result, but with an excellent, solid base to start from, the process is quick and straightforward.

Enscape also lets you export material IDs and masks, as well as lights, for instant selection of layers in Photoshop, making post-production even faster.

Pros & Cons

An in-depth analysis of a piece of software gives you the information you need to decide whether and how to bring that tool into your design workflow. You should not simply use a piece of software “on hearsay”: you need to study the subject and what each individual tool offers in depth.

Enscape's many PROS include:

• The price, probably the lowest on the market and by far the best value for money
• Ease of use, with an extremely intuitive interface for navigation
• High speed, although this also depends on the hardware you have
• The ability to furnish the model with elements from a rendered library
• The ability to create 360° rendered stills that can be viewed on any device
• The ability to immerse yourself in the model using a headset

Among the cons, the most significant in our view are:

• The inability to edit materials within Enscape: they must therefore be set up correctly in the modelling software, textures included
• The difficulty of creating videos that represent the model
• The limitation of the asset library, which does not differentiate between objects of the same category (for example, a tree will always be identical every time it is placed at different points in the model, except for the rotation that can be set in the BIM software)
• The inability to create section views directly within Enscape
• The inability to model the context by excavating or raising the topography