Blender viable for architecture?

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
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Hi! Sorry, if it doesn’t really belong here but anyways. I am currently having an internship with an architecture office, doing visualisations. Because I study construction I am very used to using Revit, and Lumion for the renders. I was currently deciding between going and learning Max or Blender to maybe have a wider skill range in this topic. I would like to look into blender a bit more, how well does it work with creating models based on floor plans. How precise can i get? Meaning having exact dimensions for elements and such? Most videos i saw were just eyeballing it which is really frustrating me personally. :smiley: Is blender a good option to create a precise model which then I would use with Lumion to finish the renders? Probably would take this path before learning how to do renders there.

Also to futureproof myself a little - how well is blender being taken now in the architecture industry? Is 3ds max still prefered and favoritised? If I learn blender and need to learn 3ds max later because of work, will it maybe be easier?

I would probably go and learn 3ds but I like the fact blender is free, which will be good for me since i finish school next year, and not sure about my masters yet.

It’s a bit off a word vomit, but hopefully someone will understand me :smiley: if not ask, and I’ll try to specify what i meant

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Blender will still be free, next year.
So, if you can get a free educational license, try to learn 3DSmax first.

Blender is evolving quickly and it is in a transition.
Things that you could learn, today, in Blender could be presented in another way, next year.

If you know Revit, you have some basics about 3D, that would be useful to learn 3DSmax.
Principles that you will learn about 3D modeling in 3DSmax, would be still valid in Blender.
Downside will be that you could take some habits because of UI ; that will not apply to Blender. Learning Blender, after learning 3DSmax, could be frustrating because of that.
So, learning Blender, after learning another 3D Software, implies to ask community how to obtain a result, not to focus on search of an exact copy of a known feature.

Measure system in Blender, is far to be obvious. An architecture workflow can require to rely on addons. You should not rush learning of Blender by directly starting to follow tutorials about architecture. You will need to get the basics of Blender, first.

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Thanks! I was surely going to start with blender from the beginning. I have some experience from cinema 4D, but that was almost a decade ago now. Jesus. :smiley: But I understand. I will try to start with max, as as you said I should be able to get a edu license until at least Jan 25, without knowing if I go or not go for masters, and maybe just try a bit of blender here and there.

What about measure system in max, do you have any knowledge there? In a video from blender I saw quite nicely the scale, and some dimensions in the XYZ axis, which gave me a sense of - I can make a 2000x3300 window for example, but I could not see those anywhere in max.

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Blender of today is a very capable software that enjoys active and rapid development. Whatever shortcomings it has, those issues are being ironed out constantly. As for architecture, Blender works great in this field. You can easily import DWG files and build your model in great precision. You can then export it for use in other software or stay within Blender and finish your project to a standard that is no worse than any competing software can provide. The software is great.

3Ds Max is “grandfathered in”. Some larger offices may require you to use it, because they’ve been using it for a long time. That’s the only argument to learn it, to get a checkmark on your CV. Smaller offices are more flexible and would be glad to save some money on subscription as long as the job gets done.

There are some other things to consider:

The longevity of your skillset. Blender is a free and open source project, which means the software has the potential to live a long life. The fundamental skillset will be relevant, potentially, for the rest of your professional life. Max is a closed source commercial project that may eventually change owners or get shut down. There could be a scenario that results in software being unavailable due to raised subscription costs or software being discontinued.

Access to your past projects is another consideration. Blender files will forever open, in one version or another. Max on the other hand, keeps your files under “ransom”. The moment you stop paying you lose access to your work. This could pose some serious problems down the road if you are asked to make minor adjustment to your past work and you no longer have an active subscription.

Path of freelancer. Without an overhead of a heavy subscription, you have an option to go solo. A yearly bill for the software can afford you hardware which will last years. You will also never run into a circumstance, where you can no longer “afford” access to your tools of work and the ability to make a living.

So, unless you are forced to work with a Max, I would pick to learn Blender every single time.

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By default, there is just a grid (different in User views and in Top/Bottom, Front/Back, Left/Right views) , unit system is metric and display of numerical values in UI is limited to 3 digits after dot.
There is a basic measure tool, allowing to display a 6 digit number in 3D Viewport.

So, the precision is not displayed, by default.
And between settings of the grid, settings of unit system and scale factor during import/export, it is easy to be confused.
There are lot of tools that are only allowing to indicate a scale factor when you would like to indicate a precised distance, expressed in a unit system.
Max should be less confusing about unit systems conversions and distance precising.
It is also displaying measures. You just have to enable it.
Max allows to define custom user spaces, relative to objects.
Default Blender does not allow that. Unit System is per scene in Blender.

If you saw some precised measures adapting in 3D View, while a modeling session ; that may be related to the use of an Addon or a Geometry Nodes setup.

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I see, so would this be an addon then ?

image
image671×501 66.1 KB

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If you’re interested in Architectural jobs, I don’t think you’ll need more than millimeters…so…in Blender, set meters in scene properties and then, when you need to move something with a millimeters precision, you just need to write “x.xxx” and you’re done.

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Thank you, all the points are completely valid and understandable. I have also read that Max is already being pushed out by Maya, and other softwares which is quite unsettling if I should learn it.

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How without convert to DXF?
I’m interested to know it.

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Blender is working on a large update for EEVEE, their “real time” renderer. This could potentially replace Lumion for your animation needs. Blender could soon become a one stop solution to your 3D needs.

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I don’t really do animations, just static visualisations - e.g.

Ole Møllers Vej_1 - Sunset
Ole Møllers Vej_1 - Sunset960×540 904 KB

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I have been doing it two ways. Through DXF and SVG, whichever one is available to you. For example, you could use Affinity designer to export your DWG or PDF file as an SVG. It opens nicely in Blender.

For DXF, I use Rhino 3D, which is also a great multipurpose software.

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Blender comes with two render engines, cycles and eevee.

Cycles is the traditional path tracing rendering engine. Simply put, its like Vray.

Eevee is the “real time” renderer that will have some ray tracing features. This is a very fast renderer that can generate great quality images in seconds. You can use it for still shots or animations.

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Transform panel is not an addon. Dimensions exposed there, are dimensions of bounding box of object. If mesh is not aligned on object axis, they may not correspond to dimensions of object. They may not be pertinent or sufficient, if object is cranked.

Weirdly, location is an exception. It can have 6 digits after dot. But the rest of values in this panel are limited to 3.
Distance that may be set in Bevel modifier, will not update if object is scaled.

There are several inconsistencies like that ; that may annoy users.
And those things can not be solved by setting user preferences.

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For architecture?

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No. Blender still can’t compete in terms of performance, assets, plugins, integration with other Autodesk product and renderers.

Cycle is great for learning. But, it is still long way to go even compete with Corona.

I have been hearing Blender’s active and rapid development argument for years. But, the day hasn’t come yet.

If you want to work for archviz, the answer is simple. Just learn Max.

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I work in architecture and while Blender is great software, it takes a bit of work to get it to do architectural renders quickly. It can be done, especially if you build up a nice library of native Blender assets such as materials and lighting. However, now that Twinmotion gets bundled with Revit as part of the Revit subscription service, I find Twinmotion to be much faster to develop renders and walkthroughs. My advice to young architects is to learn Revit, Twinmotion, and Rhino, in that order. Every other software you learn will be an asset, but the ones I’ve mentioned are the big three.

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I use Lumion for renders, so I’d either way export the model to lumion, or use livesync directly from revit

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My advice would be to try and guess the age of people advising you here, and take that into consideration. Think about what will be relevant in 5 years too :wink:

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Im an architect, Worked with archviz and animation. Professional in revit, rhino , blender, 3d Max etc.
Corona is a better render engine than cycles. But, blender is, if your a creative person, a whole new universe of thinking and mindset. And it took some years to understand that. And now, I can’t see myself ever work without blender again. It’s like breathing clean air, it’s playful, it’s open for your interpretation of how you want to create.

On the more boring side note, I mean, revit is the big deal when you work on multi million/billion projects. No way out of it.

If you have a smaller firm, then blender is free so why not utilise it, I have Rhino to do 2D drawings.
Better than autocad.

And blender for 3D modelling and archviz.

I actually quite enjoy sketch up for 3D as well, paired with enscape viz engine.

I wish eevee could be on par with enscape one day, cuz it’s so incredible when going through projects with clients , and my MacBook Pro just can’t update the cycles fast enough to make that a viable option, but on a nice rtx, cycles is super fast, and possible to show case work in realtime.
But nothing beats corona in quality. But blender universe with all its assets and addons, tons which are free, beats anything else.

Also everything is here, animation, modeling, render, photogrammetry, masking in 3D in movies.

Everything can be done in blender. It’s amazing.

I think you should visit blenderbim and osarch crew to see what’s going on in making blender a full powerhouse of bim and ifc data controlling operator with drawings etc. It’s quite astonishing. I do lean on that it is the future, but it might take a while.

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