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3D House
3D House is a read-only presentation of the building model. Authoring still happens in Plans and the Plan aspects; the 3D artifact is generated from the saved model revision.
How do I generate the 3D House?
- Finish or save the model edits you want to review.
- Open 3D House.
- If no artifact exists, choose Generate 3D House.
- If the artifact is stale, choose Update 3D House.
- If it is current, choose Regenerate only when you deliberately want to rebuild it.
Generation is explicit. The 3D artifact does not silently update after every Plan edit.
What do the statuses mean?
- Not generated — no saved 3D artifact exists.
- Current — the artifact matches the source model revision.
- Stale — the model changed after the artifact was generated.
Read the diagnostics beside the status. A stale or error-bearing artifact is not ready to share with a client.
What can I do in the viewer?
The 3D House viewer is organized into Experience and Technical review modes:
Experience modes
- Overview: Orbit the building exterior. Left-click and drag to rotate, scroll to zoom, right-click drag to pan.
- Analyse: Inspect the building with sun and shadow simulation based on the configured North angle. Adjust the time-of-day slider to observe realistic daylight angles.
- Explore: A first-person walkthrough at eye level (1.6 m height) starting from the main entrance. Click a room on the minimap or a spot on the floor to walk there along a safe route, including up and down stairs between floors. Drag to look around while walking. See Walkthrough controls below.
- Photo: Queue photorealistic renders of the house — see How do I render a photorealistic photo? below.
Technical review modes
- Floor: Isolate and inspect individual storey floor plates.
- Structure: View the structural frame (columns, beams, slabs) separately from the architectural shell.
- Section: Cut through the building to inspect wall thicknesses, slab depths, and floor-to-floor heights.
Camera controls
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Orbit / Rotate | Left-click and drag |
| Pan | Right-click drag or middle-mouse drag |
| Zoom | Scroll mouse wheel |
Walkthrough controls (Explore)
| Action | Control |
|---|---|
| Walk to a room or spot | Click a room on the minimap, or click open floor in the 3D view |
| Look around | Left-click and drag — walking continues while you look |
| Walk manually | Hold W A S D, the arrow keys, or the on-screen pad; manual walking takes over the route |
| Pause the walk | Pause on the minimap, or press Escape |
| Resume | Resume on the minimap |
| Cancel a paused walk | Press Escape again |
| Jump instantly to a room | Jump to … beside a room on the minimap — useful when no safe route exists |
| Face the route again | Face route on the minimap after looking away |
| Guided tour | Start guided tour on the minimap; pause, resume, skip, or end from the stop list |
Walking follows physically connected routes only: the walker pauses briefly while the door ahead opens, stairs connect floors when the model supports them, and walls, furniture, and structure block movement. If a room cannot be reached safely, the minimap says why — use Jump to inspect it anyway. Floor tabs on the minimap only change which storey is displayed; they do not move you.
If your system prefers reduced motion, walks still follow safe routes but run slower without automatic turning; Jump remains the instant option. Older saved 3D artifacts may show a limited mode that jumps between rooms without walking — regenerate the 3D model to enable full walkthroughs.
How do I render a photorealistic photo?
Photos need a current 3D artifact — update the 3D House first if the model changed. Open Photo mode, then:
- Choose a Shot: nine auto-framed exterior views — Front, Rear, Left, Right, the four corners, and an Aerial corner — or orbit to your own view for a custom shot.
- Pick a Frame (3:2, 16:9, or 4:5); the photo covers exactly that guide.
- Pick a quality and choose Render photo:
- Quick — captures the live view on this device's GPU. It needs no render worker, and the Light and Ground settings do not apply.
- Draft / Final — rendered on the shared render worker. Set Light (a clear sky with an adjustable sun, or an HDRI environment, plus exposure and contrast), Ground (grass, paving, plain, or transparent), straightened verticals, and an optional clay lighting check. Without a configured render worker, only Quick is offered.
- Render all shots renders every shot in one go. The Photos button opens the gallery of everything rendered so far.
Every photo records the settings and model revision it was rendered from. When the model changes, the photo is marked stale — re-render to bring it back in sync. Photos never change your model.
Share with client
Share with client generates a private presentation link for the homeowner. It is enabled only when the 3D artifact is current and all blocking diagnostics are resolved. Updating the artifact may be required before the share action becomes available.
What is the 3D House not?
It is not an authoring surface and it is not a substitute for the Plan, schedule, or quantities outputs. Inspect those sources when you need exact dimensions, counts, costs, or model diagnostics.
The viewer may expose render diagnostics for geometry or material properties that need attention. Treat those diagnostics as part of the review rather than assuming that every presentation element is proof of a construction detail.
Related
- Plan workspace — author the building
- Schedules — exact model tables
- Quantities and BoQ — takeoff and assumptions
- Sheets — composed 2D output