Best Architectural Rendering Software for Windows
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Compare the Top Architectural Rendering Software for Windows as of July 2025
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What is Architectural Rendering Software for Windows?
Architectural rendering software is a tool used by architects and designers to create images that simulate how a building or structure will look in the real world. It uses 3D models, textures, lighting and other effects to accurately represent the physical appearance of the design. Rendering software also helps designers visualize the construction process, allowing them to make decisions about materials and layouts before the project begins. Compare and read user reviews of the best Architectural Rendering software for Windows currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.
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1
Blender
Blender Foundation
Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline. Cycles is Blender’s built-in powerful unbiased path-tracer engine that offers stunning ultra-realistic rendering. Blender’s comprehensive array of modeling tools make creating, transforming and editing your models a breeze. VFX professionals say: “Probably the best tracker in the market”. Blender includes production ready camera and object tracking. Allowing you to import raw footage, track the footage, mask areas and see the camera movements live in your 3D scene. Eliminating the need to switch between programs. Thanks to the high quality rigging and animation tools, Blender is being used for numerous short films, advertisements, TV series and feature films now. -
2
SketchUp
Trimble
Design delightfully, collaborate clearly, and build better buildings. The joy of drawing by hand. The ease of super-smart 3D modeling software. Make sustainable buildings. Change the world, hundreds of professionally-developed extensions at your fingertips. Design in 3D. Document in 2D. Make work easier, bring efficiency to your team and the 3D community. A great idea can be its best with the right technology. Draw in 3D, analyze and improve your building’s performance, and creatively document and share your ideas with your class. Integrated with Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. Works on Chromebooks or any Internet-connected computer. Students have access to free and intuitive 3D modeling tools. Positioning-centric information is changing the way people, businesses and governments work throughout the world. By applying Trimble's advanced positioning solutions, productivity increases and safety improvements are being realized.Starting Price: $119 per year -
3
D5 Render
D5 Render
Import models, and enjoy an instant sense of reality throughout the creation process. Outdated rendering tricks are now replaced by common sense. With a gentle learning curve and effortless reach for assets, with D5, it's never been easier or more intuitive to visualize a story. Slow 3D rendering has always been the bottleneck that slowed your workflow. You made an adjustment and then waited for the progress bar to drain your inspiration. Bursts of creativity had to be squeezed into the spaces between renderings. But now, You have D5. With each burst of inspiration, D5 keeps up with every thought and modification to keep you immersed in a seamless workflow. You can fully dive yourself into the creative moment, sculpting with light and truly playing in the worlds you create. D5 GI with Smoothness experience brings you real-time interactivity and near offline rendering quality. No need to compromise, you have the world at your fingertips.Starting Price: $38 per month -
4
Punch! Home & Landscape Design
Encore Software
Punch! Home & Landscape Design Studio v21 is the ideal program for the DIY person who wants comprehensive tools and capabilities to develop home plans and design interior rooms as well as landscaping options. This premium home and landscape design software suite combines all the materials; tools; textures; furnishings; and accessories that help make home design and landscaping projects a stunning reality. Use Punch! Home & Landscape Design Studio v21 to plan a home update or design entire homes; kitchen renovations; bathroom renovations; basement remodels; and landscape; create outdoor living spaces; decks; patios; pools; and get fast results for serious DIY home projects. -
5
Archicad
Graphisoft
Graphisoft Archicad - Design and deliver great buildings. Design: Unleash your creativity with the leading BIM software developed by architects like you. Focus on what you do best — designing great architecture — thanks to powerful algorithmic design tools and large model support. Visualize: Archicad’s professional architectural visualization tools translate your conceptual designs into compelling imagery of future buildings. Bring your models to life, inspire the audience, and invite stakeholders to engage with your designs. Collaborate: Work with your team and other disciplines around the corner or around the world on projects of any size and complexity. Open standards and workflows mean collaboration is guaranteed — regardless of what software other team members are using. Document: Complete, out-of-the-box documentation tools combined with a powerful publishing workflow that complies with local BIM requirements means you can focus on your designs, not the paperwork.Starting Price: $225/month -
6
ReluxDesktop
RELUX Informatik AG
ReluxDesktop is a high-performance, intuitively-operated application for simulating artificial light and daylight. It provides you with rapid and efficient support on all the different aspects of big and small projects, without taking any unnecessary roundabout routes. Simulation of lighting and sensors in real-time! Calculation of absolute values, national and international standards, compatible with CAD and BIM systems, plus a great deal more. The application is available to you free of charge thanks to the support of our partners in the industry. Make ReluxDesktop your day-to-day tool, you'll be surprised how much time you save with it! Add-on for other programs. Useful functions for Autodesk Revit. Add-on for ReluxDesktop. Real tunnel calculation based on the current standards.Starting Price: free of charge -
7
Revit
Autodesk
Multidisciplinary BIM software for higher-quality, coordinated designs. Use Revit® BIM (Building Information Modeling) software to drive efficiency and accuracy across the project lifecycle, from conceptual design, visualization, and analysis to fabrication and construction. Begin modeling in 3D with accuracy and precision. Automatically update floor plans, elevations, and sections as your model develops. Let Revit handle routine and repetitive tasks with automation so you can focus on higher-value work. Revit is BIM software that brings all architecture, engineering, and construction disciplines into a unified modeling environment, driving more efficient and cost-effective projects. Project teams can work together anytime, anywhere using Revit with BIM Collaborate Pro, a powerful and secure cloud-based collaboration and data management solutionStarting Price: $2,545 per year -
8
Enscape
Enscape
Enscape™ is a real-time rendering and virtual reality plugin for Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, Archicad, and Vectorworks. It plugs directly into your modeling software, giving you an integrated visualization and design workflow. As an intuitive design tool, it requires no prior specialized knowledge to use. You can design, document, and visualize simultaneously from one model. It is the easiest and fastest way to turn your building models into immersive 3D experiences. Bring your designs to life and give your clients a design experience like never before. Used by 85 of the top 100 architecture firms worldwide, Enscape empowers your design workflow.Starting Price: $39.90 per month -
9
The Wild
The Wild
Put your stakeholders inside your design remotely from any location. Effectively communicate spatial concepts through immersive design reviews to unlock better decisions and alignment. Collaborate in a shared virtual space that evolves with your ideas. See what your colleague is building, and they can see you. Meet together in real time remotely, or leave comments for your team to see later. Rapidly sketch, prototype, and iterate on your ideas. Import your SketchUp or Revit models, and gain critical context by experiencing your work at scale. Integrates with Revit, SketchUp, and BIM 360 workflows. Import from all major 3D filetypes. Easily access your content from HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Windows Mixed Reality, AR (iOS), or desktop (Mac or PC). Rapidly prototype and express ideas spatially in an immersive environment. Work and present from anywhere in real time, with up to eight people in a space.Starting Price: $295 per month -
10
Modo
Foundry
3D modeling and rendering platform designed to help businesses create 3D drawings and configure UV mapping and texturing workflows. Modo’s powerful and flexible 3D modeling, animation, texturing and rendering toolset empowers artists to explore and develop ideas without jumping through technical hoops. Modo® is your starting point for creative exploration. With fast direct modeling, flexible procedural modeling, the award-winning MeshFusion Boolean toolset and built-in sculpting tools all working together, Modo’s modeling moxie is unmatched. Free yourself from creativity-killing constraints, with Modo’s intuitive, artist-friendly toolset. From roughing out volumes to creating highly detailed forms, Modo lets you focus on creation, not construction. Build your own kit of specialized tools by combining different operations, with Modo’s flexible tool assembly system. With Modo, every job you do becomes easier, as you continually develop new efficiencies.Starting Price: $65 per month -
11
V-Ray
Chaos
Chaos® V-Ray® is a 3D rendering plugin available for SketchUp, 3ds Max, Maya, Cinema 4D, Rhino, Revit, and more. It is widely used in architectural visualization, advertising, and visual effects for film and television. With V-Ray, artists and designers can explore and share their projects with real-time ray tracing and render high-quality visualizations. V-Ray has a large community of users and is recognized for its incredible versatility. V-Ray has been honored with a Sci-Tech Academy Award® and an Engineering Emmy Award® for bringing fully ray-traced photorealistic CGI to the film and television industries. For more information, please visit chaos.comStarting Price: $60 per month -
12
IRender nXt
RenderPlus
IRender nXt will improve client presentations of your SketchUp models. High-quality architectural renderings created with IRender nXt from your SketchUp models can be an important addition to your client presentations and proposals. Stop waiting on your 3D renderings. Deliver projects ahead of schedule. Render multiple jobs simultaneously. Get your computer back while you are rendering your 3D models. Stop upgrading your computers and use our fast machines instead. Watch IRender nXt create a photo-realistic rendering of an object with just one click. Without changing the SketchUp model, use IRender nXt to create a high-quality rendered image. It’s easy to create light fixtures and add them to a model. IRender nXt includes point, spot, ceiling, floor, and table lighting. IRender nXt is a powerful plugin for producing high-resolution architectural renderings from SketchUp models. IRender nXt is fully-integrated with materials, lighting, and components with an easy-to-use interface.Starting Price: $499 one-time payment -
13
Snaptrude
Snaptrude
The collaborative building design for architects. Snaptrude helps design better buildings faster, by bringing project teams together. Snaptrude is used by designers from some of the world’s leading companies. Planned, designed, and visualize with the entire project team from concept to construction. Share models and document communication in real time. Whether you're designing a house or a city, get it done faster with intelligent automation and parametric modeling. Being fast doesn't have to mean sacrificing creativity or quality. Leverage BIM data to control costs & design sustainably. Gather real-time insights from automated BoQs, site topography, daylight simulation, and more. Import from AutoCAD, SketchUp, Rhino, or Revit & Export directly into Revit, with complete parametric family information, without any data loss. Create flawless architecture that satisfies the client's brief. Brainstorm ideas with your team & rapidly turn them into detailed BIM models.Starting Price: $49 per month -
14
ArkoAI
ArkoAI
ArkoAI is an AI-powered cloud rendering tool designed to streamline the visualization process for architects and designers. It integrates seamlessly with popular design software, including SketchUp, Rhino3D, and Revit, allowing users to generate high-quality renders directly from their active views. The platform supports various versions of Windows. ArkoAI offers two primary modes, render mode and ideate mode, it maintains the integrity of 3D geometry while rendering context and materials, ensuring accurate visualizations. Ideate mode enables users to explore diverse design ideas by leveraging AI to modify the geometry of 3D models, fostering creativity and innovation. The platform includes advanced features such as a seed set, which ensures consistent rendering styles across multiple views by allowing users to select specific seed values. Additionally, the negative prompt feature guides the AI model away from undesirable outcomes.Starting Price: $39 per month -
15
Vectorworks Architect
Vectorworks
With more support for common file formats than any other BIM solution, Vectorworks Architect can pull together all necessary information to start your project, providing everything you need for conceptual design, site planning, and analysis all in one interface. Quickly confirm design intent while transitioning from massing models to concept models. BIM software isn’t exactly known for promoting creative expression. But Vectorworks is different. We allow you to freely sketch, model, and document your design ideas with precision drafting capabilities and the most flexible 3D modeling engine available, powered by SIEMENS Parasolid. So you’re not limited by presets and strict parameters — you have the flexibility you need to design anything you can imagine. Getting the most out of the “I” in Building Information Modeling is essential for optimizing your designs. -
16
Lumion
Act-3D
A building doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The setting, its environment, the subtle details — they all matter to bring your design to life. To create atmosphere. To give spaces a sense of scale and possibility. Lumion makes it refreshingly easy to transform any CAD model into an experience you can feel. You can shape entire landscapes and add a world of context to your designs. Make spaces feel real with fine-detailed nature, detailed skies and high-quality materials. Convey atmosphere and emotion with stunning lighting, weather and animation effects. Lumion is architectural rendering software that makes it easy to convey how your projects will translate into real-life experiences and emotions. Fast, intuitive and reliable, Lumion fits seamlessly in any design workflow, making rendering a more satisfying and enjoyable experience. Atmospheric spotlights. Realism-inducing decals. A scene-building experience that’s faster than ever. -
17
Shapespark
Shapespark
Shapespark turns architectural 3D models into realistic and interactive online walkthroughs and allows to host 3D video meetings inside them. 3D walkthroughs and 3D meetings can be easily shared via links, opened directly in web browsers, and enriched with interactive elements like material and color pickers, HTML content, and more.Starting Price: $19/month/user -
18
Cinema 4D
Maxon
3D computer animation, modeling, simulation, and rendering software. Cinema 4D Subscription Release 24 (S24) includes functionality to easily browse and obtain models, materials and other assets, and to intuitively place them within the scene. The release also includes key workflow enhancements and a sneak peek at the continued progress on the Scene Nodes and Scene Manager interfaces to the new core. Cinema 4D is a professional 3D modeling, animation, simulation and rendering software solution. Its fast, powerful, flexible and stable toolset make 3D workflows more accessible and efficient for design, motion graphics, VFX, AR/MR/VR, game development and all types of visualization professionals. Cinema 4D produces stunning results, whether working on your own or in a team. Cinema 4D is widely recognized as one of the easiest and most accessible 3D packages to learn and use. To soften that learning curve Maxon offers thousands of tutorials on Cineversity and hundreds of Quick Tips.Starting Price: $16.58 per month -
19
Unity Reflect
Unity
Experience immersive and collaborative real-time 3D environments, including in AR and VR, for better decision-making across your entire project lifecycle. Unity Reflect’s suite of products helps you connect BIM data, stakeholders, and every phase of the AEC lifecycle in one immersive, collaborative real-time platform. Enable better communication and facilitate faster, more impactful decision-making to win bids, catch mistakes early, prevent injuries, and more. Easily bring your Autodesk Revit, BIM 360, Navisworks, SketchUp, and Rhino models into AR and VR to facilitate interactive design reviews between all project stakeholders. Build your own custom applications to address any problem across the entire building lifecycle and distribute them commercially or to internal stakeholders. Join us on the Road to the metaverse, a series of webinars and workshops designed to equip you with the tools to enable the digital transformation of your business. -
20
DIALux
DIAL
DIALux is the world's leading software for lighting design and marketing tool for luminaire manufacturers. DIALux is free of charge and available in 25 languages. More than 750,000 professional users worldwide, including engineers, electricians and lighting designers, plan, calculate and visualize light for indoor and outdoor areas with DIALux, using real products from more than 190 renowned luminaire manufacturers. From entire buildings and individual rooms to car parks or street and emergency lighting. Create a unique atmosphere with genuine products from our DIALux members and convince with an individual lighting project. Become a DIALux member now. Increase your brand awareness, expand your reach and generate quality leads by connecting with potential customers during the digital planning process. Benefit from the special advantages of DIALux membership. Plan, calculate and visualize light for indoor and outdoor areas.Starting Price: Free -
21
Chief Architect
Chief Architect
Chief Architect software brings home design projects to life. Automated building tools for home design, interior design, and kitchen & bath design make it easy to create construction drawings, elevations, CAD details, and 3D models. Download a trial and see why Chief Architect is the best residential home design software for architects, home builders, and remodeling professionals. Chief Architect software is the professional tool of choice for architects, home builders, remodelers, and interior designers. Smart building technology makes it easy to create construction drawings, floor plans, elevations, 3D renderings, and 360 panoramic renderings. Chief Architect's software is purpose‑built for residential design with building tools that can automatically generate roofs, foundations, framing, and dimensions. As you draw walls, windows, and doors, the program simultaneously creates a 3D model. -
22
Unicorn Render
Unicorn Render
Unicorn Render is a professional rendering software that enables users to produce stunning realistic pictures and achieve high-end rendering levels without any prior skills. It offers a user-friendly interface designed to provide everything needed to obtain amazing results with minimal controls. Available as a standalone application or as a plugin, Unicorn Render integrates advanced AI technology and professional visualization tools. The software supports GPU+CPU acceleration through deep learning photorealistic rendering technology and NVIDIA CUDA technology, allowing joint support for CUDA GPUs and multicore CPUs. It features real-time progressive physics illumination, a Metropolis Light Transport sampler (MLT), a caustic sampler, and native NVIDIA MDL material support. Unicorn Render's WYSIWYG editing mode ensures that 100% of editing can be done in final image quality, eliminating surprises in the production of the final image.
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