During our webinar last week, we explored integrating Virtual Reality and Revit. We were excited to discuss the ways in which Virtual Reality is making its way into the world of BIM and how it’s beginning to transform the industry as we know it. The days of spending countless hours rendering are coming to and end and the ability to walk around your projects quickly has arrived with Virtual Reality and Revit.
These exciting developments inspired us to investigate the software options out there that make Virtual Reality and Revit possible. We looked into 3 popular Virtual Reality and Revit software options including; Lumion, Iris VR: Prospect, and Enscape. Here is what we discovered:
1. Lumion
Lumion has numerous 3D environmental objects including trees and people that can easily be added to your model. Creating a 360 panorama is very simple and can be achieved in just a few minutes. Linking Lumion to Revit with LiveSync is a pretty simple and quick process as well. One of the many noteworthy features of of Lumion is the Sky Light daylight simulator.
As you can see in the image above, the Sky Light daylight simulator makes your imaging look authentic and incredibly detailed. In order to achieve this level of complexity in the past, you had to spend a significant amount of time adjusting various settings. Now, with the awesome Sky Light feature, Lumion does the work for you with a click of a button.
Combined with a 360-degree panorama and a VR headset such as Oculus Go, you can present your client with a highly interactive, realistic piece of media that where they can virtually explore their structure before it’s even built.
2. Iris VR: Prospect
Iris VR’s tool Prospect also works with Revit. Its latest release includes the multi-user meeting functionality and allows viewers to join a client walk through from their computers without a VR headset. If the client or user does opt to use a VR headset, HTC Vive offers a lot of awesome functionality including the ability to fly throughout the model and view the model from unique perspectives.
While the software is constantly improving its visual quality and enhancing scenes, the style is certainly more animated and not as realistic looking as Lumion and Enscape, as shown in the photo above. Whether the cartoon style is a perk or a drawback really comes down to your own personal preference.
3. Enscape
Compared to the aforementioned Virtual Reality and Revit solutions, Enscape syncs with Revit the most seamlessly. Not only does the sync occur in real time as you work on your model, it also uses Revit materials which makes the exporting process very simple and is a huge time saver. For example,all you have to do is put a tree in Revit and it will transform into a realistic looking object in Enscape.
There are Enscape users who feel renderings from enscape aren’t the most aestetically appealing, however as shown above, there is no debate they do look realistic and detailed.
In conclusion, Lumion, Iris VR: Prospect, and Enscape are all great Virtual Reality and Revit software options. When it comes to choosing the right one for you, it really comes down to a matter of personal preference and the best match to fulfill the items on your requirements list.
Regardless of the Virtual Reality and Revit software you choose, having solid BIM content is essential and the first step in your Virtual Reality and Revit experience. Good BIM content that contains the right data, is searchable, and can quickly be found will significantly enhance the value of your Virtual Reality Revit models. UNIFI’s Create services can help you generate this content and Core services can help you manage your BIM content. Free free to contact us today to get your BIM content Virtual Reality ready!