Critical Analysis - Software

Throughout the project I have used numerous programs to create digital renditions of my design, some of these programs have been completely new to me and others although I have used often, I tried to use aspects of them that I had never used before or in ways that I had not tried to do before. I also tried to take things created in one program and use it in another, sometimes multiple others. At times with great success and other times I had to find solutions/other programs that would allow me to do this.

Here I will give my views on using some of these programs through my project.

SkecthUP & SketchUp Layout A great program to use for more simple models eg basic room shells. The connectivity between the two is wonderful, change something in the main model and click update on the Layout page, definetily makes life easier. Very quick for simple model videos (see video here https://youtu.be/VQNbo5q5iYs). Pro version allows exporting to different file types including to AutoCAD, 3ds max and Unity. Extremely limiting for more complex modelling if you have no external pluggins installed (better to use 3ds max). Unable to create different line weights which becomes problematic when creating plans/sections (better to use AutoCAD). Heavier models become sluggish fast and can crash your computer causing you to lose work.

Lumion vs Vray for SketchUp/3Ds Max Lumion is insanely easy to use and very fast at rendering still images in high quality, the live link with SketchUp makes changes very simple although there was times when editing a model, certain things dissapeared in Lumion that where clearly visable in SketchUp. I also found that it was harder to create a more photorealistic render from Lumion that it is in other programs. I did find like in SketchUp, heavier models made th program sluggish and at times unusable. Creating videos in Lumion is again very easy but the time it takes for them to complete can be unrealisticly long compared to the output quality (see video that took almost 2 hours to complete here https://youtu.be/yPWaHczQr0Q).

Vray for SketchUp was unusable for me, my computer froze everytime I opened it. I did not as much as get to fully render and save a single image with it. I would not recommend anyone to rely on this version of the program for their year four project.

Vray for 3Ds Max was a different story, there was no sluggish feeling at all, click something and it instantaneously changed. Creating a render from it was a learning curve and it can be very slow for high quality images. There's not much room for error with it, a single click of the wrong button or setting can have you scratching your head and searching for a solution for hours, but when things go right the quality speaks for itself.