Over the years, better lighting systems, material systems, and revolutions like real-time ray tracing have narrowed the gap between architectural renderings and finished architectural photography. What was once considered exceptional has become an industry expectation.

Despite this evolution in the photorealistic 3D image of architecture, one part of the architect’s workflow has changed surprisingly little.

Rethink: The Design Review

And that is the design review process.

The folks at D5 have been doing a deep rethink of what the design review process is and what it should be like. Today, design reviews still largely focus on static images or pre-rendered animations with pre-determined camera paths. These collateral items do a very good job of documenting design decisions already made, but they rarely can participate in the review process discussion itself.

D5 3.1 shifts its focus to support “interaction” in collaboration design review workflows. This image shows how, from within D5’s Interactive Presentation workflow features, an image can easily be switched from Day to Night along with any other variable of the scene.

Participation is a high-level threshold for imagery in the design review, but an important one. As architectural practices are much more collaborative in nature, with all types of design reviews, it only makes sense that these meetings become more like the working sessions they actually are.

D5 3.1 — Interaction

Visualization, therefore, is beginning to reshape itself into a new role. Instead of just documenting design decisions made, the medium is becoming interactive. This means visualization can serve the changing nature of the design review by supporting comparison, change, and the decision-making process.

This industry shift is foundational to D5 version 3.1. Instead of asking how the rendering can become more realistic, the release focuses on how the visualization can remain more useful once the meeting begins.

D5 3.1 responds with Interactive Presentation. This is a purpose-built workflow that allows architects to organize presentations like slides while maintaining access to the live project. Teams can easily move between design schemes, materials, lighting conditions, weather settings, and viewpoints without having to prepare multiple image sets or separate animations. Instead of a sequence of predetermined image items on slides, the D5 Interactive Presentation feels like a living, collaborative design workspace.

This GIF animation shows how D5 supports team collaboration.

D5’s new Interactive Presentation sits within a broader set of tools aimed at making architectural review more immersive and adaptable. This includes support for Stereoscopic Panorama for VR to help clients understand scale and materiality at scale, along with spatial relationships that only virtual reality can convey. The Spatial Tour features have evolved with faster scene generation, smoother transitions between indoor and outdoor spaces, and dollhouse views that simplify navigation through complex projects.

D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit

Following on its earlier release for Trimble’s SketchUp, D5 Lite is now expanding to Rhino and Revit, bringing real-time visualization directly into more of the tools architects already use.

To learn more about D5 Lite for Rhino or Revit, click here.

Renderings Still Matter

D5 Render version 3.1 introduces a series of production-focused improvements to strengthen realism while preserving real-time responsiveness in the application.

One such improvement is the adoption of ACEScg Working Color Space. This is a production-grade color pipeline used in the film and visual effects industry. This improves color consistency in D5 throughout the visualization and post-production workflows. Then there is HeightField Tracing, which generates richer surface relief for displacement materials without adding geometry complexity. This will improve the look of stone, brick, timber, et cetera.

MORE: D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit Now Available

There are also improvements for landscape visualization, more nuanced via Seasonal Vegetation. A series of smaller workflow refinements—including Custom Pivot, MeasureLine, improved City Generator controls, smarter Auto Exposure, and expanded Gaussian Splatting support—reduce repetitive adjustments while maintaining continuity throughout production.

Together, these developments reinforce a broader idea: interactive presentations depend on rendering technologies capable of supporting both visual fidelity and real-time responsiveness.

See D5 3.1 Live

D5 will demonstrate the version 3.1 workflow in a live webinar on 21 July 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC. The session covers D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit, Interactive Presentation, VR review, Stereoscopic and Panorama mode, AECESgc, HeightField Tracing and Seasonal Vegetation.

Registration is available through the webinar page here, and anyone who registers but cannot attend live can receive access to the recorded session.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

D5 continues to push the envelope of interactive realism in architectural visualization. And their position that the future of design reviews in architecture is changing due to new capabilities that they are bringing to market is spot on. Readers should definitely not miss this free webinar and sign up, even if you are going to watch it recorded later. 

The addition of D5 Lite for Rhino and Revit is another major addition to the D5 user’s arsenal. You can learn more about that over here. We look forward to D5’s continued advancements, and we understand that some Mac support for D5 Lite in eligible Apple devices is in the works, though no formal timeline for that. 

The post D5 Render 3.1: The Future of Architectural Design Reviews appeared first on Architosh.

D5 Lite for Rhino

Rhino is an industry standard for architectural creation, where marquee architects formalize their innovative ideas. Rhino is also an ecosystem with a rich set of specialized tools that support generative design, parametric workflows, and environmental simulation. In many ways, Rhino is a design laboratory.

Into this environment comes D5 Lite for Rhino to bring real-time visual feedback directly into this popular modeling and simulation environment.

D5 Lite for Rhino and D5 Lite for Revit are new products with D5 Render version 3.1.

Built for Rhino, D5 Lite enables designers to preview realistic materials and lighting while they model their creations, without having to leave Rhino or wait for another rendering process. This helps designers see complex geometry and how it may actually look before the design process is finalized. It’s a visual layer for Rhino’s design culture.

D5 Lite for Revit

For Revit users, the utilization of the BIM environment for continued design exploration remains high. This is why D5 Lite for BIM users in Revit can be a big benefit to their workflows. There is no need to push the BIM model to another visualization tool and run renderings and wait and see what the results look like.

D5 Lite’s capabilities are shown off here, including: DCC Live Sync, Material Editing, Asset Placement, Lighting Controls, and Environmental Controls.

Visualization at the photorealistic level belongs inside the BIM workflow process. Designs continue to evolve all through the design development process and even into construction documentation. Having D5 Lite for Revit means users can make adjustments to the building throughout any phase and turn to D5 Lite to evaluate the outcome of that change.

D5 Lite is not intended to replace the presentation power of D5 Render. Its role is to support ideation and form-making by enabling designers to test out real lighting conditions and materials.

To learn more, sign up for a free webinar. Registration is available through the webinar page here, and anyone who registers but cannot attend live can receive access to the recorded session.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

D5 created the D5 Lite applications as an AI-native visualization plugin for the design phase. Users can explore with AI, verify and test material ideas and how they look when rendered realistically, and test lighting design and environmental lighting conditions. All of this takes place inside the native design authoring application, be it SketchUp (previously released) or now Rhino and Revit. To learn more, visit here. 

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All of these firms have hundreds of employees and hundreds of software developers across numerous teams supporting a multitude of AEC industry digital tools. And Chaos, like those others just mentioned, also has professionals focused on expanding their firm through mergers and acquisitions. Everyone knows Autodesk regularly buys small firms, but do not be surprised to see all four of these companies, including Chaos, continue to acquire small tech companies, expand their product offerings, and drive synergies across their growing family of digital tools.

Chaos at AIA26

Chaos at AIA San Diego showcased their AEC industry visualization software solutions, as well as tools they have acquired over the past few years that are not visualization tools. These include tools like Chaos Glyph, a Revit plugin that automates and standardizes documentation tasks such as view and sheet creation, tagging, dimensions, and more. Chaos also has Morphis and Helix, which are non-visualization tools.

Watching a demo of Chaos Veras in action at AIA26.

Still, the story for Chaos at AIA26 was primarily focused on visualization, as that is what the company is known for.

Enscape

While Chaos’ most famous product is the legendary V-Ray renderer, the software firm based out of Germany is increasingly more well-known to architects for Enscape, its real-time, interactive renderer that works with literally every major BIM and 3D software platform. Enscape version 4.18, launched in May, is fully supportive of Autodesk Revit 2027, SketchUp 2026, Archicad 29 and Vectorworks 2026. There is also a new Chaos Envision live link so you can execute a one-click handoff from Enscape directly to Chaos Envision.

Another really interesting Enscape development is that the 2GB scene size limitation is removed. Enscape can now handle massive, complex project data without experiencing crashes. AI advancements are also visible to booth attendees looking at the latest, including AI material generation via AI inside the Enscape Material Editor via Chaos Cosmos. And users can upscale low-resolution images using Chaos AI Upscaler, and Architosh has already written about Veras AI integration across its product line before here.

V-Ray

Updates for Chaos’ most advanced renderer streamed out between June and July of this year, depending on the host application. V-Ray is still a dominant force—if not the dominant force—in archviz studios and agencies worldwide. V-Ray 7 was officially released in late June, after the AIA26 event in San Diego. And since then, there have been four updates. You can read our full report on V-Ray 7 Update 4 over here.

Veras is now fully integrated into all Enscape, V-Ray, and Corona renderer solutions.

Some notable highlights include GPU Caustics, which are now rendered on the GPU as an option. V-Ray Profiler analyzes your scene for what parts of the scene are taking the longest to render, compares the performance of different settings, and figures out the best settings for your scene. There is also Gaussian Splats support and more.

Corona 

Chaos Corona 15 was released back in late May. A big new change involved the Veras AI engine embedded for free in all Corona subscription tiers. You can push a render frame from Corona directly to Veras to generate dozens of material variations, swap seasons, and create short animations on the fly. Global illumination (GI) has been improved for Corona’s Gaussian Splats support. Additionally, there are new Glint Layers in Corona’s physical materials editor to create accurate metallic flakes, sand sparkle, and snow glints.

The Chaos booth at AIA26 had steady visitor flow checking out V-Ray, Enscape, Veras, and other key products.

MORE: Enscape, V-Ray, and Corona Get Veras AI Integration

New cloud streaming support allows clients to interactively walk through full 3D viewports or leave annotations on video animation sequences via a simple web link.

Veras

This year, Chaos integrated Veras into Enscape, V-Ray, and Corona renderers. Furthermore, our AIA25 Architosh BEST of SHOW winner in the Visualization Category and the Economics Prize award also integrated Google Nano Banana Pro with improved geometry fidelity, material realism, and lighting accuracy.

Working alongside a range of integrated Chaos products, Veras 4.0 also introduced brief animations from still images and can construct multiple perspectives from an initial view without the need to rebuild geometry. We were equally impressed with its ability to work from 2D drawings along with sketches to fashion compelling, polished 3D renderings and animations. We acknowledged that accelerating early-stage visualization with Veras is a force multiplier.

The post AIA26: Expo Show Floor Report 4—Chaos appeared first on Architosh.

Mighty SketchUp

One thing that folks in the architecture world may not be aware of is just how prevalent SketchUp is in the big-contractor construction world. SketchUp is regularly used by major general contractors such as Turner Construction and Taisei Corporation in Japan. Turner uses SketchUp as a 5D VDC tool, for example. The point is that SketchUp has a very large market presence in the construction phase of buildings. And it also has a very large role in the design phases of buildings, used by millions of designers, architects, and interior professionals around the world.

But what about the middle phase?

SketchUp as BIM

This was the question we asked Trimble this year. Will they ever begin to address the middle phase of the work?

The short answer we got is yes. How SketchUp moves in that direction is in the details, and the company is approaching more of that middle workflow phase by deepening its core modeling capabilities, strengthening its SketchUp to Revit workflows, and making improvements with IFC.

The Trimble SketchUp booth at AIA26 was busy showcasing various aspects of SketchUp and Trimble Connect.

Architosh was fortunate to get a preview look at upcoming SketchUp technologies, and while we can’t write about these in any amount of detail, we can summarize a little about what we saw. In general, when we think about SketchUp having this very strong utilization in the early phases of design whilst also having a strong hold on the big general contractor firms, we know that Trimble and its SketchUp team realize that Autodesk Revit holds a very strong grip on the documentation phase within the BIM workflow. Hence, in recent releases, we have seen the SketchUp-to-Revit workflow strengthen. Users should expect that trend to continue.

MORE: AIA26: Architosh 12th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA San Diego

A stronger SketchUp-to-Revit workflow isn’t just beneficial to architects; those same large general contractors working with 4D-5D processes utilizing SketchUp and Trimble Connect also benefit from tighter integrations between these two popular AEC applications.

Another future coming to SketchUp will be modeling improvements of a rather larger nature than the company tends to deliver. Without letting the cat out of the bag, we can at least say that we were quite excited and impressed by what the SketchUp team is doing in this domain. For years, SketchUp has been working on speeding up rendering and visualization workflows, but speeding up modeling workflows has fully begun and will surely continue. Some of this will deploy agentic AI (like the Claude integration), and some of it will just be more powerful, parametric-like (or based) modeling updates.

A SketchUp professional talking to an AIA expo attendee about the latest new features in SketchUp 2026.2.

As SketchUp gains more modeling powers in the future, it will mean that—coupled with LayOut advancements—users will be able to do even more all within the program. At the same time, upcoming new features will deepen the value creation in SketchUp-to-Revit workflows in both the front-end and the back-end of the AEC process.

Cloud Collaboration at Trimble

Another view on SketchUp’s journey in the AEC industry and its relationship to BIM workflows is the ongoing transformation toward making SketchUp a multiplayer medium. The release in 2026 has turned SketchUp into a true multiplayer collaboration platform complete with real-time cursor tracking (you can see the live movements of your collaborators’ cursor inside the 3D space, color-coded by user), live camera follow, in-app geometry commenting, and public and private sharing links. As for live camera follow, what that means is a host can force all viewers to look through their exact perspective, or you can follow a colleague’s camera as they orbit a model or scene.

The multiplayer capabilities function once a SketchUp user has invited colleagues to view the model on Trimble Connect, Trimble’s cloud-based collaboration platform. Therefore, Trimble Connect serves as the engine and Common Data Environment (CDE) for the collaboration features, storing the model as well as the multiplayer comments. Connect provides the live stream data for your collaboration session as well as the granular permissions for collaborators.

Analysis Hub

We have been talking about SketchUp 2026 since its first iteration features last fall. The multiplayer technology and multi-user collaboration features were part of the 7 October 2025 release of SketchUp 2026. The latest release is actually SketchUp 2026.2 and brought with it the new building performance and analytical data tools in the new Analysis Hub.

A view of the new Analysis Hub in SketchUp 2026.2.

Analysis Hub is an entirely separate dedicated environment aimed at helping designers study daylight, shadow, and environmental building performance data directly inside of the design workspace. Part of Analysis Hub has SketchUp Labs tools, but one key official feature is Advanced Shadows. This natively supports interior shadow mapping by calculating sun penetration through active section planes. The Labs features include Daylight Factor, Annual Illuminance, and Underlit and Overlit Metrics.

The Analysis Hub features are powered by Trimble’s cloud simulation stack and heavily utilize Sefaira technology owned by Trimble.

Closing Thoughts

Clearly, this year the biggest news about SketchUp is the Claude AI integration, which moved the app into the early round of CAD industry tools connected to agentic AI capabilities. Architosh has already awarded SketchUp an AIA26 Architosh BEST of SHOW honor for digital technologies at AIA San Diego under the Emergent Technologies category. Yes, agentic AI is the most pivotal new emerging technology in 2026, beginning to impact CAD, BIM, and 3D applications as well as other types of applications serving the AEC industry. Being able to use agentic AI to model elements for you is quite transformative even in this very nascent stage of AI development.

But the glossiness of AI transformation can obscure (and perhaps has) SketchUp’s other meaningful evolution related to BIM and collaborative workflows. The multiplayer capabilities are strictly speaking common to the definition of BIM 2.0 technologies. Snaptrude has them; Arcol has them, and so do other new BIM 2.0 apps. So what does that make SketchUp now that it has this multiplayer technology as well since last fall?

We’ll leave you with that question. You can learn more about SketchUp here and here.

The post AIA26: Expo Show Floor Report 3 — Trimble and SketchUp appeared first on Architosh.

Considered by this publication to be among the top three BIM solutions in the world for architecture, based on global market share, total users, significance of their users (several Pritzker Prize-winning architects among users, product and technological innovation, and industry software awards, Vectorworks Architect is quite popular with design-forward practices as well as small-to-mid-sized architecture firms.

The resurgence of Mac computers in AEC, driven by Apple Silicon’s industry-leading performance (see, Architosh: “End of an Era: How Silicon Will Decide BIM’s Future,” 24 December 2025) means Mac-native software like Vectorworks is likely to gain a boost moving forward. Industry accolades clearly help the cause as well.

A+ Popular Choice Award

Presented by Architizer, the A+ Product Awards honor innovation in the building industry and the technologies shaping the future of architecture and interior design. With over 30 categories, the program recognizes tools and materials that help design professionals enhance creativity, efficiency, and transform the built environment. Winners are chosen by a distinguished jury of over 100 industry leaders and design visionaries worldwide, along with votes from the global architecture and design community.

Vectorworks Architect 2026 wins another Architizer A+ award.

“Being selected as the Popular Choice winner by the Architizer community is especially meaningful because it reflects the trust architects and designers place in Vectorworks to power their everyday work,” said Vectorworks Chief Marketing Officer Jeremy Powell. “With our latest release, we’ve doubled down on smarter workflows, better performance, and more intuitive tools so designers can move seamlessly from concept to completion while knowing their voices are helping shape the future of our software.”

Vectorworks Architect 2026, this year, boasted advanced new depth cueing, intuitive worksheet slicing, a sustainability dashboard for carbon calculations, and improved modeling tools.

To learn more about Vectorworks, go here.

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The first benefit is that the Group has a large visual presence on the show floor. The second benefit is that booth visitors get a better understanding of sister brands they may not be aware of. Take, for instance, an architect who is an Autodesk Revit user and also a Bluebeam user. If this architect visited the Bluebeam stations inside the large Nemetschek booth, they could discover that Maxon this year introduced its real-time Redshift rendering solution for Autodesk Revit. (see, Architosh, “AIA26: Maxon’s new Redshift for Revit and More,” 17 June 2026 )

The only real downside we see from having a good half dozen AEC brands inside one super-sized booth is that individual BIM authoring companies Archicad and Vectorworks have less space and less of a visual impact on the show floor. Typically, at AIA National, these two companies had their own full-sized booths with perhaps a dozen staff members and that many computer demo stations, plus a tiny booth theater. The Nemetschek booth gives out free drinks, which is a clever idea to bring showgoers into their orbit.

Nemetschek’s Group Strategies

This year, the Nemetschek Group and its subsidiary, Graphisoft, put considerable effort into communicating what they call the Graphisoft Design Intelligence strategy. We covered this in a separate report (see, Architosh: “Graphisoft Advances Design Intelligence Strategy,” 15 June 2026.)

Graphisoft was sharing their Design Intelligence Strategy at AIA26 inside of a session as well as in their booth to the press and other parties.

As we noted in the above report, the Group’s strategy is to link together Graphisoft and other Nemetschek Group tools within an open BIM model framework supporting wide data exchange via both APIs, MCPs, and native BIM connectors. This last part pertains to the Group’s BIM authoring environments, geometry engines, and file formats.

Native BIM Connectors

Theoretically, today it means an Archicad user could utilize Vectorworks Landmark’s excellent terrain modeling capabilities and bring that site into an Archicad project. This would mean Archicad could read (natively) a Vectorworks file format. Likewise, a theater project done in Archicad could be pushed to Vectorworks Spotlight, a dedicated CAD/BIM platform focused on performance space design. With native BIM connectors, Allplan users in Germany could read in both Archicad and Vectorworks BIM models natively. All these programs have proprietary file formats, but it likely doesn’t make sense to keep them proprietary within the Group. On the contrary, native BIM connectors should work better than IFC at moving BIM models around between programs.

Native AEC Platform Connections is a focus area for better industry coordination. That’s in the yellow box above. This will start with Nemetschek’s tools first, but through strategic partnerships like the existing one Nemetschek has with Autodesk, it could extend to other platforms.

Over a year ago, Architosh had a discussion with Sunil Pandita, Chief Division Officer, Planning & Design and Digital Twin Business Unit, Nemetschek Group, who told Architosh that the Group was investigating whether each of the BIM authoring environments could share a common geometry modeling foundation. Building native BIM connectors, while complex, is tremendously easier.

Geometry Engines

Trying to get all three BIM tools on the same geometry foundation would require massive rework and recoding for either Archicad, Allplan, or Vectorworks, depending on which direction they tried to unify around. Both Vectorworks and Allplan use Parasolids, while Allplan still has some geometry creation done via its own geometry engine, so it’s a hybrid. Meanwhile, Archicad doesn’t use any third-party geometry engine, instead relying on a Graphisoft-coded, architecture-focused GDL-based geometry environment. Among the three, Vectorworks and Allplan are closest, while Archicad’s geometry engine is honed for the specifics of architecture.

With this degree of variability in all three tools, only native BIM connectors make sense to pursue, and the sooner they achieve this capability, the stronger the Nemetschek Group can function and compete in the open market.

The Open Approach

A hallmark of Open Intelligence Strategy is the open approach to the industry. Notice in the middle of the diagram below that Native BIM Data Connectors allow data to pass between not just Nemetschek tools but also include SketchUp.

The Open Approach to the industry’s collaboration challenges begins with open APIs and no lock-in technologies. Nemetschek and Graphisoft are aiming to develop a cloud-based, AI-centric open collaboration platform to rival the more closed-oriented Autodesk Forma ecosystem.

MCP and AI agents will form a backbone of an open collaboration platform along with existing pre-AI-era collaboration connectivity technologies like IFC, BCF, and more. This will enable the synchronization of data between 2nd and 3rd party clouds, such as between Bluebeam Cloud and Autodesk Forma or between Solibri and Autodesk Forma.

As part of the announcements, open industry collaboration between Autodesk and Nemetschek Group now includes an Archicad—Autodesk Forma Connection, built on the backbone of a previous agreement. Users can upload an Archicad 3D view or full model directly as an Autodesk Forma Data Exchange, and the geometry becomes immediately accessible as reference data inside programs like Revit. And there is Publisher Set syncing between Archicad and the cloud-hosted Autodesk Forma Data Management (previously ACC).

While Archicad now has compatibility with Autodesk Forma Data Management to meet Forma-based project requirements, the Nemetschek Group is also endeavoring to develop and release in 2027 its own cloud-based early design stage ecosystem similar to Forma Site Design, Forma Building Design, and Forma Carbon Insights. This was previously known as Project Aurora, but the cloud platform and solution has a much more exciting new name, Graphisoft tells us.

Other Nemetschek Brands

Maxon

Also on display inside the giant Nemetschek Group booth were market leaders like Bluebeam, Vectorworks, Solibri, and Maxon. Maxon was showcasing its new Redshift for Revit rendering solution as well as a version for Archicad and its previously released version for Vectorworks.

As noted in our previous report, Redshift’s raytracing technology is distinguished for its rendering quality and speed, and the ability to have another high-quality real-time design visualization technology for your design environment beyond the existing options is a big win for the industry. Especially because users can push these finished render scenes with one click to Maxon’s acclaimed Cinema 4D animation environment for advanced studio work.

Maxon’s new AEC industry push continues with Redshift for Autodesk Revit and more.

And given the animation capabilities of AI tools like Chaos Veras, professional Archviz pros will need to develop more advanced, sophisticated offerings that a tool like Cinema 4D can deliver.

Vectorworks and Morpholio

Vectorworks is one of the Nemetschek Group’s star products, from both its market fit and positioning, its underlying technology stack, and its popularity and fame in architectural markets. From a fit-for-market angle, the Vectorworks product line addresses more than architecture with its Landmark product, without peer in the professional landscape architecture market. Meanwhile, it has a whole series of industry-leading products in the entertainment design space, which includes television and film production, which are increasingly becoming more digitized.

But for many architects, Vectorworks Architect is the go-to and must-have design platform. This year, the daughter company acquired Morpholio with its namesake iPad application. Architosh awarded this tool an AIA26 Architosh BEST of SHOW honor, where we said this about it:

Vectorworks with Morpholio rounds out the “sketch to BIM” product philosophy the United States-based CAD/BIM maker has been telling for years. And Vectorworks 2026 today stands as an exemplar of a codebase that has kept up with changing times, being the first in the Group to become Apple Silicon-native and offering its users incredible interface customization features.

Bluebeam

Bluebeam Max was prominently on display at AIA26 inside the Nemetschek booth. This product was also an AIA26 Architosh BEST of SHOW honoree product for its utilization of agentic AI and MCP connecting Anthropic’s Claude AI to Bluebeam Revu.

The latest Bluebeam Max technologies supercharge this mainstay in the building industry with multiple levels of AI power, including in-house-developed AI capabilities paired with its Firmus-AI-acquired AI capabilities. The latter technologies are on point this year, as several other AI-first companies have introduced the ability for AI to scan or ingest PDF-based drawings and review them for QA/QC purposes.

MORE: AIA26: Architosh 12th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA San Diego

When it comes to the Nemetschek Group, Bluebeam is leading the Group with its shipment of agentic AI solutions powered by onboard MCP servers in Revu and connection with an AI orchestrator like Anthropic’s Claude. We are now wondering how other Nemetschek brands will move forward with AI technologies given the popularity of Anthropic’s Claude.

Solibri

During our time in the Nemetschek Group joint pavilion, Solibri presented on Accessibility Assurance: Automate ADA Compliance & Reduce Professional Liability. This presentation showcased how a rule-based checking engine in Solibri can flag ADA violations.

Regarding what is new with Solibri in 2026, the company has restructured its software delivery model and retired its standalone legacy products. Solibri Office, Solibri Site, and Solibri Anywhere have been phased out as standalone tools. In their place is a new tiered platform and single, scalable ecosystem grouped into five tier offerings: Solibri Starter, Essential, Advanced, Premium, and Security+.

Solibri in 2026 has an entirely restructured software delivery model that is a better fit for purpose in the current industry. Solutions address Building Lifecycle, BIM QA, IDS Workflows, and BIM validation for hyperscale and data center construction.

Solibri has also updated its solution to include IFC data support improvements, transparent 3D rendering for IFC spatial zones, a dark mode option, and automated sustainability compliance via a new carbon checker extension.

Solibri’s new product restructuring has kept its hybrid (desktop + cloud) model, resisting the all-cloud mandate that some in the industry believe is the future of AEC compute. Solibri CheckPoint (its all-cloud solution that was acquired) is actually phased out as a product, and some of its technology came into the Solibri cloud layer. Solibri Starter is just USD 99/year/user and is for individuals and small teams needing reliable model review before coordination begins. This is what Solibri calls “professional IFC model visual inspection.” From here, product capabilities and pricing scale up dramatically. Solibri Essential is for structured BIM coordination control and includes both IFC and Revit model federation. Solibri Advanced enables custom rule creation versus Essential’s predefined rule-based model checking. It also delivers quantity take-off and ecosystem integrations with other CDEs. Solibri Premium and Solibri Security+ scale further for asset portfolio-level governance and compliance and for totally secure offline operation for government and high-security structures. The US government is a major Solibri customer, for example.

The post AIA26: Expo Show Floor Report 2 — Nemetschek Group appeared first on Architosh.

Agentic and Agent-based AI

Over the last two years, AI technology at AIA24 and AIA25 has steadily matured, and we saw many AI solutions last year. However, this year, AI and automation were scaled up a notch. In particular, we are beginning to see Anthropic’s MCP (model context protocol) technology rolling out across product solutions and agentic AI technologies that orchestrate data and workflows. This is different than AI that simply finds information for you, whether about your application or data out on the internet.

Model Context Protocol

For clarity, Model Context Protocol (MCP) is closely tied to agentic AI, but the MCP standard is an infrastructure protocol, not an autonomous AI agent itself. Think of it as plumbing. In fact, the popular analogy for MCP is “USB-C for AI.” Tools that now support MCP are becoming numerous in AEC. Two key ones were awarded Architosh’s AIA26 BEST of SHOW honors yesterday. (see, Architosh: “AIA26: Architosh 12th ‘BEST of SHOW’ honors for digital technologies at AIA San Diego,” 22 June 2026)

MCP by itself doesn’t really do much. You need an AI architecture that can orchestrate the core software system and manage the AI’s state, controls, and logic flow. Such systems instruct the software on what step to take next. So we are seeing Anthropic’s Claude AI technology now connected to software systems like SketchUp and Bluebeam Max to do very useful kinds of things that normally take a considerable amount of time to do the old human-only way. Claude is used as a natural language user interface (NLUI) and can speak to the software and get work done.

SketchUp’s new Claude integration brings generative AI modeling to the popular 3D modeling platform.

In SketchUp’s case, it can create (model) 3D objects directly inside SketchUp. In Bluebeam Max’s case, Claude can produce Revu commands such as batch operations, batch search, highlight, and a whole lot more. Both of these tools were highlights of AIA26 San Diego this year.

Other solutions have chat-based palettes built directly into their interfaces. This is becoming table stakes for software in the age of AI. These solutions are often called “co-pilots” or “agent-driven UIs”. They don’t just answer questions about the software; the AI itself has an execution layer and can map natural-language intent directly into function-system operations. We discussed this intently in our recent feature on ARES 2026 software, where it was possible to talk your way into having the CAD and BIM software actually draw things for you, or create layers within your file, following your textual direction. (see, Architosh: “ARES 2027 Deep Dive: AI, Automation and BIM-to-DWG Workflows,” 5 May 2026). We also discussed this particular feature during an online event.

While CAD tools like ARES 2027 are nearly a full release cycle ahead of many CAD and BIM solutions in the industry in terms of this kind of AI capability, we are starting to see solutions like SketchUp, with its Claude integration, leverage AI automation to make work happen in a similar way. Basically, let AI drive the software and produce work for you.

So you may ask: what is the benefit of having AI drive the software in the same vein as having your Tesla drive itself?

The answer depends, but usually, if something is extremely repetitive, the AI can do it much faster. Or, if the task is quite complex and would require advanced skills in software you don’t have, the speed-up could be massive or even infinite, since you can’t actually do it at all. If you can’t model the Space Shuttle inside of AutoCAD or ARES, but you can use ARES’ AI tools to create it for you, the AI didn’t just save time; the AI made it possible for you.

Automation Matters Also

Not all the buzz in the AEC industry software involves artificial intelligence (AI). There are many ways general automation can occur without LLMs or agentic AI. With the new BIM 2.0 software tools, their data-centric workflows and API interconnections mean that data from tools like Arcol can stream directly into other solutions and data types via API linkages.

Arcol is showing its new integration of spreadsheets that can be bi-directionally synced with Excel files. This feature was highly requested by general construction and development companies so they could link building metrics with their own cost data.

As part of Arcol’s embrace of the construction industry (it is still focused on architects as well), the BIM 2.0 company added interconnections to spreadsheets (Excel) so that early-stage designs can be paired with cost data from large general contractors doing real estate development.

BIM 2.5?

We often write about BIM 2.0. But originally BIM 2.0 didn’t begin with AI in mind like we currently are thinking about AI. When firms like Spacemaker.AI (now Forma), Digital Bluefoam, TestFit, Arcol, and Snaptrude began their journey, it happened before the OpenAI explosion, and the public had no idea about such AI tools yet. But now that we are on the other side of this critical invention, what if someone built an AEC software ecosystem with agentic AI in its DNA from the ground up?

Newcomer (neoBIM), with its buildingOS system, is doing exactly that.

NeoBIM GmbH is a new German AEC software company aiming to reshape the industry with the industry’s first AI-native ground-up software ecosystem architecture. The company and its buildingOS system have several discrete tools so far, including a TestFit-like early-stage planning tool called Gen.

NeoBIM has a new AI-centric application system architecture for the complete building lifecycle, from early site test fits (shown above) to post-occupancy digital twins. The German software firm’s founder is Moritz Luck, who was co-founder and GEO of Enscape and is also the founding partner of SilverScale Capital. Their demonstrations at AIA26 were impressive, and so NeoBIM GmbH is definitely a company on our radar this year, and we look forward to learning more about what they are doing.

The post AIA26: AI and Automation Shine in San Diego—Some Highlights appeared first on Architosh.

Architosh BOS

This is our 12th year of judging what we saw at AIA as “BEST of SHOW.” These honors are aimed at directing our global readers’ attention to both interesting newcomer applications and critical trends that impact technology adoption. On this last note, the history of our selections for these honors is notable. Put another way, if our AIA BEST of SHOW were investment picks, Pete Evans and I would have done exceptionally well, financially.

MORE: AIA26: AI and Automation Shine in San Diego — Some Highlights

Just a few representative examples include Gehry Technologies’ GTeam (winner in 2013), which was later acquired by Trimble and is now Trimble Connect. Then there was IrisVR (winner in 2015), which merged with The Wild and was later acquired by Autodesk. We can say similar things about some smaller companies, which, perhaps not acquired (or recently acquired), have grown into powerhouse brands in AEC.

Honors and Prizes

For this year’s announcements, we are going to jump directly into the winners and write about our award categories, criteria, and thematic issues at the end of this article. We also always publish a “Perspectives” companion feature, but last year we switched that to a recorded discussion (video). Look for a forthcoming piece.

So let’s focus on the honorees. Without further ado.

Congratulations to the 2026 Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ honorees!

BEST of SHOW — EMERGENT TECHNOLOGY Category

Winner: SketchUp (w/ Claude integration)

Trimble SketchUp has long been the standard for easy conceptual modeling in the early stages of design. Contractors also gravitated to this platform as it offered rapid visualization, which could be used for 4D visualizations and project realization. “This year, SketchUp transforms its accessible capabilities into a built-in, real-time collaboration space for teams and clients, a cloud-connected, multi-user workflow focused on the middle of the project delivery,” says Pete Evans, AIA, senior associate editor, Architosh. “It builds on its legacy of ease-of-use with an in-app chatbot for workflow assistance that can also generate 3D objects from text prompts and images, and likewise generate photorealistic images from models and text prompts.” 

More radically, it also introduced its first (Trimble-based) MCP connector, the “SketchUp Connector for Claude,” to open AI workflows more widely to vibe modeling. Pete Evans, AIA, Architosh, notes, “This multi-pronged AI approach includes a built-in intelligent core, but complements that with open, interoperable workflows and ease-of-use that SketchUp has forever been famous for by opening up and staying at the forefront of AI capabilities.” This is on top of other new features now built into the core of SketchUp, like the Analysis Hub and Lab tools, with specialized extensions such as Daylight analysis, which provides daylight metrics, illuminance data, heatmaps, and “right-of-light” submission capabilities. Live components also added more parametric-like capabilities for more powerful modeling alongside powerful cloud collaboration as part of its 2026 release. “At the heart of our decision to place this in the emergent technology winner category is the agentic AI interface with Anthropic’s Claude,” adds Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “MCP and agentic AI workflows embedded into popular industry tools today are at the very heart of what is critically emergent in AEC tech in 2026.” 

Winner: Bluebeam Max

A mainstay in the AEC/O industry gained a new superpower thanks to agentic AI, coupled with both acquired and in-house-developed AI capabilities, in Bluebeam Max. “There are several different AI technologies in the Bluebeam Max product offering, but the Claude integration with the integral MCP server in Revu is the tech that has users exceptionally excited,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “Bluebeam Revu workflows in AEC are naturally highly repetitive, so Claude’s ability to automate these functions is a force multiplier in efficiencies. Moreover, the Smart Review AI features are already being used by GCs to find discrepancies in drawings within a day, which typically reveal themselves slowly over many weeks or months during the construction phase. As a result, it behooves AE professionals to deploy Bluebeam Max as part of their workflow prior to releasing drawings for bid or construction, so they find these errors first.”

Criteria Notes: The novelty of MCP with AI orchestrators like Anthropic’s Claude showcases a dramatic shift in how architects can work with existing desktop-era tools like SketchUp and Bluebeam, enabling users to experience a tremendous speed-up in software workflows. AI can request specific tools or data “on-the-fly” based on evolving tasks rather than operating on a pre-defined set of constraints. Claude powers both tools, revealing just the beginning of agentic AI’s capabilities. This speaks to our emergent technology award category at multiple levels, representing both convergence and a thematic change for practice. 

BEST of SHOW — INNOVATION Category

Winner: Kestrel Labs

“Kestrel Labs’ new compliance platform focused on building codes was one of AIA26 San Diego’s biggest highlights with respect to digital tools,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “While other AI code tools exist, Kestrel’s solution puts their compliance engine directly inside the design and documentation environment, whilst also having an intelligent web-based code analysis space for its users.”

An added unique feature of Kestrel’s strategy and implementation is the notion that your project’s “code work” moves with the project through different tools over different phases of the project’s lifecycle. While not all of this is available today, as Kestrel develops its solution for tools like SketchUp next and other BIMs, this unique feature will benefit its users. “Kestrel’s implementation is also particularly strong for a new application,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Architosh, “with a visually appealing GUI and brand identity that speaks to architects in a similar way that Monograph’s award-winning app does as well. “Every few years, maybe around every five, a brand new tool comes out that really has the ability to capture a critical beachhead—that Omaha Beach moment—where we just know a tool and its strategy is super strong and will have rapid success. We believe Kestrel is that,” adds Frausto-Robledo. 

Criteria Notes: Innovation winners often herald “new directions” in digital technologies often solving age-old pain points. Kestrel’s AI-powered compliance platform is a rather textbook example. The quality of attack on addressing code review in practice is particularly impressive, as is its implementation at version 1.0

BEST of SHOW — BIM Category

Winner: Arcol

Arcol short-circuited development by deeply connecting to Rhino3D instead of developing its own complex geometry engine. Today, this is a live feature in Arcol’s second year at the AIA conference. (Arcol won this award last year.) Arcol embeds live Rhino3D geometry in its modeling environment, where, if changed (remotely), it is continuously updated as native Arcol geometry within the data-rich collaborative web environment. Pete Evans, AIA, Architosh says, “Adding Rhino as a live, two-way directional bridge allows a new, very strong accelerator to data-rich modeling form that is unlimited.” Another distinct area of acceleration is in its tables and boards for team members beyond presentation. Specific data tables can be “soft time-stamped” to hold a state for a specific view, but they can be updated while still connected to the underlying project data.

This provides a contractor, for instance, with a more static view of a table that doesn’t dynamically change with model updates. This table can then be updated, but this clear communication shifts from static versioning and archiving, as in today’s practice, to an Arcol project that contains a live, data-rich core and narrative from start to end for continuous updates and shared decision-making. “We also like how Arcol, as both a company and a BIM 2.0 application, is gaining traction in the market with large general contractors and real estate developers,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA, “as this indexes Arcol’s stated goal of creating a BIM 2.0 application for the entirety of the industry and not just architects.” Finally, the company’s goal for agentic AI “agents” operating with IP knowledge from various industry leaders working alongside human designers is a compelling future vision. “This future aspect of the app isn’t factored into our award decision,” adds Pete Evans, AIA, “but it sharpens our watch on what we believe is the market forerunner on BIM 2.0 outside of Autodesk’s own similar tools.”

Criteria Notes:  While the BIM category winner can be new or old, Arcol (as a 2nd-year “Best of Show” winner) continues to rapidly expand its BIM capabilities and attack multiple pain points with its novel approach, and underpins that power with a full embrace of future agentic BIM (see notes below). Critically, this release includes Arcol’s ability to solve a critical pain point in advanced modeling integration with Rhino 3D, plus its worksheet functionality (bi-directional linking to Excel files like xRefs) to address the needs of large GCs (and we know of several as early customers), addressing longstanding cost-control issues in the AEC industry, by bringing these cost management functions up to the front of the process. 

The ability to corral multiple AI agents for its early-phase design includes costing, zoning, and structural agents, with a perspective that builds on the core real-time collaborative nature of Arcol. “Intelligent by default” positions Agentic BIM as a massive shift in the Macleamy curve itself, enabling a collaborative jumpstart with buildable information in a radically shorter timeframe.

BEST of SHOW —  CLOUD Category

Winner: Morpholio Trace

“Morpholio Trace has always been a special tool in the AEC universe,” says Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Founder and Editor-in-Chief, Architosh. “But a tight integration with this particular BIM authoring tool (Vectorworks) seems like the perfect match-up that will yield special advantages for both Vectorworks users and established Morpholio users.” While the sister brand Vectorworks acquired Morpholio, we don’t see Morpholio staying connected only to Vectorworks in the long term. “In addition to bringing the sketching-thinking process closer to an advanced BIM tool—where there are so many layers of interaction opportunities—Morpholio can serve as the ultimate first step to sketch-to AI-rendering and animation,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA.

Strategically, Morpholio Trace is a significant net benefit to the entire Nemetschek Group because sketch-to-AI visualization workflows are currently the highest accelerators in the industry. “Nothing in AEC is currently moving faster than AI-based rendering, and nothing is better to steer and control this kind of AI rendering than using a pen and digital paper,” says Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “Given that Nemetschek also owns Maxon with its rekindled interest in archviz, the next steps for where to take Morpholio Trace seem super obvious to me.”

Criteria Notes: Cloud-first and mobile-first solutions are those that drive at full utilization and maturing cloud-to-mobile or cloud-to-web tech stacks. Morpholio, with its new integrations with Vectorworks’s hybrid CAD/BIM environment, seems like it has found its ultimate dance partner. Morpholio Trace is strategically positioned to converge with AI visualization, and its underlying sketching environment is poised to drive such workflows. In the meantime, Morpholio Trace has so much to offer to the sketch-to-BIM concept at Vectorworks. 

BEST of SHOW —  VISUALIZATION Category

Winner: Chaos Veras

Chaos Veras 4.0 introduced a new AI rendering engine powered by Google’s Nano Banana Pro, which improved geometry fidelity, material realism, and lighting accuracy. Accuracy improvements were alongside reduced image artifacting and “AI hallucinations.” This creates better control and precision for both image generation from reference sketches or prompts, but also using a model as the underlying design to create more valid visual results. New capabilities also introduced 2D to 3D visualization with floor plans to generate spatial renderings and the ability to construct multiple perspectives from an initial view, without rebuilding geometry. Animation is also a new capability from a static image while controlling camera motion, animated entourage such as cars and people, time of day, and different weather conditions. Pete Evans, AIA, noted, “Veras is a whole new level of storytelling that invites more technically-based architects as well as non-technical designers, such as an office principal, to a new, rapid visual idea layer for interactive project visualization.

Veras radically reduces the need for a technically accurate, time-consuming 3D model during early-stage ideation. This frees up valuable resources for creative visual iteration and communication.” “The time-savings and yield advantages of AI rendering tools like Veras are major force multipliers in practice,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “While there are numerous options in the market, we see future advantages of Veras being a part of Chaos beyond just its integration with all of Chaos’ tools.”

Criteria Notes: Chaos continues to challenge and transform the way architects approach the visual landscape of architectural visualization. The release of Veras 4.0 this year presented significant and compelling materials for seeing architecture in unprecedented ways. This tool’s advancement easily meets the criteria for this category (see below), especially in implementation quality and the acceleration of solution quality. 

BEST of SHOW — The Economics Prize

Winner:  Chaos Veras

The Economics Prize is awarded to solutions that reflect substantial process improvements even through “creative destruction.” Chaos Veras is a leading mature AI visualization tool in the industry, Uber-izing a known process: photo-realistic 3D renderings and animations. “While Veras is a worthy winner of the Economics prize for the sheer speed-up of its abilities to produce useful visuals deployable to different purposes in the design communication process, it is also disruptive to established archviz professionals who have painstakingly developed advanced visualization and animation skillsets,” says Anthony Frausto-Robledo, AIA, Architosh. Architects today are finding Veras a force multiplier for securing client buy-in and for design exploration prior to it. “It’s not hard to see why Veras, and tools like it, are so incredibly popular,” adds Frausto-Robledo, AIA. “They accelerate both sides of the visualization coin: the part that helps us design as architects and the part that helps us sell our ideas to our clients.” 

Criteria Notes: Veras delivers sizable process improvements to a common industry deliverable: photorealistic renderings. The “Uber-ization” part of our comments relates to the accessibility of what Veras produces and the three-point superiority factors: cost, speed, and quality. The cost of final images is multiple times lower; the output speed (via the process) is multiple times faster than traditional rendering; and the quality is solid and fit for purpose.

Award Categories and Criteria

Our award categories are designed to be broad and flexible, enabling us to honorably note a product across multiple categories if warranted.

• Emergent Technology (emTech) Category Award — acknowledges industry potential for novel or bleeding-edge technology implementations that will offer “thematic” change for practice or create convergent technology paths and drive synergistic directions for the industry.
• Innovation Category Award — acknowledges the “most promising” companies and products that are heralding innovative “new directions” in AEC software or hardware technologies, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing “pain points” in practice, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
• BIM Category Award — acknowledges both new or mature companies and products serving the “BIM workflow” industry transformation, touching down at any segment of the MacLeamy Curve where value gets added, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing “pain points” in BIM workflows, (d) adoption, extension and commitment to Open BIM philosophies so that data and toolchains are social and democratized to their fullest extent, and (e) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
• Cloud Category Award  — acknowledges technology solutions (software or hardware) driving at full utilization of synergistic and maturing “cloud-to-mobile,” “mobile-to-cloud,” and “cloud-to-web” technology stacks, exhibited or seen at the AIA convention, as measured by: (a) implementation quality and novelty, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, (c) quality of attack on addressing pain-points in AEC, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and driving at synergistic directions for the industry.
• Visualization Category Award  — acknowledges the “most compelling visualization solutions” and technologies that are “transforming the architect’s workflow,” heralding new ways of seeing architecture for all stakeholders and not just clients, accelerating design optioneering, material, and light discovery, design problem solving, and design collaboration, as measured by: (a) implementation quality, (b) acceleration of quality of solution, including rendering speeds and image qualities, (c) quality of attack at addressing “pain points” in practice, and (d) fitting convergent technology paths and addressing synergist directions in the industry.
• The Economics Prize — reflecting an important shift within the architectural industry to acknowledge the extent of poor economics for architects and a newfound demand for better working conditions and pay, the Economics Prize is awarded to digital technology that shines in the direction of better economics for architects, as measured by: (a) sizeable process improvements to common industry deliverables via creative disruption (ie, Uber-ize a known process), (b) notable value disruption by a vendor via license cost comparison without “bundling,” (c) notable outsized release update delivering exceptional value increase for users, and finally (d) performance capture due to innovative, leading-edge software or hardware solutions.  

Congratulations to the 2026 Architosh AIA ‘BEST of SHOW’ honorees listed below.

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Redshift for Revit

The distinguishing feature of Redshift is the quality of its raytracer technology, and bringing that to real-time BIM authoring solutions gives architects and designers another excellent choice for both real-time design visualization and final-render presentation visualization. Moreover, with a simple click, work in Redshift for Revit or Redshift for Archicad can send your scene forward to Maxon’s award-winning Cinema 4D DCC (digital content creation) software for more sophisticated animations and visuals.

Redshift for Archviz debuted in Vectorworks in March 2026, and Maxon intends to roll out its acclaimed Redshift technology across popular AEC modeling solutions as part of its growing AEC roadmap. Redshift for Graphisoft Archicad is now open for beta sign-ups; click here to learn more.

Maxon’s new AEC industry push continues with Redshift for Autodesk Revit and more. A beta version of Redshift for Graphisoft Archicad is also available.

“The world architects create is inherently three-dimensional, yet much of the industry still relies on workflows built around two-dimensional representations,” said David McGavran, CEO of Maxon. “With Redshift for Archviz, our goal is to make 3D design the new standard across architecture, engineering, and construction. Through enabling digital projects to be experienced as if they already exist in the real world, we’re giving architects and interior designers a more powerful way to communicate ideas, make decisions, and bring their visions to life.”

Redshift for Revit Details

Now available, Redshift for Autodesk Revit delivers physically accurate lighting, reflections, shadows, and materials while remaining highly interactive. Maxon is also introducing three new platform features for architectural visualization:

• Depth of Field enhances architectural renders by mimicking real-world camera effects in real time, helping designers guide visual focus and create more immersive client presentations.

• AI Context-Aware Library Search analyzes the current view and suggests suitable assets, helping users build richer, more detailed scenes with less manual searching.

• Maxon Plants Smart Transfer is designed to simplify the process of bringing high-quality vegetation assets into architectural scenes for more realistic environments and faster scene development.

Maxon says that for users on Apple Mac computers, Maxon Redshift leverages Apple’s new MetalFX technology for improved interactive frame rates and exceptional visual realism for macOS users.

”Architects and interior designers don’t think in floor plans. They think in light, materials, and how a space feels,” said Nicolas Burtnyk, EVP of Rendering at Maxon. “Redshift lets them shape all of that in real time, then see it at full photorealistic quality, iterating on and refining how a space looks and feels as they go.”

Maxon’s Ecosystem

Maxon’s Cinema 4D flagship application has long been a popular archviz application, particularly in DACH regions in Europe. Architosh has reviewed Cinema 4D in the past from the point of view of AEC visualization. And the solution is a stunning application for doing sophisticated animation work. As part of the Redshift Archviz solutions (Vectorworks, Revit, and Archicad), a single button pushes out the scene and its assets to Cinema 4D for more advanced still visuals and cinematic animation work.

To learn more and see the new Redshift for Autodesk Revit and Redshift for Graphisoft Archicad (beta), click on the appropriate links.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

There are subtle differences in some of the implementations of Redshift for Archviz, but for the most part, the same features are common whether you are on Revit, Vectorworks, or Archicad. In terms of visualization competition, the new Maxon offerings do add competitive pressure for real-time interactive rendering solutions in the market. Both Chaos and Maxon are up against Epic Games and its Twinmotion tie-in with Autodesk Revit, which is partially integrated. On a cost basis, Maxon is undercutting Chaos’ pricing with Enscape, but the Chaos ecosystem is much larger and more mature. Ultimately, cost shouldn’t be the deciding factor between either of these solutions, but rather their other advantages. 

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Kestrel raised USD 2.15 million in pre-seed financing from New Stack Ventures, FirstMile Ventures, Denver Ventures, and Avesta Fund.

Kestrel Labs

Kestrel Labs is the first software company to deliver this capability, bringing code compliance natively inside BIM workflows.

Key Takeaways

• Industry-first compliance platform built natively inside BIM authoring tool.
• Introduced first for Autodesk Revit, with SketchUp support coming soon. There is also live Trimble Connect integration
• Compliance analysis is also supplemented with an AI building code assistant available directly inside the plugin palette in Revit or in the web browser

This will give architecture teams the ability to check design elements against jurisdiction-specific code requirements directly inside Revit before drawings reach plan review stages.

Kestrel Labs, shown inside Autodesk Revit, is the AEC industry’s first native BIM compliance platform. With Kestrel, architects can bring building code analysis directly into the BIM authoring environment, where Kestrel’s unique technology works with the data and geometry in the BIM file to discover and instruct on code compliance issues.

Based on data from the Construction Industry Institute, the cost to fix a compliance issue multiplies tenfold at each successive project phase. So what might cost an hour to fix during design can multiply to a week’s worth of time after construction begins. For decades, architects have been navigating a compounding problem, and as senior architects with decades of tacit knowledge about building codes begin to retire, the knowledge transfer that used to happen on the job is beginning to disappear at exactly the same time compliance paths are increasing in complexity.

The Kestrel Platform

The Kestrel Compliance Platform consists of multiple components at this initial launch, including:

• Kestrel Compliance Analysis — One click inside Revit runs a full compliance check in about 30 seconds, with every result tied to the specific model element in question and cited to the exact code section.
• Kestrel Compliance Chat — A built-in AI building code assistant and thought partner that answers project-specific compliance questions in plain language, cited to the exact code section. This AI building code chat assistant is available in both the Revit Kestrel panel and in the web browser.
• Kestrel Portal — A web-based compliance dashboard for project managers and firm leadership with no BIM file required.

Marian Pulford, co-founder and CEO, Kestrel Labs has told Architosh:

“New hires are billable from week one now,” adds Micah Gray, AIA, Director of Technology and Innovation. “There is little runway to sit with a senior architect and transfer twenty years of code knowledge. Kestrel changes that equation. The code is in the model, visible to everyone, and it does not depend on who is in the room. That is not a small thing for a firm that is trying to grow.”

Deep Investor Positivity

“Construction is one of those industries where everyone knows the problem, and nobody has built the infrastructure to fix it,” says Nick Moran, General Partner, New Stack Ventures. “Kestrel came to us with deep domain knowledge, a product already running inside the tools architects use every day, and a data foundation that would take most companies years to assemble. That combination – inside the workflow, grounded in authoritative data, solving a problem the profession has accepted as unsolvable – is exactly what we look for.”

Kestrel Labs in action with the code violation window shown. As you work through the code issues list, Kestrel brings into view the specific BIM element in question.

“We invested in Kestrel because they understand what most AEC companies miss: compliance is not a feature. It is the foundation,” adds Aaron Stachel, Founding Partner, FirstMile Ventures. “Every permit delay, every round of rework, traces to building code issues in the design process. Kestrel fixes that from inside the BIM model. This is not a workflow improvement but a structural shift for the industry, and this team is built to lead that shift.”

Availability and Pricing

Architects can find Kestrel Labs’ solution inside the Autodesk Design & Make Marketplace, the Trimble Connect Marketplace, and soon with added SketchUp integration (coming soon).

Pricing works through a firm-wide annual license. There is no per-seat fees.

• No limits on users, projects, or compliance checks.
• Pricing reflects firm size, project complexity, and jurisdictional scope.
• Charter customers receive preferred pricing and input on the jurisdictional roadmap.

On that last point, Kestrel’s compliance platform intends to expand beyond North America to address code compliance for architects worldwide. In an upcoming Architosh interview feature, both co-founders discuss in detail how Kestrel Labs began, how the origin of its co-founders impacted the solutions they are bringing to market, what core technologies are at play, and numerous other details about Kestrel’s direction moving forward. So look for that upcoming interview feature soon!

To visit Kestrel Labs, go here now.

About Kestrel Labs

Kestrel Labs, located in Denver, Colorado, is the first AI-powered building code compliance platform built natively inside BIM and the first structured compliance data layer for the built environment.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

This is a technology that should have been embedded in BIM authoring tools years ago, so we are excited to see Kestrel Labs tackle this age-old problem of code compliance and code-checking. Most large architectural offices either have a dedicated code specialist or regularly consult with a code specialist consultant, and there are many around. However, working with code consultants is a different kind of workflow and has limitations. What Kestrel is doing is democratizing code compliance knowledge, which is especially meaningful as we enter the crest of the Baby Boomers wave as they retire over the next decade. When they leave, so does decades of hard-earned tacit knowledge (know-how) about how code compliance works in architecture. Kestrel Labs has arrived just in time for the world of architecture.

The post AIA26: Kestrel Labs — Native BIM Compliance Platform appeared first on Architosh.

Sketch-to-BIM

This integration comes with Vectorworks 2026 Update 5 and connects iPad sketching directly to Vectorworks.

Key Takeaways

• New Export to Morpholio Trace command — sends selected, scale-accurate sheets or viewports from Vectorworks via the cloud to a dedicated Vectorworks folder in Trace on their iPad.
• New Import from Morpholio Trace command — brings sketches from Trace back into Vectorworks files as images or vector-based linework, streamlining tracing to CAD/BIM workflows.

Architects today still begin design processes with hand sketching, and many use tablet-based software products like Morpholio Trace. The Apple Design Award-winning iPad app has been labeled “dream software for architects,” and combines the power of Apple Pencil technology with the incredible processing power of the Apple iPad.

Vectorworks 2026 now has full integration with Apple award-winning app Morpholio Trace.

From initial concepts and design details to construction administration stage markups, Morpholio Trace delivers intelligent workflows for architects using the power of immediate hand to sketch workflows.

MORE: Vectorworks acquires popular Morpholio—Leading Mobile Design App

The new Trace integration with Vectorworks reflects a market-proven fact that drawing, tracing, and sketching remain central to how designers think, explore, and communicate ideas. Through the connection with Vectorworks on desktop, designers can move between various workflow scenarios and personas, from the immediacy of hand sketching to the intelligence of their BIM and CAD models.

“With this integration, we’re bringing the power of sketching and the precision of BIM closer together than ever before,” said Vectorworks Product Planner Iskra Nikolova. “Drawings and sketches now move seamlessly in both directions through Vectorworks Cloud Services. Designers can start in Vectorworks and then sketch in Trace, or begin in Trace and bring those ideas back into Vectorworks, enabling a fluid, flexible creative process without extra steps or friction. The release of this integration in Vectorworks 2026 Update 5 marks another milestone in our commitment to connected, mobile-friendly workflows that honor the craft of design.”

Getting Features

This new integration comes with Vectorworks 2026 Update 5, available now. This update is now accessible for all currently released English-language versions of Vectorworks 2026 through subscription and Vectorworks Service Select customers. Vectorworks users can install by selecting “Check for Updates from the Vectorworks menu (Mac) or Help menu (Windows).

To explore the new Morpholio Trace integration and all the latest features, start a free 7-day trial of Vectorworks Design Suite and download Morpholio Trace for iPad and iPhone in the Apple App Store.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Morpholio Trace works with more applications than just Vectorworks, as it can ingest 3D models created in various applications, from BIM to professional 3D modelers. Usually, you export your model out to a (.USDZ) or (.OBJ) file format to bring into Trace. Of course, the Vectorworks integration is even smoother than this, and it’s automated in the cloud. 

Beyond Morpholio Trace, Morpholio Journal is another sister app for simply having a digital sketchbook. It features amazing pens and brushes, and you can also write in it. Then there is BoardPro, a mood board application. ELLE Décore magazine called it “addictive” and awarded it “Best Apps” for interior design, home decor, and interior architecture. This particular app is interesting because Vectorworks, as a company, has toyed with the idea of an industry vertical version of Vectorworks for interior professionals. Currently, interior professionals buy Vectorworks Architect or Vectorworks Design Suite to use as their CAD-BIM environment, but we could see an evolution in which both Vectorworks and this suite of apps (especially BoardPro) develop into a consolidated solution or package called Vectorworks Interiors. 

The advantage Vectorworks has created through its industry vertical solutions is the delivery of a tailor-made solution for a particular type of AEC/O professional. Architosh has written about this in the past in some detail: the one-size-fits-all approach will eventually lose out to highly focused, more pointed, and specialized solutions. We don’t know for certain if that is where the company will go next, but the acquisition of Morpholio Trace offers interesting suggestions. 

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Importantly, Newforma announced a simplified, modular user-based software licensing model, which will help firms better align purchases with role-specific needs.

Newforma and AI

Artificial intelligence (AI) was front and center at Newforma World 2026, the company’s annual user conference. So was updating and modernizing the company’s product offerings.

Newforma announces its broad strategic visions for the AEC/O global industry.

Key new announcements include:

• Newforma Vojo — the company’s new AI assistant, built on an agent-driven framework that lets users search project information, analyze content, and complete tasks more efficiently. Initial capabilities include natural-language search across project data, AI-driven analysis of BIM models and documents, and AI-assisted submittal review workflows.
• Hybrid Modernization — continued investment in hybrid modernization with Newforma Project Center, a reflection of its strategic vision, helping with a seamless transition to the cloud, cloud-connected environments, and more.
• Newforma FedRAMP Moderate — new initiative to address ongoing work toward advanced compliance requirements.

At Newforma World 2026, the message was about flexibility towards the cloud, combining Newforma’s AI-driven automation and support of open integrations, and reinforced a “cloud-first, not cloud-forced” approach that supports customers wherever they are in their modernization journey.

Customers choose when and how they modernize. We decided not to be cloud-only, and it’s by design,” said Carl Veillette, Chief Product Officer at Newforma. “Everything we build must either lower risk, save time, or unlock scale.”

MORE: Newforma accelerates AI innovation and AWS expansion

The AI agent Vojo is embedding intelligence directly into project workflows, such as Smart Email Filing, an AI-powered capability that automatically associates emails with projects and recommends filing locations for RFIs, submittals, and action items, which aids firms in maintaining a more defensible project record.

These capabilities are supported by the company’s collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing secure and scalable infrastructure for advanced AI innovation.

“AI is only as powerful as the data it’s built on,” said Ben Schreiner, Head of AI and Modern Data Strategy Business Development at Amazon Web Services. “Newforma’s approach combines secure, scalable AWS infrastructure with an agent-driven AI framework to help AECO teams surface insights, reduce manual effort, and make more confident decisions, and we’re thrilled to be partnering with Newforma.”

To learn more about Newforma’s latest announcements, go here.

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DACH Region

The news reflects the company’s interest in establishing a stronger European hub that builds on ComputerWorks’ market expertise, technical support structure, and sales channel developed over decades of service to German-speaking architects and designers. The acquisition is expected to be completed by 4 May 2026.

As part of the deal, ComputerWorks in Germany will be renamed Vectorworks Germany GmbH. ComputerWorks AG will spin off its CAD division to establish Vectorworks Switzerland AG, while the remaining business will continue as ComputerWorks AG.

Vectorworks has new corporate offices in Germany and Switzerland, acquiring its DACH region distributor, ComputerWorks AG’s CAD division. 

“For many years, ComputerWorks has represented Vectorworks to thousands of designers and planners in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland,” said Vectorworks CEO Jason Pletcher. “By bringing ComputerWorks into the Vectorworks family, we are not only expanding our presence in these specific countries, but also combining the strength of a global product organization with the expertise of trusted local professionals. This will enable us to help our customers move faster, collaborate more effectively, and deliver superior designs.”

German Language Market Needs

ComputerWorks AG has long localized Vectorworks products for the German language markets, tailoring the product line and offering complementary solutions to meet regional needs for the architecture, interiors, landscape, and entertainment industries.

“Designers in the DACH region face complex projects, demanding clients, and evolving regulations. They need partners who understand both the local context and global tools,” said Alexander Meier, CEO of Vectorworks Germany. “Becoming part of Vectorworks enables our team to bring our deep understanding of customer needs across all disciplines directly to the people building the software. Together, we can shape features, content, and services that reflect how our customers work today and where they want to go tomorrow.”

“With more than 30 years of development experience, we know that true innovation begins with a deep understanding of local needs and workflows,” said Andreas Hängärtner, CEO of Vectorworks Switzerland. “When that local insight is amplified through international collaboration and presented on a global stage, it creates new opportunities for our users to design with greater confidence and impact.”

German and Swiss Offices

The Vectorworks Germany office is located in Lörrach, Germany, and the Vectorworks Switzerland office is located in Basel, Switzerland. Vectorworks’s parent company, the Nemetschek Group, is headquartered in Munich, Germany, in the Nemetschek Haus, a large office complex that also houses several of its key brands, including Allplan and Bluebeam’s European offices.

Global Presence

Vectorwork, Inc., is an award-winning design and BIM software provider serving the entire AEC industry and the related entertainment design industry in 85 countries around the world. It is headquartered in Maryland, United States, with key offices in Newbury, England; Sydney, Australia; Vancouver, Canada; and Japan.

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This year, Nirva Fereshetian (CIO of CBT Architects) and Niknaz Aftahi, CEO of aec+tech, will be hosting a similar event at the beautiful Carrier Johnson + Culture office in downtown San Diego during the AIA National Conference on Architecture & Design, the United States’ premier annual conference and exhibition for the architectural industry.

‘archi+tech’ Social Night

The evening event is a mixture of a social get-together with short presentations by technology providers and leaders in the global AEC industry. But largely, it’s a social event where attendees can have real conversations with members of the digital tech community in attendance.

A kind of class picture from last year’s first-ever ‘archi+tech’ Social Night at AIA National in Boston 2025. The event had sponsors from numerous AEC digital technology providers, including the industry’s largest companies.

Carrier Johnson + Culture is a larger architecture and planning firm in San Diego (with offices in Los Angeles and Seattle) with an award-winning portfolio spanning project types. They have graciously offered to host the event in their San Diego office.

Event Details

‘archi+tech’ Social Night will take place at 5:30 pm, Friday, 12 June 2026 (register here), during the week of the AIA Conference in San Diego. This year, the event is focusing on “innovation” and bringing together people who are actually shaping how technology is used in the architecture and AEC industry.

Nirva and Niknaz are curating a group of around 100 to 120 people at the intersection of design and technology, including:

• Architects and firm leaders
• CIOs, CTOs, and innovation directors
• BIM and design technology leaders
• AEC technology founders, investors, and accelerator teams

What is special about this event is the intimacy of the room and the opportunity to showcase the host firm’s location as a bit of an exhibition of their technological prowess. Last year, CBT Architects displayed a stunning set of digital solutions, specialty technology spaces, model shops, and interactive technology tools to give attendees a sense of what practice is like at a tech-forward large firm.

Registration

If you are attending AIA San Diego in early June and would like to attend this event, please register here: https://luma.com/dfmu0kut

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V-Ray 7 Update 3

“By bringing real-time ray tracing directly into the V-Ray viewport, artists can iterate faster while maintaining the quality that V-Ray is known for, all within a single, unified workflow,” said Vlado Koylazov, Head of Innovation at Chaos.

Key Takeways

• Final-frame-quality real-time rendering is now possible in V-Ray Viewport for those with a Vantage account
• V-Ray 7 update 3 is now out for Rhino and SketchUp, with 3ds Max coming soon
• AI Mood Match technology brings the atmosphere from a reference photo into your render

Real-time ray tracing technology in Chaos Vantage transforms how archviz teams work because it is able to handle complex lighting, large scenes, and large-scale geometry without slowdown. Now, V-Ray 7 users with a Vantage license can tap the power of real-time rendering without leaving the V-Ray workflow.

Parallax Interiors is the software that uses interior shaders from Cosmos. The effect holds from any camera angle and can be varied across a facade to avoid repetition, bringing convincing life to every window, especially during night scenes.

While real-time final-quality ray tracing rendering is a powerful update, Update 3 has eleven other great new features we discuss below, including impactful new AI capabilities.

New Features

There are multiple new features beyond the new capability to tap into Chaos Vantage technology directly in V-Ray 7. These include a new Gaussian splats relighting, Quick Caustics, Chaos Cloud Reviews, new Cosmos Sets, and New Assets.

AI Mood Match technology will be a hit with users who can use a reference photo and have AI match the lighting and atmospheric mood of the image and implement that in the rendered scene.

Moreover, there are multiple new AI tools that bring the power of AI deeper into the production process. An important one is the new AI Mood Match feature. Now, a user can use a reference photo to automatically align a scene’s lighting with the image’s look and atmosphere, reducing manual setup and achieving desired outcomes faster. Other AI features include the ability to AI-generate materials at 4K resolution for eye-popping renders.

Other features include in summary:

• Parallax Interiors — Architects can now add realistic interior depth and lighting to exterior renders without modeling or heavy geometry. Using parallax interior shaders from Cosmos, the effect holds from any camera angle and can be varied across a façade to avoid repetition, bringing convincing life to every window, especially in night scenes.
• Node Material Editor (V-Ray for SketchUp and Rhino) — Users can now build and adjust V-Ray materials visually using a node-based editor, making it easier to understand material logic and create complex shaders with greater control. The node editing workflow offers a more intuitive and visual alternative to traditional material creation and editing. The tool is now available as a preview, with more possibilities to come in future releases.
• AI Enhancer: Large Surfaces Coverage — Architects can add more realistic details to large surfaces, such as floors, walls, asphalt, and terrain, adding natural variation at the correct scale without manual re-texturing.
• AI Enhancer: Improved Accuracy and Single Object Creative Enhancement — Users can achieve more precise results across the board, with new support for applying creative enhancement to individual objects.
• Video Collaboration — Chaos Cloud becomes a professional-grade video review platform for animations and render sequences, with precise commenting tied to timestamps, ranges, and visual annotations.
• Cosmos Sets and New Assets — Cosmos sets provide a fast and simplified way to populate scenes with grouped assets that naturally work together. This update adds 700+ new Cosmos assets, including 400 high-poly Globe Plant models and new branded models.

To learn more and explore what’s new, visit the V-Ray Collection page on chaos.com. Or watch the video below:

Pricing and Availability

Launching first on V-Ray for SketchUp and Rhino, real-time rendering in the V-Ray viewport is available to users with an active Chaos Vantage or V-Ray Collection license. AI Mood Match and real-time rendering in the V-Ray viewport are expected to be introduced to V-Ray for 3ds Max.

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Update 4

This is the fourth major update to the Vectoworks 2026 product line, and it expands on capabilities that architects, interior designers, and other creative professionals are looking for, including enhanced data-driven design workflows.

Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks is a plugin for the BIM software adding real-time, photo-realistic, GPU-accelerated raytracing to Vectorworks workflows.

“Vectorworks 2026 Update 4 reflects our ongoing commitment to empowering designers with smarter, more efficient tools,” said Vectorworks Vice President of Product Development Hugues Tsafak. “From the first iteration of phasing, supporting various project types and sizes, to enhanced sustainability dashboards and Maxon Redshift for Archviz, this release leverages our strength in data management to help designers plan, document, and visualize projects more accurately and sustainably. We remain committed to evolving these tools to meet the growing demands of modern design.”

Details

Already covered in some detail in this report on Maxon, new in Update 4 is support for Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks, bringing next-generation visualization rendering features to the popular design and BIM software platform. Vectorworks is the first of the four major BIM platforms (Revit, Archicad, Vectorworks, and Bentley), used by architects worldwide, to leverage a direct integration with Maxon’s Hollywood-level Redshift rendering technology. As Redshift is available as a standalone product from Maxon, those with existing Redshift licenses can now access the integration directly from inside Vectorworks 2026, Update 4.

MORE: Maxon Enters AEC with Real-Time Rendering

Unlike export-based rendering workflows, the Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks plugin maintains a live synchronization between your Vectorworks main window and your Redshift rendering window. Geometry, lighting, cameras, and scene elements remain aligned between both environments.

Update 4 also introduces new renovation and multi-phase workflows technology. Now, a time-based dimension is embedded directly into your BIM model, assigning defined status conditions. With data visualization integration, Vectorworks 2026’s new phasing status capabilities can now control object visibility and graphic representations.

Other improvements included below in highlight format include:

• Updated Vectorworks Embodied Carbon Calculator (VECC)
• Improved Class and Layer search for AEC professionals
• Linear Material tool now includes world-based parameters for stucco and plaster
• Hedgerow tool is now fully integrated into the Styled Landscape Area object
• Refinement in Spotlight numbering device management tools for Entertainment Industry professionals using Vectorworks Spotlight 2026.
• New Cable tool insertion modes for enhanced efficiency

This update is now available for all currently released English-language versions of Vectorworks 2026 and is immediately accessible to subscription and Vectorworks Service Select customers. To install, select “Check for Updates” from the Vectorworks menu (Mac) or the Help menu (Windows).

Redshift Availability

Maxon Redshift for Vectorworks, which powers the new live rendering integration in Update 4, is available as a standalone product from Maxon and can be purchased either through Vectorworks or Maxon. To use Redshift for Vectorworks, customers must create a Maxon account and purchase a Redshift subscription.

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Real-Time Redshift

Starting with sister company Vectorworks, Maxon has launched Redshift for Vectorworks, the German company’s first real-time archviz solution. Alongside this release, Redshift for Revit is also announced as an official beta launch. (There are open sign-ups here.)

Maxon Redshift is now available for Vectorworks, offering an industry competitive real-time to final render pipeline solution.

Graphisoft’s Archicad will get its real-time Redshift for Archicad later in 2026. In all cases, the new real-time Redshift solutions for architectural design tools mark a major milestone for Maxon, which has always served high-end architectural visualization users with its famed Cinema 4D solution. The new Redshift real-time technology embeds its features directly into the host design applications.

“Maxon’s tools have a rich history in media and entertainment, used by the creative teams behind so many popular Hollywood movies to create Oscar-winning visual effects,” said Nicolas Burtnyk, Maxon’s Executive VP Rendering. “Now, we’re bringing this same magic to architects and interior designers, helping them translate their vision into cinematic visual experiences worthy of big screens.”

Solution Details

Engineered for architects and interior designers, Maxon is bringing its award-winning Redshift rendering technologies straight into the AEC industry’s globally leading BIM and design solutions, beginning with global BIM/CAD solution Vectorworks.

An example of Maxon Redshift’s rendering quality.

Redshift for Vectorworks launches alongside the release of Vectorworks 2026 Update 4. The solution allows users to smoothly move from real-time design previews to high-end, photorealistic renders all within the same unified ecosystem. Redshift for Revit (now in beta) and Redshift for Archicad will be released later in 2026, with further launches planned for 2027.

Technicals include:

• Archviz in real-time — Architects can visualize designs instantly in real time, then elevate scenes using the same Redshift technology used in feature films – without leaving their CAD environment. Projects can be sent to Cinema 4D with a single click for advanced modeling, animation, simulation, fly-throughs, and rendering.

• Exceptional ease of adoption — Early user testing highlights a key priority: effortless setup, intuitive controls, and fast results, especially for iterative workflows where architects need to explore lighting, materials, and composition quickly.

• Intelligent, production-ready asset libraries — Maxon’s platform includes a vast library of assets known as “Capsules” – materials, plants, furniture, and environmental elements – updated monthly and supported by procedural tools and AI-assisted search for rapid scene building and creative iteration. As the Archviz solution evolves, so will its library.

• Full Mac and Windows parity — Whether teams work on Mac, Windows, or a mix of both, Maxon’s AEC solution delivers consistent performance and functionality across platforms. Architects can collaborate fluidly, share files with confidence, and maintain unified workflows throughout their design-to-visualization process.

• Better value for architects and studios — Compared with market alternatives, Maxon’s first-wave AEC offering launches at a significantly more affordable price, while offering compatibility with broader DCC pipelines, including Maya and Houdini.

Maxon will be showcasing this new Redshift product line at upcoming architecture and AEC events, including the DigitalBAU (24-26 Mar 2026) and AIA26 Conference on Architecture and Design (10-13 Jun 2026), in San Diego, California.

Availability and Cost

Redshift for Vectorworks is available now for purchase through either Maxon or Vectorworks (initially only in English language, with additional language support coming soon). When bundled with Vectorworks, users can benefit from significant discounts, making it the most affordable renderer in its category.

Redshift for Revit Beta Sign Up

For readers who are Revit users and want to sign up to test out the beta, visit here.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Maxon’s Redshift renderer is a GPU-accelerated raytracing system and provides real-time raytracing. The more powerful your GPU, the faster and smoother the UX. Like several of its chief real-time rendering competitors, Redshift for Archviz—which will ship as an annual subscription and include all integration plugins—works as a plugin in a host application and brings up a second dedicated Redshift rendered window from which a side-by-side view is shown. When you rotate your building model in, say, Vectorworks, the building rotates in synch in the Redshift window. 

The visual results shift as you move around in the environment. When you stop the rendering, it up-scales in quality. We are curious how fast Redshift may be on the latest M5 Pro and M5 Max chips since they have much more powerful GPU cores with a neural accelerator in each core. We hope to speak to Maxon executives soon to learn more details about this new offering. So far, the demo results look compelling, but the market is crowded with excellent solutions. One thing we did notice is that Redshift for Archviz is priced quite low at just USD 289.00 per year. That is a compelling offer. 

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Collaboration

The nature of the collaboration highlights Trimble’s trusted thought leadership in AEC, and this will manifest in opportunities to contribute to architecture and design continuing education programs, event panels, research, and knowledge community engagement. AIA members also benefit from this collaboration in that they gain technical expertise, professional development, and specifically learn how to bring vision to life using Trimble’s leading 3D design software under the SketchUp brand.

Trimble’s new SketchUp AI offers new tools.

“United by a shared vision for the future of the built environment, we’re excited about the opportunities this relationship will shepherd,” said Andrew Flank, Senior Vice President of Sales, Events & Exhibitions at AIA. “Strategic partners help fund key initiatives, empowering AIA to provide valuable resources to members while upholding independence and mission alignment.”

MORE: Trimble Launches SketchUp AI—New AI-Powered Modeling

“We are committed to helping architects move their digital designs from concept to reality,” said Chris Cronin, VP & GM of Architecture, Design, and Education at Trimble. “Teaming up with AIA creates meaningful intersections between technology and practice, empowering architects to design with greater confidence, iterate faster, and deliver more resilient, high-impact outcomes for their clients and communities.”

Trimble SketchUp

Trimble provides a large range of software and digital solutions for the AEC/O industry, but SketchUp is the primary software tool that millions of architects and designers know and utilize in their creative processes.

Trimble notes, “as the creative anchor for Trimble’s mission to bridge the digital screen with the physical world, SketchUp has evolved from a standalone 3D modeling tool into a comprehensive and collaborative ecosystem.”

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New Capabilities

The updates add more than 20 new capabilities across lighting, scene population, AI materials, and more. Teams can now deliver and work within an uninterrupted workflow from ideation through review and approvals, within the Enscape design workflow.

Chaos has delivered major updates across over six products.

“Architects need to deliver more, faster, with less— while adapting to AI transformation,” said Petr Mitev, VP Product, Solutions for Designers. “Our end-to-end design and visualization workflow gives them integrated solutions that eliminate workflow friction from their first moments with Enscape to their final presentations, so they can focus on design instead of managing disconnected tools.”

Design Faster from the Start

Used throughout the architectural world, Enscape is one of the easiest ways to visualize CAD/BIM data in real time and is often most people’s entry point into the Chaos design ecosystem. Today, architects can take advantage of:

• Asset Brush Placement — Used for rapid scene population, 3D assets can now be painted into designs for refined creative control and instant visual feedback. Since assets are fully connected to the original BIM model, choices will remain consistent as projects evolve.
• Centralized Light Management — Users can now manage all of their light sources via a centralized list, removing the need for manual searches. Multiple presets can also be added to a single scene, making it easy to test, compare and refine lighting scenarios without duplicating views or breaking the workflow.
• AI Material Generator — Architects can now create custom 3D materials with real-world photos. High-resolution outputs not only support close-ups and final presentation deliverables, but encourage high-quality experimentation with finishes, surfaces and more — all without leaving the design environment.
• Consistent Assets from Design to Presentation — Assets placed in Enscape transfer cleanly into Envision, maintaining placement and quality across real-time and high-end workflows.
• Grass Visualization Improvements — More realistic grass rendering delivers denser, more natural-looking landscapes with better shading and detail.
• New Chaos Cosmos Assets — Over 1000 high-quality vegetation and branded assets – optimized for both real-time and high-end use cases – have been added to Enscape. These new assets are also designed to work seamlessly across Envision, Enscape and more.

There are also new AI-assisted ideation and design exploration features. Chaos says that AI is a rising star in AI-powered visualization and helps architects explore, ideate, and deliver moods and emotional imagery that propels projects forward through buy-in and approvals. Veras’ AI technologies work without breaking geometry or design intent.

New Cosmos assets are part of this round of updates. Over 1,000 high-quality vegetation and branded 3D assets have been added to Enscape.

Major updates include:

• Render Engine 7 — The recently released Veras 4 now comes with a new AI rendering engine powered by Google’s Nano Banana Pro. The new engine delivers cleaner, higher-fidelity images with fewer artifacts, so architects can cycle through faster ideations while working with SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit.
• Image as Input — Designers can now generate concepts using reference images like photos, plans or sketches on a napkin, offering one of the fastest ways to visualize full scenes without a prompt.
• Gallery Mode — A grid-based, thumbnail view of past renders has been added, making it easier to compare variations over time.
• New Video Presets — Twelve video presets provide render-ready animation settings for smooth, photorealistic motion, balanced lighting, and various cinematic styles.

Of course, more than Enscape obtained new updates. Chaos Envision has also been updated with significant new capabilities. The higher-end standalone visualization software that only runs on Windows and uses its own rendering engine gains several features that will help architects visualize, animate, and produce fully interactive scenes with complex multi-element interactions, such as traffic and crowds. New features include:

• Live CAD Linking — Envision now includes live links to Revit, SketchUp, and Rhino, ensuring that all changes are reflected in the original CAD file.
• Cinematic Camera Movements —  Users can now create smooth, natural camera paths with refined motion control for more polished and intentional walkthroughs.
• Animation Smoothing — Improve the flow of animations with smoother transitions and better interpolation between keyframes.
• Advanced Light Controls — Refine and adjust lighting with greater precision to achieve more accurate mood and presentation quality.
• New HDRIs — 20+ New Chaos Cosmos HDRIs expand your environment options, making it faster to set up realistic lighting and contextual backdrops.

Chaos Cloud, the software firm’s cloud service, helps teams do more together through collaboration, design reviews, and cloud rendering. Added to this are now these new abilities:

• Centralized Reviews — Chaos Cloud now helps teams share, review, and improve designs directly in the cloud, removing the need for downloads or external tools.
• 3D Streaming — Architects can now stream scenes directly from Enscape, providing full fidelity reviews from any remote location.

These features will aid architects in getting faster approvals within their workflows.

Performance Insights

Chaos has been focused on helping architects meet sustainable design objectives for several years now through its Enscape Impact product line. Impact helps teams understand energy analysis early in the design process, when larger impact decisions come more easily and with less rollback on interrelated decisions. New additions include:

• Thermal Comfort Analysis — Architects can now determine if a building will hit the sweet spot between too hot or too cold for occupants, assessing everything from air temperature to humidity in moments.
• Performance Summaries — All performance reports can now be exported and shared amongst relevant stakeholders, ensuring sustainability goals are being hit before decisions become too costly.

All of these new tools and updates benefit Chaos workflows and will help architects communicate more effectively with end users and clients. Chaos says that while each tool is designed to carry out specific workflows, sometimes from end to end, the Bulgarian-originated software firm says users should consider mixing and matching products to fully leverage the technical leadership and features Chaos offers.

New ThermalComfort measures are added to the energy-facing analysis tools for Enscape Impact. Architects can now determine and visualize thermal comfort in their designs.

New architectural design offering updates will be released on a quarterly basis. Stay tuned to Chaos’ blog and social channels for sneak peeks.

Price and Availability

The ArchDesign Collection update is available now for users with an annual license. The collection includes Enscape, Veras, Envision, Chaos Cosmos, Chaos Cloud, and Enscape Impact, and all subsequent updates as long as the subscription lasts. For full pricing details, please visit the ArchDesign Collection pricing page.

About Chaos

Founded in 1997, Chaos provides world-class visualisation and design solutions that empower creative minds to bring ideas to life.

The company serves multiple industries, including architecture and design, media and entertainment, and product e-commerce, providing an ecosystem of accessible tools that support every stage of the design and creation process. Its innovative solutions help architects, designers, VFX artists/animators, and other creative professionals share ideas, optimize workflows, and create immersive experiences.

Headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, Chaos has offices in 11 cities worldwide. For more information, visit chaos.com.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Envision’s live links to SketchUp, Rhino, and Revit are a big deal and will be greatly appreciated by users of Envision and those dominant CAD/BIM platforms. The Thermal Comfort analysis with Enscape Impact is also a significant end-user benefit to architects to ensure that their designs offer thermally balanced and comfortable environments for owners and users. And finally, the Enscape streaming to Chaos Cloud is another boost for users to leverage the Chaos Cloud in their workflows. 

We have already written about Veras 4.0 with Nano Banana Pro and all that it can do. The big improvements there (and yet we have not tested this ourselves) are the engine’s better understanding of the architect’s intent, especially in holding to intentional geometry. All these updates continue to add value to architects’ workflows, and we suspect that most practices still lag in leveraging the full capabilities of Chaos’ software tools. The Architectural Design Collection (which includes Enscape, including both Veras, their AI tool, and Enscape and Enscape Impact, the latter two likely not being fully appreciated in the market) could help solve this problem by getting these tools into more users’ hands. 

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A Direct Presence

By acquiring these distributor companies, Graphisoft gains the assets it needs to operate directly in the region, serving its customers in two critical BIM markets, whilst also delivering direct customer support as the company rolls out an expanded product line.

“By welcoming our Australian and New Zealand distributors into the Graphisoft family, we accelerate growth, strengthen customer relationships, and deepen our long-term commitment to both markets,” said Daniel Csillag, CEO, Graphisoft. “The Central Innovation team brings over 30 years of market expertise, strong customer relationships, and deep insight into user expectations, further enriching our global experience and strengthening our presence in the Pacific region,” Csillag added.

Graphisoft acquires its Australian and New Zealand distributors. See our Analysis section below for more info.

“We’re proud of the progress we’ve made in expanding BIM adoption across Australia and New Zealand, and we’re confident our customers will benefit significantly from Graphisoft’s hands-on approach to support and services, as well as its long-term vision for the AEC industry,” said Shannon Reshno, COO, Central Innovation.

Continuity

Graphisoft’s customers in Australia and New Zealand will continue to work with the same teams they already know and trust, and these organizations become part of Graphisoft’s global organization.

For more information, visit graphisoft.com/en-au in Australia, and graphisoft.com/en-nz in New Zealand.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

There has been a long-term trend in the AEC software world where makers of software are acquiring regional resellers and distributors, often after decades of running these businesses. For the reseller or distributor, this often times with retirement and provides liquidity and an exit strategy, but for the customer, it often means continuity with the teams they know and the regional teams that know their markets.

Moving to the DTC (direct-to-consumer) model can offer the regional user improved access to global resources, but in Graphisoft’s case, this aspect of providing support is likely already excellently handled by these Australian and New Zealand distributors. For Graphisoft, the channel discounts they provide to distributors and resellers are now internalized, offering improved margins. Often, the distributors of CAD and BIM software offer unique packages and incentives to move product, but the days of renewing perpetual licenses are very much in the rearview mirror. 

The acquisitions of the AEC businesses of Central Innovations include the entire AEC side of their business. We assume this includes Ci Tools, the company’s own software extension package for Archicad.

A key point to note is that parts of these businesses appear to have been acquired from Central Innovations of Australia, the parent company of Intercad & Graphisoft (Australia). Here is the announcement from Central Innovations, directly. Central Innovations focuses on both AEC and manufacturing CAD solutions. Only the AEC part of the business is acquired with capabilities beyond serving Archicad, including support and solutions for Twinmotion, Solibri, and Ci Tools. Ci Tools, is an extension toolset for Archicad sold by Central Innovationthat enhances Archicad’s core functions in areas like cabinetry, 3D roof claddings, a keynoting system, a Fitout tool, and more. 

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