Now, people in the construction industry don’t only use pencils and erasers any longer. With the development of technology, architectural 3D renderings have begun to replace hand-drawn plans which leave a lot to the imagination. They provide the Wow factor and give designers the opportunity to make corrections about some flaws before the ground is even dug.

Efficient, convenient and wonderful has become the tag of 3D renderings. So, today AIMIR will share a list of the top 10 popular rendering software (based on their price, function, and difficulty of operation).

1. Blender

Price: free to use and distribute
Function:
1. a plethora of features to provide you with any tool, no matter what you want to design
2. extremely capable renderer
3. resourceful and helpful community (easy to solve your problems)
Difficulty of operation: it takes time to master the use

2. Maxwell

Price: free to use and distribute
Function:
1. a powerful set of rendering tools
2. long presence in the market (enough resources for support )
3. resourceful and helpful community (easy to solve your problems)
Difficulty of operation: simple to learn (help you understand other software)
Attention: A little slow at rendering.

3. Octane Render

Price: $399 for a license (a bit expensive for student architects)
Function:
1. a powerful set of rendering tools
2. the powerful rendering engine (faster than traditional free software)
3. a lot of materials and textures available
Difficulty of operation: better to be familiar with most other renderers
Attention: It can satisfy the expectations of your design, but you need to think it over because of the price.

4. Autodesk Revit

Price: free educational licenses to students
Function:
1. great customer and community support
2. the powerful rendering engine (faster than traditional free software)
3. a lot of materials and textures available
Difficulty of operation: better to be familiar with most other renderers
Attention: A professional rendering software marketed to professionals.

5. Cinema 4D

Price: $3510 a license (too steep)
Function:
1. good lighting options
2. help you create your unique style and impressive renders
Difficulty of operation: complicated (but it is worth spending time learning it)

6. Lumion 3D

Price: a free license for students;
$1820 for the basic version and $2420 for the Pro version for professionals
Function:
1. minimal efforts to make high-quality renderings
2. user-friendly and easy to use UI
3. compatible with every other 3D rendering software on the market
Difficulty of operation: easy

7. Viz Render

Price: free
Function:
1. matches nicely with other Autodesk products
2. Autodesk community (ready to help you out)
4. does visualizations well
Difficulty of operation: complicated (but it is worth spending time learning it)
Attention: It doesn’t hold up to the most powerful tools on this list.

8. Punch Home Design Studio

Price: $25 on Amazon
Function:
1. enough, but not over-the-top features
Difficulty of operation: easy to use for beginners
Attention: It is not enough for advanced renderings.

9. VRAY

Price: $730 for a license (fairly competitive price)
Function:
1. exhaustive tools and features to visualize anything
2. powerful rendering engine
Difficulty of operation: difficult to use
Attention: Considering its difficulty of usage, you need to have a try before you buy a license.

10. Corona

Price: a standard license at $530 or a monthly subscription
Function:
1. deep integration with 3DS Max (no worry about compatibility and complexity)
2. fast (although it can’t come near VRAY or Octane Render)
3. clean animations and excellent light effects
Difficulty of operation: fine
Attention: It isn’t a complete rendering software so you can see if the subscription or one-time purchase is more suitable for you.

In a way, there is no perfect rendering software in the world. The best one is the one suitable for you. Hope this blog can help you pick the best one in hundreds of software.

Which is your favorite rendering software above? Come here and vote for the best in your mind or submit a comment about your experiences when using rendering software. We are long for your comments!

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