Lumion

Lumion is standalone real-time visualization software made for architects and landscape architects. A model is prepared in SketchUp, Revit, Rhino, Archicad or a similar program, brought into Lumion and finished there with surroundings, lighting, materials and atmosphere. Live sync plugins let changes in the design program carry over to the Lumion scene.

What it is known for

Lumion is best known for its large ready-made library: trees, shrubs, grass, people, vehicles, furniture and water surfaces are dragged straight into the scene. Painting and scattering tools fill large landscape areas quickly. Settings for weather, clouds, time of day and camera effects can change the mood of an image in a few minutes. Building animations along camera paths is also very straightforward.

What it is used for

Exterior projects where landscape and surroundings matter most, site plans and housing developments, and presentations that need many images and videos at short notice are where Lumion is strongest. The interface is simple enough that it requires no modeling knowledge, so team members who are not visualization specialists can use it too. Because it runs in real time it needs a strong graphics card, and as scenes grow the number of library objects has to be kept in balance. We place Lumion among similar tools in our overview of popular architectural visualization software.