The Redshift and Cinema 4D developer is expanding into architectural visualization with several planned BIM plugins.
Maxon is expanding its reach into architectural visualization.
The developer of 3D modeling, animation, and rendering software, including Cinema 4D and Redshift, announced today that it will release dedicated plugins for several BIM platforms, starting with Vectorworks.
“The key feature that we’re bringing to this product is real-time visualization,” David McGavran, CEO of Maxon, told Engineering.com. “It’s going to be faster than anything you’ve ever seen before from Redshift.”
Redshift, but real-time
Redshift is Maxon’s GPU-based rendering software, used in several industries for production-quality renders. The new plugin is based on Redshift, but it’s adapted for real-time rendering in the Vectorworks environment. Architects will be able to fly through their scenes with Redshift-quality rendering occurring in real-time, according to McGavran.
The actual rendering quality will depend on users’ hardware. Like Vectorworks, the plugin will work on both Windows and Mac. The more powerful the computer, the higher the real-time rendering quality. McGavran says he’s been demonstrating the plugin on two laptops, an M4-equipped MacBook and a Windows PC with a high-end Nvidia GPU, and both provide full rendering quality.
Integration with Redshift and Cinema 4D
Users of the plugin will be able to move directly between Vectorworks and Maxon’s 3D software: Redshift for final production rendering and Cinema 4D for scene modeling and animation. The scene will sync back and forth with the host application, according to McGavran, who says the plugin will help expose architects to Maxon’s robust 3D design tools.
“You’ll just be able to press a button and it’ll just open up your scene directly into Cinema 4D,” McGavran said. “You’ll be able to do your walkthroughs, all of your visualization, your movie exports, your still exports, using these tools that we’ve built for years and years inside of Cinema 4D.”
Architects may be particularly interested in Maxon’s 3D asset library, which McGavran says includes thousands of high-quality 3D assets that will “empower those architects to quickly decorate and make their scene beautiful at the highest quality inside of their tool of choice.”
For example, architects could decorate their scene with photorealistic flora. In January, Maxon acquired Laubwerk, a developer of 3D tree and plant models that will be available through the plugin.
What’s next after Vectorworks?
Maxon will show a preview of the Vectorworks plugin at the AIA Conference on Architecture & Design 2025, taking place in Boston, MA from June 5 – 6, at booth 563.
The plugin will go into beta for select Vectorworks customers this summer, but Maxon has not announced an official launch date. The company also hasn’t announced how the plugin will be priced or licensed, but McGavran asserted that it “will be a very, very price-competitive product.”
Both Maxon and Vectorworks are owned by the Nemetschek Group. So are Graphisoft and Allplan, other BIM developers for which Maxon may eventually develop a plugin. McGavran wouldn’t commit to any specific plugins beyond Vectorworks, but said “we want this to be available to all architects” and mentioned other popular BIM tools including Autodesk Revit, SketchUp, and Rhino as possible integrations.
“We’re very excited to expand our base of artists closer to the architect side of the world,” McGavran said.
