CADuntu: Another open source AutoCAD alternative

For those of you who are trying to find a good alternative for AutoCAD, especially if the option is an open source software, it may become hard to find one that fits most of the needs of an architectural visualization artist. Due to the great number of options, it is always good to take a […]

Detailed guide and tutorial for SmallLuxGPU and Blender

The use of GPU power is one easiest ways to speed up the rendering for any type of project related with 3d visualization. Today we have a lot of tools that help use to use all those cores on our shiny graphics card, and work in real time generating realist images. For Blender 2.50 we […]

How to create a glow effect for lights in architecture

The work of an architectural visualization artist is not constrained to deal with commercial projects for architecture. From time to time we have to work on the design of a scene for a game or even special effects for a small studio. Besides the modeling of large scenarios and buildings, it seems like architectural visualization […]

SU2YafaRay: Export from SketchUp to YafaRay

The workflow of an architectural visualization project for a Blender artist usually has a final stage when we may use external render engines, like YafaRay and LuxRender. From both renderers the one with the largest number of scripts and plugins that make it compatible with lots of 3d softwares is LuxRender. We have options to […]

Tutorial FreeCAD: Creating 2d views for technical drawing

The process of migrating from a CAD application to another software application could demand a lot of work from a professional already used to the commands and solutions. If you have any plans to change your CAD software to one of the open source alternatives to AutoCAD I posted last week, I manage to find […]

YafaRay 0.1.2 beta available to download

Since the end of 2009 an experimental version of YafaRay showing some of the features we can expect to be on YafaRay 0.1.2 is available to download. Now, the same version has moved from an experimental build to a beta state, which means that in a short time the stable release will be available. How […]

List of open source and free alternatives to AutoCAD

I got a lot of messages and questions about how to use open source tools to work with architectural visualization or even technical drawing on Linux. Besides the questions about Blender that I got in my classes and presentations, the most often question is about an open source alternative for AutoCAD. People always ask that […]

Modeling for architecture: Modeling a chain link fence

In architectural visualization we can find lots of objects that can be represented with the use of simple patterns like the floor tiles. For this type of 3d object we can use the Array modifier to create large surfaces based on a single and simple 3d pattern. The only thing we have to do before […]

Blender 3D Architect Newsletter

Receive free assets, news, and resources for architecture

We respect your privacy and do not tolerate spam and will never sell, rent, lease or give away your information (name, address, email, etc.) to any third party. Nor will we send you unsolicited email.