The 3D view is built from the same document as the plan — there is nothing to generate and nothing to keep in step. Whatever you draw is standing there when you switch to it, and it is free.
The three render modes
A mode re-dresses the scene. It never changes what is built, and never changes the document.
| Mode | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Simple | The working view: real colours, flat light, no shadows or effects. One render pass — the fast one to draw in. |
| Clay | A single-material mock-up: one clay tone, furnishing hidden, form from occlusion and outline alone. For reading the structure without the detail. |
| Shaded | The presentation view: real colours, sun and soft shadows, ambient occlusion and drawn outlines. The one to screenshot. |
The view renders on demand rather than continuously, so even Shaded costs nothing while you sit and look at it.
Seeing into the building
- Hide roof takes the roof off and puts it back. A hidden roof still casts its shadow, so the light on the walls stays honest.
- All floors shows the whole building. The other button reads Up to <floor> and builds every storey from the bottom up to the one you are on — because a single storey rendered alone floats over the site with nothing under it, and loses the stairs, which belong to the floor below.
- Fit view re-frames the whole model.
Choosing the active floor and choosing how much of the building to see are separate decisions: switching floors on the plan does not change what 3D shows, and it does not re-frame the camera.
Selecting in 3D
Click a wall, a door, a window or a piece of furniture and it selects — the properties panel edits it exactly as it would in plan. Clicking something on another storey switches the active floor to it, so it can be edited and deleted rather than looking selected and refusing to move.
Shift-click adds to the selection, and shift-clicking something already in it takes it back out. A shift-click on another storey’s object starts a fresh selection there instead: the panel, delete and the arrow keys all work on the active floor, so a selection spanning two storeys would only be half editable.
Furniture and stairs can be dragged in 3D with the transform gizmo. With several items selected the handles move all of them together, keeping their spacing exactly.
Scrolling zooms towards the cursor, so the wheel takes you to the thing you are pointing at and panning keeps working at any zoom.
The walkthrough
Walk through puts you inside the building at eye height, first person.
- W A S D to walk, mouse to look, Shift to move faster.
- Click a door to open or close it as you reach it.
- Set start point / Move start point puts the door you walk in from where you want it; double-clicking a spot first also sets it.
- Exit walkthrough returns you to the orbit camera.
The camera remembers
Switching between plan, elevations and 3D returns you to the same viewpoint. Loading a different plan re-frames.
What this doesn’t do
- No materials library or texture mapping. Colours and finishes come from the document; a mode only re-lights them.
- No interior lighting. The sun is the only light, and it is not aimed by the north arrow.
- No export from 3D. There is no OBJ, glTF or IFC out — screenshot it, or export the plan as PDF or DXF.
Next
Elevations for the drawn version of the same building.