Novedge: Tell us a little bit about Enscape and its history.

Enscape: Enscape was founded back in 2013 by Moritz Luck and Thomas Willberger in the beautiful city of Karlsruhe, Germany, where the headquarters are still based today. The team has grown rapidly over the years, quickly iterating to offer our customers more and more features with every release. Enscape’s focus has always been on ease-of-use, best-in-class customer support, and listening to customers' feedback in order to create an incredibly powerful rendering tool and to support their entire design process. 

Fast-forward 7 years and Enscape has become a world-leading real-time rendering and virtual reality solution, used in over 80 countries and by 85% of the top 100 architectural firms in the world!

Novedge: What is Real-Time Rendering, and how does it work?

Enscape:Real-time rendering allows users to quickly create a visualization and experience their design, through a render or virtual reality, in a matter of seconds. Historically, this process was reserved for specialists and was often outsourced, which added significant costs and time to each project. With real-time rendering, a designer can now instantly create a high-quality render, revolutionizing the entire design process. This enables users to quickly visualize their projects as they design, helping them to easily see their design in a much more life-like environment. This makes it especially easy to see what changes need to be made at a much earlier stage than was previouslypossible.

Novedge: What are the CAD programs supported by Enscape?

Enscape: Enscape integrates directly with Autodesk Revit, SketchUp, Rhino, ArchiCAD, and Vectorworks.

Novedge: What is the main difference between Enscape and its competitors?

Enscape: As a plugin, Enscape offers a simple, seamless way to create visualizations and virtual reality experiences throughout your entire design workflow. Unlike other rendering tools, Enscape integrates directly with your CAD or BIM tool, allowing you to simultaneously design and visualize your work thanks to its live link technology. Any changes made within your design tool are immediately visible in the Enscape viewer, without the need to export or import any files.   Enscape also offers both floating and fixed licensing options, making it easy for teams to share licenses, whether working from the office or remotely.

Novedge: Can you list some of Enscape's best features?

Enscape:To begin with, there's the integrated Asset Library, that provides users with over 1,900 high-quality, ready-to-use assets such as people, vegetation, vehicles, and furniture which can easily be added to a scene to bring them to life. We’ve also recently added animated vegetation, which allows users to add moving trees, shrubs, and grass which was very well received by our users.  We also have workflow features such as Collaborative Annotation, orthographic views, and BIM mode, all of which help to improve communication thanks to the ability to add notes, view your model in 2D view, and review BIM information directly within your Enscape render. Video is also a popular Enscape feature. Users can quickly create animations with just a few clicks – great for marketing purposes and presentations both internally and externally.

Novedge: Can you do Virtual Reality with Enscape?

Enscape: Yes! It’s possible to explore your design in virtual reality with Enscape. By clicking on the ‘Enable VR Headset’ button, your model automatically appears in your VR headset, making it incredibly easy to see and experience a space before it’s built.  Reviewing a design in virtual reality provides you and your clients with an immersive 3D experience. Not only is it a great visualization tool to help clients fully understand a proposed design and expedite buy-in, but it also helps to improve collaboration since it’s easier to identify and discuss details that may not be so easy to see in another format.

Novedge: How hard is it to use?

Enscape: Enscape is all about simplicity. As a plugin, Enscape works directly within your CAD or BIM platform, bringing all of its features into the design tool that you’re already used to using. Even installing Enscape is a quick and easy process. Our users are often surprised by how quickly they can start producing high-quality renderings.  We also have a very lively community that supports one and another through our dedicated Forum and is overseen by our customer services team. Plus there is a comprehensive Knowledge Base which provides a rich array of step-by-step articles to help you get the most out of using Enscape, should you need help with anything.

Novedge: How easy is it to export and share the work done with Enscape?

Enscape: Enscape allows you to export individual renders and even your entire model, making it particularly easy to share your work with external clients and partners.  There are a number of different exporting options depending on your requirements. The EXE standalone export, for example, allows you to export your model so that it can be reviewed by someone externally – without the need for them to have Enscape installed. We also have a web standalone export option that allows you to export and provide a link for your client and stakeholders to explore from within a web browser. It’s also worth mentioning that Enscape offers a panorama export, allowing users to explore a model in 3D. This can be done either through a computer, via a mobile device using Google Cardboard, or Oculus Go. For further information on all of the Enscape exporting options, check out this blog post.