Comparison
Five ways to an image. One of them starts at the plan.
The tools below solve different problems, even though each ends in a picture. The difference is at the front: what do you have to put in before anything comes out? Every price quoted here is a published list price, retrieved in September 2026.
VEDUTUM
- What goes in
- A floor plan as PDF or photo
- What comes out
- A checked model in the browser, images, clips, a share page
- List price
- from €49 a month, 30 points to start
- When it fits
- Early in design, for variants and the client meeting
AI image tools (e.g. Archsynth)
- What goes in
- A sketch, photo or screenshot of a view
- What comes out
- An image
- List price
- US$9 a month for 200 images, 24 for 1,000
- When it fits
- A mood image from a view that already exists
Real-time renderers (D5 Render)
- What goes in
- A 3D model from your CAD
- What comes out
- Images, video, panoramas, under full control
- List price
- US$38 a month or 360 a year; free tier non-commercial
- When it fits
- The model exists and material and light have to be right
Twinmotion
- What goes in
- A 3D model from Revit, Archicad, SketchUp, Rhino
- What comes out
- Images, video, walkthroughs
- List price
- free below US$1M annual revenue, US$445 a year per seat above
- When it fits
- A practice with a finished BIM model and a small budget
Lumion
- What goes in
- A 3D model from your CAD
- What comes out
- Images, video, a large library of planting and entourage
- List price
- about US$229 a year (View) up to 1,499 (Studio)
- When it fits
- Presentation with context, planting, seasons
A visualisation studio
- What goes in
- A plan or model and a brief
- What comes out
- Finished images at competition quality
- List price
- quoted per image, no public list
- When it fits
- Competitions, cover images, anything that gets printed
| Tool | What goes in | What comes out | List price | When it fits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VEDUTUM | A floor plan as PDF or photo | A checked model in the browser, images, clips, a share page | from €49 a month, 30 points to start | Early in design, for variants and the client meeting |
| AI image tools (e.g. Archsynth) | A sketch, photo or screenshot of a view | An image | US$9 a month for 200 images, 24 for 1,000 | A mood image from a view that already exists |
| Real-time renderers (D5 Render) | A 3D model from your CAD | Images, video, panoramas, under full control | US$38 a month or 360 a year; free tier non-commercial | The model exists and material and light have to be right |
| Twinmotion | A 3D model from Revit, Archicad, SketchUp, Rhino | Images, video, walkthroughs | free below US$1M annual revenue, US$445 a year per seat above | A practice with a finished BIM model and a small budget |
| Lumion | A 3D model from your CAD | Images, video, a large library of planting and entourage | about US$229 a year (View) up to 1,499 (Studio) | Presentation with context, planting, seasons |
| A visualisation studio | A plan or model and a brief | Finished images at competition quality | quoted per image, no public list | Competitions, cover images, anything that gets printed |
Third-party prices: published list prices, retrieved in September 2026, in the currency of each price list. Prices and terms change; the vendor page is what counts. All names belong to their owners.
Where the others are better
If the 3D model is already in your CAD, a real-time renderer is the shorter route: D5, Twinmotion, Enscape and Lumion work with your geometry, your materials and your light, and what they produce matches your model exactly. If you need a cover image for a competition, a studio is the right answer — an idea, a mood, an angle somebody works on for two days does not come out of a machine. And if you only want to dress up an existing view, an AI image tool is done in fourteen seconds. VEDUTUM competes with none of them. It sits in front: at the stack of floor plans that has not become a model yet.
What runs differently here
- The plan is the start, not the model
- Every other tool in the table assumes a 3D model or never builds one. Here the input is the floor plan, and what is read from it — walls, openings, rooms — stands on screen in metres before any image is made.
- Geometry instead of mood
- An AI image tool invents what it does not know: window axes drift, storey heights change between two images. Here the volume stays fixed, because it comes from the plan. Only material, light and interior change.
- Points instead of a quote
- What an image costs is printed on the button before you press it. No enquiry, no waiting for a quote, no surprise on the invoice.
- Approval without an account
- Your client gets a link, turns the model in the browser, sees images and clips — no account, no install. The link is revoked with one click.
Test reports: what arrives from your CAD
For each major CAD program we wrote down which export arrives here, what is lost on the way and which setting makes the difference.
- Does VEDUTUM replace my renderer?
- No. If your model is in the CAD and you want to set material and light yourself, your renderer stays the better choice. VEDUTUM covers the weeks before that, when all you have are floor plans.
- Why not just use an AI image tool?
- Because it knows no volume. Ten images of the same design show ten slightly different houses. That is enough for a mood, not for a decision about a window axis.
- Can I upload a finished 3D model?
- Yes, as IFC or GLB. Reading the plan is then skipped and the model is shown exactly as exported.
- How current are the prices in the table?
- They come from the vendors’ own pricing pages, retrieved in September 2026. We update this page when something changes, but the vendor is always the authority.
The honest comparison is your own floor plan.
Create an account, upload a plan, check the geometry — 30 points are waiting, no payment details.