Wednesday, November 7th, 2018 Posted by Jim Thacker

Act-3D releases Lumion 9.0


Act-3D has released Lumion 9.0, the latest version of its real-time architectural visualisation software.

The bulk of the new features come in the Pro edition, which gets new sky lighting and precipitation systems and new 3D materials for grass and furry objects.

Users of the standard edition get a set of workflow updates, a new live link with Rhino, and more stock materials and models in the accompanying asset libraries.

Pro edition: new sky lighting, precipitation, grass and fur systems
Lumion 9.0 Pro users get Real Skies, a set of 39 photographic sky backplates that work with the software’s updated Sky Light 2 system.

Assigning a backplate automatically generates a matching lighting scheme for 3D models in the scene.

Pro users also get a self-explanatory Atmospheric Rain and Snow system. As well as creating falling precipitation, rainwater and snow can build up on ground surfaces in a scene, as shown in this video.

There is also new a 3D material for grass – it offers more options for customisation than the existing grass material – and one for furry objects, aimed at soft furnishings like rugs or throw.

Base edition: mainly workflow improvements, plus a new live link to Rhino
The updates common to both editions of the software are mainly workflow-related.

Act-3D has implemented what it describes as a “lean scene-building workflow” designed to enable users to populate architectural scenes with assets with fewer clicks.

Specific changes include the option to create object groups, to place objects using hotkeys, and to refocus the viewport automatically by double-clicking; plus a new automatic file-recovery system.

The update also introduces a new LiveSync live link plugin for Rhino 6, alongside the existing plugins for Revit and SketchUp, and extends support for OpenStreetMap data.

Lumion’s accompanying asset libraries have also been updated, adding 112 materials and 634 stock models.

Pricing and availability
Lumion 9.0 is available now for 64-bit Windows Vista and above. The standard edition of the software costs €1,499 (around $1,715); the Pro edition costs €2,999 ($3,430). You can see a comparison table here.

Read a full list of new features in Lumion 9.0 on Act-3D’s website