We’re delighted to share our latest update, complete with powerful new tools, exciting new features, and an unparalleled 1400 new assets available now for you to design complete outdoor living spaces for your clients.
We’re enhancing the extraordinary beauty and realism of the outdoor living spaces you create with today’s update, which brings new options that speed up your design time, streamline your design process, and utterly enchant your clients.
Now, faster real-time 3D, new Smart Snaps, a reimagined Camera, an intuitive new 3D Gizmo, a wealth of design tools, and 1400 new assets are ready for you!
Ready to see what’s new?
Check out the update video (watch this video in full-screen mode).
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Real-time rendering is now 2X faster, allowing you to swiftly navigate through your design to make changes.
Take advantage of the new 3D Grid! As you work on your design, you can easily align items and shapes with this new feature.
The all-new 3D Gizmo is here! It offers an exciting new take on the familiar Gizmo, making it intuitively easy to place, duplicate, and align objects with incredible control and precision. Accurate placement in 3D is effortless with the new Distance Guides, and duplicating and aligning objects takes nothing more than a quick Shift + Drag.
With the help of the new type-in feature, it now takes just a few quick keystrokes to effortlessly adjust the position, orientation, size, and elevation of your objects.
Simply select the object you want to modify and type in the desired values for movement, rotation, scale, or elevation.
And with just a press of the Auto-Elevation Shortcut, the elevation now adjusts automatically based on the object's position in the 3D space.
The new distance guides make it a breeze to place any object accurately and precisely.
These precise distance guides provide clear, easy-to-follow measurements to the edge of drawn shapes, ensuring that you can position your objects with accuracy.
Duplicating objects has never been easier. With a quick Shift + Drag, you can now duplicate objects and drawn shapes in both 2D and 3D. Simply hold down the Shift key, drag your mouse, and see your selected objects or drawn shapes duplicate effortlessly. Multiple copies are created instantly, saving you time as you design.
The objects created with Shift + Drag are not just duplicated. They’re also automatically evenly distributed based on the spacing of the first two objects. No longer will you need to adjust each object’s position manually: with Shift + Drag, you quickly and effortlessly create a uniform arrangement of duplicated objects.
We've reimagined the camera controls in 3D. This update brings you customizable panning, intelligent zoom, and the option to disable the camera from focusing on selected objects.
On the Configuration Menu, under 3D Settings, you can now choose to prevent the camera from adjusting its focus automatically when you select an object. This new option gives you fine control over the behavior of the camera, allowing you to focus on specific areas or objects without any camera movement.
The speed at which the camera moves can now be adjusted to suit your needs. Whether you prefer to create a slow, smooth experience or a fast, exciting one, you can use the slider to set your chosen speed.
This update also introduces a convenient new keyboard shortcut to help you navigate and zoom in on a particular object or shape in both 2D and 3D. Just press “B” on your keyboard! When you do, you’ll move quickly and focus on the selected element. BAM!
We’ve completely redesigned our Snap system to make it significantly faster and more accurate. That includes new snap options based on what you’re drawing and the new ability to not just rotate the grid but also “Align to Grid” if a line veers off the grid lines.
With this new option, you can set your drawing grid to a specific angle or select a line segment to rotate and snap the grid to that segment.
Now, our new Smart Snaps automatically provide snap options for all 2D design tools based on what you’re drawing.
With the New Grid Angle feature, you can customize the angle of your drawing grid. When you activate "Align," you can easily select a line segment to rotate and then align the grid accordingly. This new option is a great help when drawing angled elements or angled properties.
The enhanced Angle Snap now allows for precise snapping at specific angles in 5° increments. With Angle Snap, you can easily align objects or elements with the grid or other objects in your project.
With just a click of the new Align to Grid button, you can now adjust the position of your line or shape to align automatically with the grid lines. This handy tool saves you time and ensures precision in your drawings, helping you make sure all elements are evenly spaced and aligned.
Now, you can rotate multiple objects and drawn shapes around a fixed point. Simply hold down the ALT key and left-click to set the pivot point. Doing so determines the central point around which your objects and shapes will rotate, giving you flexibility and precision as you position your elements exactly where you want them.
With faster performance, optimized background images, extended property line tools, and support for multiple background images, this update gives you timesaving tools that make starting a new project faster and easier than ever before.
Now, you can import a total of four background images + one GIS image, giving you even more flexibility as you customize your design. To ensure these images are optimized for performance, the background images and the GIS image are saved at a compressed file size.
With the new Property Line Mode, you can now type in your property line's precise Distance & Bearing. Once you draw or enter the property line, you will have the option to flip the direction of the N/S or E/W sides. You can also easily create Property Lines with the Outline and Divide Tools now.
Your 3D house models have never looked better! Now, with the new Gutters & Downspouts, perfecting even the smallest of details is quick and easy. The functionality of dormers, cantilevers, and windows has also been expanded, with intuitive options and controls that help you create the beautiful, realistic, and detailed exteriors your clients love.
3D Gutters and Downspouts can now be added automatically to give your design a finished look. In the Library, you'll find 12 Gutter Profiles and 3 Downspout Profiles.
Need Dormers on the roofline or Roof Returns? Now, you can add them in just one click! With several types to choose from, it’s easy to customize your dormer and roof returns to get the precise look you need.
How about Cantilevers? The new Hollow setting lets you remove the wall between the house and the cantilever, allowing the window to see right in! Or, if you prefer to add a window to the side, it will cut into both the house and the cantilever wall.
Experience a faster design process with a refined stage order and combined stages. We have merged Pools & Spas as well as Plants & Items into single stages, making it easier for you to manage your design elements.
Plus, with the new Select Any Objects toggle, you now have the flexibility to edit Drawn Shapes in any stage.
We’ve also added a new Flush Lip Style Option for Pools, Spas, and Hardscapes.
When you want to sculpt the terrain or create level tiers, Planters provide the perfect solution.
With new functionality and 237 new options. The expanded Materials Stage makes it effortless to add the perfect finishing touches to your designs. From stone to metal, interiors to tile, there are gorgeous options to suit every type of project.
Your clients will love the thoughtfully personalized results you create — and you'll love the speed and ease with which you can customize your workflow.
Default materials
Showcasing materials you know your clients love just got easier. In the Materials Stage, you can now quickly and easily set your default materials. And once you set your preferred defaults, they’ll remain set automatically in each new design you begin.
As you design, the material of your last-selected shape will automatically be set as the material for the next shape of that type that you add to a project.
Now it's faster to customize library items. “Change Same” and “Select Matching” now work with all drawn shapes and library items that share the same base material. This makes it a easy to personalize elements quickly and efficiently.
You'll find 237 new material options in the Library:
As you copy and paste plants and trees, they will now vary automatically to create a more natural 3D design. To ensure consistency and to match the plant legend, 2D symbols will remain locked in size.
We’ve added 455 more realistic plant and tree models (each with multiple variations), all ready for you to add and feature in your projects:
With greatly enhanced new options, this update makes your 3D design presentations even more spectacular. Give the new dynamic cloudscapes a try. Adjust the reflection opacity. Copy and paste presentation settings between camera locations. Even share camera locations between projects. The presentation workflow is so smooth, you’ll love exploring all the new options.
When you enable the new Accurate Focus Mode, you can adjust the focal distance and F-Stop of your camera, ensuring pixel-perfect focus as you capture images or videos. With this mode turned on, you can preview exactly how your photos and videos will appear. Even if you turn off Accurate Focus Mode, the settings will remain in effect for your location. (Note: Keeping Accurate Focus Mode enabled will decrease performance.)
Sun & SHadows
Environment (VIP3D EXCLUSIVE)
Two new sliders offer you incredible control over the environment: the Dynamic Water Ripples Slider and the Window Opacity Slider, which changes the reflectivity (opacity) of window glass.
FIlters & Effects (VIP3D EXCLUSIVE)
Discover the streamlined new Filter and Effects Sliders, which have been designed to help you effortlessly achieve the perfect style for your project. You now also have available to you 10 new Stylized Image Presets featuring popular settings.
With our new Saturation Slider, you can easily enhance the filter saturation to your liking.
Over the last 12 months, an astounding 157,254 emails were sent through the Media Viewer. So, we are delighted to expand this incredibly popular feature. With this update, you can now also send images via text message to your own phone or to your clients. You'll also find the new option to share your YouTube link via text or email.
Getting your gorgeous designs ready for construction has never been easier. With new options like Lock/Unlock All and Show/Hide All that make it easy to navigate your markup layers, easy right-click access to the Label Tool, and the ability to save imported images as fill patterns right at your fingertips in the Library, this update brings to the table new enhancements that significantly streamline your design process.
With the new Import Fill option, you can import images to create your own custom fill patterns. You can even save these fill patterns to your Library to use in future projects.
Navigating your Markup Layers is now easier than ever with the new Lock/Unlock All and Show/Hide All options. And because Pergolas and Rockwork now have their own unique layers, it’s quick and easy to select the exact items you need. We’ve even made the Label Tool easier to access: we’ve added it to the Right-Click Menu!
We’ve refreshed Page Layout with easy-to-use new options, including the ability to add PDFs to pages and notably improved 3D view quality.
Displacement Data for Pools and Spas
Take advantage of this update’s new features to make your designs stand out like never before.
We’ve added a wide variety of beautifully detailed items that range from the practical to the unexpected. You’ll find new furniture and new pool equipment as well as mesmerizing new fire effects and even hot air balloons.
And your clients will undoubtedly be delighted when you choose from amongst the 29 new dogs and 18 new cats to feature their beloved pet in your presentation!
Screens now offer yet another avenue to surprise and delight your clients. Now, you can add your (or their!) videos and still images to TVs and projectors.
We’ve added 692 more realistic models, all ready for you to include and highlight in your projects.
Ledge Loungers: Releases their most popular items, including Floats, Games, In-Pool Accessories, In-Pool Seats, Outdoor Furniture, and Daybeds that are durable, high quality, stylish, and designed for in-water use.
Wet Edge: Releases 11 beautiful pool finishes that take the classic pool finishes and make them better, with pictures, educational videos, and over-the-phone support to ensure you find the exact pool finish you're looking for.
Dolphin Water Slides: Looking for a slide design that combines convenience and elegance? The pre-designed slides are now available in right-turn options. These pre-designed models are versatile, fitting various pool shapes, and can be ordered as quickly as you sign off on the drawing.
ENHANCEMENTS
FIXES
Each update, we share exciting, groundbreaking tools and features designed to help you do your best, most creative work.
We are looking forward to seeing the beautiful designs that you create—we’re always impressed and inspired by your creativity and ingenuity!