Why is 3d floor plan better than 2D CAD Plans for Builders and Real Estate?

Posted on: October 22, 2018, By: Bhagwati Pathak

“Floor Plans” define layouts that are developed to depict a particular building layout design and arrangements of a building infrastructure. Architects can opt to present the layout in 2D format or as a 3D floor plan. There are many benefits that we can get by working with the 3D representation of the plans. To know about the advantages let us understand the benefits of individual 2D and 3D floor plans first.

2D floor plans: 2D floor plans are basic representation of the Architectural layouts in a digital format but in 2D. Basically these plans give out the placements of furniture, walls, doors, windows, ceilings etc. with dimensioning and annotations. These plans give a view from the top and may appear as lines and text. These plans can also be done as 2D color plans using other tools like Photoshop, corel etc.

3D floor plans: 3D floor plans represent the Architectural layout more realistically than 2D plans. These plans give out more intricate details of a building interior with walls, doors, windows, furniture entities, flooring etc. This presentation is extremely useful for Architects in presenting the design intent to builders who in turn use this as a sales tool to sell the building design to the end clients. With the help of the Architectural 3D floor plans, builder can finalize the designs, suggest interior modifications, advise different planning etc. The plan explores a top view and is extremely easy to visualize the interior design of the building.

Benefits of using a 3D floor plans

3D floor plans are easy to develop and does not demand a lot of monetary investment or time. All we need is a 3d rendering software and reasonably better computer configuration. There is no need of immense photorealism until the clients want to print the image on bill boards

Design validation becomes interactive. When the 3D floor plan is presented to the builder or end client, it becomes easy to make changes where required as you have virtually imagined how the building will look like once constructed.

Visual Impact is high: Architectural 3D floor plans is visually more attractive than a simple plan drawing. The 3D plan visualizes the colour, materials, design more eminently than a 2D floor plan. Instead of symbols for furniture and fixture we can actually see 3d models or entities of fixtures like wardrobes, chairs, tables etc. We can also have the 3d plan animated so that we can explore the model to understand the design better.

Easy Presentation: You can save the 3D floor plan as an image, which will not consume a lot of disk space. We can send the plan image to clients through emails or chat apps in mobile. We can also present the Architectural 3D Plans on third party web sites. We can present these images and models through road shows, trade shows etc.

3D Architectural Walkthrough: After developing or finalizing the design with the help of a 3D floor plan, we can also create 3D Architectural walkthrough. This walkthrough helps in getting a realistic feel of the building. Architects and 3D renderers can develop interior and exterior walkthrough to help users navigate through the virtual model with ease.

3D floor plans is one of the most widely used marketing and design tool that helps in reducing the post construction design changes to a great extent.

Written By:
Bhagwati Pathak

Bhagwati Pathak is an Executive Director at Tesla Outsourcing Services. Technical Project Management, BIM, Client Management, and Leadership are her forte. With an expertise in BIM and a flair for writing, her articles provide a direction to contractors, sub-contractors, engineers, and architects in employing the right methodology for an Architectural, Structural, or MEP CAD / BIM project.