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Best 3D Rendering Software for Cabinetmakers and Woodworkers – VORTEK Spaces

Best 3D Rendering Software for Cabinetmakers and Woodworkers – VORTEK Spaces

Video Outline

Intro

In this video I’m going to show you a tool that’s going to make your lives dramatically easier if you’re trying to do photorealistic renderings of your cabinet designs.

Hey guys it’s Myron Wittmer and on this channel I provide technology and software tips for cabinet makers and woodworkers so if you’re new here please subscribe to the channel to stay connected.

So today we’re going to look at a really awesome rendering tool called VORTEK Spaces. I do have an affiliate link in the description below if you want to help support the channel. We’re going to cover three things. First of all what does VORTEK Spaces do, who is it for, and what I like about it so let’s get into the video.

What does VORTEK Spaces do?

So what does vortex spaces do VORTEK Spaces is essentially a plug-in that allows you to do photorealistic renderings on your existing design and so you can’t do your designing in VORTEK Spaces. You have to do it in something else and then import it into VORTEK Spaces. I love when companies don’t try to be everything. I love when they focus on one little aspect of it and just totally nail it and VORTEK Spaces is definitely doing that in the rendering world. So there’s there’s two main benefits that they they pull out on their website and the first one being saving time. You’re not waiting five minutes or ten minutes for every view. The rendering is super quick and the second one which is really important for a lot of cabinet guys is, it doesn’t require a ton of expertise. You don’t have to know about lighting rules you know just 3Ds and you know you don’t have to worry about all these complex settings because they focused on making it very easy for you to do so and achieve really nice results.

VORTEK Spaces does a great job of making it easy to import your existing designs so if you’re using Cabinet Vision, Mozaik, Microvellum, SketchUp, basically any software that’s able to export a 3D file. You can use VORTEK Spaces and it’s a very simple workflow.

So let me give you an example of a typical workflow for someone using VORTEK Spaces with say Cabinet Vision. So you would start the job in Cabinet Vision you draw your walls your cabinets and put everything in the way you want it. Then you can export out of Cabinet Vision a DXF or a COLLADA file and you’ll take that file and import it into VORTEK Spaces and then you can assign your textures play with your lighting and make a few small tweaks before you render the job.

Who is VORTEK Spaces for?

So who is VORTEK Spaces for? So what type of cabinet shop would be a good fit to have VORTEK Spaces? The first thing I would say is any shop that’s creating drawings or 3D views for their customers would be a very good fit and I’ll take it a step further and say especially if that shop is selling directly to the homeowner because now you have a chance to one-on-one leave a lasting impression with this photorealistic rendering. You know every little thing like that that you do just increases your branding and makes people want to buy from you that much more. So as far as the size of the shop that could use VORTEK Spaces really any size shop you know from a two-man shop all the way to 100 man shop if need be. You know the small shop especially is always looking for ways to stand out from the competition and so when you take a tool like this and you go to a homeowner with a really really good looking drawing you’re going to look more attractive to that homeowner than the large shop who just cranked out some black and white line drawings.

What I like about VORTEK Spaces?

Okay so next let’s talk about what I like about VORTEK Spaces.

Expansive library of materials and textures

The first thing, VORTEK Spaces has a really nice library of materials and textures and this one really hits home for me because I was using Cabinet Vision for several years producing photorealistic drawings for our customers and while yes I could make some really nice drawings I spent a lot of time doing so. You know, I had to go into the materials for every type of material and you know I’d adjust my sheen I had to try to make the mirrors look right and there was so many settings that I had to tweak just to make it look presentable. Then every job you know a different countertop texture different wall texture I was always looking for something and you know I would go try to find a texture and I’d find one that looks good but it wouldn’t be seamless and so there’s just all these things that that i had to mess with. So when I think about a tool like VORTEK Spaces having an expansive library already in there you know if I want a Sherwin Williams paint I just go to that brand find the paint color or if I want a certain countertop or you know there’s tons of floor textures and just having that all there you know would have saved me hours looking back at all the jobs I’ve done in the past several years so that is a really nice thing that I like about VORTEK Spaces.

Easy outdoor views

The second thing I like about VORTEK Spaces is its outdoor views. You know being able to see the landscape outside of the windows or the doors and again with my experience in Cabinet Vision, I was able to achieve this but there was all kinds of weird little things I had to do. Again VORTEK Spaces keeps that extra simple you know you pick your landscape and it takes care of it.

Lighting and shadow editing

Okay the third thing I like about VORTEK Spaces is its ability to edit lighting and shadows and so again coming from my experience with Cabinet Vision you know playing with lights was a disaster you know you could add one light and it would just throw the entire dynamics of the room off. So you know I had a simple rule that you know the less lights I could get by with the better. Hopping on to VORTEK Spaces, being able to add lights and just visualize where the shadows are at real time rather than having to wait until you rendered it to really see what it’s doing… super valuable.

Rendering and image management

The fourth thing I really like about VORTEK Spaces is how it manages your images so as you’re creating your viewpoints of the different angles you want in your job you can you can save those viewpoints and when you render it automatically generates all those and the nice thing is when you come back with a small revision to the job you know it retains those viewpoints and when you render it again it’ll replace all those image files so you don’t have to you know click viewpoint one, render it.. save that file.. click viewpoint two, render it.. and save that file. Just a very streamlined.. I love the way they they did their image storage.

Walkthrough

The fifth thing I like about VORTEK Spaces is the walkthrough and so based on the viewpoints you set in your job you can create a nice video walkthrough and you can edit your timings you know how long it spins getting from one point to the other and this is where this really sets you apart from just a simple rendering.

BONUS

Okay and one last thing before we end this video. There’s one thing that VORTEK Spaces adds that is a really unique offering that I think in the future you’re gonna see a lot more people using it. And that’s VR! You know five years ago everybody laughed at VR and said you know why would anybody do it but more and more it’s becoming a household item and so you know just a thought for you guys out there you know if you were able to produce a VR drawing you know can you imagine the buzz that would generate for your customers you know being able to look around and see you know look at the countertop, look up at the cabinets, and visualize everything as it is you know. People aren’t gonna.. people are are not awed just with photorealistic renderings as they were five years ago you know because it’s still just a PDF or a piece of paper. But you give them that VR experience they’re going to tell their friends they’re going to be tore up about that experience. So that’s just a bonus tip before we end the video.

Okay that’s all for this video. I hope it helped you learn more about what VORTEK Spaces does and how it could help you. Again check out the link in description below and be sure to like and subscribe thanks for watching.

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