Piranesi allows you to apply paint onto a 2D environment (much like Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro) but it understands the geometry of the model which allows you to rapidly paint onto surfaces, planes and materials using textures which appear to wrap to the original shape of your model.  If you wished to change the model or alter the view you need to return to your preferred 3D modelling tool and re-export the epx file for Piranesi.

You can buy Piranesi right here on the site from our secure webstore. Alternatively you can find your local distributor here.

The important thing to remember is that you're not exporting a 3D window - you're exporting a photorendering image.  You can pick any of the internal engines inside ArchiCAD, though it's up to you if you want to use the Lightworks soft shadows and illumination or whether you want to perform all of your rendering inside Piranesi.
 
Click this link for a screengrab of the settings dialogs in ArchiCAD to help you.
 
Make sure that you've got anti-aliasing set to best, so that you get the best result.  As you can see, we've created a large 3300-pixels-wide image here at 300 dpi.

Piranesi has such a full complement of artistic and automation tools you can use it in a variety of ways:

1. If you want to get an attractive image from your model within an hour then use the out of the box multifills to totally transform your original model into high quality artistic renders.

2. If you are communicating concepts and need to explain your ideas with figurative images, a mornings work should have you producing a number of new images ready for initial presenatations. Using some of the smart tools such as edge finding and restore brush will help to accelerate the process of making great images and help you to bring your clients attention to the most important areas of the design.

3. High quality images ready for final project presentations can be prepared in a few hours, techniques used during the process of creating the final artwork can be re-used, so you can capitalize on your investment in the future.

Piranesi is shipped with many ready-to-go effects allowing you to click once only and watch the tool

interpret your model and present amazing results.  There are two main modes of working with Piranesi:

1. Producing great artistic interpretations of your model automatically

2. Creating figurative imagery through of your ideas manually

 

Within a very short time, using and re-using styles you create and save, it is possible to build up a library of effects. This in turn becomes your palette and can be applied very quickly to each model you create.

Piranesi has been designed from the outset to be able to understand the geometry of a 3D model and respect it when painting.  The notion of distance from the picture plane, perspective, material types and planes are all encapsulated in a 2D image!  This knowledge helps to make very onerous tasks in most 2D painting tools very simple and quick in Piranesi.
Piranesi makes light work of producing high quality non-photorealistic renders allowing you to express yourself in the final output by giving you a vast array of tools for your unique style.  Alternatively you can sit back and let Piranesi be the artist by using our range of multifills that are ready out of the box.

Piranesi has been designed from the outset to be able to understand the geomtery of a 3D model and respect it when painting.  The notion of distance from the picture plane, perspective, material types and planes are all encapsulated in a 2D image! This knowledge helps to make very onerous tasks in most 2D painting tools very simple and quick in Piranesi.

Significant time savings can be made since Piranesi automatically masks areas, planes, materials to your desire, this is called locking and you can see it in action here.

Piranesi helps you to produce photorealistic and non-photorealistic images of your 3D models very quickly and cost effectively for your projects. Your clients will recognise and benefit from your improved response time and amazing artistic renders.

Piranesi accepts .epx files exported from your preferred 3D modelling tools (see supported list here), these files retain information about the materials and geometry of the model. Given this knowledge, Piranesi allows you to rapidly paint on surfaces, texture the image, add entourage and 3D objects to give context to your model. Finally Piranesi is packed with features out of the box to help you release your creativity and produce images of real artistic merit.

Everyone has different learning styles and what suits one person as a method to learn Piranesi may not suit another.  We have tried to provide as many resources as possible to suit everyones different learning needs:

1. Comprehensive online help is provided as part of the product to learn as you click.
2. Online tutorials are provided as downloadable or streaming movies to really see it done first hand.
3. Mastering Piranesi is the single most comprehensive reference resource to learn all the details of Piranesi and available from our webstore.
4. The online Piranesi forum is arguably the best place to learn how to use Piranesi as it it used by the practitioners themselves.  Ideas and techniques are often traded and help is always provided.