Honestly, if you're coming from a Lumion background, you're gonna want something that feels like a pro tool rather than a slot machine. For high-end exteriors, I would look at LookX AI Architecture Design Platform. It's specifically trained on architectural data, so it handles lighting and textures way better than general models. It feels more like a professional service because they've done the heavy lifting on the backend. Another one that is great for conceptual stuff is PromeAI Architecture Toolkit. It handles the high-res material textures much better than the basic tools most people are using. Basically, the pro platforms give you:

• Pre-trained architectural styles
• Better consistency across different views
• Faster turnarounds The DIY approach is cool if you have time to kill, but you'll spend weeks just tweaking settings and managing your own models. For a freelance workflow, you want something that integrates with your current geometry without the hallucination headache. Stick to the specialized architectural AI services if you want to actually save time.

Saw this thread earlier and figured id weigh in from a technical standpoint. If you're coming from Lumion, the biggest hurdle with AI is usually hallucinations where the AI moves your walls or changes the roofline. To fix that and get the high-res textures you want, you really need to look into a workflow using Stability AI Stable Diffusion XL 1.0 combined with ControlNet. Basically, ControlNet acts as a constraint layer. You feed it a depth map or a line export from your CAD software, and it forces the AI to stick to those lines while it generates the lighting and materials. Its way more precise than just typing a prompt. For materials, look into Tile models or specific Upscalers within the UI to hit those high-res requirements without losing detail. If you want something more integrated without the steep learning curve of setting up local checkpoints, check out EvolveLab Veras AI Rendering Plugin. It works directly inside Revit or Rhino. Cost-wise, Stable Diffusion is free but requires a decent amount of VRAM (aim for at least 12GB to be safe), while Veras is a subscription model, usually around 50 bucks a month for the pro version. If time is money for your freelance biz, the plugin is probably the better ROI, but the local setup gives you infinite control over the specific look of your exterior lighting.

• Look into IP-Adapter for lighting consistency.
• Use Canny or Depth models in ControlNet for structural accuracy.

Just catching up on this thread after a long morning of drafting. I totally get the frustration with Lumion being slow sometimes, but I am gonna have to respectfully disagree with the idea of jumping into pure generative AI tools just yet. Im a bit of a cautious beginner with this stuff, but from what Ive seen, the risk to your professional reputation is kinda high if things arent pixel-perfect. Instead of going fully AI, why not look into tools that are augmenting the traditional workflow? For instance, D5 Render 2.8 Subscription Plan has been making huge waves because it uses AI specifically for material picking and sky generation without actually changing your architecture. It feels way more reliable than some of the web tools people mentioned earlier because youre still working on top of your actual model. If you want something even more industry-standard, Chaos V-Ray 6 for SketchUp now has AI-powered denoising and some smart scene analysis features. In my experience, these hybrid tools are the sweet spot. You get the high-res textures and realistic lighting youre looking for, but the AI is basically just acting as a super-fast assistant rather than the architect. It keeps the structural logic sound, which is honestly the most important thing at the end of the day, right? Tbh I think keeping that safety net is worth the extra few minutes of setup.

Interested in this too

Honestly, I think the tech is still a bit hit or miss for pro work, but I've been messing around with some web-based AI platforms lately. Not 100% sure but I think they help with those early lighting concepts way faster than traditional software. IIRC the textures can be tricky to get perfect, but for quick conceptual vibes, it definitely saves a ton of time.

Totally agree with the previous point about hallucinations, its a huge issue for reliability. If the AI moves a structural wall just to make the lighting look better, that is a massive safety concern for real-world projects. Are you looking for loose conceptual vibes, or do you need pixel-perfect accuracy that respects your CAD geometry? Also, what kind of monthly budget are you working with for these tools?

Adding my two cents here... I started looking into this a few months ago because my workflow was getting bogged down too. I decided to try a local setup instead of the cloud tools because I was worried about data privacy and wanted more control over the final output. Honestly, it was a bit of a steep learning curve. I spent weeks trying to get various scripts and plugins to talk to my existing CAD models without crashing everything. What I learned the hard way is that while AI is great for lighting and vibes, it really struggles with actual architectural precision. I had one project where it generated these amazing, high-res material textures, but it completely messed up the structural supports. The client actually liked the aesthetic but then pointed out that the roof was basically hovering... super embarrassing. I ended up getting a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 24GB Graphics Card just so I could run the heavy processing locally without waiting in a queue. I found that using technical maps like depth passes or line work was the only way to keep the building from morphing into a blob. Even then, I still find myself going back to traditional rendering for the final professional delivery. The AI is basically my conceptual engine now rather than a replacement for the final render. It saves a ton of time on exploring lighting ideas, but the reliability just isnt there for a 100% automated workflow yet. If you go this route, definitely keep an eye on the geometry because the AI doesnt understand physics at all... it just knows how to make things look pretty.