Building QuickArchViz: turning 3D models into renders

Maciek Chmura — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:07:08 +0000

A few months ago, I started building QuickArchViz — a tool that turns 3D model screenshots into architectural visualizations in seconds.

The idea came from a very simple frustration I had in the past when I was still an architect:
My models were ready, but I still needed to make the visualizations for the client

Rendering takes time. It costs money. And every client meeting resets the whole process.

I wanted something faster. Something closer to how architects actually work.

So I started building it - now that I have over 10+ years of experience in programming.

What QuickArchViz does

You upload a screenshot from your 3D model (SketchUp, Revit, Archicad — whatever).

The system:

keeps your geometry and camera
enhances materials, lighting, environment
generates a presentation-ready visual

No exports. No rendering settings. No waiting hours.

Just:
upload → choose style → generate

The stack

Nothing exotic. The interesting part is not the stack - it’s how the pieces work together.

Backend

Laravel (API + orchestration)
Postgres (multi-tenant, render tracking, token usage)

Frontend

React + Inertia
simple UI, focused on speed (upload → result)

AI generation

image generation via external APIs (currently experimenting heavily)
prompt engineering is doing most of the heavy lifting

Infra

VPS (Laravel Forge)
no overkill, trying to stay lean

The hard part: making AI behave like an architect

The biggest challenge wasn’t “generate a pretty image”.

It was:

don’t break the architecture

Most AI image tools will happily:

change proportions
move windows
redesign the building

That makes them useless for real workflows.

So the core of the system is actually the prompt framework, not the model.

Core constraints (this took weeks to get right)

Every generation follows strict rules:

preserve exact geometry
preserve camera position
preserve hard surfaces (paths, roads)
do not redesign the building

Then only enhance:

lighting
materials
environment

Styles are harder than they look

I thought styles would be easy.

They’re not.
Example: Golden hour

Most models go straight into:

orange Instagram sunset in Bali

What I needed was:

subtle, European, architectural light

So styles became controlled systems, not just “vibes”.

Current styles

Clean daylight (default, most reliable)
Golden hour (recently fixed, less saturated)
Overcast / Nordic
Evening / blue hour
Artistic (marker, watercolor, concept)

Each one has its own prompt logic.

UX decisions (what actually matters)

I’m trying to remove every possible friction point.

Key decisions:

no file exports required → screenshot is enough
no settings → just styles
no queue UI → simple “processing” state
pay-as-you-go (no subscription)

What I’m working on now

improving daylight realism (less “CGI”, more “photo”)
refining golden hour (already toned down)
adding more artistic styles
improving landing page conversion

If you want to check it out:

👉 quickarchviz

Final thought

This is one of those products where:

the tech is not the hardest part
the UX is not the hardest part

The hardest part is:

making AI respect reality

Still working on that.

If you’re building something in this space or fighting similar issues (especially consistency / prompting / positioning), curious what worked for you 👇

DEV Community: Maciek Chmura