TECHNAL has launched a visualisation tool for architects and specifiers to produce 2D and 3D drawings and 3D renders for aluminium façade designs.
TechSketch was developed after consultation with top architects to enable building designers to sketch out initial concepts quickly and easily, incorporating Technal’s curtain walling, low-rise glazing, brise soleil sunshading, sloped glazing, and window and door infills.
It allows specifiers to create simple renders at the early design stages of a project to see what a façade will look like internally and externally, and so proportions, configurations and options such as opening vents in both open and closed positions can be assessed and developed.
To back up the launch, the software can be requested via the Technal website for a free 30-day trial. Specifiers can also create their own personal libraries of 2D project drawings.
TechSketch is designed to link with architectural CAD systems so design drawings can be imported and exported.
Future developments of the software tool will be the addition of Technal’s latest window and door products for use as stand-alone items, and the facility for the information for a façade design to be exported into other Technal software for calculating energy performance and for fabricators to estimate and cost a glazing project.
Ian Smith, business manager at Technal, said: “We wanted to apply simple sketching software to façade design, to provide specifiers with a design tool that would be really easy to work with, that would save time in the production of 2D drawings and 3D renders and that would demonstrate the unrivalled design flexibility of our aluminium façade products.
“In fact 80 per cent of drawings can be produced in TechSketch in less than 10 minutes. The feedback we’ve had from the architects we have consulted with as part of the software development has been extremely positive, and we hope the tool will prove to be an invaluable part of the initial design process.
“TechSketch should also simplify specification, because it has been developed so that it will link in with TechDesign, the package used by our fabricators to produce more detailed design calculations, estimating and cross sections.”
