Maxon Expands Redshift for Architects With Official Archicad Support Redshift 2027.0 adds support for Graphisoft Archicad, with enhanced ray-traced previews, custom material creation and lighting controls that take architectural visualization from design review to cinematic presentation.

BAD HOMBURG, Germany – October 14, 2026 – Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects and visualization, today announced Redshift 2027.0 for Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC), expanding its architectural visualization platform with official support for Graphisoft Archicad, alongside existing integrations with Vectorworks and Autodesk Revit.

The Redshift for Architects release advances Maxon’s vision for AEC beyond just rendering, giving architects a connected path from interactive design review through high-end visualization, animation and simulation. Architects can visualize and refine designs directly within their preferred BIM environment, then move projects into Cinema 4D when they need deeper creative control, advanced animation, simulation or cinematic-quality presentation, without needing to rebuild the project through a disconnected export workflow.

Redshift 2027.0 further expands what architects can do directly inside the visualization environment. Updates to Redshift rendering capabilities improve interactive previews with faster shader compilation, refraction, transparent shadows and ray-traced depth of field, while new Custom Material Creation and a dedicated Light Manager give architects more direct control over the appearance and presentation of their designs.

“Architectural visualization increasingly has to do more than show what a building will look like; it must help communicate an idea, tell a story and, in many cases, become a finished marketing asset in its own right,” said Nicolas Burtnyk, Executive Vice President of Rendering at Maxon. “Redshift for Architects provides a path from fast visual feedback all the way through to the kind of high-end rendering, animation and simulation workflows used in film and advertising, within an environment that keeps them in their creative flow.”

Redshift for Architects is designed to keep creative workflows connected, from the BIM or CAD application to client presentations and marketing assets.

Architects can work interactively inside Vectorworks, Revit, and now Archicad and, when the project calls for more, move into Cinema 4D for advanced modeling, animation, simulation and production rendering. Rather than exporting into an unrelated visualization pipeline or handing a model off to another team to be reconstructed, the workflow maintains a direct connection into Maxon’s broader professional 3D environment.

The result is a visualization pipeline that can grow with the project: from an early design decision to a client review, presentation image, animated walkthrough, or high-end marketing asset.

Redshift's real-time rendering capabilities receive a meaningful upgrade in the 2027.0 release, giving architects faster and more trustworthy visual feedback while they design. New support for ray-traced refraction and ray-traced depth of field improves how glass, transparency and camera effects are represented in the live preview.

The addition of ray-traced refraction is especially important for architectural visualization, where glass and transparent materials play a central role in design and building construction. Unlike many real-time rendering approaches that rely on approximations for refraction, Redshift for Architects can now trace those interactions directly, helping users preview more realistic light behavior without waiting for a final production render.

Together, these enhancements make Redshift for Architects a powerful tool for design review and presentation, reducing the gap between what architects see during the creative process and what they expect from a finished image. These capabilities serve both sides of the architectural visualization process: fast, reliable feedback while a design is evolving, and the rendering quality needed when the image itself becomes the final product.

Architects can now create custom materials from scratch directly inside Redshift using physically based rendering controls, rather than relying only on materials converted from the host BIM application or pulled from the Redshift Library, giving designers more control when a specific material is not already available in the model or library.

Whether refining surface response for a presentation image or matching a particular finish, architects can build the material they need without leaving Redshift or starting from a predefined asset. The new workflow expands Redshift beyond material conversion and selection, providing greater control over shaping the final visual appearance of a project while staying within the same visualization environment. 

Architects will now have dedicated controls for creating and managing supplemental Redshift lights directly inside the visualization workflow with Light Manager. These lights remain separate from the host CAD model and its construction data, allowing users to shape the look of a final image or presentation without altering the architectural lighting scheme itself.

Users can place and aim lights visually in the Redshift viewport, then fine-tune properties such as intensity and color temperature with fully ray-traced feedback. This makes it easier to add depth, atmosphere and emphasis to a scene, whether highlighting a key design feature, directing the viewer’s attention, or creating a more polished presentation image.

The result is greater separation between design lighting and presentation lighting: the CAD model can continue to represent the fixtures and illumination intended for the built environment, while Redshift gives architects the artistic freedom to enhance the final visual story.

With the Redshift 2027.0 release, Redshift for Archicad becomes commercially available, giving Archicad users the same supported Redshift experience already available to Vectorworks and Revit users.

Redshift for Archicad is available on Windows and macOS and supports the new Archicad 30.

To learn more, visit: https://help.maxon.net/rva/en-us/Content/html/RS_Overview.html.

To schedule a press briefing and demo of Redshift for Architects, contact [email protected].