The quickest Revit model for rendering is not the whole project file. It's a dedicated 3D view with only the categories I need, cut to a section box, exported to FBX at Fine detail, plus the plain .rvt with its version number written in the email. Send that pair and I can usually start lighting on day one instead of spending it untangling linked models, annotation and 40,000 hidden furniture families.
I render in Blender and Cycles, not inside Revit, so everything you send goes through an export. Most of the lost time on a Revit job happens in that step. Here's what I ask architects to do, and why each item saves real hours.
Make a 3D view just for the render
Don't export from {3D}. Duplicate it and call it something like RENDER_EXPORT. Then strip it.
In Visibility/Graphics, switch off everything that isn't geometry the camera will see: annotation, grids, levels, scope boxes, section marks, point clouds, mass, analytical models, MEP inside the walls, structural framing that's buried in floor build-ups. Leave walls, floors, roofs, ceilings, doors, windows, curtain walls, stairs, railings, casework and site topography if it's an exterior.
Turn on a section box and pull it in tight. If I'm rendering the kitchen and living room, I don't need the plant room, the garage or the neighbouring plots. A 3D view of a single-family house trimmed this way often exports at 30 to 80 MB. The same house exported from the default view, with every link and family loaded, can easily pass 400 MB, and most of that is stuff I'll delete.
Set Detail Level to Fine before export.
Medium drops the mullion profiles, door handles and window frame depth that make a facade read as real at 4000 px, and those are the edges that catch the low sun in an exterior shot.
FBX, IFC or the .rvt itself?
I'll take any of them, but they're not equal. FBX from that dedicated view is the most useful single file for me. Geometry comes through grouped by family and type, materials arrive with their Revit names, and section boxes and hidden categories are respected. The downsides are known: curved walls come through as faceted surfaces, materials arrive flat (texture paths usually break), and RPC trees and people turn into odd boxes or vanish entirely.
IFC is fine for structure and gives me cleaner object classes, but materials are often thinner than in FBX and curtain walls sometimes split strangely. I use it as a backup.
The .rvt is what I fall back to when something in the FBX doesn't make sense, because I can check the family, the material or the phase myself. Always tell me the Revit year (2023, 2024, 2025). A file saved in a newer version can't be opened in an older one, and an "it won't open" email costs us both half a day.
Five things that cost a day if you skip them
- Linked models. If the facade, structure or garden design lives in linked files, either bind them or send them alongside with the same view set up. Half the exterior jobs that stall do so because a link wasn't loaded during export.
- Phases and design options. Tell me which phase and which option is the one to render. Otherwise I'll faithfully render the demolished wall that's still visible in "Existing".
- Material names. "Material 47" and "Default Wall" mean I'll guess. "Oak flooring, natural oil" and "Render, off-white RAL 9010" mean I won't.
- Saved cameras. If you've already got perspective views you like, leave them in the model. I can match their position and focal length, which beats any written description of the angle.
- Heavy downloaded families. Manufacturer furniture and sanitaryware are often modelled at absurd density. If I'll replace the sofa anyway, hide it and tell me which product it is.
What gets rebuilt anyway
Even a clean Revit export isn't a render-ready scene, and it's better you know that before the quote. Revit models what a building is. A render needs what a building looks like. Those aren't the same set of details, are they?
I rebuild almost all materials: wood grain direction, tile scale and grout width, plaster roughness, how glass reflects. Revit's own render appearances don't carry over in a useful way. Furniture, plants, curtains, bedding, lamps and decor come from my own library or get modelled to match the products you specify. Window reveals, skirting, shadow gaps and edge bevels are often missing or simplified in the model, and they're exactly what catches light.
So the Revit model gives me accurate geometry, dimensions and openings. That's the hard part to get right and the part I don't want to redraw from PDFs. The rest is my work, and it's in the price.
A real export that went sideways
Last spring an architect sent me a Revit file for a two-storey house exterior: one .rvt, about 290 MB, exported FBX attached. The FBX had walls, roof and windows, but no terrace, no planting and no neighbouring garage that was meant to appear in the left third of the frame. All three lived in linked models that weren't loaded when they exported.
Nobody did anything wrong, exactly. Revit just doesn't warn you. One short call, a rebind, a second export, and we were fine.
But it cost a day.
That job is why I now ask, every time, whether the project uses links, and why the checklist above starts there for exteriors. You can see the kind of result the extra hour of export prep leads to in the modern cabin exterior study.
What I'd actually send if I were the architect
If I were on your side of the email, I'd send exactly four things. The FBX from a stripped RENDER_EXPORT view at Fine detail. The .rvt with the version in the file name (House_A_R2024.rvt). A PDF of plans and elevations with the camera positions sketched on in red. And a short material list or mood board, even if it's just six photos and product links.
That's it. No sheets, no schedules, no 200-page drawing set. The common mistake is the opposite: sending everything because it feels safer. It isn't. A huge model means I spend the first day finding what matters, and you pay for that day either in time or in the quote. A tight export with a clear brief gets you to the first preview faster, and my target for that is 3 business days after a complete brief.
One counter-intuitive point. A rougher Revit model with correct openings and heights is more useful to me than a beautifully detailed one with the wrong ceiling height. I can add detail all day. I can't guess that the living room is 2.7 m and not 2.5 m without asking you.
Prices and the next step
Revit models don't change the published pricing. An interior view starts from EUR 250, an exterior from EUR 450, and three or more renders in one order get 10% off the render subtotal, with two consolidated revision rounds included. A good export mostly changes how fast we get to the first preview and how few questions I need to ask on the way.
The full breakdown is on the architectural rendering prices page. If it's a single room, the interior rendering services page shows what's in a typical view, and for whole buildings the exterior rendering services page does the same. If your office mostly works in SketchUp instead, I've written up what gets rebuilt from a SketchUp model too.
Send the export and a plan through the quote form and I'll come back with a non-binding quote and any questions about the model before you commit to anything.