Archviz & AI news: week of 9 November 2026
A short roundup of the software and AI news from the past week that matters to UK architects, planners and interior designers. Each item links to the original announcement, with a note on what it means in day-to-day practice.
SketchUp models can now land in Revit as native elements
10 November 2026 · Source: Trimble newsroom
At its Dimensions conference, Trimble announced the SketchUp Importer for Revit. It reads the tags and classes on SketchUp components and maps them to Revit categories, so they arrive as native architectural elements that can be edited, scheduled and documented rather than as one imported lump. Trimble says it is expected in November 2026 at no extra cost for Pro Advanced Workflows and Studio subscribers. The same announcement added Trimble Connect Design Hub (Labs), which keeps designer and client messages alongside the model, and a Spatial Preview extension that streams a live SketchUp model to Apple Vision Pro.
Why it matters for architects: practices that sketch in SketchUp and document in Revit could stop rebuilding the concept model from scratch. It will only work as well as the tagging, so a short modelling standard for early-stage SketchUp files is worth agreeing now.
Photoshop 28 adds Relight and smarter object removal
10 November 2026 · Sources: Adobe Help Center, CG Channel
The November 2026 release of Photoshop (version 28.0) introduces Relight, which lets you add up to three light sources to an image and adjust their position, colour, intensity and diffusion on the canvas. The Remove tool can now take out an object together with related elements such as its shadow and reflection, and Generative Recompose adapts an image to a new aspect ratio by repositioning the subject and extending the background. Generative restyle turns a Prompt to edit result into a layer with sliders, and Quick Compare shows before and after views. CG Channel reports that Relight uses 30 generative credits per generation.
Why it matters for architects: these tools are aimed at photographs, but they will be used on renders during post-production. For planning images, any generative lighting or recomposition should be checked against the drawings, because it can quietly change what the scheme looks like.
Blender 5.3 brings native Gaussian splats
10 November 2026 · Source: Blender Foundation
Blender 5.3 can import 3D Gaussian splats from PLY and SPZ files, edit them with Geometry Nodes, and relight and render them in Workbench, EEVEE and Cycles. Cycles adds dispersion and anisotropic roughness for glass, and on NVIDIA GPUs a new DLSS viewport denoiser gives a cleaner preview faster. Vulkan is now the default graphics backend on Windows (except ARM) and Linux, and a new optional project system makes Blender aware of files beyond the open .blend. Blender remains free and open source.
Why it matters for architects: splat support is arriving across tools at once (Corona 16 added it last week), which makes scanned site context a realistic option for setting a proposal in its real surroundings. Better glass dispersion also helps facade and interior close-ups look more convincing.
V-Ray 7, update 5 puts an AI assistant and MCP into V-Ray
5 November 2026 · Sources: Chaos blog, AEC Magazine
Chaos has released V-Ray 7, update 5 for 3ds Max, SketchUp and Rhino. A built-in AI Assistant gives in-app guidance, suggests Cosmos assets, matches scene lighting to a reference image with Sky Match, and scores renders with Render Critique. New MCP servers for V-Ray, Cosmos and Anima let agents such as Claude and ChatGPT inspect scenes and adjust supported settings; V-Ray MCP covers SketchUp and Rhino, with third-party MCP servers compatible with V-Ray for 3ds Max. Non-AI changes include a native Spotlight in 3ds Max, a new Cylinder Light for linear fittings, GPU rendering on AMD cards and relightable Gaussian splats in Vantage.
Why it matters for architects: the Cylinder Light and better spotlights are practical gains for interiors with linear and track lighting. The AI tools are best treated as helpers for setup and checking, since the final lighting and camera choices still decide whether an image reads well.
Quixel Megascans are free again, now with AI training rights
5 November 2026 · Sources: Quixel, CG Channel
Epic's Quixel is making the full Megascans library free on its Fab marketplace, and has updated the terms for all Quixel assets so they can be used to train AI models. CG Channel puts the library at over 23,000 scanned assets and reports that all listings were due to be free by 12 November 2026. Anyone who bought Megascans or a Quixel bundle on or after 1 January 2025 will be refunded to their Epic Account balance.
Why it matters for architects: a large, free library of scanned plants, ground surfaces and materials makes landscape and street scenes more realistic at no cost. As with any library, check the licence on Fab for the use you have in mind before relying on it for client work.
Need visuals that show the real design?
AI tools are improving quickly, but planning submissions and marketing still need images that match the drawings. See our recent work, or get in touch to talk through your next project.
