Dear LE, a few impressions:

Interesting project. Renovations/additions to existing buildings can be challenging. Sometimes the solution is obvious, and sometimes it's "oh, crap, what am I gonna do with this?"

I would lose the blue glass in the refurb model - it looks cartoonish. Try a gray colored glass. For added effect, put drapes/blinds behind them to make it look more real. Swap out your green pool water with blue water (algae makes water look green; blue water will look clean and inviting)

The area enclosing the pool seems chaotic to me. There is a lot going on. I don't see any unifying design element or materials. Part of it could be the textures you are using, too.

I don't think the idea of the slate ribbon is "too bold" - perhaps that can be the unifying element, with the slate paving flowing into the pool court and elsewhere? (just a thought)

You have a large glass window on your addition, and just outside that window is... a wall? What's up with that? Who wants to look out a window and see a wall?

That large lawn area to the left of the pool court appears as left over space, and isn't engaged with the house or the other two site areas (pool and area off the addition).

How disappointing...when I glanced at the title, I thought it read brassiere interior! Oh, well....nice rendering. If there is one thing that I think could be improved is that it the arrangement of the chairs and barstools are too perfectly aligned; it doesn't look natural.

@daniel said:

How about two hands holding a LEGO model of the Radcliffe Camera, with a bird resting atop it with its wings spread out?

I'm sorry, I overlooked pbacot's suggestion - the hands should belong to a Native American sitting on the roof of a pueblo. If you insist, he can be in Solo's chair which is on top of the pueblo; but at that point people might think you are just showing off.

How about two hands holding a LEGO model of the Radcliffe Camera, with a bird resting atop it with its wings spread out?

On the Eldorado Stone website, uner the Trade Community tab, they offers some seamless textures. If one of these doesn't work, you might try StoneCAD, a free program that offers lots of seamless stone textures. Just Google StoneCAD.

The Radcliffe Camera

Very nice. Not too sure about the boards extending over the roof of the garage: those boards aren't going to be weather tight, so there would have to be a primary roof underneath, yet the boards would have to be attached to it somehow. Looks like a long-term maintenance problem.

@frederik said:

It's always exciting to see a good looking model on the catwalk...

She was probably trying to chew gum at the same time.

Your choices of rendering programs available seems countless, with just as many opinions as to which one is best. It would behoove you to peruse the Extensions & Applications Discussions forum to learn about which programs are available, and to ask pertinent questions.

Personally, I've been experimenting with LumenRT and have been pleased with the results.

When 2013 was released, Trimble announced that those upgrading from SU8 to SU2013 would pay the reduced upgrade price; if you didn't upgrade from SU8, and in the future decided to upgrade to later versions (SU2014 or SU2015, for instance), you'd pay the full price.

I believe they also made some changes in the programming that aren't readily apparent to the user. Also, some of the icons in the toolbars, and the layout of the toolbars, have changed and take some getting used to.

I upgraded to 2013 to take advantage of the reduced upgrade cost, but learned on a very large model, the shadows do not work (memory problem, I assume - I got the endless blue circle); but they worked on the same model in SU8.

You might look in he plug-ins thread; I think there is a plug-in that will do that.

If not, orthogonal projection views should work for you. Depending on your design's configuration, you might have to deconstruct it to get orthogonal views of all the walls.

Have you tried 3D Warehouse?

They look great, Twan, but I like the color saturation in the second image over the third.

Perfection.

@pbacot said:

Set a table with umbrella-and I'm there! so cool! Is this your January destination?

I'll take mine on that upper balcony. Can probably see the harbor from there.

As long as you can sit facing AWAY from the y-fronts hanging on the clothes line!

Another great rendering, John.

Interesting contemporary design, Jo Ann. The exterior views look good (very realistic grass!). In your kitchen view, however, you have the same woodgrain used throughout, and it is all running in the same direction, and it doesn't look realistic.

Very nice, Jason. That recessed handrail is a nice detail.

I have a model that is up to 12,053,494 edges; 5,279,186 faces; 2,987 groups; 182 component definitions; and 13,873 component instances. All SU, no proxies. The computer is starting to lag, however, and I have to turn layers off to do any editing.

Beautiful design and renderings.