Gone are the times when architects, manufacturers, and industrial designers used drafting tables to sketch their designs. CAD (computer-aided design) came into the light a long time ago, completely changing their workflow.

After a while, 3D CAD hit the scene, taking over 2D CAD and allowing architects, video game developers, filmmakers, and manufacturers to become much more efficient and innovative. It has become the most viable option for outstanding designs, as it opens the door to much greater design freedom.

Here are the most important differences between 2D CAD plans and 3D rendering plans that made the latter spike in popularity and take over the world.

2D CAD Limitations

2D CAD has worked for so many years since advent, and many professionals still rely on it. It’s still very effective for basic functionalities, but it does have several limitations that 3D CAD completely eliminates.

Inefficiency and Errors

When creating a design with 2D CAD, you simply can’t capture all the little details as you can in 3D. You can’t rotate an object to see all its complexities and make adjustments to the design. You can only go back and forth for hours or days until you finally correct all the errors that may exist.

If there are lots of people on the project, this process of checking for errors, and making sure you capture everything that’s necessary for the design, becomes even more challenging.

Complicated Design Changes

When you need to make changes to your 2D design, you need to be ready to recreate it a dozen times to ensure you capture all the details. You need to recreate a lot of drawings, which isn’t a very easy process. With 3D CAD, you can make the changes to all your files in almost an instant.

Physical Prototypes

When working with 3D CAD plans, you don’t need to make physical prototypes to test your designs. This isn’t the case with 2D, which requires prototypes. 2D drawings simply can’t accurately show you whether or not your designs may have some issues.

The Benefits of 3D Rendering

3D rendering completely eliminates all the limitations of 2D CAD plans, and brings plenty more benefits along, which is precisely why it took over the world by storm.

Easy Design Changes and Seamless Evaluations

With 3D rendering, you can make as many changes to your designs as you want in significantly less time than you would when working with 2D CAD plans. You don’t need to draw anything, as you can make the changes using your 3D software with just a few simple clicks. It reduces errors and saves you a lot of time.

Moreover, it speeds up evaluations and the client approval process. This is because your clients may not fully understand your 2D drawings, so it can be difficult to explain all the design complexities to them. This drags out the approval process and also increases costs.

With 3D rendering, you can effectively convey every little detail in your designs, making it easy even for laypeople to understand everything you’re trying to communicate. You don’t need to go back and forth to make certain changes, as there are absolutely no hurdles to jump over.

Photorealistic Renderings

3D rendering allows you to create photorealistic renderings that are simply not possible with 2D CAD. 2D doesn’t allow you to capture every little detail of every single side of an object, which becomes a real piece of cake with 3D rendering.

You can create 3D visualizations with photorealistic effects that will truly bring your designs to life. For instance, if you’re designing a building, 3D rendering can help you display every single part of that building, both the interior and exterior, including textures, lighting, and furnishings.

Your clients can visualize exactly how the building will look like once it’s fully constructed since you will be able to show them the most intricate details. The same goes for any other product, such as games, vehicles, medical equipment, and much more.

2D CAD plans also can’t comprehensibly showcase how the end product will actually function in the real world. With 3D rendering, you can create 3D animations to show how your designs will perform once their construction process is completed. This also saves you quite a lot of time and saves your clients a lot of money that they would need to invest in potential future repairs.

Making the Most of 3D Printing

With 3D renderings at your disposal, you don’t have to rely on physical prototyping based on your 2D drawings. You don’t need to worry about your prototypes not being accurate, and requiring more prototypes for evaluating new design changes.

You can simply rely on 3D modeling and rendering to create accurate and safe designs for a wide variety of products. Then, you can make the most of 3D printing technology, and create outstanding physical prototypes for product testing and functionality evaluations.

Without a 3D model, you can’t use 3D printing, so 2D drawings are completely obsolete if you want to print 3D prototypes. A 3D print is simply not comprehensible without a 3D model, and it’s not possible to create a 3D visualization without it.

This is one of the most essential reasons why 3D rendering has become so popular since 3D printing is now used by professionals in almost every industry.

3D rendering enables you to perfectly demonstrate your designs and all their functionalities in a way that 2D drawings never could. It empowers you to make much better decisions, and create significantly better designs. It allows you to bring your ideas to life before they are literally brought to life, and that’s why 3D rendering will only continue to rise in popularity for many years to come.