Modelur for SketchUp puts you in control of conceptual 3D masterplanning. It crunches the numbers in the background so that you can focus on the outcome of your design.
Modelur is an easy-to-use, yet very powerful parametric urban design software tool, developed to help you quickly create conceptual urban massing. It calculates key urban control parameters on the fly (e.g. FAR or required number of parking lots), delivering important information while design is still evolving. This way it fosters well-informed decision making during the earliest stages, when design decisions have the highest impact.
Modelur has been a game-changer to study large and complex program mixes in some of the largest and most complex projects in distinct urban settings. Having real-time numbers and data throughout the modeling process takes the burden of calculating areas and helps us meet our clients’ requirements faster.
Modelur represents an outstanding contribution to the development of operational tools for more creative and, at the same time, more responsible and transparent work in urban planning and design. We can now make well-informed decisions and create harmonized spatial interventions faster than ever.
Warm in the Winter likes Modelur because it gives a quick and easy to use tool to keep track of the sizes and square meters of our architectural and urban design projects. The seamless integration with SketchUp allows us to quickly build volumes and do a number of studies of our projects that are beneficial to us and our clients.
Modelur was built with one goal in mind – to provide the designers with an easy to use parametric urban design tool everyone can use. This results in carefully selected set of functionalities that help you achieve more accurate results in less than 1/2 of time needed (...) when compared to traditional methods.
Modelur is the first application that incorporates an all-new design method, which creates an interactive solution space that adapts each building to already known zoning rules such as allowed building heights or land uses. This rewards you with instant feedback, making it super easy to see how zoning rules actually affect each building at specific location and making sure that each building complies with (municipality’s) zoning rules at the same time.
Thanks to the increased productivity, you can quickly create, compare and evaluate different design alternatives and scenarios. Having both, quantitative and qualitative (visual 3D) data at your hands when making decisions, you can easily validate different design proposals against the requirements and make sure the best solution is chosen for further development.
Modelur continuously calculates key development parameters while you design, empowering you to make well-informed decisions from the onset of your project. At the same time, it also automatically detects if the design is in conflict with zoning rules and constraints. Having all this information at hand helps you make sure the right decisions are made and increases the confidence in your project.
Using Modelur you gain the freedom to focus on conceptual urban design and let the computer crunch the numbers for you, in real-time. Calculated urban parameters can be displayed on screen at all times, empowering you to easily pursue development goals. Each design change is reflected automatically and immediately in numbers.
I first came across Modelur when I was making the calculations for a redevelopment project in the center of Amsterdam. The common practice was to build a 3D model in Sketch-Up for the massing and subsequently to make the calculations in an Excel spreadsheet.
This became very stressful once we needed to compare multiple designs in a short period due to the time spent on doing the calculations as well as making sure they were accurate.
For us, Modelur has changed this part of the design process from being time-consuming and fraught with mistakes, to dynamic, accurate, and quick. By using Modelur, we’ve been able to channel the saved time back into our massing studies. This has improved the overall quality of our designs. We’ve come to call it the ‘Modelur effect.’
With its many simple but powerful tools, Modelur enabled us to make a significant leap forward in most of the projects developed by our urban design department. We can work better and faster. In fact, we have tools to design plots and buildings in a very easy way; we can control our drawing with accuracy and extract surfaces automatically.
Besides, we appreciate an easy deployment for IT people and especially a convivial relationship with the developers that work hard to listen and answer to the expectations of their clients.
Modelur significantly enhances two stages of our urban design workflow and outcome. First, when we are exploring conceptual design and need to understand the possibilities of a site and brief. Using Modelur, we can quickly evaluate different typologies, heights, and urban layouts by comparing what FAR and floor areas we are achieving with each concept.
Second, we highly appreciate Modelur’s real-time connection between design and urban parameters when we are finalizing design proposals. It allows us to fine-tune building volumes and features to get to desired urban qualities and quantities. Since we started using Modelur, we can work a lot faster and be more exact at the same time.
The good news is for sharing and we are so excited to share this really big one with you! 🙂 We've just publicly released the new Modelur 2020 (known also as GIS Release Candidate 1). This fresh Modelur release works with all SketchUp versions from 2017 to 2020. With it, we're introducing a brand new feature that automatically generates building volumes from the Open Street Map data. This allows you…
