Key Takeaways:

• ‍Real-time is the new standard. Real-time Path Tracing demos proved instant, high-quality rendering is no longer optional.‍
• Designs in real-world context. Cesium integration let architects evaluate scale and site conditions instantly.‍
• AI made practical. D5 AI automated materials, lighting, and post-processing to cut repetitive work.‍
• Part of the ecosystem. Partnerships with HP and LiveSync for Revit showed seamless integration.

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This September, Nashville’s Music City Center hosted thousands of architects, designers, engineers, and makers for Autodesk University 2025 (AU 2025): The Design & Make Conference—Autodesk’s flagship annual event. While Autodesk took the spotlight with sweeping announcements on AI and “neural CAD,” the expo floor buzzed with innovation from partners and exhibitors. Among them, D5 Render drew significant attention with hands-on demos that put speed, realism, and AI-assisted workflows front and center.

Pushing Visualization Forward

At Booth #311, D5 showcased its latest real-time visualization capabilities. Visitors experienced real-time path tracing, allowing cinematic-quality lighting and reflections to appear instantly. For attendees accustomed to slower, multi-step rendering pipelines, this immediacy was a revelation.

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One of the booth’s highlights was the Cesium integration, which lets designers embed geospatially accurate 3D context directly into their projects. By pairing D5’s rendering power with Cesium’s world-scale data, architects and planners could instantly evaluate design scale, environmental conditions, and atmosphere within real-world settings.

AI as a Design Partner

Artificial Intelligence was one of the dominant themes at AU 2025, especially in the AEC space. With Autodesk showcasing AI embedded across its platforms, the stage was perfectly set for D5 to highlight its own AI-powered features.

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From generating full PBR materials with AI PBR Material Snap to synchronizing real-world lighting through AI Atmosphere Match and finishing scenes with AI post-processing, D5 showed how AI can remove repetitive steps and give designers faster, more accurate visualization results.

D5 + HP Workstation

At AU 2025, D5 continued its collaboration with HP, showcasing a dedicated D5 workstation at the HP booth. Attendees were able to experience D5 Render running on HP’s high-performance hardware, a setup that underscored how powerful computing resources enhance real-time rendering performance and stability. This ongoing partnership highlights the importance of matching advanced software with equally advanced hardware for professional visualization workflows.

D5 + AU: A Continuing Story

D5’s appearance in Nashville built on its growing presence at Autodesk University.
In previous years, AU featured “D5: Assisting Your Design Journey Every Step of the Way” led by KPF. That class showed how D5, LiveSync, and AI tools accelerate workflows from concept to delivery.

Another highlight was “The Ultimate Architecture Workflow with D5 Render and AI” led by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). The team demonstrated how D5 is integrated into their daily design process.

Together, these sessions showed how leading firms use D5 to bring speed and clarity to complex projects.

At AU 2025, the focus shifted to the expo floor, where D5 demonstrated how its LiveSync integration with workflows like SketchUp and Revit—showing models updating in real time, ready for instant visualization. For Autodesk users, it was proof that D5 fits seamlessly into the tools they already rely on, without adding friction.

Why It Mattered

AU 2025 was more than an expo—it was proof that real-time visualization is becoming a core expectation in the design process. While Autodesk pushed the frontier of AI-driven design in its keynote, we showed how that vision is already tangible in everyday workflows.

With tools like D5 Render, architects and designers don’t just imagine their projects—they can experience them instantly, refine them collaboratively, and deliver them with confidence.

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