A 3D view of your scheme costs from £235 per view at Fixed Fee Plans. We build it from the same drawing model that produced your plans and elevations, so the roof, the windows and the brick on the image are the roof, windows and brick on the drawings, not an artist's idea of them.
The usual reason to want one is not the council. It is the person who has to say yes: a partner who cannot read an elevation, a neighbour who will lose a view, a lender, a builder who will price from a picture. A view answers "what will it look like?" faster than any set of drawings, and the honest ones show the thing as it is, including what you may not like.
Does a planning application need a 3D view?
No. Article 7(1)(c) of the Development Management Procedure Order requires a plan identifying the land and any other plans, drawings and information necessary to describe the development. The planning practice guidance says plans and drawings must be drawn to an identified scale, and that plans must show north. A render has no scale, so it cannot stand in for them.
What a view can do is help the people reading the drawings. A planning application is publicised by site notice displayed for at least 21 days, or by serving notice on adjoining owners and occupiers, under article 15(5), and the neighbours who look at it see drawings. If you have spoken to them first with a picture in hand, there may be fewer surprises. For a design and access statement, where one is needed, a view is a natural way to show how the design takes its context into account.
What does "from the drawing model" mean?
It means the view is generated, not drawn by hand. We model your scheme in three dimensions to produce the plans, sections and elevations, and the 3D view is another view of the same model. Change a window on the drawing and the view changes with it. That is the main protection against a render that quietly flatters: it cannot show a window bigger than the elevation does.
It also means cost stays low. The price covers one view from one viewpoint, built from a model that exists for the drawings. If your scheme is drawn by us, the model is already there. If someone else drew it, send us the plans and we say what the view would cost, because we may have to build the model first.
What will the view show, and what will it not?
The shape of the extension, its materials and glazing, and its position against the existing house and the boundaries, from the angle you choose. It does not show the weather, people, furniture or planting unless you ask and the price covers it, and it makes no promise that it matches the finished building to the millimetre. A view is an aid to understanding, and we say so on the image.
We will not make a view that misleads. If the most flattering angle hides a neighbour's window that looks onto your extension, we say so and offer the angle a neighbour would use. A council officer who sees a render that flatters the scheme discounts the whole application, and your neighbours remember it. Choosing the viewpoint honestly is half of what you are paying for.
What does it cost, and what does it not cover?
Our fee is from £235 per view, and further views of the same scheme are quoted in writing. It does not include the drawings, which are our complete planning drawing service at £645 drawings + £150 survey (£795 total) or proposed drawings on their own, nor does it include an animation or a virtual walk-through. For an interior, our interior layout design shows rooms in plan with furniture at scale. If you are unsure the project needs an application at all, the permitted development checker is free.
Frequently asked questions
Can I submit a 3D render with my planning application?
You can, as an extra, but it does not replace the scaled plans and elevations that article 7 requires. Councils decide on the drawings, so the view is for people, not for validation.
How accurate is the view?
It is built from the drawing model, so the proportions, materials and glazing match the plans and elevations. It is not a survey and it is not a promise about the finished building to the millimetre.
How much does a 3D visualisation cost?
Our fee is from £235 per view, and it is a floor. We confirm in writing from your drawings if the model needs work first.
Can you show the extension from my neighbour's window?
Yes, if you want it. We would rather show what a neighbour will see than hide it, and the view is more useful, and more believable, when it does.