Controlled AI rendering for architecture

How to change one thing in an architectural render, such as a façade material, and keep the camera, the massing and the openings as they are: one named change, what to keep, a second check and a receipt.

In the beta today: Ply’s render engine and Vel’s review are still being finished. Until they land, a render in the beta returns your source image unchanged, and Vel is a stand-in reviewer that answers from a fixed script: its decisions there say nothing about the image. Credits there are test credits.

Why control matters in an architectural render

A render for a client has to show the design as it is. An image model asked for a new façade material can also move the camera, change the massing, or add, move or drop a window. The picture can look good and still show a building that is not the one you designed.

Controlled rendering works the other way round. You start from an image of the design as you approved it, name one change, and say what must stay. The result is then compared with that image.

How Plyvel keeps the rest

  • Your approved image is the baseline. Every view starts from an approved source, and every render of the view is compared with it.
  • One change, named. A request has four parts: the change, what it applies to, what to make it, and what to keep.
  • Keep exactly, and May vary. You tick what must not move, such as Camera, Massing and Openings, and what can change freely, such as Sky.
  • A second system checks the first. Ply makes the render. On Verified Renders and Portfolio Renders, Vel compares the result with the approved source and your request. It never edits the image.
  • A person decides. You compare the result with the approved source yourself, and approve the one you keep.

What you kept is written on the Render Receipt, with what Vel found. The method says why Plyvel works this way.

A material change, step by step

  1. Create a project and drop an image of the design: PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 30 MB. It becomes the first view’s approved source.
  2. Open the request under the image, and choose Change: Material.
  3. Applies to: name the element as you would on a drawing, such as Main façade.
  4. Make it: the result, such as Warm limestone.
  5. Keep exactly: Camera, Massing and Openings are ticked to start with. Tick Balconies or Roofline too if they must not move. Under May vary, Sky is ticked.
  6. Review the request. Ply says it back in one sentence, such as “I’ll change the material of the main façade to warm limestone”, and you can edit any part.
  7. Choose the render type and read its price before you start. A Verified Render costs 10 credits and is reviewed by Vel; a Ply Draft costs 2 and is not.
  8. Compare the result with the approved source: Slider, Side by side, Blink or Difference. Difference shows every changed pixel in red, so a change away from the façade stands out. It is not a geometry check.
  9. Approve the result you keep, and download it with its receipt.

One request is one change. For a second material, start a new request from the result, or start again from the approved source. How branches work.

In the app’s Help: Writing a clear request

What it does not promise

Protection is a request and a check, not a promise: compare the result yourself before you use it.

You can also mark regions on the source: an area that may change, or one that must stay as it is.

Regions are PROVISIONAL. Plyvel records them with the request and lists them in its receipt. The render engine does not use them yet, and Vel does not check them yet. A result can still change outside a change region or inside a protected one.

Vel’s review is visual. Checking an AI render against your design says what it can see, and what it cannot.

In the app’s Help: How Ply protects architecture

Updated 18 October 2026.