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Enhancing Your Designs with AI (Photorealistic Rendering)

The AI Enhancement feature allows you to take any 3D rendering or room mockups created in your DesignFiles account and transform it into a photorealistic, presentation-ready image.

Shanna JM avatar
Written by Shanna JM
Updated this week

These enhanced visuals can elevate your client presentations, bring your ideas to life, and give clients a more realistic view of the design direction.

What the AI Enhancement Feature Does

AI Enhancements work by improving:

  • Lighting

  • Materials and textures

  • Depth, shadows, and realism

  • Overall photographic quality

It enhances the design you created, meaning it starts with your existing layout, products, colors, and styling, and turns it into a polished, realistic visual.


Before You Begin: What AI Can (and Cannot) Do

To help you get the best results (and avoid wasting credits), here are a few important points to keep in mind:
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✔ AI works best with full rooms, not disconnected items

AI is designed to enhance room mockups or 3D renderings.
If you upload a board with loose furniture items scattered around the canvas, AI will not rearrange or design the room for you. It will simply enhance what is shown.
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✔ AI does not “remember” previous prompts

Each enhancement is treated as a brand-new request.
This means your prompt must include everything you want the AI to do for that specific render.
(Example: If you previously asked for “bright daylight” and now want to change only the rug, you still need to re-include the daylight instruction.)

If you want additional guidance on writing prompts, you can refer to our Prompting Guide in the Help Center.
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✔ AI cannot turn SketchUp-style drawings into full photorealism

If your base rendering is highly stylized (pencil outlines, sketch effects, cartoon shading), the AI will enhance the image, but the result will retain the overall style. It cannot fully convert a stylized drawing into a detailed architectural photo.
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✔ AI enhances your design — it does not design for you

It enhances your design.
If you make updates to the mood board (new products, new colors, changes to furniture), be sure to save your edits and generate a new render so the enhanced image matches your updated design.


Now Let's Begin! - How to Generate an AI-Enhanced Render

1. Open any 3D rendering or room mockup

Navigate to any mood board or 3D rendering in your project.


2. Click “New Enhancement”

Directly beneath your design, you’ll see the AI Enhancement panel.
Click New Enhancement to begin.


3. Add a prompt

In the prompt field, describe the type of rendering you want.
Prompts can be simple to start, you can refine them after viewing your results.

Example:

“Create a photorealistic rendering of this room. Keep all textures the same and fill the space with lots of natural daylight.”


4. Choose your output quality

You can choose between:

Standard

  • Faster enhancement

  • Great for early concepts or quick iterations

  • Improved realism with minimal wait time

Plus

  • Higher resolution

  • More detailed lighting

  • More accurate textures

  • Greater prompt accuracy

  • Ideal for final presentations

Hover over the tooltip to see differences at a glance.


5. Click “Enhance with AI”

The system will begin processing your image.
You’ll see a visual animation while the render is being created.


6. Review your enhanced image

Once complete, your photorealistic result will appear.

If you like the result, click Use This Render in Project to replace your existing mood board image.

Your product list, client commenting options, and approval tools will all remain intact.
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Using the “Plus” Enhancement Option

If you want additional realism, higher resolution, or more nuanced lighting and material detail, try the Plus option.

Keep in mind that Plus renders take slightly longer due to the larger, more detailed output size.


Viewing Your Previous AI Renders

All enhancements you generate are saved in your project history.

To view them:

  1. Open the design

  2. Click History

  3. Browse all previously created AI renders

  4. Select any one to apply or download

You can also revert back to your original mood board at any time.


AI Credits: How They Work

At launch, every account receives 48 free credits so you can try out the feature immediately.

  • Each AI enhancement uses credits

  • Each credit costs 1 cent when purchasing more

  • Only the Admin on a team account can buy credits

  • Credits can be shared among all team members

To purchase more credits:

  1. Click Add Credits in the AI panel

  2. Enter the number of credits you want

  3. Checkout using the card on your account


If You Update Your Design, Re-Render Your Image

If your client requests changes (new lighting, rug options, different furniture, etc.) and you update your mood board:

  1. Save the updated mood board

  2. Open AI Enhancements

  3. Generate a new photorealistic rendering

This ensures your enhanced image matches your updated design.


Learn More About Prompting

For guidance on writing strong prompts, visit:

Help Center → AI Prompting Guide

This article includes examples, phrasing recommendations, and tips for getting accurate results.


Watch the Video Tutorial Below

To see the entire process in action, check out the walkthrough video below.
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