Projects: organise your design and client feedback

Video transcript

Let’s bring your client brief, images, materials, specifications and feedback together in a Maquete project. For this example, I’m organising the living room we’ve been developing in our rendering tutorials. Open Projects and select New project. Give it a clear name. I’m calling this one Living room renovation. You can also choose a source image from your render history or upload one from your computer. This is optional, so you can create the project first and add an image later. Select Create project. Inside the project, you can edit the name, add a description and change the source image. I’m adding a short description of the room and the materials I want to use. Let’s start with Client briefing, where you can collect the information behind the design. Select Create briefing and choose Interior. Open Preview / Edit briefing to check the questions before sharing it. You can skip sections you don’t need and add style-reference images with short labels. Copy the client link and send it to your client. They can complete the briefing in their browser, explaining their spaces, preferences, routines and requirements. Once they submit it, open the responses to review their answers. Select Generate executive summary if you want Maquete to summarise the brief. You can also download a PDF or reopen the briefing so the client can update their answers. Use Create render to open Guided render with the submitted brief attached. Back in the project, let’s bring in our views. Under Images, select Add image. Choose a previous render or upload an image from your computer. I’m adding our original living-room render and another camera angle of the same space. When you finish a render elsewhere in Maquete, you can also add it to this project from the result screen. Give each image a useful name, such as Main living-room view or View towards the windows. Use the drag handle to arrange the images in the order you want. For a project with several spaces, select Add room. I’m creating a room called Living room. Use the Room dropdown on each image to assign it. These rooms are also available when you organise your specification tables. If a project contains a 360-degree panorama, you can open it and drag to look around. Here, I’m showing a separate panorama example, then returning to our living-room project. Next, let’s look at Project materials. Materials you explicitly specify in renders associated with this project can appear here automatically. You can also select Add material to choose a saved material, browse Maquete’s materials, upload a reference photograph, or specify a solid colour and finish. For this example, I’m keeping the light-oak floor reference with the project. If it’s already listed, there’s no need to add it again. You can remove materials that no longer belong in your specification. Now let’s turn our views into a presentation. Select New presentation. Maquete creates a starting deck from the project’s renders. Give it a title, then edit the slides. Use Add slide to choose a layout, such as a full image, image with text, two images, or a text slide. For this example, I’m placing the two living-room views together and adding a short explanation of the materials. You can add text and images, move and resize them, crop an image, change the background, and reorder the slides. Changes save automatically. When it’s ready, select Share and copy the link. Use Present to open the slideshow, or download a PDF. When you want feedback on specific views, return to the project, go to Client review and select Start client review. Choose the exact views you want the client to review. Add a title and a short message explaining what you want them to check. You can enter reviewers’ names and email addresses to send personal review links. Or leave the reviewers empty to create an open link you can copy and share yourself. If you’re still preparing the review, choose Save draft. When you’re ready, select Send for review. The review keeps the image versions selected for that round, so later project updates don’t silently replace what the client was asked to approve. Let’s open the client’s view. They can move between the images, approve a view, request a change, or leave a comment. For a specific detail, they can place a pin on the image and explain what needs attention. For example, our client is asking for dark walnut flooring. Back in the project, open the review to read the feedback. You can reply to comments, resolve them when they’re addressed, or dismiss a request that won’t be taken forward. To prepare an edit, select the relevant comments for one view and choose Create revision. This opens Adjust with the image and the selected feedback. Review the instruction and the proposed edit before applying it. When the result is ready, check the revised floor and the surrounding details. The revision is added as a new version of the same project image, and the selected feedback is resolved. Open Version history to compare the earlier versions. You can restore a previous version if needed, then return to the revised design. You can also select Update and choose a replacement manually without losing the earlier versions. Then create a New review with the updated views and send the next round. The earlier review remains available with its original versions and feedback. Once a round is approved, you can also create a presentation from that review to use those exact approved views. Now let’s organise the furniture, products and costs behind the design. Under Specifications and costs, choose Equipment schedule. This gives you a ready-made table you can use for furniture, lighting and other products, with images, descriptions, suppliers, quantities and prices. For this example, I’m creating a furniture schedule and calling it Living room furniture. You can paste a product page into Add a product from a link. Maquete attempts to fill in the available product details and image. Review what comes back, then complete or correct the fields yourself. I’m adding two lounge chairs, assigning them to Living room, and entering their quantity and unit price. You can also add a row manually, enter a description and supplier, attach a product image, and include a link. Here, I’m adding a side table. Choose the currency for the schedule. I’m using example prices in US dollars for this demonstration. The price total takes the quantities into account. To customise the table, select Add column and choose the type of information you need: text, a number, currency, a link, an image or a file. For example, I’m adding a file column and uploading a demonstration specification sheet. You can rename a column in its heading, drag its handle to reorder it, and drag the edge to resize it. Remove rows or columns you no longer need. Switch between Table and Schedule to see the information in different layouts. Changes save automatically. Check that Saved appears before leaving. When you’re ready to share the schedule, open Export and choose a PDF document, PNG image or CSV. If you prefer to build your own table, return to Specifications and costs and choose Custom schedule. For a visual summary of the design direction, return to the project and select Create moodboard. Choose Image collage for a composition of furniture, colours and references, or Real material board for a visual arrangement of physical-looking material samples. Maquete uses images already saved in the project as the starting references. Choose the format, resolution and background, then select Create moodboard. The result is saved automatically in the project, and you can download it. If you’re working with colleagues, open Team. Enter their email address, choose Viewer or Editor, and select Invite. Viewer access lets them see the project. Editor access requires a paid Maquete account, either through their own subscription or membership of an active paid team. Projects shared with you appear under Shared with me. Finally, use Activity to review recent project events, including renders, feedback, briefing submissions and presentation visits. Use Download zip when you want to download the project’s images together. On the Projects page, search helps you find a project. The Client review dashboard shows which projects are waiting for feedback, need changes, are ready to resend, or have been approved. When a project is finished, select Archive to move it out of your active list. You can find it under Archived and unarchive it later. Start with one project, collect the brief, develop your views, and keep the presentation, specifications and client decisions together as the work progresses.