## The short answer
Install the OctopusWave add-in for Revit, click **Connect**, then **Send View** for the view you are in or **Send Views** to pick several. They land in your OctopusWave canvas, and one click on **Render all** renders them in the same style. Your Revit model is never changed. The add-in only reads the view you send.
## Why render from a Revit view at all
Revit is where the building is documented, and its views are already the images a client wants to see: the 3D view of the street corner, the section through the atrium, the south elevation. The usual way to make them presentable is to rebuild the scene in another program. That takes hours the early design phase does not have.
Sending the view itself is faster, and it keeps the building honest: what you see in the Revit view is what the render is made from.
## Step 1: install the add-in
There is one download for Revit 2026 and one for Revit 2027, both on the [plugins page](/plugins/revit). Close Revit, then:
1. Press Windows + R, paste `%APPDATA%\Autodesk\Revit\Addins` and open the 2026 or 2027 folder (create it if it is missing).
2. Copy `OctopusWaveRevit.addin` and the `OctopusWave` folder from the zip into it.
3. Start Revit and click **Always Load** when it asks.
An **OctopusWave** tab appears in the ribbon.
## Step 2: connect once
On the OctopusWave tab, click **Connect**. Your browser opens with a short code. Sign in, approve the code, then click OK in Revit. No password is stored in Revit, and **Disconnect** removes the connection again.
## Step 3: send the views you need
The **Link** panel has the buttons you will use:
- **Send View** sends the active view.
- **Send Views** opens a list of the views in the model, 3D views, plans, sections, elevations and drafting views, and sends the ones you tick.
- **Receive Model** brings an existing-building model back from OctopusWave (see step 5).
- **OctopusWave Panel** opens your project in the browser, already signed in, with render, light and material options, the deck, the film, the documents and Octo.
A tip that saves time: name your views before you send them. The view name is the name you see in the canvas, so "Entrance elevation" is easier to find than "Elevation 3".
## Step 4: render in the canvas
Open your canvas and add a **Revit Link** node. The views you sent are in it. Pick a style, or give it a reference image of the look you want, and use **Render all** to render every view in the same style. Rendering the whole set together matters: a plan, a section and a street view from the same project should look like they belong to the same building and the same light.
If you want more control, wire a view into an **Advanced Render** node and choose the model and the settings yourself. The canvas is the same one you use for everything else in OctopusWave, so a render from Revit can go straight into a video, a 360 panorama or a presentation.
## Step 5: an existing building, back into Revit
Renovation and extension projects start with a building you do not have as a model. In OctopusWave, turn a photo of the building into an **Existing building** model, then use **Send to Revit** and click **Receive Model** on the Revit tab. The building arrives to scale with separate parts: walls, windows, roof, floors and doors. It is a starting point to design against, not a survey. The size comes from the one dimension you give it, so check a second dimension on site before you design on it.
## What it will not do
- It will not edit your Revit model or write anything into your project.
- It will not show sides of the building you did not send. Send the view you need.
- It will not turn a render into Revit geometry. Receive Model works from the existing-building route, not from a finished render.
- It does not support Revit versions before 2026 yet.
## Try it
New accounts get five free renders from the add-in, so you can send a real project and judge the result yourself. After that, Model Link with Revit, Rhino and SketchUp is part of the [Studio plan](/pricing), or you can pay per render with credits and no subscription.