Choice of engine/library for architectural visualization

Development Architectural and Design Visualization
1

I need to implement a cross-platform program for editing architectural models in 3D. I am trying to decide which library/engine to use. Two of the choices I have in mind are: (A) Unreal Engine. (B) Qt with Ogre 3D library.

Some of the pros and cons that come to my mind regarding these two choices are:

(1) What I am developing is not a game. So, some of the things that come with Unreal Engine are irrelevant for my needs. For example, I don’t see much use for the Unreal Editor. So, I am wondering whether there will be any penalty in terms of unnecessary bloat in the size of the executable or any performance hit.
(2) I will be using the Unreal Engine mainly for its cross-platform 3D rendering capabilities. Ogre library will provide some of that. But, since Unreal Engine is backed by a commercial company, I think the renderer is likely to be better maintained.
(3) I could use the audio component of Unreal Engine. But, QtAudio is there as well. So, seems like there is no clear advantage in that regard?
(4) Since it is an editing application, I foresee a need for a lot of GUI elements such as menus, dialogs etc. Would it be easier to do them in Qt instead of Unreal Engine or is it about the same?
(5) My program will act as a client and will need to communicate with a server to get the latest architectural components, their prices etc. Does either choice have a clear upper hand relative to the other regarding the extent of support (i.e., classes/code to reduce our development time) for such client server communication?

I would appreciate your thoughts and suggestions.
Thank you!

2

Unreal Editor is necessary to make anything with UE4.

What do you mean by cross-platform 3D rendering? Unreal supports Windows, Mac, and Linux and can communicate with each other over a network, but they can’t combine power to render the same image like you might with 3ds Max+Vray

What are your requirements for what you’re wanting to do? UE4 is designed to be very easy to use and give good graphical results, but it requires some pretty powerful hardware. If you plan on running your application on low-end machines then something besides UE4 might be better for you.

Overall, for making some kind of architectural design app I think UE4 would be easier to develop with, but like I said that’s if the target hardware is capable of running it.

3

My guess is that op want to make something like the mclaren configurator with tablet controls but for architecture. It’s possible and you can make it all with 1 software and with blueprints.