Well, we wanted something out of the ordinary and sticky with no acronyms. Plus, we figure design is like an onion - you're constantly peeling away the layers to get at the core.

The tagline of "Ideas You Touch" came about by realizing most people struggle to get 3D. So, we thought ideas could be touched as a scale model or as a rendering/virtual tour using a mouse click.

Finally, since we started in 3D printing originally, we thought it would be cool to have an iteration of the technology in the name - layer by layer is added up to create a great form - kinda what we're shooting to do with the company as well.

One year in southwest Montana will have you hooked, if you appreciate the outdoors.

We have a great architecture program at Montana State University that we partner with for workshops and interns. Surprisingly there is quite a bit of a tech hub here as well, which allows to pluck some pretty good talent.

Plus, we've all of us have lived in major cities at one time in our lives and appreciate living in an area where we can be on our snowboards, on a river, or at the climbing crag in 20 minutes.

As the world goes more virtual, we find ourselves being able to have the best of both worlds - great clients, challenging and creative work, and a cool mountain town to live in.

Our goal is to grow organically and look for interesting and innovative projects. By working with companies like Google, we've been inspired to be a little weird and take nurturing creativity seriously.

Everything else seems to take care of itself we've found.

We all realize we could be CAD monkeys at a big firm or stuck at a large tech company.

But what's the fun in that?

Instead, we envision a company with flexible hours, where dogs are welcome, and you can go for a trail run when you need a break.

No corporate BS or stuffy dress codes allowed at the 'Onion.

It's helpful to have some architectural design drawings in CAD format, if possible. These can be either 2D or 3D. Next, we consider the final physical scale of the model. Common commercial or residential projects might be done at 1/16" = 1' or 1/8" = 1', while large topography site models can be done at scales of 1" = 1200'. (Don't worry if you're unfamiliar with scale - we're happy to walk you through different options)

Next, we consider the audience and what you need the model to communicate:

Is this a sales presentation model?
A massing model for form study?
A "gift" model for an important client?

From this info we know what type of quality is needed and what fabrication method makes the most sense.

Very carefully and with gallons of coffee! Kidding aside, we have a 3D printer, laser cutter, and CNC mill we use for taking the electronic design data and creating the major forms of a physical scale models.

However, it's not all machines at Sweet Onion. We put a big emphasis on traditional artisan model-making techniques. Matching paint colors and hand painting material details is something machines aren't that good at yet.

Our models look better with this process and nothing goes out the door without a thorough 6" test - where we inspect all elements to make sure it looks good when your face is 6" from a surface.

Yes. We ship study models ranging from a shoe box size to large 8' x 4' topography models in plywood crates.

There is an art to designing the crate and packing the model to come through in one piece. On the other end, we'll show up and install the model in its new home, if requested by our clients.

We strive to offset the carbon footprint from shipping using Green Tags from Bonneville Environmental Foundation and always choose biodegradable packing materials as well.

In short, renderings are an artistic take on blueprints - usually in 3D. They're built using a variety of powerful 3D software programs. These architectural illustrations are typically done for projects not yet built using what the architect has designed to date in CAD.

People struggle to see in 3D. So to communicate ideas and to help a nontechnical audience better understand a potential design concept renderings are used.

Also, renderings play well into marketing efforts to investors, potential clients, and approval boards. In addition, they prove to enormously helpful as a visualization tool for the design team to accurately see and communicate their ideas beyond 2 dimensions.

Finally, they are extremely powerful for securing building permits, doing sun/shadow studies based on a site's geo-location, comparing multiple design ideas, and getting people excited about a potential project.

First, we build a 3d digital model of the project. This starts out as a simple mass model with walls and roofs extruded from floor plans and elevations. We shoot these over to our clients for immediate form study and feedback. From here we build out entrances, columns, posts, beams, fascia and soffit detail, decks, railings, etc. - all the important details.

A site model of the topography is also generated starting with the terrain surface derived from the contours. Sidewalks, curbs, and streets are built onto the terrain and passed around to the architecture and civil engineering firm.

At this point colors, textures, and lighting are added and suddenly the model starts to look like a more complete photo-realistic scene. Detailing continues until the desired level of realism is reached based on our client's input. Meanwhile viewpoints for still renderings ("snapshots") or animation camera paths are explored with the design team.

Finally the scene is populated with people and the landscaping (which is often extremely key to a nice finished rendering).

We collaborate constantly with our clients throughout the entire rendering process with our mantra of "no surprises".

The more design information we have the better. We're happy to sign NDA's (nondisclosure agreements) prior to reviewing any designs.

Formal architectural drawings are typically the most valuable form of information a client can provide.

But we also get some doozies ranging from napkin sketches to electronic CAD files in either 2D or full 3D. Obviously, the more complete the drawings, the easier and faster we can work.

We also understand that renderings come early in the design phase. We're quite used to working with drawings that are very much "a work in progress" and subject to change.

Our approach is to roll with these changes and continue to provide the media for moving the conversation forward.

Our goal is usability. Forget the flashy elements with tiny fonts. We build websites that are easy to navigate and yet still communicate the brand's message. We want to show a firm's portfolio in an engaging way but also not clutter up a page with distracting elements.

We also know that we live in a social world and making it easy for a site visitor to connect with a company whether it be on YouTube, Flickr, Twitter or a Facebook is a must.

All with an eye on helping our clients rank in search engines because without good traffic the best designed website is useless.

In short - a very cool way to experience a space. We take rendering and CAD data and make it viewable through a web browser. See an example here of our downtown in Bozeman, Montana. (Be sure to click and drag around in the main window for a 360' view)

We've developed some tricks for taking what typically is only viewable in a CAD program and made it able to be experienced with no special software. These virtual tours are great for wowing investors, putting up on leasing pages, and getting a sense of what different vantage points look like.

Sure. We build websites with tools that will let you blog, swap photos and text, and update a portfolio with PDF's, 3D PDF's, and project specs.

You don't have to know any code - just click, browse, upload, and hit "Save". It's live on your website instantly.