Frequently asked questions

Who is Lumina Forge for?

Lumina Forge is a B2B platform built for design and lighting-supply-chain professionals: architects, interior designers, lighting design studios, FF&E specifiers, contract manufacturers, hospitality groups and luxury hotels, high-end residential developers and premium retail. It is the tool for anyone who needs to move from an intuition to a truly manufacturable bespoke lighting fixture, backed by industrial-grade technical documentation. Unlike a simple image generator, Lumina Forge does not stop at the render: it also builds the engineering (dimensioned CAD, bill of materials, 3D model) that is consistent with that image, so concept and production spec remain a single thing. In practice it replaces the long "brief → moodboard → quote → technical drawing → prototype" chain with one governed flow, cutting time, cost and misunderstandings with the manufacturer.

What concrete benefit do I get as an architect or interior designer?

From a text brief or a reference image you get a complete industrial project in minutes: photorealistic renders to present to the client, dimensioned CAD in millimetres, a navigable 3D model, a bill of materials (BOM) and a datasheet. This lets you show the client something credible and "sellable" at the very first meeting, without waiting weeks for a supplier, and to iterate variants in real time while still in the creative phase. Once the direction is approved, the same object — with the same proportions and finishes — moves into engineering and production, removing the usual gap between "the image shown" and "the piece delivered". The result is a competitive edge: you close bespoke projects faster, with clearer margins and much lower technical risk.

Do I need to know CAD or 3D software to use it?

No. You describe the project in natural language — function, style, materials, dimensions — or upload a reference image, and the platform automatically builds professional-grade CAD, a 3D model and a bill of materials. Technical skill remains an advantage, because more precise prompts produce more faithful output, but it is not a prerequisite: the whole point is to lower the barrier between creative idea and executable project. The files produced (STEP, STL, DXF, PDF) are in industry-standard formats, so a technician or a manufacturer can open, verify and edit them in the software they already use. In other words, non-technical users get usable results immediately, and technical users get a solid starting point to refine.

How do I generate my first project?

Enter a prompt with function, style, materials and main dimensions, or upload a clean reference image; pick the fixture type and start generation. In minutes you get the photorealistic renders, the dimensioned CAD, the 3D model and the bill of materials, all consistent with each other because they derive from the same internal product model. The practical advice is to work progressively: first validate the geometric coherence of the concept, then move to engineering and export — this avoids unnecessary retries and keeps renders and technical outputs aligned. If the first attempt does not convince you, do not restart from scratch: adjust a single aspect of the prompt (a finish, a proportion) and regenerate.

What are the three generation modes?

You can start from a detailed prompt, a generic prompt, or the image alone (photo-only), depending on how defined your brief already is. The detailed prompt gives you maximum control over shape, materials and dimensions; the generic prompt is ideal for exploration when you want the AI to propose; photo-only is for when you already have a strong visual reference and want to replicate its language. The key point is that all three paths converge on the same final coherence between render, CAD and 3D: the starting point changes, not the industrial quality of the outcome. Many professionals use the generic mode to explore, then switch to the detailed mode to lock the final version.

How do I explore variants without losing the design identity?

Save approved concepts to Portfolio, your working library with cross-device continuity, so you always have a stable point to return to. The method that works best is to keep structural elements fixed — proportions, material family, formal language — and change one block per iteration: finish first, then diffuser, then support. This keeps every revision traceable and comparable, and prevents the object from "drifting" into a different product between one variant and the next. This approach is especially useful when working on a product family or a coordinated collection.

What exactly does a complete project produce?

Each project generates a coherent, complete set: studio and in-context render images, an A4 CAD drawing with millimetre dimensions and a bill of materials (BOM), a 3D model and a PDF datasheet. The renders serve presentation and sales; the dimensioned CAD and the BOM serve quoting and fabrication; the 3D serves volumetric verification and scene placement. All of these outputs come from the same product "mother model", so they are not separate deliverables that risk diverging, but different views of the same industrial object. It is a package designed to carry the project from idea to production without intermediate manual rework.

How does the Engineering step work and how do I download the files?

After you validate the concept, the Engineering step builds the 3D model and the technical outputs from the confirmed geometry. From the project you download the files in the formats that fit your purpose: GLB for the 3D viewer and presentations, STL and STEP for CAD/CNC and prototyping, DXF for the 2D drawing and the datasheet in PDF for documentation. STEP in particular is the "solid" format, importable and editable in professional software (SolidWorks, Autodesk), useful to anyone who has to work on the engineering or send it to manufacturing. Every file is one click away, so you can immediately share the required level of detail with the manufacturer or the client.

Do I receive emails for the project stages?

Yes. The platform sends email notifications at the key stages — generation ready, engineering complete, files available — so you can follow progress without staying on the page. This is especially useful for more complex projects (chandeliers, articulated geometries) where some computation stages take longer to process. The emails also act as a chronological record of the work: you know when each stage was produced, which is handy for managing clients and collaborators. In short, you can launch a generation and go back to other work, knowing you will be notified as soon as there is a result.

How do you guarantee coherence between render, CAD and 3D model?

An internal coherence engine locks proportions, materials and finishes across the render, the dimensioned drawing and the 3D model, verifying them along the pipeline. The principle is simple but decisive: what the client sees in the render must match what goes to production, with no gap between the "sales image" and the "technical specification". That is why the platform does not generate the three outputs independently, but derives them from the same model and applies automatic identity and proportion checks before delivery. It is exactly this coherence that makes the project usable for real production, not just for presentation.

How do I write a professional prompt?

Structure the prompt in four short, ordered blocks: function (what it is and where it goes), form/style (language and silhouette), materials (finishes and material families), constraints (dimensions and requirements). Use technical but concise wording, and avoid conflicting requests: if you have priorities, state them in order — geometry first, finish second, atmosphere third. The more specific the prompt is about the elements that must stay unchanged, the more faithful the result; leave freedom where you want the AI to propose. A well-structured 4-line prompt performs better than a long, confused paragraph.

Why can the result differ from the reference image?

The reference guides the model but is not copied pixel by pixel: technical constraints, perspective, the prompt text and the coherence checks that make the object truly manufacturable all come into play. A reference image is often a photograph with its own light and angle, while the output must be a coherent product in 3D and in CAD: some reinterpretation is therefore natural and necessary. For higher fidelity use clean, well-lit images, avoid collages or photos with multiple objects, and explicitly state in the prompt the elements that must stay identical. If a detail is non-negotiable, naming it in the prompt is worth more than hoping it will be inferred from the photo.

How do I improve dimensional accuracy?

Provide explicit, realistic measurements with coherent units (mm or cm), and set the fixture type from the start, so the system begins with a correct scale reference. Avoid overly broad ranges ("between 40 and 120 cm"): a clean value reduces drift between one generation and the next and makes results more predictable. If you work on a product family, keep fixed dimensional baselines for shared elements, so variants stay comparable and consistent across the catalogue. Dimensional accuracy, together with material coherence, is what makes the bill of materials and the CAD reliable for quoting.

How much does Lumina Forge cost?

The Professional Program includes the BASE plan (€99/month, 15 projects per month, or €2,990/year) and the ADVANCE plan (€139/month, 50 projects per month, or €2,990/year), plus a free trial of 3 complete projects in the first 30 days, with no commitment. The free trial lets you evaluate the whole flow — renders, CAD, 3D, BOM, PDF — before any financial decision. Prices are also available in USD and GBP with an updated exchange rate, useful for international studios and clients. There are no in-app payments: plan activation happens via email confirmation, transparently.

How do the development and production agreements work?

Each project includes an NDA and LightinUp SRL production exclusivity: you receive the full design package, while the industrialization and physical production of the fixture are handled by LightinUp. It is the model that pairs the AI design tool with a real Made-in-Italy artisanal-industrial supply chain, with expertise in brass, steel, crystal, blown glass, technical fabrics, marble and fine woods. In practice you are not just buying software that outputs files: you get access to a path that carries the project to the finished piece, with a single party responsible for quality. This protects both your design (via NDA) and the production outcome, because the manufacturer is the same party that knows the platform and its outputs.

Are there benefits or convention codes?

Yes: dedicated convention codes are available for architects and studios in major cities (Milan, Rome, London and others), designed for those who work continuously on bespoke projects. These codes grant reserved access conditions to the Professional Program and are activated via email confirmation, with no in-app payment. The goal is to build long-term relationships with professionals who bring volume and recurrence, not isolated transactions. If you fit these profiles, it is worth requesting the convention before subscribing to a standard plan.

Are my projects public automatically?

No. A project stays in your private area until it is explicitly promoted: publishing is governed by a dedicated administrative workflow and is never automatic. This means you can explore, iterate and archive concepts without any fear that they become visible to third parties. Sharing happens only when you decide to bring a project into the public channels provided by the platform. It is a design choice made to protect the confidentiality typical of professional commissioned work.

How are privacy, NDA and cross-device continuity handled?

With authenticated access your key data syncs in cloud and stays aligned across desktop and mobile, so you find Studio and Portfolio consistent on every device. The NDA associated with projects protects your designs throughout the process, from generation to eventual production. For teams we recommend named accounts, avoiding shared credentials, internal naming conventions and a validation checklist before any publishing. These practices, together with approved-version traceability, keep the work secure even when several people collaborate on the same catalogue.