Start with your brief

GetFacade designs from your brief as much as from your photo. The clearer you describe what you want, the more your designs fit your house — and the less you have to fix afterwards. A vague brief leaves too much to guesswork; a clear one gets you there almost in a single shot. Fill in the "Brief" field in your own words — the more specific, the better.

Say what the building is, what it should become, and how you'll use it — the whole intent up front. This is the single biggest thing you can do for a great result. The slow path is to generate a design and then change it one step at a time ("add a window", "remove the railing", "replace this"); each small edit chips away at quality, and it can take many tries to get there. One clear brief usually gets a strong result the first time.

• Building new: "Two storeys — a garage and a small shop on the ground floor, a balcony and living rooms above"
• Renovating for resale: "Make it more modern and attractive — replace the siding with plaster and add decorative trim"
• Extending: "Add a second floor and expand the living area"

When the photo is just a frame — bare columns, slabs, unfinished walls — there's almost nothing to read from the image. Your description is the only thing that defines what the finished house should be: what each level is for, the overall style, the number of floors. The less the photo shows, the more your brief decides the outcome.

It helps to name the materials the house is made of when they aren't obvious from the photo — for example, 'aerated concrete walls clad in vinyl siding, metal-tile roof'. Also specify your construction region, so designs respect local architectural styles, building norms, and climate.

The Brief is where everything about your building comes together, not just the written description. Add it all from one place — tap add and upload your files, and GetFacade sorts each one by type. It reads them together, so the more you gather here, the better it understands both where you start and where you want to go.

• Views — photos of your house from different sides; the designs are built on these
• Documents — drawings, measurements, plans, or specs of the building as it is today (PDF or text; only the text is read)
• References — images of the look you want: styles, colors, and materials you like
• Sketches — draw on a photo to point things out or show what you mean (see [Sketches](topic:sketches))

Everything lives in the Brief, but it plays two roles. Some uploads show your building as it is right now — views, plans, measurements, and documents of the current house. References show the look you want to achieve — styles, colors, and materials you like. You no longer keep them in separate places: add it all in the Brief from the same button, and GetFacade tells your starting point and your goal apart.

When you add a file, GetFacade recognizes what it is — a view, a document, a reference, or a sketch — and files it in the right place automatically. If it ever gets one wrong, change the type by hand from the file's card. For a reference you can also choose what to take from it — its style, its colors, or its materials — so your designs pick it up automatically every time you generate.