3D Rendering Software

I have engaged a small builder for the construction of my shack. Being a smaller company they do not have the in-house capability of producing 3D renders.

As my block is on a corner I do want to make the effort to ensure my shack complements the neighborhood character. I'm willing to have a crack at the renders myself. I did do professional CAD work 25+ years ago and currently use Fusion360 as a hobbyist for my 3D printing design work so I'm up for the challenge of learning new software.

What software do people recommend for producing good quality 3D external renders ?

I'm by no means an expert, but I taught myself SketchUp because it is a free app/program. It was what I used to create our house plans and provided adequate 3D models for my own use. The official plans were properly drawn though.

Cheers, I will take a look.

I've used Sweet Home 3D which I've found useful for giving us rough ideas of how things will look and work together.

Lumion, but its $4k a year

work in Revit, export to Lumion, apply finishes, apply filters done

I did take a look at Lumion and V-Ray but for a once off project I couldn't justify the cost or time to become proficient. I'm finding that Fusion 360 does a fairly reasonable job. You can import actual photos of finishes and apply those as appearances. Certainly nowhere near the quality of photo realistic renders but probably good enough for my for purpose.

Someone already mentioned SketchUp which is used fairly widely in Architecture.
The "Make" version is free and it's pretty simple to learn.

You can reassign textures and use ArchiCad textures to get a better look.

Haven't used Fusion, but I do hear good things about it.

Blender is also very popular & free. Seems to be very powerful, but again I haven't used it.