The current limitations we have with SoftPlan and profiles is that they all work in a linear fashion. The profile is lofted along the wall path either horizontally or vertically, but it is not currently possible to display any other complex profiles with intermediate breaks such as cedar shake (it is possible, but every row of shake would need to be an individual strip of material and assigned an offset profile to mimic the shake look, but it would not look as organic as naturally layered shake and is also advanced/time consuming for the average user). What I think is the most practical solution is to provide support for more 3D rendering material types like displacement, bump maps, etc. that plenty of online catalogs provide these individual materials for each texture (usually with a cost for commercial use but a lot are free). An easy trick for me with siding is to select a stock wood material you like (pay attention to the wood grain) and then Surface Edit the material and enable 'Display Color' in the Texture/Color. Afterwards, go to your lighting and adjust the Relief Depth. This will allow you to assign a material with any color of your choice but retain the base texture of the source which helps with realism. Secondly, if you have a product that is 1/2" lap siding, I sometimes use 1" with the siding profile so that the product has more physical depth in 3D. Although if you do still want to stay to the true size of the material (which I would recommend), I would mess around with your lighting more to make sure all the shadows catch all the edges of the siding. Easy ways to do this is in 3D Mode, adding a Direct Light gives me flexibility with my camera angles. Some profiles may also not perform the best if you have 'Smoothing' enabled in your Surface Edit material properties under 'Options'. Toggling this simple setting on/off after material changes and adjusting the lighting can solve rendering issues (typically for exterior materials I keep smoothing checked off). Lastly, I would highly recommend using profiles if you are hesitant. I can't see myself not using them for basic siding, batten, log, etc. Other complex materials that require physically based material ID's (a good site is Poliigon.com), I am hoping for official support sooner than later, so I don't have to always export to a software like Lumion.
