The designs themselves, if done in 3D, are built following “Building Information Modeling”.
Packages like: Revit, ArchiCad
Rendering, as per the above mention, has 3ds Max as a very strong player.
As for whether they are different to design packages. They are, and quite a whole bit too!
But then again, a mouse is very different from a skyscraper too, ain’t it 
Very complex to explain in a post, look up “BIM” and you’ll be well on your way to many detailed articles!