Guides
Guides
One question per page, answered in the first lines, with the sources underneath.
- Can I scan a room with my iPhone and get a floor plan?Yes. On iPhone 12 Pro or a newer Pro model, or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later, PlaceAnew measures the room with Apple's LiDAR Scanner while you walk it and draws the floor plan for you: rooms named with their square footage, doors and windows in place. Walk the whole floor in one go, then export a PDF, SVG, DXF or 3D model.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How to estimate materials from a floor planYes, for everything sold by area or length. Take each room's area for flooring and tile, its wall area minus doors and windows for paint and drywall, and its perimeter minus door openings for baseboard, then add a waste allowance, about 10% for most flooring. The plan must be measured, not sketched: a LiDAR scan gives you every room's numbers in one walk.Contractors and estimators, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Homeowners
- Can I create a floor plan with iPhone LiDAR?Yes. The LiDAR Scanner measures the distance to every surface, Apple's RoomPlan turns those measurements into walls, doors, windows and furniture, and PlaceAnew walks it from room to room, so one walk gives the whole floor's plan, not a one-room demo. Apple designs multi-room scanning for single-floor homes up to about 2,000 square feet.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How do I scan an entire house with iPhone LiDAR?Walk it, one floor per scan. Open every interior door, start at the entrance and go room by room along the walls without doubling back; PlaceAnew keeps measuring as you pass through doors and draws the whole floor's plan when you finish. Apple designs multi-room scanning for single floors up to about 2,000 square feet.Architects, Interior designers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Floor plan symbols: what does each one mean?Thick solid lines are walls. A gap with an arc is a door, and the arc shows its swing. Thin lines across a wall are a window; a bare gap is an opening. Fixtures are drawn by shape, appliances by letters such as REF and DW, and dashed outlines hang above the floor.Architects, Interior designers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How do I measure a room with an iPhone?For one distance, use Apple's Measure app: tap a start point, pan to the end and tap again. It works best 2 to 10 feet away and its results are approximate. For the whole room, scan it: on iPhone 12 Pro or a newer Pro model, or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later, PlaceAnew measures every wall, door and window with the LiDAR Scanner as you walk and draws the floor plan with each room's square footage.Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How can I make a floor plan from my phone?Three ways. Scan it: on a LiDAR iPhone Pro or iPad Pro, PlaceAnew measures the rooms as you walk and draws the plan, with room names and square footage. Tap the corners: on phones without LiDAR, AR apps build the outline from corners you mark. Or measure with a tape and draw it in an app, which takes the longest.Architects, Interior designers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Can I export a room scan as a PDF?Yes. In PlaceAnew, tap the share button and pick the PDF report. Page one is the floor plan with each room's name, width by length and area, the overall dimensions and a scale bar; page two has the property summary, the rooms with their areas, the doors and windows, and the furniture. Send it by AirDrop or Mail, or save it to Files.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Can I use an iPhone for as-built drawings? Yes. Here is howYes, for existing-conditions plans of houses and apartments. An iPhone or iPad Pro with LiDAR measures walls, doors, windows and furniture as you walk, and PlaceAnew turns that walk into a floor plan and a DXF for CAD. In a 2026 study, an app on the same Apple RoomPlan technology went from scan to model in 32 minutes, against 20 hours with a laser scanner.Architects, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators
- Design a kitchen from a room scan: scan the room, then design on its real wallsYes. PlaceAnew scans the kitchen with the LiDAR Scanner of an iPhone or iPad Pro and opens its kitchen designer on that scan, with the real walls, doors, windows and appliances. You add base and wall cabinets, counters and appliances, and US cabinets come in 3-inch width steps, so a measured wall turns straight into a cabinet run.Kitchen and bath remodelers, Homeowners, Interior designers
- How to measure square footage with your iPhoneOn an iPhone with a LiDAR Scanner (iPhone 12 Pro or a newer Pro model, or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later), scan the room with a floor plan app such as PlaceAnew: it measures the walls as you walk and shows each room's square footage and the total. Apple's Measure app measures one object or distance at a time, best from 2 to 10 feet away, and length times width only works for rectangular rooms.Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How to create an as-built floor plan, from site walk to CADMeasure what stands there, draw it to scale, and note how it was measured. The fast way: walk the building once with an iPhone or iPad Pro running PlaceAnew, review the plan before you leave, then export a DXF and draw on it in CAD. One scanning vendor puts the manual route at 30-90 minutes on site plus 2-4 hours of CAD redraw for a three-room apartment.Architects, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators
- How to measure a kitchen for new cabinets: one walk, every wall the order needsScan the kitchen: one walk with an iPhone or iPad Pro gives PlaceAnew every wall, door, window and appliance, and its kitchen designer opens on those walls. A cabinet order depends on wall lengths, corners, ceiling height and openings, all in inches. PlaceAnew turns your design into shop drawings for the cabinetmaker.Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Homeowners
- Can a client scan their house for my architecture project?Yes, if the client has a LiDAR iPhone or iPad Pro. They walk their home once with PlaceAnew and send you the measured floor plan as a PDF, a DXF for CAD and a 3D model. Scanning needs no account and stays on their phone until they share it. You size the job before the first visit and spend that visit on design.Architects, Interior designers
- How do I scan a furnished room with iPhone LiDAR?Scan it as it is: no need to move anything. Apple's RoomPlan recognizes 16 kinds of furniture and fixtures, from beds and sofas to cabinets and appliances, and PlaceAnew draws them in the plan and the 3D model. LiDAR cannot see through furniture, so sweep the walls around tall pieces from both sides; a wall that stays hidden is drawn dashed.Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Standard kitchen cabinet sizes: base, wall, tall and corner, in inchesUS base cabinets are 34½ inches tall and 24 inches deep; a 1½-inch countertop puts the counter at 36 inches. Wall cabinets are 12 inches deep, 30, 36 or 42 inches tall in stock lines, and hang 18 inches above the counter. Widths step by 3 inches: 9 to 42 inches in stock lines, 6 to 48 in semi-custom.Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Homeowners
- Designing cabinets from an iPhone LiDAR scan: yes, from layout to shop drawingsYes. An iPhone or iPad Pro LiDAR scan gives you the walls, doors, windows and appliances, and PlaceAnew opens its kitchen designer on them. In a 2026 study, an app on the same Apple RoomPlan technology came within about 5% of a laser scanner's floor area for a whole house. You lay out the cabinets; PlaceAnew makes the shop drawings.Cabinet and furniture makers, Kitchen and bath remodelers
- How to stop going back to site for missing measurementsStop choosing which dimensions to write down on site. Walk the building once with an iPhone or iPad Pro and PlaceAnew: walls, doors, windows, openings and furniture are measured, and a video of the walk is saved and lined up with the plan. When a number is missing at your desk, measure it on the plan or replay the walk instead of driving back.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators
- AI kitchen design from a floor plan: measure first, then let AI show the lookAI can picture a kitchen; it cannot measure one. Give it measured walls and real cabinet sizes first. PlaceAnew scans the room with LiDAR, you place standard cabinets on the measured walls in its kitchen designer, and an AI picture shows that design in the finishes you chose. PlaceAnew's AI tools are being tested with a small group.Homeowners, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers
- How do I measure a room without a tape measure?Pick the tool by the job. A laser distance meter measures one wall at a time from where you stand. A phone's measuring app gives quick approximate lengths. A LiDAR scan measures the whole room at once: on iPhone 12 Pro or a newer Pro model, or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later, PlaceAnew captures every wall, door and window as you walk and draws the floor plan with each room's square footage.Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- What is the best app for existing conditions measurements?For homes and apartments, the best fit is a LiDAR app on an iPhone or iPad Pro that draws the plan on the phone and exports CAD files. PlaceAnew does that in one walk: a measured plan with rooms, doors, windows and furniture, a video of the visit and a DXF. Scanning, plans and exports are free. In a 2026 study, a RoomPlan app took 32 minutes where laser scanning and modelling took 20 hours.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators
- What are as-built drawings? As-built vs record vs existing conditionsAn as-built drawing shows a building as it was actually built: typically the contractor's marked-up construction drawings with every change made in the field. Record drawings are the design professional's clean set at completion. For a remodel of an existing home, what you usually need is neither: it is an existing-conditions drawing, a measured plan of what stands there today.Architects, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Can I get room dimensions from a 3D scan?Yes. A LiDAR room scan measures every wall, door, window and piece of furniture it finds, so the dimensions come with the model. In PlaceAnew you read each room's area and the overall size on the floor plan, any wall, door, window or furniture size in the editor, and the full list, from ceiling height to wall area, in the PDF report.Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- What is an existing conditions survey, and what can an app do?An existing conditions survey records a building as it stands today, so design starts from fact: measured floor plans, ceiling heights, doors and windows, fixtures, furniture and notes on condition. It is not a land survey of property lines. An iPhone or iPad Pro LiDAR scan covers the measured part in one walk: in a 2026 study, an app on Apple RoomPlan took 32 minutes where laser scanning and modelling took 20 hours.Architects, Contractors and estimators
- How to measure a room for furniture, and the way inMeasure the walls, the ceiling height and everything that limits where a piece can stand: doors, windows, radiators, vents and outlets. Then measure the way in, because code guarantees only one door in a home 32 inches wide; the others can be narrower. An iPhone or iPad Pro scan with PlaceAnew records the room, its openings and its furniture in one walk.Interior designers, Homeowners, Cabinet and furniture makers
- Can I scan furniture dimensions with an iPhone?Yes, on an iPhone or iPad Pro with LiDAR. Apple's RoomPlan recognizes sofas, tables, chairs, beds and cabinets and records each as a box with width, depth and height. PlaceAnew scans the whole room, so every piece comes with the walls, doors and windows around it. The scan gives each piece's box, not the curve of an arm or a carved leg.Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Homeowners
- Can AI clean up a scanned floor plan?Yes, and most of the cleanup does not even need AI. PlaceAnew already straightens walls, names rooms from their fixtures and shape, and marks what it could not see. Fix with AI, now in testing with a small group, goes further: it reads the photos from your scan to name rooms and areas, tidy walls and recognize furniture, and marks what it estimated.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How to make a floor plan for a real estate listingScan the home during the listing visit with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad Pro and a floor plan app such as PlaceAnew, check the plan before you leave, then export it and add it to the listing photos. You get room names and sizes the same day, with no measuring service to book.Real estate and property managers
- Can AI automatically name rooms in a floor plan?Yes, in three layers. Apple's RoomPlan recognizes five room types during the scan. PlaceAnew then names every room it can from its fixtures, furniture and shape, such as bathroom, toilet, laundry, office or hallway. Fix with AI, now in testing with a small group, reads the scan's photos for names like WC, closet, entry or TV area / office.Architects, Interior designers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Can I export a floor plan as SVG?Yes. After a scan, tap the share button in PlaceAnew and pick the SVG. You get the floor plan as a vector drawing: walls, rooms, doors, windows, furniture symbols, room names with sizes and areas, the overall dimensions and a scale bar. It stays sharp at any size and opens in Illustrator, Figma, Inkscape or any web browser.Architects, Interior designers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators
- What is a USDZ room scan?A USDZ room scan is the 3D model of a scanned room packed into one file: Apple's format for USD 3D scenes, with their textures inside. It opens in 3D straight from Messages, Mail or Files on an iPhone or iPad. It is for seeing the room, not for drafting; for a measured 2D plan, use a PDF, SVG or DXF.Architects, Interior designers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Homeowners
- Making a real estate floor plan with an iPhoneYes, with iPhone 12 Pro or a newer Pro model, or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later. Their LiDAR Scanner measures walls, doors and windows as you walk, and PlaceAnew draws the floor plan on the phone with every room named and measured, with no upload and no wait. The same scan also exports a PDF report, SVG drawing, DXF for CAD and USDZ 3D model.Real estate and property managers
- Which iPhones have LiDAR for room scanning?Every iPhone Pro and Pro Max from the iPhone 12 Pro through the iPhone 18 Pro has a LiDAR Scanner, by Apple's own list; the standard, Plus, mini, SE, e, Air and Duo models do not. Among iPads, the iPad Pro has it. PlaceAnew runs on iPhone 12 Pro or a newer Pro model, or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- What does Apple RoomPlan detect?RoomPlan detects five kinds of surfaces (walls, doors marked open or closed, windows, openings and floors), 16 kinds of objects from beds and sofas to stoves, toilets and stairs, each as a box with its size, and five room types: living room, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and dining room.Architects, Interior designers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Can RoomPlan scan multiple rooms?Yes. Since iOS 17, RoomPlan can scan room after room in one shared coordinate space and merge them into a single structure. Apple says this works best for single-floor homes up to about 2,000 square feet. PlaceAnew uses it so you walk a whole floor in one scan and get one plan, with every room named and measured.Architects, Interior designers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Can I scan my home once and use it for remodeling, furniture and estimates?Yes. One walk with PlaceAnew on a LiDAR iPhone Pro or iPad Pro gives you a measured floor plan, a 3D model with your furniture and a replay of the walk. Use that one scan to redesign the kitchen in its real walls, check where furniture fits, and send contractors a PDF with room areas, wall area and every opening to price the job from.Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Estimate flooring from an iPhone scan: area, waste and the orderYes. A LiDAR scan on an iPhone or iPad Pro measures every room's floor area in one walk, including L-shaped rooms and hallways that are slow to measure by hand. Take each room's square footage from the plan, add the waste allowance for your flooring, about 10% for most layouts, and round up to whole boxes.Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Does a floor plan show square footage? Which one, and why they differA measured floor plan usually does: each room's area inside the walls, and their total. That total is smaller than the square footage on an appraisal, which is gross living area measured from the outside of the exterior walls, finished and above grade only. Use room areas for flooring and furniture, gross living area for price and appraisal.Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Scan your apartment once and keep every measurementYes. Walk through the apartment once with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad Pro and PlaceAnew saves the floor plan, every room's square footage, each door and window, and a 3D model with your furniture on your phone. Measure any distance on the plan later, and share it as a PDF report, SVG drawing, DXF for CAD and USDZ 3D model.Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How to document a rental unit at move-in: checklist, photos and a measured planWalk every room with a move-in checklist, note each flaw, and photograph every room and every flaw before anything is moved in. California's official tenant guide recommends both the checklist and the pictures. A floor plan scan adds what photos lack: which room and which wall each flaw is on.Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- The floor plan app property managers need: one walk per unit, one record per unitPick one that turns one walk through a unit into a measured plan you can quote turnovers from, keeps a visual record of the unit, and stores it on your own device. PlaceAnew does that with a LiDAR iPhone or iPad Pro: every room's square footage, doors and windows, a 3D model and a video walk, free.Real estate and property managers
- Can a floor plan help size HVAC? What a scan gives a load calculation, and what it doesn'tYes, as the measuring half of a load calculation. A scanned plan gives each room's floor area, the ceiling height, wall lengths and every window and door size. A Manual J calculation also needs what a plan cannot see: insulation, window ratings, air leakage, duct location and local design temperatures. Equipment is then sized from that load, not from square footage.Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Can an iPhone make an accurate floor plan?Yes. An iPhone or iPad Pro with LiDAR draws a measured floor plan as you walk. In a 2026 peer-reviewed study, an app on the same Apple RoomPlan technology found every room in three buildings and matched room shapes to a laser scan, in 32 minutes instead of 20 hours. In our office, every comparable wall came within 2.5 inches.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Can appraisers use a 3D scan for a floor plan?Yes. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide says output from sketching or 3D scanning software must conform to ANSI Z765, and lets a machine-generated floor plan augment the data for a desktop appraisal. The appraiser stays responsible for the result: exterior dimensions, the ceiling-height rules and the square footage math.Real estate and property managers
- Can I use a phone scan for appraisal square footage?Not on its own. For most single-family mortgages the appraiser measures square footage under ANSI Z765, from the outside of the exterior walls. A phone scan measures rooms from the inside, so its total runs smaller. It is still useful: an accurate plan of the rooms, a record of the layout, and a fair check on any number you are given.Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- Do I still need a tape measure if I use LiDAR?Not for measuring the rooms. A LiDAR scan captures every wall, door and window in one walk, so nothing is missed and nothing is redrawn. The tape stays in the truck for what it does best, one line at a time: a steel tape that meets the federal standard is within 1/16 inch over 7 to 30 feet.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
- Does a floor plan need to follow ANSI Z765?Only when an appraisal calls for it. Fannie Mae requires ANSI Z765-2021 for single-family appraisals with interior and exterior inspections and for hybrid appraisals; it does not apply to apartments. Otherwise it is a voluntary standard, and floor plans for design, remodeling and marketing do not need it.Real estate and property managers
- How accurate are floor plan apps for square footage?Close, and consistent. In a 2026 peer-reviewed test, a RoomPlan floor plan app measured total room area 4.9% to 6.3% below a laser-scanned model in all three buildings. That is plenty for planning, quotes and room sizes. Appraisal square footage is a different number: ANSI Z765 measures from the outside of the exterior walls.Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How accurate does a kitchen measurement need to be for cabinets?Cabinet sellers ask for measurements to the nearest 1/8 inch, and stone countertops are templated only after the cabinets are installed. So scan the kitchen for the layout, the design and the price: PlaceAnew gives every wall, opening and the ceiling height, fits stock widths with fillers, and makes shop drawings for the cabinetmaker.Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Homeowners
- How accurate is Apple RoomPlan?Accurate where floor plans need it. In a 2026 peer-reviewed test against a laser scanner, a RoomPlan app found every room in three buildings, got total wall area within 2% and drew room shapes that overlapped the laser model 0.84 to 0.93. Its weak points are wall thickness and drift along long exterior walls.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators
- How accurate is iPhone LiDAR for room measurements?Very accurate at room scale. In a peer-reviewed test, an iPad Pro's LiDAR measured doors, windows and spans up to 3 meters (about 10 feet) within 1-2 cm, under an inch. Error grows on long walls captured in one fast moving pass, so walk calmly. In our office, PlaceAnew's longest wall, 17' 2", came out a third of an inch long.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Real estate and property managers, Homeowners
- How accurate is PlaceAnew? We checked it against a measured floor planIn our own office, PlaceAnew's plan from one walk, with no hand edits, matched a hand-measured floor plan closely: all 7 wall lengths that compare one to one came within 2.5 inches (6 cm), and the median difference was under 1 inch.Everyone
- How long does it take to measure a house by hand vs with an iPhone scan?In our own test, one room's walls took 8 min 43 s by tape with a rough paper sketch, and 44 seconds with a PlaceAnew scan that also caught the doors, windows, furniture and 3D. For a 2,000 sq ft home, a floor plan service needs about 90 minutes on site by hand, before any drawing.Everyone
- How to test a room scan app's accuracy yourselfPick at least five different rooms, measure the walls, ceiling heights, doors and windows with a laser distance meter, then scan the same rooms with the app. Compare each pair, and judge the app by its median and worst error across all rooms, failed scans included, not by its best room.Everyone
- Is LiDAR accurate enough for remodeling measurements?Yes. A phone LiDAR scan captures the whole layout in one walk, measures doors, windows and short walls within 1-2 cm, and got total wall area within 2% of a laser scanner in a 2026 study. In our office, the longest wall, 17' 2", came out a third of an inch long. Plan, design, bid and present from it.Architects, Interior designers, Kitchen and bath remodelers, Cabinet and furniture makers, Contractors and estimators, Homeowners
One walk. Plan, 3D and kitchen.
Scan with an iPhone or iPad Pro and get a measured floor plan, a 3D model and CAD files from the same walk.