These options have a common characteristic: an open floor plan. This is the case for lofts, studio apartments and repurposed buildings.
One thing to make this App a success would be a freehand drawing tool.Ī few apps for Android that may be worth a look.The evolution of living spaces creates new definitions and concepts, some of them unimaginable a few years ago. Resizing a right angle bench to fit the kitchen you are trying to draw doesn’t work too well either. You are forced to use a corner bench, then a bit of ‘work space’ and join them all together. For example, mapping out the kitchen bench is agonizing. The extensive library of symbols is great but it soon starts to get tedious finding the right symbols. Floorplan actually seems to have been built with floor planners in mind. It is a pleasure to use and you can generate floor plans pretty quickly. This app, available from the AppStore really looks good. Properties that are longer or wider in metres than the graph paper has 1cm squares you need to start thinking!Īnother app for the iPad worth a look is called Floorplans app.
Actual graph paper obviously has limits and working around this can be quite a creative challenge. The attraction to the tablet approach is the possibility of endless ‘virtual graph paper’. That is, using BlueTooth, it can read measurements made with your Leica DISTO E7500i (D510), if you have one or can afford one at around $US600.00. A very different concept to drawing it once on graph paper and again on the desktop.įor the iPad, it is “The 1st drawing app to support Leica DISTO E7500 (D510) distance meter natively”. Perhaps you would edit it later on a desktop, but the main drawing work is done. Imagine visiting a property and after doing your photography, you pull out your iPad and create a floor plan right there. MagicPlan does however interface with so you could add details and finesse the drawing later in floorplanner.Īnother app worth a mention is Orthograph.
It’s a lot of fun, using the camera, to capture each corner of a room but I don’t see it working too well for the sort of floor plans we do for our clients. MagicPlan, an app available from the App store, uses your iPhone or iPad to create plans. You could also try, a great online drawing tool.Ī couple of recent innovation appear promising. I wasn’t always happy with the symbols used to show where fittings such as a stove, fridge, bath etc, but once you have spent a bit of time with them, you’ll have a pretty cheap and easy option for creating floor plans.
All you need is time to learn how to do it. Some iFloorPlan users use online floor planning tools such as Floorplanner or Metropix These allow you to floor plan a property without buying any software. I have tried and I was happy with their service. You send them your graph paper sketch and they send you a finished digital drawing in the format you require. Google “ people and places that will do it for you, for a fee. Let’s say you’ve got your sketch and you don’t want to draw it on the desktop. Perhaps it’s worth considering the next option. However, all these programs can do a lot more than the average floor planner for real estate could need.
Other software that supposedly makes drawing plans easier than Illustrator include: Not all software will allow you to create the final floor plan drawing exactly how you or your client want it.
Some clients want their floor plans done in a particular style, with certain areas coloured or fittings shown in a stylized manner. But the great thing about Illustrator is that you can draw anything, anyhow. offers excellent training videos and resources. Learning Illustrator could take you a bit of time. Dressing the plan with windows, doors, fittings, dimensions and colour takes a little bit more time. The initial drawing of the walls takes a few minutes. Things like doors, windows, stove, sink, bath. I created a library of symbols that I drag on to floor plan. I scan my graph paper sketch, import this into a new Illustrator document and begin tracing it using the great set of tools Illustrator provides. Almost any version of this product will do. With even the most rudimentary Illustrator skills, you can draw floor plans with Illustrator.
Outsourcing the finished drawing to a professionalįloor plan apps for the iPad and android devicesĪdobe Illustrator. This is not a comprehensive floor planning software review, but it will give you an idea about how floor planners create floor plans. “What software should I use to create floor plans?” Is a question we are asked often.