Digitising a floor plan from a photo

Capturing the source properly

Result quality depends on the capture more than on anything else. Photograph the sheet as square-on as possible, in even light, without your own hand casting a shadow. A scan always beats a photograph.

Make sure all edges of the drawing are in frame and the dimensions stay legible. A crop with the dimension strings cut off costs you exactly the time you were trying to save.

• Shoot square-on from directly above
• Even lighting, no shadows and no reflections
• All sheet edges and all dimensions in frame
• Prefer a scan when a scanner is available

What to do afterwards

The import gives you structure, not truth. Check the overall dimensions first against a known length — a dimensioned external wall or a figure from the purchase contract — and correct the scale if it does not match.

Then work through the rooms: set names, assign room types, add missing doors. Finally run the automatic plan check; it finds openings not sitting on a wall, rooms without access and wall fragments that are too short to be real.

What the import cannot do

It cannot measure. If a dimension is missing or wrong on the source drawing, it will be missing or wrong afterwards. For a defensible floor area you need at least spot checks on site — ideally the external dimensions and one room width per storey.

It also cannot know about alterations. A plan from 1984 shows the flat as it was in 1984. If a wall has come down or a bathroom has moved since, that is a matter for the site visit, not for the software.