Guides & reference
Create, check and export floor plans
A floor plan is rarely an end in itself. It has to fit a listing, support a stated floor area, be handed to a portal, or serve as a working drawing for a trade. Depending on which of those jobs comes first, a good plan looks completely different.
These pages are therefore organised by purpose rather than by tool: by property type, by export format, by concrete task, by profession, and by the terms people argue about most often in practice. Each page answers one question and links its neighbours.
Everything described here can be done in the browser-based floor plan editor — no installation, no CAD experience, and no plan leaves your hands before you share it.
Open the floor plan editor What the tool does
Convert a floor plan – from what you have to what you need
The floor plan almost always exists already – as a photo in the file, a PDF from the developer, a sketch on the viewing pad. What is missing is the format the next step demands. Each of these pages describes one route: source, target, what survives the conversion and what does not.
- Photo → PDFA photo of a paper plan becomes an editable draft – reviewed, corrected in one round, given a scale and exported as a listing PDF with areas and legend.
- Paper → DXFA paper or photo plan becomes an editable floor plan and is exported as DXF. Layers, units, scale – and what the planner must still measure on site.
- Floor plan → OpenImmoFrom the floor plan comes an OpenImmo XML with living area, usable area, room count and room list. What the wohnflaeche field holds and when it follows WoFlV.
- Sketch → 3DA hand sketch becomes a 3D floor plan in minutes: pull out rooms as boxes, place doors and windows, view it as a dollhouse and export as GLB or as a PDF page.
- Scan → ListingThe iPhone app measures the room with LiDAR; the plan lands in the web editor and is exported as listing PDF, OpenImmo XML or DXF – with a stated tolerance.
Creating floor plans by property type
A plan of a one-bedroom flat and a plan of a warehouse have almost nothing in common except the file extension. One has to make daily life legible in seconds; the other has to document structural grids, loading doors and clear heights.
- ApartmentDraw an apartment floor plan for a listing: room layout, living-area rules, how balconies count, and exporting a clean PDF that stays legible on a phone.
- Detached houseMulti-storey house plans: keeping floors consistent, handling sloped ceilings and basements, evidencing the living area and exporting the whole set.
- Terraced houseDrawing a terraced house plan: a narrow footprint over three levels, party walls, stair position, and the numbers buyers check first.
- Semi-detachedSemi-detached plans: mirrored layouts, the shared party wall, private outdoor space, and the area figures buyers actually compare.
- Apartment buildingDocumenting a multi-unit building: separating units per storey, marking common areas, and keeping areas consistent for management and sale.
- Attic apartmentLoft apartments on paper: knee walls, sloped ceilings, dormers and the height weighting that turns 90 square metres into 68 countable ones.
- OfficeOffice space on paper: structural grid, desk capacity, lettable versus usable area, and the facts commercial tenants want before they book a viewing.
- Retail unitShopfront width, sales area versus back of house, deliveries, and the dimensions retail chains ask for first: a retail floor plan that answers the enquiry.
- WarehouseDocumenting industrial space: column grid, clear height, loading doors and floor loading — the four facts without which nobody enquires.
- Holiday letHoliday rental plans: showing sleeping capacity, bathrooms and routes, plus furniture, so guests understand the place before they book.
- PracticeClinic and practice space: consulting rooms, waiting area, circulation and step-free access — what an incoming tenant needs before committing.
- HospitalityHospitality space: covers, kitchen, extraction, storage and circulation — the points where takeovers actually fall through.
Exporting a floor plan – which format for what?
Most export problems are not caused by a bad drawing but by the wrong container. A PDF that looks perfect in a brochure is useless to a drywall contractor; a DXF that opens cleanly in CAD cannot be uploaded to a property portal.
- PDFWhy PDF is the default for listing floor plans, what belongs in the file (scale bar, legend, 3D page) and where the format reaches its limits.
- DXFDXF export for planners and trades: layer structure, millimetre units, R12 compatibility, and what the exchange format deliberately leaves out.
- JPGWhen JPG is the right floor plan format, what resolution portals need, and why line drawings quickly look dirty as JPG files.
- PNGPNG is the better raster format for line drawings: lossless, sharp edges, readable text. When to use it and where it stops being enough.
- 3D model (GLB)GLB export of a dwelling: a real 3D model in metres, doors and windows as true openings, named elements — and where it pays off in sales.
- OpenImmo XMLOpenImmo is the German data standard for property records. What the export fills in from the plan, what it cannot do, and how to avoid errors.
- JSONThe JSON export is the complete copy of your plan: geometry, rooms, openings and computed areas — for backup, archiving and your own analysis.
Guides: from survey to finished plan
Most real questions are not about tools but about sequence: in what order do you measure? How much of a balcony counts? What do you do with an old JPEG whose source file is long gone?
- Living area (WoFlV)Calculating living area under the German Wohnflächenverordnung: every factor, which rooms drop out, how balconies and slopes count, step by step.
- Photo to planTurn a photo or scan of an old floor plan into an editable drawing: preparation, workflow, clean-up afterwards, and the limits of the method.
- Listing planWhat makes a listing floor plan sell: labelling, reduction, furniture, areas, and the right output for print, portals and email.
- Drawing to scaleDrawing to scale means calibrating once, then working consistently in metres. Which scale for which job and how it survives the export.
- Balconies and living areaHow balconies, loggias, roof gardens and terraces enter the German living area figure: 25 per cent as the rule, 50 as the exception, and how to evidence it.
- Sloped ceilingsBelow one metre counts nothing, one to two metres counts half, above two metres counts in full: finding the lines under a sloped ceiling, step by step.
- 3D viewTurning a drawn plan into a spatial view: where 3D helps in sales, which viewing angle works, and where the limits of the method are.
- Plan checkThe automatic plan check finds doors off walls, rooms with no access and furniture inside walls — errors that only show once a portal enlarges the image.
- FurnishingUsing furniture on a plan properly: realistic dimensions, clear circulation, few symbols. Prove that a room works instead of claiming it.
- Multiple storeysDocumenting multi-level properties: aligning storeys, connecting stairs, keeping areas per floor and getting everything into one document.
- Share by linkSharing a plan through a view-only link: always current, nothing editable, no attachment in the inbox. When it is the better option.
- LiDAR scanningCapturing rooms with the LiDAR sensor and turning them into a plan: workflow, accuracy, typical failure points and the clean-up afterwards.
- Edit a floor planEdit a floor plan in the browser: move walls, rename rooms, recalculate areas, place furniture. Editing is free; the PDF export is part of the subscription.
- Digitise a floor planFour routes from the floor plan you have to an editable file: photo, PDF, iPhone scan or template – with scale, areas and the export for listings and CAD.
- Free listing planDrawing, editing, checking and the 3D view cost nothing; the listing PDF, OpenImmo and AI are part of the subscription. What you get without an account.
Floor plans – by professional role
The same drawing is used in completely different ways depending on who holds it. An agent needs an image that stays legible on a phone inside a portal listing. A property manager needs areas that reconcile with service-charge statements. A surveyor needs traceable dimensions.
- Estate agentsHow agents produce floor plans efficiently: survey, evidence the area, listing plan, portal image and data handover — without duplicate upkeep.
- Property managersKeeping plans current across a portfolio: areas for statements and tenancies, common areas, contractor documents and a defensible archive.
- ArchitectsTurning a site survey into a CAD-ready base quickly: capture, dimensional accuracy, DXF handover, and what the tool deliberately is not.
- PhotographersOffering floor plans alongside a shoot: capture in the same appointment, edit afterwards, deliver in the formats agents actually need.
- SurveyorsRecording a survey traceably: height zones, area derivation, preserving the state at a point in time — and where the tool stops and expertise begins.
- DevelopersSelling homes before they exist: separating units, evidencing areas, 3D for sales, and keeping drawing revisions under control.
- LandlordsProducing a plan yourself as a landlord: floor area in the tenancy, a listing with a plan, handover records, and what you can safely skip.
- Interior designersFrom measured survey to furnishing option: an accurate base, furniture dimensions, 3D checking, and handover to CAD or visualisation.
Basics: the terms that decide a floor plan
A large share of the misunderstandings between seller, agent, buyer and valuer comes down to four or five terms. Living area is not usable area, DIN 277 is not the German living-area regulation, and the scale printed on a PDF only holds if nobody rescaled the page.
- Scale 1:100One centimetre on paper is one metre in the room. What the common scales are used for, and why a scale bar beats the printed ratio once a PDF is resized.
- DIN 277 vs WoFlVTwo German rule sets, two results: why DIN 277 and the living-area regulation produce different numbers, and when each one applies.
- Usable vs living areaLiving area, usable area and footprint are three different numbers. What each one includes, where they diverge, and how to state both in a listing.
- Symbols & legendDoors, windows, stairs, cills: which symbols a plan needs, how to read them, and why a legend should be mandatory in a listing.
- North arrowTop corner, pointing north, next to the scale bar: where the north arrow goes on a floor plan, how to read it, and why buyers care about orientation.
- Clear heightWhat clear height means, where to measure it, why it changes the living area figure, and which values genuinely help in a listing.