Floor Plans: Draw, Scan, Trace or Map a Home From a Video
Draw a home to scale — walls, rooms, doors, windows, built-ins and dimension lines — start it from a scan, a walkthrough video or an existing plan, measure with a Bluetooth laser, see its ANSI area and a contractor's takeoff, download it as a PDF or CAD file, and show it on your listing in plan, color, blueprint or 3D.
Draw walls, rooms, doors and windows to scale. Everything snaps, every size is editable, and each room says how its size was found. The plan is optional. You open it from a listing's form (step Photos, "Floor plan (optional)") or from the unit's History → Floor plan, on the website, the iPhone app and the Android app — every tool below is on all three.
Ways to start
| Start from | Where | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Draw it yourself | The website, iPhone and Android | Drag out each room; its walls are drawn for you and a wall two rooms share is drawn once. |
| Rooms you measured | Any of them, once the listing is saved | Every room scanned with an iPhone's depth sensor, measured with the camera or entered by hand. Each scanned room keeps the shape and size the scan measured. Separately scanned rooms are set side by side — drag each into place. Moving a room never changes its measured size; reshaping it makes it a drawn room. |
| Scan the whole home | The iPhone app, on an iPhone or iPad with a depth sensor (LiDAR) | Walk from room to room with the camera up; every room lands in one plan with its doorways joined, and each story becomes its own floor. Scanned as one home: every wall, door and window is where the scan found it. |
| A walkthrough video | The website, iPhone and Android | Upload a walkthrough video and Seayora maps the rooms, doors and windows it can see into a starting plan. It is an AI estimate — check every size with a tape or a scan before you publish. |
| A plan image or PDF | The website, iPhone and Android | Upload a photo or PDF of an existing floor plan and Seayora reads the rooms, doors and windows into a starting plan, scaled by the dimensions printed on it. It is an AI estimate — check each size before you publish. Or trace over it instead: Put an existing plan under this floor and trace over it. Mark two points a known distance apart to set the scale. The image is private — it is never on the listing. |
The tools
- Select and move — tap a room, wall, door, built-in or camera to edit it; drag it to move it; drag a corner to reshape a room. Every wall that meets a corner moves with it.
- Room — drag out a rectangle. Room outline — tap each corner of an L-shaped or angled room.
- Wall — tap each corner, or type a length (12' 6", 12 6, or 3.81 in meters) and pick a direction for an exact wall. With snapping on, walls keep to 15° steps so square rooms stay square.
- Door and Window — tap on a wall. Change a door to any of the kinds below, flip its hinge or its swing, and set its height (and a window's sill) in Edit.
- Built-in — kitchen and bathroom fixtures, heating, stairs and closets, drawn in their plan symbols.
- Dimension line and Note — your own measurements and labels on the drawing.
- Measure — Tap two points on the plan to measure between them. Nothing is added to the plan.
- Photo on the plan — Place a camera on the plan where a listing photo was taken and point it the way the camera faced. Renters tap the camera, or the room, to see the photo.
- Duplicate a room, wall, built-in, note or dimension line from its bar or from Edit. Undo and redo, pinch or scroll to zoom, two fingers to pan, and Fit the floor to see all of it.
| Doors and windows |
|---|
| Door |
| Double door |
| Sliding door |
| Pocket door |
| Bifold door |
| Garage door |
| Opening |
| Window |
| Walls |
|---|
| Exterior wall |
| Interior wall |
| Half wall |
| Railing |
A half wall or a railing is drawn as an outline, never closes a room and takes no door or window. Every wall can carry its own height; without one it is as tall as the rooms beside it.
Built-ins: Toilet, Sink, Vanity, Bathtub, Shower, Kitchen sink, Range, Refrigerator, Dishwasher, Counter, Island, Washer, Dryer, Water heater, Fireplace, Stairs, Closet, Wall oven, Radiator, Furnace, Electrical panel, Column. There is no furniture tool on purpose — a bed or a sofa is a tenant's belonging, and belongings are never published.
Room types: Living room, Family room, Kitchen, Dining room, Bedroom, Bathroom, Half bath, Office, Den, Hallway, Entry, Mudroom, Closet, Pantry, Laundry, Storage, Utility room, Stairs, Open to below, Attic, Garage, Balcony, Terrace, Porch, Deck, Patio, Room. A room keeps its name when you change its type, unless it still has the name it was given automatically. An opening to the floor below is drawn and named, and never counted as floor.
Floor, finish and ceiling
Each room can say whether it is finished, what its floor is (hardwood, laminate, vinyl plank, tile, stone, carpet, concrete), its ceiling height, and — for an attic room or a ceiling under the roof — how much of the floor has 7 feet of headroom and how much is under 5 feet. Each floor says whether it is above or below grade. Those answers are what the area report is calculated from.
Arrange a floor
- Find rooms in the walls — Every closed loop of walls that is not yet a room becomes one. Check the names — each starts as “Room”.
- Turn left or right, and mirror left to right or top to bottom. Turning and mirroring change no size, and doors keep opening the right way.
- Add a floor, rename it, and say whether it is above or below grade, in Plan details.
Tracing over an existing plan
Put an existing plan under this floor and trace over it. Mark two points a known distance apart to set the scale. The image is private — it is never on the listing.
- Plan details → Traced image → Put a plan image under this floor. A photo, a screenshot or page one of a PDF, up to 15 MB.
- Set the scale: tap both ends of a length printed on the image — a room's width, or the scale bar — then type how long it really is. The whole image is rescaled to match.
- Move it into place, turn it a quarter, make it stronger or fainter, hide it, or take it away. Draw the walls over it.
A Bluetooth laser meter
Connect a Bluetooth laser measure and every reading goes into the length you are typing. Readings are labeled “Measured with a laser”. Leica DISTO models with Bluetooth Smart and Bosch GLM “C” models. Turn Bluetooth on at the meter first.
- Connect it from the editor's menu, or Plan details → Arrange → Connect a laser meter.
- While you draw a wall, each reading fills in the next wall's length — pick the direction it runs.
- With a wall or a room selected, the reading is offered in Edit as that wall's length or the room's length or width.
- The reading is recorded by Seayora as the size is applied, so the part is labeled "Measured with a laser". Change its size afterwards and it is drawn by you again.
- Nothing is scanned for in the background: Seayora looks for a meter only while you are choosing one, and lets go of it when the editor closes. No reading is stored except the size you applied.
Every size says where it came from
| Source | What it means |
|---|---|
| Scanned | Accurate to a few centimeters. Not a survey. |
| Measured with a laser | Read from a Bluetooth laser distance meter. |
| Measured with the camera | Accurate to a centimeter or two on a clear surface. Not a survey. |
| Measured with a tape | Measured. |
| Entered by hand | Not measured — this figure was entered from another source. |
| Drawn by the owner | Drawn on Seayora, not measured. |
| Traced from a plan image | Read by AI from an existing floor plan. Every size is approximate until it is checked. |
| Estimated from a video | An AI estimate from a walkthrough video. Every size is approximate. |
A scanned or measured element keeps its label only while its measured size is unchanged. Change the size and it becomes drawn.
You never set a source by hand. When you save, Seayora checks each scanned, measured, laser-measured, video-estimated or image-estimated part against its own record, and anything whose size you changed is saved as drawn by you. The save tells you which parts that was.
How big the home is
How big the home is, measured the way appraisers and surveyors do. Pick the standard; each is calculated from the drawing.
| Standard | How it is measured | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| ANSI Z765-2021 (United States) | Measured to the outside face of exterior walls, and to the middle of a wall shared with an unfinished space. Finished areas above grade make up the gross living area; areas partly or wholly below grade, areas under a 7-foot ceiling and unfinished areas are listed separately. Openings to the floor below are not counted. Rounded to the whole square foot. | Calculated by Seayora from the owner’s drawing using the ANSI Z765-2021 method. It is not a certified measurement or an appraisal. |
| RICS Gross Internal Area | Measured to the inside face of exterior walls, including interior walls. Areas under 1.5 m are noted. | Calculated by Seayora from the owner’s drawing using the RICS Gross Internal Area definition. It is not a certified measurement. |
Plan details → Areas shows the result as you draw, floor by floor and room by room, with every room's category and the reason for it, and a list of anything to check — a room with no ceiling height, a sloped ceiling missing its figures. Renters see the gross living area on the listing with the same sentence beside it.
Quantities for a contractor
Floor area, wall area, perimeter, baseboard and openings for every room — the numbers a contractor prices paint, flooring and trim from. Plan details → Quantities, per floor and per room, with flooring totalled by material across the home. Door and window heights shape the wall areas.
A plan from a walkthrough video
Walk slowly through every room, pan across each wall, step through the doorways between rooms, and keep the lights on. One to three minutes is plenty.
- Upload a video of up to 140 MB, or use the walkthrough already on the listing. You can read up to 20 videos a day.
- Seayora takes frames from the video, asks the AI engine it uses to map the rooms, doors and windows it can see, and lays out a plan. The screen names each step as it happens, and you can close it and keep drawing — it tells you when the plan is ready.
- Before anything goes into your plan you see what it found: how many rooms, doors and windows, which rooms it was least sure about, and anything it could not place. Nothing lands until you press Add to the plan.
- If your listing has a size, you can scale the rooms so they add up to it.
- A video you upload is deleted as soon as its frames are taken, whether or not the reading works. The walkthrough already on a listing stays on the listing. Nobody in a video is identified, and nothing about them is kept.
Reading a video needs an AI engine that can see images, and none is configured on this server. You can still draw the plan by hand.
A plan from an image or PDF
Upload a photo or PDF of an existing floor plan and Seayora reads the rooms, doors and windows into a starting plan, scaled by the dimensions printed on it. It is an AI estimate — check each size before you publish. Up to 15 MB and 30 reads a day. A PDF is turned into an image of its first page on your device before it is sent. Like a video, nothing lands until you press Add to the plan, and every part it adds is labeled as estimated from an image until you change its size.
Reading a plan image needs an AI engine that can see images, and none is configured on this server. You can still trace over it by hand.
Saving, earlier saves and downloads
Each save is a revision. Earlier saves keeps the last 50, and you can restore any of them. If somebody else on your team saved the plan after you opened it, Seayora keeps your drawing on screen and asks whether to load theirs or replace it with yours — nothing is lost either way.
Download the floor plan makes a file from the last saved version, in feet or meters:
| Format | What it is |
|---|---|
| To scale, with a title block. Every floor on its own page. | |
| PNG image | One floor, for a listing or a message. |
| SVG | One floor, as a drawing that scales. |
| DXF (CAD) | Every floor, in layers, in real units — for AutoCAD, SketchUp or Revit. |
| CSV room schedule | Every room with its area, perimeter, wall area and openings. |
| OBJ 3D shell | Walls and floors in 3D, with no furniture. |
A PDF is drawn on Letter, Tabloid, A4, A3 paper, at Fit to the page, 1/8″ = 1′-0″, 1/4″ = 1′-0″, 1:50, 1:100, in the plan, color, blueprint style, with a title block carrying the area in the standard you pick, and a room schedule page if you want one. A floor too big for the scale you pick is drawn to fit, and the page says so.
In 3D
A model built from the plan: walls raised to each room’s ceiling height, doors and windows cut through. Drag to turn it. One floor or every floor stacked, from the editor's menu or Plan details → Arrange, and on the listing. It is built from the plan alone — no furniture and no scan mesh.
On the listing
Switch on "Show the floor plan on the listing". Renters see the drawing under the photos — as a plan, in color with each room tinted and its floor drawn, as a blueprint, or in 3D — in feet or meters, with every floor, each room's name, its two sides when it is a rectangle, its area, its floor and how its size was found, door swings, windows, built-ins, overall dimensions and a north arrow. Tapping a room in the drawing or in the list beneath it highlights it in both. Numbered cameras show where each photo was taken; tapping one opens the photo. They can measure between two points, see the gross living area with its caveat, and download the plan as a PDF.
A floor plan on Seayora is the owner’s drawing of the home, each part labeled with how it was found. It is not a survey and not a construction drawing.
What is never published
- The 3D model of a room and anything in it — furniture and belongings
- The video a plan was estimated from, and its frames
- A plan image you traced over or had read, and the image itself
- Who drew or measured the plan, and when
A traced plan image is private to the people who manage the home and is never on the listing.
Asking your assistant
A connected assistant reading a listing sees its rooms, their sizes and how each was found, through get_listing. It cannot draw or change a plan: a floor plan is a drawing of somebody's home that its owner publishes, and moving a wall is a choice a person makes looking at the drawing.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an iPhone with LiDAR?
No. You can draw the whole plan on the website or either app, start it from a walkthrough video, an existing plan image or rooms measured with a tape, and measure each wall with a Bluetooth laser meter. A depth sensor makes the sizes measured rather than drawn, and only the iPhone app can scan a whole home in one go.
Is the plan from a video or an image accurate?
It is an estimate. Every part it adds is labeled as estimated on the listing until you check it. Measure the rooms with a laser, a tape or a scan and correct the sizes before you publish.
Why does my scanned room now say "Drawn by the owner"?
You changed its size. A scanned, measured or laser label only stays while the size matches what was measured. Moving the room around the plan, turning it or mirroring it does not change it.
Which laser meters work?
Leica DISTO models with Bluetooth Smart and Bosch GLM “C” models. Turn Bluetooth on at the meter first.
Is the area on my listing official?
Calculated by Seayora from the owner’s drawing using the ANSI Z765-2021 method. It is not a certified measurement or an appraisal.
Can I draw more than one floor?
Yes. Plan details → Add a floor, and say whether it is above or below grade. Renters choose the floor above the drawing, or see them all stacked in 3D.
Can I open the plan in CAD?
Yes. Download the floor plan → DXF gives every floor in layers, in real units, for AutoCAD, SketchUp or Revit. OBJ gives the walls and floors in 3D.
Related guides
Related features and guides
- Room Sizes and Floor Plans on a Listing — Documentation. Measure rooms by hand, with the camera or with an iPhone depth-sensor scan, and show their sizes — and a floor plan of the whole home — on your listing. Every size says how it was measured.
- Photo Studio: Enhancing Listing Photos and Virtual Staging — Documentation. Brighten and sharpen listing photos without changing what is in them, or virtually stage an empty room — always labelled "Virtually staged", always beside the original.
- Pricing Suggestions for Vacant Listings — Documentation. A suggested asking rent for each vacant listing, built from asking rents nearby, your own similar leases and the home's last rent, moved by demand and time on the market — with every reason shown, your own weights and limits, and nothing ever changed for you.
- In-App Video Calls — Feature. Start a video call from any Seayora conversation, or upgrade a voice call to video mid-conversation. Run remote showings, walk a contractor through a repair, and schedule video meetings on the shared calendar — no personal number, no third-party meeting app.
- AI-Assisted Estimates & Quoting — Feature. AI-assisted estimating with materials prediction, 3D scan input, permit checks, and online quote approval — so quoting stops being unpaid after-hours work.
- Multi-Property Portfolio Management — Feature. Unlimited multi-property portfolios with unit-level detail, bulk operations, and portfolio-wide reporting — built for management companies operating at scale.