Apps for site measuring and drawing preliminary layout

[RobWhite]

Does anyone know a drawing app for a tablet that uses the camera to plot walls in an existing house with reasonable site measurement capacity. Years ago my son showed me something on his apple tablets that seemed to do a reasonable job. He's not a drafty so it may not have been all that helpful.(My son can't remember!). That particular app was about 8-10 years ago, so I'm hopeful there has been better developments since. Maybe I'm a dreamer or just too hopeful, but it's there anything out there that anyone can recommend?

 

By the way I wrote a request for chief users recommendations for the Microsoft surface book 3. Very helpful comments. I've since purchased it, thus the interest in the above. It's brilliant (1TB hard drive, 32bg RAM i7 etc; one machine brilliant as tablet; laptop or desktop)

 

Any thought about the drawing app?

[GeneDavis]

This has been discussed previously, and the consensus seemed to be paper and pencil plus a well-rehearsed program is quickest and best.  Tools are laser tape, tape, ladders, levels, clamps, sticks, small pieces of board for laser target, and more, depending on your program.

[MarkMc]

Scott Harris of Chief and Al Frey (sort of Chief did a webinar recently on site measures. Worth a look.

https://www.chiefarchitect.com/videos/watch/10212/as-built-measurements-best-practices.html?playlist=171

I use the same laser as Al (per his advice some time ago, newer models may be better?) but had been sending measurements directly into Chief on a 2 in 1. Likely to try his method next time though since he says it's faster and he does more of these than I do.

 

[Richard_Morrison]

Magicplan.app  You can use it with Bluetooth laser or iPad Pro with LiDAR. It works with normal iPhone or iPad, but not nearly as accurate.

 

[mthd97]

For a windows tablet I would use Redstick Site Cad Pro. I have this installed on my windows 11 tablet. (Check the list of compatible laser distance measuring devices) one off purchase for a license. (Can be installed on up to 10 devices for the one license.)

 

For an android tablet you could use Chief Architect Room Planner full, if you still have access to it ? On my Android 13 rugged tablet I use Floor Plan Creator and export DXF into CA. Then convert CAD lines to walls, windows and doors. Works great and is very easy to use. Has a huge list of supported laser distance measuring devices. Available as a one off purchase for Android. Under $10 USD when this was posted.