Scan/Measure App Recommendation

[LiannaTheTech]

Hi all,

In your experience, what is the best "measure/scan" app that can accurately upload into Chief? The three that I'm looking into are Matterport, RENDR, and Canvas. Would love some feedback.

[SHCanada2]

when you ask "accurately upload into Chief", are you referring to the companies which output a Chief .plan file, or software that just produces a floor plan that you can bring into Chief as a dxf or some other type? I tried out cubicasa a couple months ago. It worked pretty good. $10 per plan, and you can just trace over the walls. or $35 and they provide dxf. It uses photogrametery technology so any phone will work

 

 

 

One of the companies I work for use magicplan, but so far it has not provided sufficient detail to draw up a plan in CA without me having to ask some questions like "whats that". And "is that where the stairs start or the landing starts?".  Anything that is not a wall, these programs have a hard time with, so I also ensure a video is taken, and then I try and piece it together.

 

I tried to get polycam to work because it will spit out a floor plan immediately, but I could not get it to work on an android.

 

All other apps I researched required you to wait until the next day or x number of hours to get a floor plan. None of them are that accurate that I researched. Most claim this "1 or 2%"., which in my view is nonsense. Accuracy should be delineated in +- x number of inches.

 

So 1% of a 40 wide house is an error of 5". In my view, I'll pay $10 for inaccuracy, rather than $50 or $100 for some of the other apps for the same inaccuracy. Matterport might be an exception for accuracy, it has its own hardware.

 

For me my plan going forward is to use cubicasa for where I do not care about acccuracy (floors of a house which are not being modified), and then use my bosch laser 50C for where it is critical, and inches matter

 

 

 

 

[aurorainteriors]

Hi there!! I personally use canvas to scan clients houses and upload and convert to chief files. This has saved me so much time on modeling/as builts and I highly recommend as an interior designer. I have had great accuracy as long as I provide them with a thorough scan. The pricing is pretty reasonable in my opinion as well. 

[ChiefUserHaM]

On 1/22/2025 at 11:54 PM, aurorainteriors said:

Hi there!! I personally use canvas to scan clients houses and upload and convert to chief files. This has saved me so much time on modeling/as builts and I highly recommend as an interior designer. I have had great accuracy as long as I provide them with a thorough scan. The pricing is pretty reasonable in my opinion as well. 

Thanks for the recommendation. Are the site measurements accurate after Canvas converts it to chief?

[SHCanada2]

I did an interesting test yesterday.

 

I measured, I also received the realtor floor plan (which is iguide, which is a lidar scanner/photogrammetry setup in each room. I think realtors pay 3rd parties about $400 for a full house scan using this hardware and software), and cubicasa on my phone (which is a photogrammetry app and cost $10).

 

This is a basement which was interesting because although the exterior concrete wall is not jagged, the interior wood walls next to them differed from nothing by the stairs to 2x4 on flat on the south wall, to 2x4 everywhere else. Plus, there was a supporting 2x6 wall which runs down the middle. Neither of them caught the 2x6 wall down the middle as being 2x6. But the iguids caught the difference in wall width in the bottom, left, and by the stairs. cubicasa also has an incorrect width for the laundry room.

 

Both iguide and cubicasa mistook a light fixture above the toilet for a window. 

 

Neither of them tell you about the bulkheads (which I drew in the CA plan)

 

 

so, for $10 its good if you do not need the accuracy (the use case for me is, customers are doing a basement reno and the city also needs a main floor plan "for their records" and as such does not need to be perfect). For iguide at $400, its better, but because it does not have varying wall widths, it does not calculate the gross floor area correctly (which here is to outside walls). Ironically cubicasa has the more accurate GFA in this case.

 

I'm still on the lookout for an app in which you can actually get the 3d model, in order to double check dimensions, and see anomalies before they (the purveyors of these softwares) create a floor plan...assuming they give you the unadjusted model. 

 

 

 

[jtcapa1]

Rendr just put out another promo, that makes it sound great, even for clients to walk around the house.

This came out today:

 

[SHCanada2]

it does a floor plan on the spot which is similar to polycam. Although I notice for the walls it has 2 lines in the dxf, so not sure how it "knows" the wall thickness (I watched another video, you specify the wall type on the CA DXF import). but it does windows and doors which is very nice.  Price point is not bad at $119/mo. Although polycam is $34 per month ....but I havent been able to get polycam to work,

 

My guess is all of these must use the same underlying stack software, or maybe companies like  rendr license it from polycam or someone else as they all kind of look the same when scanning

 

[Rookie65]

I have a Matterport Pro 2 that I use for interior scans. I can't say it's as accurate as they claim it is, yet it does save a lot of time from measuring by hand. Especially for additions where the town wants the existing house layout with it. When I am on site, I will use a laser to measure a room's length and width. That way when I get the floor plan PDF back from Matterport, I can set the scale on the plan from the dimensions I took to get the floor plan from them closer to actual size. Then I will trace over the walls to make my plan from it. 

[SHCanada2]

4 hours ago, Rookie65 said:

I have a Matterport Pro 2 that I use for interior scans. I can't say it's as accurate as they claim it is, yet it does save a lot of time from measuring by hand. Especially for additions where the town wants the existing house layout with it. When I am on site, I will use a laser to measure a room's length and width. That way when I get the floor plan PDF back from Matterport, I can set the scale on the plan from the dimensions I took to get the floor plan from them closer to actual size. Then I will trace over the walls to make my plan from it. 

thats basically what I do (except I currently use the $10 a scan app, cubicasa), and even the rendr guy in his video  says you have to take exact measurements by hand for the area you are renovating.. but I am also curious how good the render app is with split levels or two levels. His examples do not have stairs

[Rookie65]

Clients like the 3D captures with the Matterport, and being able to measure the scans if needed. Great to forward to their subcontractors so they can get an look at the job before going to a site. Good rule of thumb is to check everything before ordering materials. Yet to get a close layout for an "as-built," it's a huge time saver. 

[SHCanada2]

8 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

Clients like the 3D captures with the Matterport, and being able to measure the scans if needed. Great to forward to their subcontractors so they can get an look at the job before going to a site. 

yeah,  thats why I was looking at polycam, it gives you the actual model, to zoom in and move around in, at $37/month. What does matterport cost these days?

 

[Rookie65]

The camera was about $3K. A yearly plan can start around $680, I think. The plan back from them starts at $15

[SHCanada2]

1 hour ago, Rookie65 said:

A yearly plan can start around $680, I think. The plan back from them starts at $15

yeah thats not cheap, if I do 2 as builts a month, thats $100 a month, plus the 3k amortized over 5 years is another $50 a month, or $75 per scan. I guess not too bad.a cost.

 

 

[Rookie65]

Compared to the time it takes to measure a job by hand is where the real savings show up. Can scan a house in maybe 90 minutes versus 3 to 4 hours, or more 

[SHCanada2]

16 hours ago, Rookie65 said:

Compared to the time it takes to measure a job by hand is where the real savings show up. Can scan a house in maybe 90 minutes versus 3 to 4 hours, or more 

 

I bring my laptop and do it in CA, so I can reconcile any discrepancies on the spot. So in about 2 hours(because I use cubicasa for the not important floor levels) I am done the required portions of the floor plan in CA at the customer's location, then I go back to the office and trace the cubicasa (which is about 30 min) for the other floor level(s). And then I do the elevations, which then take additional time regardless of using a scanning tool or not. I actually find its the elevations(because of roof lines, posts, porches, cantilevers, window wells, etc) that take the most time. I've tried out a couple elevations apps, but cant find anything decent.

 

But if I do have a discrepancy found after the fact, I have to rely on a video I take of the inside/outside. It works, but it would be nicer to have a scanned model I can point and zoom in and move around in.

 

In general then for me to do a full house floor plans without elevations its 1 hr drive, 2 hrs at the customers, call it an hour to put it together back at the office. 

 

[Rookie65]

I believe the Matterport Pro 3 will now do exteriors as well. It's about a $5K investment which is over what I am comfortable with. Especially since they don't have a buyback program for the Pro 3.

We all have our own ways of getting to the end results.

[SHCanada2]

29 minutes ago, Rookie65 said:

I believe the Matterport Pro 3 will now do exteriors as well. It's about a $5K investment

cheaper than the $20k leica. I will look into that, thanks. sometimes I spend an entire day trying to get the elevations correct, so that actually might be worth it for me for the complicated ones, although complicated ones are probably only 15% of the houses I do. 

 

I'm curious as to how these exterior ones deal with bushes where half the window or something else might be behind. Here the side property lines are typically only 2-4ft from the house.

 

Ideally if matterport used the interior data like window locations in order to create the proper exterior elevation...well then there would not be much work for me to do