Interior design projects usually involve two types of floor plans. One captures the room as it is, with features like a tricky chimney breast or a radiator in the wrong spot. The other plan shows clients what the space could look like. Since most apps focus on just one of these tasks, designers often use two different apps.
What Each App Is Built For
What does an interior designer actually need from a floor plan app?
The profession itself separates these tasks before the software does, based on real job experience rather than theory. CIDQ, which certifies interior designers in North America, creates its exams using a job task analysis. A panel lists designers' daily duties, and a survey of working designers across the continent checks and rates how often each task occurs. From this, 'Existing Conditions' becomes its own area, separate from 'Schematics.' Recording what exists and imagining what could be are different jobs, and the tools reflect that.
The survey plan needs to be accurate. It shows the room as it really is, so if you order a sofa based on it, you know it will fit through the door. This also means the joiner can give a quote without needing to return. Getting the measurements right is the main goal, even though the room is often full of the client’s furniture during the process.
The scheme plan is about convincing the client. It shows a room that hasn’t been built yet, with furniture that isn’t there and finishes the client is still choosing. Here, it’s more important that the client can picture the result and agree to it than that every detail is exact.
Most frustrations with floor plan apps happen when you try to use one for the wrong job. An app with a great furniture library won’t give you an accurate survey of an old bedroom. An app that captures the room perfectly won’t impress the client with visuals.
Which app is best for presenting a design to a client?
RoomSketcher is built for scheme plans, and among these tools it offers the deepest set of presentation outputs.
With one project, you get flat plans, furnished 3D versions, photorealistic images called 3D Photos, panoramic 360 Views, and walkthroughs you can control. The furniture library includes thousands of items, plus materials and finishes, so you can fully style your design.
Some features are especially useful for designers. The Levels tool lets you keep several layout versions in one project and compare them side by side, which helps when making decisions with clients. Share Live 3D lets clients explore a walkthrough on their own device, instead of just looking at a flat image.
Presentation features are spread across different subscription levels. Live 3D and 360 Views require a Premium project or a professional subscription. AI Render and Plan Branding are available with Pro and Team plans. Pro costs $144 per year, Team is $420, and on the free tier, using AI Convert to change an existing plan costs $20 per floor plan.
Which app is best for surveying the existing room?
Polycam is designed for making survey plans, and you notice the difference after scanning just one room.
With one scan, Polycam creates a 3D mesh, a virtual walkthrough, a 3D floor plan, and a labeled 2D plan. It automatically finds walls, doors, windows, fixtures, and furniture. On a LiDAR device, measurements are accurate to within half an inch for most interiors.
This level of accuracy matters for things clients might not notice, like ensuring a fitted wardrobe fits against a wall that isn’t perfectly straight or checking whether a sofa can turn a stair corner. It also helps you give joiners the right measurements for quotes. The Floorplan Editor lets you set wall thickness, which is important because it affects area calculations for estimates.
You can move, resize, rotate, or replace furniture found in the scan with items from the library. If the camera misses a wall behind a wardrobe, you can add it manually. The editor comes with Business and Enterprise plans, which cost $400 per user each year.
To share your work, you can export floor plans as PDF, DXF, PNG, SVG, or CSV files. DXF is especially helpful if a contractor or architect needs to work on the project, since it gives them editable linework instead of just an image.
If you have an old paper plan instead of a room to scan, the digitizer can turn a photo or sketch into both 2D and 3D floor plans. The first conversion is free.
Polycam focuses on capturing existing spaces, so it doesn’t offer photorealistic rendering or a materials library, and it doesn’t provide tools to visualize designs that haven’t been built yet. The Virtual Walkthrough feature retraces your path with high-resolution photos placed where you took them. It’s meant for reading equipment labels and checking conditions remotely, not for showing clients around.
What if the measuring is the bottleneck?
Magicplan was made for contractors and designers who work closely with trades, and many like it because its output matches what contractors expect. Pricing is based on the number of projects, not users. You start with ten projects per month; extra projects cost $40 each, and you get two free to begin. If your workload changes a lot, this pricing model might not work for you.
CubiCasa skips the drafting step. You scan a property in about five minutes, upload it, and get a finished floor plan within 24 hours, or in six hours if you pay extra. The 2D plan is free, and 3D is a paid add-on. It works on both iOS and Android. The downside is that if you miss something during the scan, you won’t find out until the next day, not while you’re still at the property.
Both magicplan and CubiCasa are good choices if measuring, rather than presenting, takes the most time in your process.
Should I use one app or two?
Most designers use two apps, splitting the work between the two types of floor plans described earlier.
Use a scanning tool to capture the existing space, since accuracy and speed are important and you need an exact record of the room. Export the plan as a DXF or image, then create your design in a tool with a furniture library and rendering features.
Alternatively, you can use just one tool and accept its limitations. This works if most of your work is focused on one area. If you mainly do e-design and don’t measure spaces, a design tool is enough. If you mostly handle surveys and specifications and pass designs to others, a capture tool will work.
If you do both types of work, check the export formats before picking your tools. If you can’t transfer a plan from one app to another, you’ll have to redraw it.
Need to show someone the space?
FAQ
What’s the best floor plan app for interior designers?
It depends on which part of the job you focus on. RoomSketcher is best for designing and presenting, with its large furniture library, photorealistic 3D Photos, and Live 3D walkthroughs. Polycam is best for quickly and accurately capturing existing rooms. Many designers use both.
Can I scan a client’s room and design in the same app?
Polycam captures the room and lets you adjust detected furniture and swap in library items, but it doesn’t create a photorealistic design. RoomSketcher now supports LiDAR capture on iPhone and iPad along with its design tools, so it handles more of both tasks than before, though capturing isn’t its main focus.
How accurate should a design survey be?
It should be precise enough that anything you specify will fit. LiDAR scans are accurate to within half an inch for most interiors, which works well for furniture and joinery. Be sure to set wall thickness correctly in the editor, since this affects area calculations for estimates.
What can you show a client without a subscription?
RoomSketcher’s Live 3D walkthroughs and 360 Views need a Premium project or a professional subscription, and AI Render is only available on Pro and Team plans. Check which features your plan includes before your client meeting, not after.
How do you send a plan to your contractor?
Export it as a DXF file so they get editable linework instead of just an image. Use PDF for the client’s copy, and CSV if you want to add room areas to a spreadsheet for estimates.
Can you work from an old paper plan?
Yes. A digitizer can turn a photo or sketch into an editable plan. Polycam creates both 2D and 3D versions from one upload, and the first conversion is free. RoomSketcher’s AI Convert does the same, costing $20 per floor plan on the free tier.
What if the room is full of the client’s furniture?
That’s common, and it won’t stop you from scanning. The software can detect walls, doors, and windows behind furniture, and you can adjust or remove detected items later. You don’t need to move anything.
