PFRE-Logo-white-bg
Reading
blue-triangle-element

Articles

PFRE is the original online resource for real estate and interior photographers. Since 2006, it has been a community hub where like-minded professionals from around the world gather to share information with a common goal of improving their work and advancing their business. With thousands of articles, covering hundreds of topics, PFRE offers the most robust collection of educational material in our field. The history of real estate photography has been documented within these pages.
All Articles
blue-triangle-element

Latest

Image banner for the February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month Winner Art Ibewuike, with a featured image of his winning photo titled "Living Room or Family Room""

Congratulations to Art Ibewuike, February 2024 PFRE Photographer of the Month! The theme this month was "Living Room or Family Room". Art Ibewuike - #895 Paul-Dan Dragoman - #898 Peter Wingfield - #900 Here's what Art has to say: Thank you so much for ...

Contest
blue-triangle-element

OVERVIEW

For over a decade, photographers from around the world have participated in PFRE’s monthly photography contests, culminating in the year-end crowning of PFRE’s Photographer of the Year. With a new theme each month and commentary offered by some of the finest real estate & interior photographers anywhere, these contests offer a fun, competitive environment with rich learning opportunities. 

Contest Rules
blue-triangle-element

CURRENT CONTESTS

View / Submit
blue-triangle-element

PAST CONTESTS

View Archive
Resources
blue-triangle-element

Resources

PFRE prides itself on the depth and breadth of the information and professional development resources it makes available to our community. Our goal is to help real estate and interior photographers be successful while bringing the community together and elevating the industry as a whole.
blue-triangle-element

Conference News

No items found

What Software Do You Use to Create Floor Plans?

Published: 10/05/2018

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

LaserMeasuringManny in New York asks:

What Floor Plan creation software or app do you recommend? There are so many out there, it's hard to choose.

Another similar question from Julian in Ontario:

Any recommendations on floor plan drawing (hardware and software)? I am thinking of it for side work as real estate photographer.

Janice, a Realtor in Illinois asks another question:

Do you have information about software I can use to create floor plans myself?

The first thing you need to do is analyze your local market so you clearly understand what your clients are willing to pay for and what kind of floor plans you are willing to create. On the high-end, there are products like Matterport, which is in high demand in upper-end markets. On the lower end, you can use an app like EZBlueprint.com, where you scan rooms and make the floor plans yourself. But typically, clients want floor plans integrated with photos and video in a home tour. This tour integration is available in products like FloorPlanOnline.com and GOIGuide.com.

There is a huge number of floor plan apps. Most people who do floor plans use some kind of laser measuring device to quickly measure rooms. A while back, I did a poll on which floor plan creation software is the most popular. Note that the top 5 were:

  1. FloorPlanner.com
  2. MagicPlan
  3. RoomSketcher.com
  4. FloorPlanOnline.com
  5. EZBlueprint.com

In addition, here are products that readers have said they liked:

  1. OrthoGraph.net
  2. PlanUp.co.uk
  3. SweetHome3D.com/fr/

What is your favorite floor plan creation software?

Larry Lohrman

10 comments on “What Software Do You Use to Create Floor Plans?”

  1. Larry

    What would really be great is to find out which out of all the solutions are best to use onsite. I "think" most floor plans are drawn on graph paper and then redrawn back at the office using software. You've got to draw it twice.

  2. @Wannabeyou - Yes, you are right the vast majority of floor plan creation methods, except for perhaps the more expensive scanning hardware methods like Matterport, involve just measuring and hand drawing onsite and then drafting or having someone else draft the final product afterward. There is no quick and easy and cheap method that I've heard of!

  3. @wannabeyou - With regards to a cost-effective solution to use "on-site" check out https://www.orthograph.net/

    I've used the program quite a bit and it's pretty incredible. It turned out to be a little overkill for what I needed but it's extremely intuitive and easy to use, plus you can get into it for about $250

  4. My company has been using PlanUp for 4 years now and it's the quickest, most efficient on-site floor plan app out there. I've researched pretty much every app out there, and PlanUp is the most efficient. No need ever to draw floor plans on a graph paper first. Everything happens on site. It's not cheap, though, as they charge monthly per floor plan drawn.

    Another one to consider is Floor Plans Pro. Much more user friendly than any of the floor plan apps listed above. Quite affordable, too. $15 one time app fee with unlimited floor plans.

    There really is no need to draw out a floor plan first on paper when you can do it on site. I've been drawing floor plans on site for 11 years and I've never heard of anyone drawing them out on paper first and then using an app later. Well, not true. There were a couple of times I forgot my iPad, so I had to draw them on site first and recreate them later in the app. 🙂 But as a standard practice, that sounds like a complete waste of time.

  5. Thankfully I don't do many floor plans any more but in my market the standard is for high quality plans, and none of the apps (bar one) I've seen have come remotely close to achieving that. The best I've seen (but not tried) is planedge.co.uk.

  6. I have been using Roomsketcher for several years now and I am very satisfied both with the user interface and the results, both 2D- and 3D-plan that can be generated from my drawings. In addition to the web-version of Roomsketcher, they have a tablet-app which makes it easy to draw your floor plan on-site even when you are offline, right on the tablet. It works really well.

    Generating 2D-plans are next to free, while generating 3D-plans from your drawing cost some more.

    http://www.roomsketcher.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Vendors

Rela Logo
CS6 PSE Logo
HD Photo Hub Logo
FullFrame Logo

Learning Topics

.
magnifiercrossmenucross-circle