Scanning rooms with LiDAR
LiDAR scanning needs an iPhone 12 Pro or later (Pro models) or an iPad Pro from 2020 or later. On other phones, use Quick Area, a laser, or type measurements.
Scan a walkthrough
- Open the customer → Scan Rooms (LiDAR).
- Scan the first room. The outline builds as you go.
- When the floor outline closes, tap Done with Room, name the room, and tap Save & Scan Next Room.
- Walk to the next room with the camera pointed ahead — don't pocket the phone. Rooms scanned in one walkthrough line up on one floor plan.
- After the last room, tap Save & Finish.
Long halls: Next Piece
The scanner (Apple's RoomPlan) works best on spaces up to about 30 × 30 ft, and slows down or stops past about 1,000 sq ft. Scan a long hall in pieces:
- Start scanning the hall. A pill at the top shows how far this piece has gone; past about 40 ft it turns orange and the phone buzzes.
- Tap Next Piece (top right). The first time, name the area (Floor 5 Hall). The piece saves as Floor 5 Hall 1 and the scanner keeps going — keep walking.
- Keep tapping Next Piece every 40 ft or so.
- On the last piece, tap Done with Room. It shows as the next piece of the hall (Part of Floor 5 Hall is on).
The pieces are fused: one area on estimates (one row in the room picker), and where a piece overlaps the ones before it is taken off, so it's billed once. Save & Scan Next Piece on the review screen does the same thing for a piece you want to check first.
Mark doors, stains and transitions while scanning
Tap Mark (top right). A + shows in the middle of the screen: aim it at the floor and tap Drop Point.
- Door — one point on each side of the doorway (for doors the scanner missed).
- Stain, Pet, Damage — one point on the spot; each tap marks a spot about 2 ft across.
- Transition — where carpet meets tile: a point at one wall, any bends, the other wall, then Finish Line. Pick each side's surface later in Floor Surfaces.
Undo takes back the last point or mark; Close hides the panel. The Mark button counts what you've marked in this room, and the review screen lists it. Marks land on the floor plan, the web and the room's floor (spots and transitions show in Floor Surfaces).
Aim at floor a few feet ahead. The + turns green when the scanner has found the floor there, and Drop Point works; while it's orange, keep pointing at the floor.
The little map (top left) shows the walls found so far, where you've walked (the blue dot is you), and your marks: orange lines are doors, dots are spots, purple lines are transitions — so you can see each mark land.
If a piece drifts: when a Next Piece lands mostly on top of the one before it, the scanner says so and nothing is taken off. Move it into place later in Arrange Rooms with Move Just This Piece.
Tips that make a big difference
- Lights on, doors and blinds open. Tie back plastic sheeting — the scanner reads it as a wall.
- Start at the entry and work outward, in the order you'd walk the building.
- Stand in the middle and turn slowly. LiDAR reaches about 15 ft. Small rooms work from the doorway.
- One space per room. Split big open areas into separate rooms. Different surfaces in one room are marked later, not by splitting the scan.
- Scan big hallways and lobbies as their own rooms even if they aren't billed — they tie the plan together.
- Stairs: don't watch the screen while climbing. Finish the room, walk the stairs, start the next room. Add stairs by step count on the estimate.
- Spot-check one wall with a tape. Within about 2% is a good scan.
- Scan in small segments. Short scans come out cleaner than one long one: finish a room (or one part of a big open area), save it, then start the next. If a scan starts drifting, finish it and start a new segment rather than pushing on.
Battery
LiDAR scanning uses a lot of battery and makes the phone warm.
- Start with a full charge on scanning days, and carry a power bank or charge in the van between buildings.
- Close other apps and turn the screen brightness down a little.
- If the phone gets hot or drops into Low Power Mode, finish the room you're on, save it, and let it cool or charge before the next segment. Saved rooms are kept.