LiDAR survey
Since the iPhone 12 Pro, Apple has fitted a LiDAR sensor next to the camera. ArchiScan 3D turns it into a survey instrument: you walk around the room, it records walls, openings and furniture as you go.
The sensor fires invisible light pulses and times their return, thousands of times per second. Combined with the camera and motion sensors, this builds a point cloud of the room in real time. You see the surfaces fill in on screen, so you know exactly what has been captured and what has not.
Walls, floor and ceiling are detected as planes. Doors, windows and openings are cut out of the walls automatically. Built-in units and large furniture are recognised too, and can be kept or hidden on the plan.
A typical room takes one to two minutes. Move slowly, keep the phone at chest height and sweep corners twice. For a whole flat, chain rooms one after another in the same session: the app keeps the position and stitches the levels together.
iPhone 12 Pro, 13 Pro, 14 Pro, 15 Pro, 16 Pro and later Pro models, plus iPad Pro from 2020 onwards.
LiDAR measures in low light, but the camera needs some light to recognise surfaces. Turn on the room lights for the best result.
Get a dimensioned 2D floor plan straight from your scan, export it as a layered DXF for AutoCAD, ArchiCAD or Revit, or as a PDF with your title block.
Read →Guide · 5 min readWhat accuracy to expect from an iPhone LiDAR room scan, what affects it, and when to double-check with a laser meter.
Read →For architectsSurvey existing buildings in one visit and get a layered DXF in your CAD software. ArchiScan 3D was designed by an architect, for architects.
Read →ArchiScan 3D is in beta on TestFlight. Ask for access.