Creating a 3D house plan is an important step of a renovation project. With wodomo 3D, you can create 3D house plans in AR (Augmented Reality), by simply designing the characteristics points on the camera view. No need to take multiple measurements in sometimes hard to reach location which can be tedious.
Previously saved 3D house plans can seen in AR at any time but can also be exported to be used with your favorite 3D software.
A 3D house plan is also the starting point of the renovation scenario that you will be able to test in AR with wodomo 3D.
The app is available on Google Play and App Store. Install and try “wodomo 3D” and start your home improvement project today!
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App Store is a trademark of Apple Inc.
Launching the AR view to create 3D house plans
Navigate to the dwelling list page. From there, you have the choice to either reuse an existing dwelling entry or to create a new one. To create a new one, simply click on the + button. When you reuse an existing dwelling, you have the choice to start from the previously saved house plan by clicking on the eye icon, or to restart from scratch the modeling by clicking on the camera icon.
If you start from scratch, the app will display a dialog to get some information about the first room of your dwelling.
Select the type of the first room to create. There are many possible entries.
Check the automatic horizontal ceiling checkbox if it applies to this room. This will help you in the design as moving one top corner will automatically move the others at the same height to maintain the ceiling horizontal. If you do not check this checkbox, you will have to create the ceiling face manually.
Check the rectangular grid checkbox if all the corners are right angle corners. If it apply to the room, the app will make sure that each time you move a corner the adjacent walls stay perpendicular.
Finally, select the number of walls of this room. The app will automatically close the room perimeter when the last corner has been defined.
The AR view will be launched after you click on the OK button.
Room perimeter definition
You first need to move around the room, the camera pointing to the floor, so that the app could detect the ground level.
When it’s done, you will see hints indicating the ground level detected by the app. Click on the “validate” button to go to the next step.
Tip: the AR tracking algorithm usually works better when a large part of the ground level has been discovered by the app.
Tip: the app will not properly detect untextured ground surfaces, and will not work in a poorly lighted environment.
To define the room perimeter, simply touch the screen where the corners are located on the camera image. The app will close the perimeter when you have clicked on the last corner.
Tip: during this step, you can adjust the position of an existing corner by simply clicking on it and moving it.
Tip: It’s not necessary to precisely define the corner positions during this step. A alternative way is to take attention to the first corners so that they are aligned with the main wall, and then roughly set the other corners. When the perimeter is closed, you will then be able to move each wall segment independently set there position precisely as the app will make sure that right angles are preserved.
When you set a corner position, the app will automatically adjust it to align with an existing part of the structure like:
- the interior or exterior axis of another wall
- a perpendicular axis of a door or window side on another wall
- to ensure a right angle with the adjacent walls.
Global model adjustment
It is common to realize after the closing of the room perimeter that it is slightly rotated compared to the actual room. To fix that, there is a handle that allows to rotate and translate the whole room model.
To hide or show this handle, click on the cross icon on the top menu bar.
This handle can also be used to translate the model and adjust it to be perfectly aligned with the existing room.
This handle is in particular useful when you reload an existing model as the current session origin point and horizontal axis directions are very unlikely to be the origin of the model. With this handle, you can make sure that the virtual model matches the reality.
Wall adjustment
To adjust the corners, you have the choice to move then directly, or to move the interior wall segment.
Note that depending on your choice about wall alignment in the new room dialog, there may be constraints in the corner movements. If you decided to align them on a rectangular grid, it will not be possible to create angles between walls that are not right angles. On the other hand, if you choose a manual alignment model, the app will show you when you define right angles between walls.
Wall thickness
Wall thickness accuracy is important for house plan creation. They can be adjusted by moving the external wall axis.
The app will automatically adjust the wall thickness to align with an exiting axis if there is one nearby.
Doors and windows
To add doors and windows to the 3D house plans, simply click on the + button, and drag and drop the corresponding icons on the AR view to the wall where it is located.
Then, adjust the position of the element by moving the corners, the side segments, or the move arrow.
Undo/Redo and delete operations
In the bottom part of the screen you will see 3 button: undo, redo and delete.
The app supports unlimited undo/redo operations so so that you can explore many home improvements and revert them without having to restart from the beginning.
To delete an element, simply select it and click on the delete button.
Horizontal ceiling
Most of the rooms have an horizontal flat ceiling. This is the default choice when you create a new room.
In that case, moving one top corner will automatically move the other ones so that the ceiling face remains horizontal. If you deleted this face and want to recreate it, click on the + button. In the home structure part of the panel, you will find the flat ceiling icon. Click on it to start the flat ceiling definition. Then select all the wall top corners that define this ceiling face. You need to select them in order (either clockwise or anti-clockwise). Each time you click on a wall top corner, only the other ones that are candidates to be added to the face are blinking. Click on the validation button when you’re done.
Walls with a ceiling slope
When the ceiling above a wall is composed of several parts (like and horizontal part and an inclined part), you need to add a break point where the ceiling slope changes. To do that, click on the + button. In the home structure part of the panel, find the ceiling slope change icon and drag and drop it onto its wall. This is illustrated in the next video indicating how to create an inclined ceiling face.
You can then adjust it position by moving its horizontal base point between the ground corner of the wall. And you can adjust its height by moving the top extremity of the vertical segment.
Inclined ceiling face
To create an inclined face where one side stays horizontal, click on the + button. In the home structure panel, click on the inclined ceiling face. Then click on each wall top corners that define this inclined face. Make sure that you start with the 2 corners that define the horizontal segment of the face. This segment will be the rotation axis of the created face. The rest of the wall top corners must be selected in order (either clockwise or anti-clockwise depending in which order you selected the 2 first corners). Click on the validation button when you’re done.
Tip: in a rectangular room, it s likely to find ceiling slope change points on 2 opposite sides. Those points are at the same distance to the wall supporting the inclined face base. This is the case in this video and you can notice that when the second ceiling change point is added at the beginning of the video, the app automatically adjust its position to set it at the same distance from the wall than the opposite point.
Once the inclined face is create, the app will ensure that its main first segment remains horizontal, whatever point is moved.
Windows on ceiling faces
It is also possible to add a window onto a ceiling face.
What is specific about this case, is that the app will use the first 2 corners used during the creation of the ceiling face as a main axis for the rectangular window positioning.
Therefore, when you move any part of the window, its base will always remain parallel to the axis formed by first 2 corners of the face.
Dormers
A house plan can be composed of some more complex structures.
wodomo 3D supports the addition of dormers and will manage for you the different constraints linking some of its points to the ground level, and the wall and ceiling faces to which is it attached.
To create a dormer, click on the + button. In the home structure panel, drag and drop the dormer icon to the wall where it is located. Note that only walls supporting an inclined ceiling face are candidates to receive a dormer.
It is likely that this dormer will contain a window. You can add a window to its back wall, the same way you would do it for any other wall.
Paint colors
To decorate a face (which can be either a ground face, a wall or a ceiling face), you can use the virtual color fan that proposes hundreds of paint colors.
Click on the + button, and in in the decoration panel, click on the color fan icon. This will open the virtual color fan that you can deploy to see the various color.
To select a color, simply click on it.
Then, when you click on a face of the model, it will be decorated with this color.
Reuse an existing color
You can also pick a specific color that you see on the camera view.
Click on the pipette icon, and then click on the camera view to select the color.
If you want to save this color for a later use, click on the hart icon to add it to your favorite colors.
Textures
To add a texture to a ground, wall or ceiling face, open the texture panel.
Click on the + button, and on the decoration panel, click on the texture icon.
You have buttons to select the texture category between parquet, carpet, tiles, wallpaper and stone. Then select the texture. Click on a face to decorate it with this texture.
To rotate the texture, click on the rotate button and click on the face again. This will align the texture axis with the face next segment.
To remove a texture, click on the currently selected texture so that it becomes black (which means empty). Then click on the face to remove its texture.
Tip: if a face has both a paint color and a texture, the texture will be rendered above the paint color and the paint color will not be visible.
AR 3D house plans with several rooms
To add a new room, click on the + button, and click on the new room icon in the home structure panel.
The new room dialog will open. It is the same as the one shown for the first room (see above).
After you pressed OK in the new room dialog, you have to define the room perimeter as you did for the first room.
When you move a room wall close to the wall of another room, the app will automatically fusion the door and window elements of the adjacent walls.
Tip: when you edit a house plan with several room, edition is active only for the currently selected room. To select another room, simply click on its ground surface. Selecting the ground of another room will not work if another face intercepting the selection ray. Sometimes you don’t see it because the model is almost transparent. A safe way to select another room is therefore to move right inside it before selecting its ground.
PDF report with 2D floor plan and room inventory
To get a 2D floor plan of your model and get some detailed information about dimensions, surfaces and volume of each room, you can generate a PDF report.
In the dwelling list page, click on the PDF button.
You will then be able to open the document on your smartphone if there is an application that can handle PDF, or you can click on the share button to send it to you through another mean.
Export of 3D house plans made in AR to a wavefront/OBJ file
3D house plans can be exported to be used with other 3D software.
The export format is wavefront/OBJ.
To export it, in the dwelling list page, click on the OBJ button.
You can help to make wodomo 3D better
If you think that creating 3D house plans in AR could help your in your home improvement projects, we would love to listen to your comments and suggestions. Do not hesitate to contact us. We’re ready to adapt our roadmap to add features that will be useful to you.