How to Measure up with your iOS device
1 Choose your property
Magicplan can be used to plan out either residential or commercial property, and it offers slightly different tools for each of these purposes. For most of us, the residential option is the one that’ll be most useful.
2 Choose your method
The app enables you to draw plans from scratch, but we much prefer the gee-whiz Capture option, which speeds things up thanks to the magic of augmented reality. Capture enables you to walk round while measuring the room.
3 Start at the start
To begin capturing the room, point your camera at one of the corners. Try to get the ripples and pointer as close to the floor level as possible. Once you’ve got it pointed at the correct spot, tap Add Corner to proceed.
4 Move around
You don’t need to stay in one place to measure: go to wherever’s comfortable and locate the next corner you want to add to your floor plan. You’ll see a grid appearing over the camera feed. Tap Add Corner again.
5 Finish the survey
Once you’ve captured every corner of the room – you’re not limited to four, which means the app is quite happy with oddly-shaped rooms and open-plan settings – tap the big green Done button to see the instant floor plan.
6 Don’t panic
Yes, it’s come out slightly skewed – but that’s OK, because if you tap on a corner until four big arrows appear, you can straighten the walls. You can also move and resize the walls. The measurements will change too.
7 Get ready to rumble
How clever is this? With very little effort we’ve made a floor plan of our oddly-shaped room, and the app has done all the measuring for us. Trust us, those measurements will come in handy when you next redecorate.
8 Add elements
You’re not limited to dull old walls. Select a wall and then tap Insert Object. You can now choose from a huge library of features such as doors, windows, stairs and even flooring. Drag to move items, and place them as appropriate.
9 Change the size
Items come in standard sizes, but you can override those sizes by tapping on the item in your plan and editing the details. This is a useful way to try various options for size when renovating, or simply to add unusual items.
10 Add objects
The objects library includes all kinds of furniture, TV units and other useful items to add, but you’ll see that some pro features, such as electrical wiring symbols, aren’t unlocked in the free version.
11 Estimate accurately
Time to make more use of those measurements. Tap Done and then tap on Estimate. Skip the video, tap the New Item icon and select the job you want to estimate – common redecoration tasks are available to choose.
12 Find out fast
The app calculates the quantities you need and uses typical prices (which you can edit to make more precise) to calculate the cost of each job and what supplies need ordering. It even budgets for preparatory work.