Map your home in AR
Create the perfect home or office without any fuss in Magicplan
REQUIRES
iOS 9 or later (iOS 11 for ARKit-based features), Magicplan app
You will learn
How AR can measure entire rooms
IT WILL TAKE
10 minutes
Arthur C. Clarke famously wrote that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Clarke probably wasn’t thinking about home planning apps, but Magicplan is indeed magical: Instead of struggling with a measuring tape for hours, you can accurately measure an entire building with nothing more than your iPad’s camera, then add architectural features, experiment with different items of furniture and their location, and even work out the total cost of painting, tiling, and other key tasks.
It’s great for home improvements, for tradespeople to price jobs, for estate agents, for garden design, even for Airbnb hosts to supplement their carefullychosen photos with a proper floorplan.
Magicplan is free to download, and you can use the basic planning features without cost. You can’t export your plan from the free version, but a one-plan unlock to enable this is $2.99. If you want the pro-level stuff such as highlighting electrical wiring, on up to custom objects, subscriptions start at $9.99 a month and business subscriptions at $19.99.
The app is just as happy measuring an entire apartment block as a one-room studio. But what makes Magicplan special is its use of augmented reality, combining computer imaging and real-time camera footage. To capture your room, all you need to do is point the camera at its corners. The layout and measuring are done automatically — and if it isn’t quite right, it’s really easy to edit.
Apple thinks augmented reality (AR) is going to be a really big deal, and Magicplan uses the ARKit framework built into iOS 11 to deliver more accurate measurements without the need to stay still. Other apps from the likes of IKEA use the technology to show what specific items of furniture will look like in your home, as well as fun stuff such as virtual games on your coffee table. Looks like the future is magical!