Live data from Hacker News

Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

sweethome3d.com

21–30 of 129 posts

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#22
post #14
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

I wonder if there is a good answer for quick mapping using an iPhone’s LiDAR Scanner?

I found this youtube channel[0] has some pretty good walkthroughs (quite literally) of using various iOS apps to scan architectural spaces. The short answer is that the LIDAR and iOS APIs are remarkably powerful, but not 100% accurate. There are techniques to improve accuracy (e.g. using a gimbal), but ultimately you'll need to do tape or laser measurements and modify the models that these tools can build, or just model it yourself with the scan as a reference.

MagicPlan[1] and PolyCam[2] seem to be the most focused on building a schematic level building model which could be imported into other tools if needed. They both now take advantage of the Roomplan API[3] which Apple introduced in iOS and iPadOS 16[4]. MagicPlan has been out for ages[4] and originally just worked off the camera and the accelerometer to help build a floor plan. Polycam also supports photogrammetry[5] where you just take a bunch of photos and it builds a 3D model by interpreting what shape the object could be (I don't know if this is also used in architecture scale things, but it could be interesting for ID projects). Both MagicPlan and PolyCam allow you to tweak dimensions of rooms, doors, windows, furniture, etc. in a somewhat parametric way. This is where you likely want a laser measuring device to quickly update the dimensions. These can be used through Bluetooth to enter the measurements directly into the floorplans in MagicPlan[6]. I didn't try this, but if I was doing this all the time, it seems like it would be essential.

Matterport is starting to get into mobile[7] (phone, tablet) capture, but they've built their business up on their branded hardware and cloud platform. They provide floorplans as a service[8] and everything adds up, but from what I see in the real estate market, they are ubiquitous.

And if you want to spend a bunch more for very pro level app for documenting things like crime scenes, shipbuilding, infrastructure, etc. there's Dot3D.[9]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/@LiDAR3D

[1] https://www.magicplan.app

[2] https://poly.cam

[3] https://developer.apple.com/augmented-reality/roomplan/

[4] https://9to5mac.com/2022/06/15/ios-16-roomplan-api-3d-floor-...

[5] https://www.magicplan.app/about

[6] https://help.magicplan.app/laser-distance-meters#laser-tutor...

[7] https://matterport.com/3d-camera-app

[8] https://buy.matterport.com/

[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouZxCDKTizs

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#23

I must say it looks pretty good, wish I had tried it when I renovated my apartment. But all the other similar software I tried ultimately were a big disappointment. In my experience, once the design is complicated enough they tend to fail: some objects start to glitch if you move them by a certain amount, I could never get the right angle between walls, etc. It seems to be difficult to implement a way to put robust s…

>> It seems to be difficult to implement a way to put robust set of constraints on geometry yet keep the software easy to use by everyone Maybe they could integrate the Solvespace constraint solver. It seems to be gaining popularity outside its original CAD program.

I tried to use Solvespace for a number of projects, but it seemed like it had essentially ~zero support for parametric repetition (e.g. putting one hole every 15mm), which made it basically useless for any semi-complex project. A home might be easier, as long as you don't have any design features like "put a light socket every 3 feet".

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#24
post #14
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

I wonder if there is a good answer for quick mapping using an iPhone’s LiDAR Scanner?

There are several products out there that can create 2d, 3d renderings of a living space using the iphone lidar scanner. Not sure it they keep dimensions.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#25
post #14
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

I wonder if there is a good answer for quick mapping using an iPhone’s LiDAR Scanner?

I have been playing with RTAB-Map and a Kinect, and exporting to various formats and it works reasonably well, but is still far from user-friendly. They also have a iOS version if you want to play around with it.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#27
post #6

I tried hard to make Sweet Home work for me. It solves the quick and dirty use case but I really wanted something where I could measure out every dimension in the house with a laser measurer, describe the shape and the relationships between the objects and let the computer do the rest. In a program like Sweet Home, and every other floor plan program out there if you make one change (like updating the measurement of t…

There was a startup in SF that tried to do that using iPhone video feeds as one walked around the room, but they went belly up recently and whatever tech they created was siphoned to another platform startup.

Re: Sweet Home 3D is a free interior design application

#29
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if there is a good answer for quick mapping using an iPhone’s LiDAR Scanner?

I have been playing with RTAB-Map and a Kinect, and exporting to various formats and it works reasonably well, but is still far from user-friendly. They also have a iOS version if you want to play around with it.

Ooh, I just found my old Kinect yesterday. I'll have to play around with this.
Post reply on HN