Import a plan (PDF, image, DXF)
Updated 5 min readWorks without an account
Smart import turns an existing plan (a PDF, a photo or scan, or a DXF drawing) into walls, doors, windows and named rooms you can edit. You check every item before anything goes in, and one Undo takes it all back out.
Start an import
- Step 1: Open Smart import
Click More tools › Smart import, use the Import a plan card on an empty plan, or press ⌘K and choose Smart import… or Import DXF….
- Step 2: Choose a file
Click Choose a file, or drop the file on the plan. FloorGen tells the file apart by what is inside it: a PDF, a PNG, JPG, WebP or GIF picture, or a DXF.
- Step 3: Check what it found
The items appear on the plan as dashed ghosts, listed in the Smart import panel. Keep or drop each one, then click Add to the plan.
What is free
These run in your browser, for everyone, and the file never leaves your computer: Detect walls finds the walls in a picture once its scale is set; a PDF drawn by a CAD program has a text layer, from which Smart import reads the scale (its printed dimensions) and the room names; and a DXF drawing is read layer by layer.
In a PDF you can tick up to 10 pages. Each page goes on its own floor (this one, an empty one, or a new floor above or below), and the pages are reviewed one at a time.
Import a DXF
- Step 4: Say what each layer is
The Map the drawing’s layers dialog lists every layer with what it holds. Pick what it becomes: Walls, Doors, Windows, Room names, Check the scale, Background picture or Ignore. Common layer names (AIA names such as A-WALL, and English, German, Spanish and French words) are filled in for you, and the next file with the same layers starts from your last choice.
- Step 5: Check the units
When the file says its units, the dialog shows them and whether its dimensions agree. When it does not, it guesses from the drawing’s size and asks you to choose.
- Step 6: Choose where it lands
On this floor if nothing is drawn on it yet, on a new floor above, or in place of this floor. A FloorGen export of all floors can bring in one floor, or one floor each.
- Step 7: Review on the plan
The preview counts the walls, doors, windows and room names as you change the layers. Click Review on the plan → to check them on the plan.
Everything the import does not turn into walls, doors, windows or rooms (furniture, fixtures, notes, hatching outlines) is drawn into a picture and placed under the plan as its traced image, at the right size and place. Delete it from the image’s properties if you do not need it.
The AI reading (beta)
For a photo or a scan, FloorGen AI can also read the doors, windows, room names and the scale. It is in beta, for signed-in accounts whose plan includes it: guests see Sign in, and other accounts see the plans. The page you choose is sent to our AI provider to be read and is not kept there.
What it found (not the picture) is kept for 7 days, so reading the same page again is quick and free, and is then deleted on its own.
Review the items
| Band | What it means |
|---|---|
| Ticked | Sure enough to go in as it is. |
| To check | Kept, but marked in amber with a ?: look at it before you add. |
| Off | Too unsure: left out unless you tick it. Shown under the Off filter. |
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| ↑ ↓ | Next or previous item, and the plan pans to it |
| Enter | Keep the item |
| X or Del | Leave it out |
| F | Flip a door’s swing |
| Shift Enter | Add the kept items to the plan |
| Esc | Close the review (it asks before discarding) |
With the focus on the plan these keys keep their usual meaning. Click a ghost on the plan to keep or drop it, and pick a room’s type in its row.
Add it to the plan
Add to the plan builds every kept item on the floor in one step: one Undo removes them all. Linked floors are not changed. The Review panel then opens on what came in, with any issues the code check found, the items that could not be placed and why, and Hide traced picture.
Questions
Can I import a DWG file?
No. Save it as DXF (ASCII) from your CAD program, then import the DXF.
Why did the walls come in at the wrong size?
The scale or the units were off. For a picture or PDF, set the image scale from a length you know; for a DXF, choose the right units in the dialog.
Does my file leave my computer?
Not for the free parts: pictures, PDF text and DXF are read in your browser. Only the AI reading sends the one page you choose to our AI provider.