How to Make a Floor Plan From a Sketch (in About 5 Minutes)
Draw the layout on paper, photograph it, and get a professional editable floor plan back in about 30 seconds. What the AI gets right, what you fix yourself, and how to export it.
Most agents already draw the layout during a viewing. A rough rectangle for the living room, a box for the kitchen, a squiggle where the hallway turns. That sketch usually stays in the notebook, because turning it into something you can put on a listing has always meant either measuring the whole place properly or paying someone else to.
It doesn't any more. You can photograph that sketch, upload it, and get a professional, editable floor plan from a sketch back in about 30 seconds.
This guide covers what the sketch actually needs to show, what the AI estimates versus what it reads, what it tends to get wrong, and when a sketch is the wrong starting point.
Can you really turn a hand-drawn sketch into a floor plan?
Yes. Upload a photo of a sketch you drew on paper and Pedra reads the drawing in roughly 30 seconds, returning a professional floor plan with room shapes, labels and estimated measurements — and it stays editable afterwards.
The result is not a scan or a tidied-up photo of your drawing. It is a real floor plan object: walls you can drag, rooms you can rename, doors you can place. Your sketch is only the input.
What does the sketch need to show?
A rough representation of the layout. That's the whole requirement.
It helps if the proportions are roughly sensible — a hallway that reads as a hallway rather than a room — but you do not need graph paper, a ruler, or straight lines. A drawing on the back of a viewing sheet works.
You also do not need measurements. If your sketch has them, Pedra uses them. If it doesn't, Pedra estimates them from the proportions of your drawing and tells you it has done so. That estimate is a starting point you correct, not a number to publish blindly.
How to convert a sketch into a floor plan
- Open the property in Pedra and go to the Floor Plan section.
- Click New Floor Plan, then From a sketch or photo.
- Choose the photo of your sketch and click Convert.
- Wait roughly 30 seconds while Pedra reads the drawing.
- Review the preview — it shows the number of rooms it found and the measurements it estimated.
- Click Open in Editor to correct anything before exporting.
The whole loop, sketch to downloadable plan, runs in about five minutes for a normal flat.
What does the AI get wrong?
Walls, mostly. It is AI reading a hand drawing, so it occasionally merges two rooms that should be separate, squares off a wall that was actually angled, or misreads where a hallway ends.
This is why the editor matters more than the conversion. When you click Open in Editor, your original sketch is displayed alongside the generated plan, so you are comparing against the drawing rather than working from memory. From there you can:
- Drag walls until the shape matches your sketch
- Merge or split rooms the AI read incorrectly
- Set the real dimensions per room, or force a measurement when you don't know it
- Add doors, and choose which way each one opens
- Add windows and furniture
- Rename rooms
Budget a few minutes for this. A plan that came back nearly right still deserves a pass, because the measurements are estimates until you confirm them.
What can you export, and can you hide the measurements?
You can download the finished plan as PNG, JPEG or PDF, and yes — you can hide the measurements or the area figures.
That last option is more useful than it sounds. When the numbers came from an estimate rather than a laser measure, publishing them invites an argument you don't need. Hiding them gives you a clean layout drawing that still shows a buyer how the property flows, without committing you to a square-metre figure you can't defend.
Is a sketch always the right starting point?
No. It is the fastest route, but it isn't the most accurate one, and there are two alternatives worth knowing.
If you have already shot a 360° virtual tour, order the plan from that instead. The tour is a full-resolution capture of the real property, so the plan is built from what is actually there rather than from your drawing. It costs from €19 plus VAT and takes two to three business days, and placing the order takes about thirty seconds. No measuring, no second visit. See virtual tours if you don't have one yet.
If you have the dimensions but no drawing, skip the sketch and build it directly in the editor. Add rooms, drag their measurements, drop in doors and windows. For a simple layout this takes a few minutes and it will be more accurate than a sketch, because nothing is being estimated.
So the honest rule: sketch when speed matters and the layout is simple, virtual tour when accuracy matters, draw it yourself when you already have the numbers. All three are covered in the three ways to get a floor plan release.
How accurate is a floor plan made from a sketch?
As accurate as the measurements you confirm in the editor. The conversion gets the layout right; the numbers are estimated from your drawing's proportions until you replace them.
For a portal listing where the plan's job is to show how rooms connect, that's usually enough — especially with the measurements hidden. For anything where a buyer will rely on the figures, either measure the rooms and enter the real numbers, or order the plan from a virtual tour instead.
Why bother putting a floor plan on the listing at all?
Because it is one of the few things that makes a listing legible at a glance. Photos show a buyer what the rooms look like; the plan shows them how the property works — whether the kitchen opens onto the living room, whether the second bedroom is really a bedroom, whether their furniture fits.
A listing without one also reads as less thorough, and that lands on you rather than on the property. There is more on this in our guide to real estate floor plans.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need design experience? No. The editor is built for agents, not architects. You are dragging walls and dropping doors, not operating CAD software.
Can I use a photo of an old printed plan instead of a sketch? Yes. Anything that represents the layout works as input, including a photo of an existing plan.
How long does the whole thing take? About 30 seconds for the conversion and a few minutes in the editor. Call it five minutes for a normal flat.
What if the AI reads the layout wrong? You correct it in the editor with your original sketch shown next to the result. Nothing is locked in.
Can I add furniture? Yes — furniture, doors and windows, and you can choose which way each door opens.
Draw the layout, photograph it, and let Pedra do the drafting.
