As-built floor plans for interior designers

Interiors have no tolerance to hide in

On a base building drawing, a few inches of error is academic. In an interior fit-out it is the difference between a millwork run that installs and one that has to be scribed, cut down, or remade.

The reason is that interior work is built to fit between things. Casework goes wall to wall. A reception desk lands in a specific alcove. A banquette runs an exact length. Every one of those decisions is made from a dimension on a drawing, months before anyone can check it, and the drawing is usually a landlord's lease exhibit or a CAD file of unknown parentage.

Scanning removes the guess. The space is captured at ±10mm before design starts, so the numbers your specifications are built on are measurements of the actual room rather than of an idealised version of it.

What tends to be wrong in the drawing you were given

These are the recurring gaps between a legacy plan and the space someone is about to design into.

• Rooms that are not rectangles

  Older commercial space is rarely square. Drawings tidy it up; casework built to the tidy version does not fit the real one.

• Ceiling heights that vary

  A single stated height on a plan often covers a ceiling that steps, drops around structure, or changes across a bulkhead.

• Columns in the wrong place

  Structure gets drawn on grid and built near it. On a plan the difference is a line; in a floor layout it is a circulation problem.

• Services that were never recorded

  Sprinkler mains, ducts and conduit added during past fit-outs, sitting exactly where a new ceiling feature was going to go.

• Partitions added or removed

  Two or three tenancies of changes that nobody drew, which is the single most common difference between the file and the floor.

• Openings sized from memory

  Door and window dimensions rounded to a standard on a drawing, when the real opening is the one the shop drawings have to match.

How designers use the capture

1. Scan before schematic

   The capture happens at the front of the project, so space planning and test fits are done against real geometry instead of being redone when the site measure comes back.

2. Plans in one to two business days

   Dimensioned floor plans and the iGUIDE 3D tour typically arrive within a couple of days, which is fast enough to keep an early design phase moving.

3. Design against the model or the CAD

   Layered DWG for teams drawing in CAD, or a Revit model where the project is coordinated in BIM. Reflected ceiling plans and interior elevations come from the same dataset.

4. Check details without going back

   The 3D tour stays available through the project. Questions about a reveal, a soffit or an existing finish get answered from the capture rather than from a site visit.

Working around a tenant

Most commercial interiors get designed while somebody is still working in them. Capture is built around that: the scanner is set up, records the space, and is moved on, without clearing desks, moving furniture, or asking the tenant to leave for the day.

Furniture in the scan is not a problem. What matters for design is the shell — walls, openings, ceiling planes, structure and services — and those are captured around whatever is sitting in front of them.

See a real deliverable

Floor plans, the 3D tour and measured areas from a delivered commercial project.

View sample deliverables

Opens the sample page — real output rather than a description of it.

Common questions

Do you produce reflected ceiling plans?

Yes. Ceiling grid, fixtures, diffusers and devices are located from the scan, and the RCP comes out of the same dataset as the floor plan so the two agree.

Can we get interior elevations?

Yes — interior elevations and sections are cut from the same capture. Tell us which walls matter when you book, since it affects how the space is scanned.

How quickly can we get floor plans?

Dimensioned floor plans and the 3D tour are typically back in one to two business days after the scan. Full layered CAD for a typical commercial scope takes about a week.

Does the space need to be empty?

No. Occupied commercial space is the normal case. Furniture and staff do not need to be moved.

Do you do residential interiors?

No — commercial and industrial only. Offices, retail, restaurants, medical suites, flex space and tenant improvement work across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley.

What file formats do we receive?

Layered DWG and PDF as standard, a Revit .rvt where the project is modelled, plus the iGUIDE 3D tour. The list is agreed before the scan.

Keep reading

• Tenant improvement as-builts — The documentation package behind a commercial fit-out.
• CAD drafting — Sheet types, layer standards and file formats in detail.
• 3D laser scanning — How the capture works and what ±10mm actually means.
• For architects — The same measured base set from a design-team perspective.

Design from the room that exists

Book online with an instant estimate. Tell us which elevations and ceiling areas matter.