Scanning rooms to collect 3D geometry is a breeze. After just a few practice scans, you will get the hang of it.
Calibrate and start a scan
To get the fastest calibration time (1-3 seconds) follow these tips:
Hold the iPad still centering the
+on the screen. The blue circle will complete when the iPad has been held still for long enough.Start at the bottom edge of a wall
Have a clear view of the edge i.e. avoid items like furniture that might block the view
When prompted, point the camera at the top edge of wall
Once the white guiding lines appear, you're done with calibration and can start scanning!
Capture room details quickly and accurately
Once the white lines appear, you are now recording 3D geometry.
You don't need to wait for white lines to catch up to get every detail on screen before moving to a new area of the room.
Imagine you are filming a video of the room that gets a clear picture of all of the walls in the room.
Rotate around the room, ideally 5-10 ft away from walls. The wider the field of view, the faster we can pick up details.
Don't worry about going too fast - the app will alert you to slow down if needed.
Scan room-by-room
We strongly recommend scanning room-by-room (or a collection of rooms that you consider a zone). Amply does not support scanning multiple floors in one pass.
Scanning room by room has many advantages:
Speed: It is the fastest way to scan the home. While counter to the conventional wisdom that "a block load is faster," the fastest way to capture all of the geometry in the home is room-by-room.
The larger the scan gets, the higher the computational complexity for the iPad, so the scanning and detection process begins to slow down
Accuracy: The larger the scan is, the harder it is to review and verify that key details have been captured correctly, like windows, doors, and walls
Insights: Room-by-room load calculations, as well as room-by-room CFM estimates
Don't worry, you still get a "block load" calculation on your Manual J report in addition to the room-by-room info.
Photos/Annotations: You can include photos and add notes along with each scan
Walls, window and doors and their impact on load calculations
Capturing an accurate representation of exterior walls, windows, and doors in the home is very important for accurate load calculations. If you have trouble scanning a space, capturing a door or window, you can always just re-scan the space. It is also possible to manually add, edit, or remove a door or window. Keep in mind that interior walls have no impact on loads.
Ceilings and Skylights
At the moment, we don't support automatic scanning of skylights or visualization of ceilings.
Ceilings: We don't visualize ceilings because they would impair your view of the room when reviewing the 3D model. But rest assured, we are computing and modeling ceiling surface areas behind the scenes to ensure accurate load calculations. Learn more about ceilings.
Skylights: Since skylights are a sub-component of ceilings and due to other technical challenges, we can't automatically measure their geometry. Instead, we provide an option for adding skylights with a few taps to any room after you have completed a scan and are viewing the 3D model.
Special LiDAR considerations when scanning room by room
Wondering what LiDAR is? Learn more about LiDAR here.
Scans will be most accurate with good light
A few tips:
Turn on lights
Open curtains to let in more light. This also helps capture window geometry more accurately.
If the room is too dark, the app will automatically warn you of low light conditions
LiDAR limitations
Multiple Stories: We do not support scanning multiple stories at a time. See above for more details.
Large mirrors: Ceiling-to-floor mirrors may confuse the 3D scanning capability, avoid them if you can
LiDAR throw distance:
iPad LiDAR has a max range of ~15 ft
Ceilings or walls outside of that range may be hard to capture.
Very dark surfaces:
Objects with very dark surfaces might not be able to be scanned.
Window curtains can prevent proper window capture
Curtains or other window treatments may prevent widows from being accurately measured. Open curtains to both let in more light and prevent window dimensions from being obscured.