Software & Apps

When it comes to organization, I have a bit of a problem with furniture. Wherever I’ve lived, there is always a space that becomes the designated junk pile; like the big brother of a junk drawer. A friend of mine recently moved to a new apartment, which began a group discussion of this junk pile phenomenon. The upshot was, we all had an area that we never got around to utilizing (as small as a few feet or as big as a room), which became the place where unclassified items were stored.

Part of the issue is sheer laziness. Finding a sufficiently large tape measure, drawing out a room plan including existing furniture, doors and windows so I could decide what new furniture can go in that area…ugh. I think I’d prefer to watch paint dry. So the junk pile remains.

magicplan is an incredibly powerful augmented reality (AR) tool that seems to be geared primarily towards realtors, though it’s just as useful for the ordinary home-dweller. Because it’s got such power, I had a hard time utilizing its full potential right out of the box. But the handful of included videos and tutorials succinctly explain how to do everything you’ll need to do.

It all starts with you and the camera on your iPhone or iPad. Pick a spot in the room which best allows you to visualize the corners of your room. Don’t worry that three out of four of the corners of your room have some large piece of furniture already in front of them – you can sort of eyeball where an unobstructed corner would be. I found it useful to start a capture with that fourth, visible corner, as magicplan gives you a grid which helps you visualize and align the rest.

While you’re setting up the initial room capture, you can tap the Door button to add your doors. If that extra step seems too complicated on your first run-through, you can add doors later. When you finish placing your corners, magicplan will ask if you like your capture, and then you can begin editing.

My first quick and dirty attempt yielded something with no two walls the same size. Whoops! No worries, just stretch out a wall here, tap the corners to force a right angle, and it no longer looks like you’re living in a fun-house. Then you can add furniture, and different types of windows and doors. You can even wing the furniture around if you have it placed on the diagonal.

You can continue this capture and edit process throughout your place, adding rooms, closets and different floors. If you’re feeling super thorough, you can identify your floor plan with photos or have your iPad/iPhone geolocate your place. At that point you have a template to play with, to banish the junk pile once and for all.

You can find magicplan on the iOS App Store. The app is free, but some functionality may require in-app purchases.