Can I submit multiple scans of an entire home?

The Short Answer

Absolutely! Our Scan To CAD service can convert your 3D scans into editable, design-ready, and professional-grade CAD files that can either be processed individually or merged into a single, global CAD model of the entire space.

You can learn how big of a space you can scan at one time here: How big of a space can I scan?

Tips for scanning a whole house with Canvas:

Plan your scan
Scan connecting Areas
Scan all intermediate areas
Scan the small nooks and crannies
Very large rooms/spaces may need multiple scans

You will be asked if you would like to merge additional scans during checkout:

The Long Answer

It is very common that our customers are not just scanning a single room or rooms, but a whole home and as such, they want one CAD file of all the rooms. We can merge your scans into a single, global file.

When you are placing a Scan To CAD order, you will be asked if you want to merge your scans. Selecting "yes" means you will receive a single, global CAD file in about 3 business days. Otherwise, each scan will be processed individually. Merging is no additional cost and you will receive something like what you see below:

This model took approximately 8 scans, and was captured in roughly 20 minutes. However, depending on the device you're using to capture the space, you may be able to scan it in many less scans, or even a single scan. You can learn more about the trade-offs here: How big of a space can I scan?

Scanning a whole home

We recommend starting with our scanning overview and tutorial.

Plan your scan: Do a quick walkthrough of your home to open the doors between rooms, make sure the lights are on, and turn off any ceiling fans (as the fans can distort light). This will ensure the best results and likelihood of a successful merge. Avoid closing doors, turning on/off lights, opening windows, etc. while scanning as this can negatively affect the scan quality.
Scan connecting areas: Make sure to scan through connecting areas like doorways to create a common point of reference. For example, when you scan the bedroom, scan a little bit into the hallway (and the other way around) so that it's clear how they connect. Just a few seconds of scanning the adjacent room is fine.
Scan all intermediate areas: Make sure to cover all the intermediate areas between rooms that connect your scans. Sometimes first-time users forget to scan a hallway or entryway, and then you'll end up with two models of separate wings of the house instead of one.
Scan small nooks and crannies: Not strictly necessary, but it's generally better if you also capture closet hallways and pantries while you're scanning the adjacent rooms because closet depth can have an impact on how the different rooms fit together. It's usually no big deal, but in weird houses, it can make a difference.
Very large spaces: If you are scanning a really large, open room that is too big to fit in one scan, don't be afraid to break it into multiple. When breaking a room into multiple scans, just make sure your start and end points between scans overlap, and we will be able to merge them together.

You can see more homes we have scanned, including the square footage and number of scans, in our sample data package.

How do I place an order for a home?

When you place a Scan To CAD order you have the option to select "merge my scans". There's no added cost and selecting this option means we will provide a single global CAD model.

Specific, step-by-step ordering instructions available here: Placing an order

Can I merge interiors with exteriors?

Canvas and Scan To CAD are purpose-built for scanning and processing residential interiors. Scanning exteriors is possible (and nothing explicitly prevents it in-app), but since it's not what Canvas was designed for you may experience these limitations. If you are requesting a merge of both interior scans and exterior scans, merging low-quality exterior scans with high-quality interior scans can reduce the accuracy of the whole model. This is unlikely to be significant, but may push you outside of our typical accuracy tolerances.

As our in-app square-footage estimation algorithms and pricing are built for interior scans, you may find that your in-app estimates are significantly off from the final square footage processed if you include exterior scans. With that said, we are willing to process exterior scans (on their own, or in addition to interior scans) for an experimental price described here.