Floor plan makers: the tools people use, and when a plan needs an architect

This page is not a floor plan maker, and we do not sell one. It is a guide to the tools people use to draw a floor plan themselves, what each kind is good at, and the point where a plan you have drawn still needs an architect. We are an architecture practice, so read that last part knowing who wrote it.

A floor plan maker (or floor plan creator) is software for drawing the layout of a house seen from above: walls, doors, windows, rooms and furniture. Most let you drag walls into place, type in room sizes and switch to a 3D view. They are a good way to try layouts and to show a family, a builder or an architect what you have in mind.

The kinds of tool, and what each is good for

Kind of tool	Good for	Where it stops
Browser and phone apps (Floorplanner, RoomSketcher, Planner 5D)	Quick layouts, furniture, a 3D view to share. No install	Drawing is fast but loose. Wall thickness, structure and code are up to you
Phone apps that measure (magicplan)	Measuring an existing room or house with the phone, then drawing it	Accuracy depends on the phone and the room. Check key dimensions with a tape
Free desktop programs (Sweet Home 3D, LibreCAD, FreeCAD)	Sweet Home 3D for layouts and furniture in 3D; LibreCAD for 2D drafting; FreeCAD for 3D and building models. All three are free and open source	A learning curve, more for LibreCAD and FreeCAD. Still no code check
3D modelling (SketchUp)	Massing, roofs, a feel for the space in 3D	A model is not a set of construction drawings by itself
CAD and BIM (AutoCAD, Revit, Archicad)	The drawings a permit set is made of: plans, elevations, sections, schedules	Built for professionals, and paid licences. The software does not make a plan legal

Pick by what you need to do. To try a few layouts this weekend, use a browser app. To record the house you already live in before a renovation, measure it, with an app or a tape. To learn drafting, LibreCAD or FreeCAD. Plans and schedule information change, so check each tool’s own site for what it costs and what the free version includes.

A pencil and graph paper still work. At one square to half a metre, a 10 by 15 metre lot fits on a sheet. The floor plan symbols guide shows how to draw walls, doors, windows and stairs so others can read your plan, with the stair, sliding door and window symbols drawn in detail.

What a floor plan maker will not check

A floor plan maker draws what you tell it. It does not know your lot, the local zoning or the building code, and it does not tell you when something will not work.

• The lot. How much of the lot the house may cover, and how far it must stand from each boundary, depends on the lot and its zoning. The lot coverage calculator gives a first check.
• Room sizes and ceilings. The National Building Code sets the smallest rooms, the narrowest sides and the lowest ceilings a plan may have. The room size checker tests one room at a time.
• Light and air. Habitable rooms need windows of a minimum size that open to the outside. A room drawn in the middle of a plan with no outside wall fails, however good it looks in 3D.
• The stair. Rise, run, width, headroom and handrails all have limits. The stair dimensions checker works them out from the height between floors.
• Structure. Where the columns and beams go, how big they are and what the footings need is an engineer’s work. A wall you delete in an app may be holding up the floor above.
• Water, waste and power. Where the toilet drains to, where the septic tank goes and how the circuits run are separate sheets, signed by separate professionals.

When a drawn plan needs an architect

If the plan is for a house you will build, extend or substantially renovate, it needs a building permit, and the permit needs a set of plans signed by licensed professionals. Under the rules of the National Building Code, as the Supreme Court reinstated them in DPWH v. PICE (2023), the architectural sheets (the vicinity map, site development plan, floor plans, elevations, sections and the door and window schedule) may be prepared, signed and sealed only by a registered and licensed architect. The guide to reading a house plan lists every sheet and who signs it.

So a floor plan you made yourself is not wasted. It is the best brief you can bring. It shows how you want to live: which rooms you want next to each other, where the family gathers and what has to fit. An architect then fits that to the lot, the sun, the code and the structure, and draws the sheets the building office will accept.

How to make your own plan useful to an architect

1. Measure the lot, or bring the survey plan. A layout drawn for an imagined lot usually has to start again.
2. Mark north and the road. Where the morning and afternoon sun comes from changes where rooms go.
3. List the rooms you need and the ones you would like, separately.
4. Draw furniture you already own at its real size, especially beds, the dining table and the refrigerator.
5. Note what you do not like about where you live now. It is often more useful than what you think you want.
6. Bring the photos you have saved, and say what you like about each one.

Our custom house design service starts from exactly this kind of plan, and the building permit requirements guide lists what the office asks for once the design is done.