Setting Up Multi-Level Floor Plans for Commercial Properties

Residential multi-level scans are relatively straightforward: standard floor heights, similar room layouts per level, and a stairwell connecting them. Commercial properties are a different challenge — mixed-use floors with open plates, mezzanines, equipment rooms, and ceiling heights that vary from 8 feet in the back office to 24 feet in the lobby.

vPlan AR's multi-level system was built with commercial complexity in mind. Here's how to configure it for a commercial project.

Why Multi-Level Accuracy Matters in Commercial

In commercial construction and renovation, vertical accuracy has direct financial consequences. HVAC systems must route through ceiling plenums with specific clearance requirements. Electrical conduit runs between floors through designated penetrations. Fire suppression systems are zoned by floor area. An inaccurate floor-to-floor height translates into material waste, installation conflicts, and inspection failures.

For insurance adjusting on commercial properties, inaccurate floor plate areas multiply errors across every trade on a large-loss claim. A 3% area error on a 20,000 sq ft floor plate can mean tens of thousands of dollars in estimate discrepancy.

Configuring Your Level Stack

Before starting any scan, set up the full level structure in vPlan AR. Tap "Configure Levels" on the scan screen and add one entry per floor. For each level, set the elevation (floor-to-floor height from ground) and the estimated ceiling height. Use architectural drawings if available — even rough values help the app's ceiling detection algorithm produce better results.

vPlan AR ships with presets for common commercial configurations: Ground (0 ft), Level 2 (12 ft), Level 3 (24 ft), Level 4 (36 ft), and Rooftop (48 ft). Adjust these to match your property. For a building with a 14-foot ground floor and 10-foot upper floors, set Ground = 0 ft, Level 2 = 14 ft, Level 3 = 24 ft, and so on.

Multi-level scanning requires a Business plan. The level stack is preserved across scan sessions, so you can scan different floors on different days and the elevations remain correctly set.

Connecting Vertical Elements

Stairwells, elevator shafts, and open atriums need special handling because they're voids that pass through multiple floor plates. In the editor, mark these areas as "Vertical Element" rather than as a room. This tells the export engine that they should not contribute area calculations to the floor they appear on.

For stairwells, scan the stair treads from the side (not from above) to capture the rise and run geometry. vPlan AR can annotate the stair count and total rise in the floor plan, which is useful for any export format that requires stair measurements.

Atriums that span multiple floors should be documented at the ground level with a note in the room label indicating the height. In the 3D view, all levels are shown simultaneously, making it easy to verify that vertical elements align correctly across floors.

Exporting the Complete Building Model

When all floors are scanned and reviewed, export the complete building from the Projects screen by tapping the project and choosing Export. Multi-level exports are available in DXF (with each level on a separate layer), PDF (with per-level pages), and XML (one file with all levels and room data).

For large commercial projects sent to engineering or architecture firms, DXF is the preferred format. The multi-level DXF export from vPlan AR includes separate layers for each floor's walls, doors, windows, room labels, and dimension annotations. Levels are offset vertically in 3D model space, so the file opens correctly in AutoCAD or Revit.

For structured data exports, the XML format includes each floor's rooms in sequence, with accurate dimensions and opening data per room. The recipient receives one file covering the entire building.