How to draw a floor plan online, step by step

1. Measure before you draw

A floor plan is only as good as its numbers. Take a tape measure or a laser measure and, room by room, write down:

• the length of every wall, corner to corner
• the thickness of the walls — measure it in a door opening
• the width of each door and window, and how far it sits from the nearest corner
• anything fixed: radiators, the kitchen run, the bath, the stairs
• both diagonals of a room you think is square — if they're equal, it is

2. Make a rough sketch first

Sketch the layout freehand — on paper or on the sketch pad — and write the measurements on it as you go. You'll draw the real plan from this sketch, so it doesn't have to be neat, just complete.

3. Set up the drawing

1. 1

   Open a new design. You don't need an account to draw.

2. 2

   In the grid and snapping panel, set the units. Millimetres are the norm for plans in most of the world; centimetres work too.

3. 3

   Set the wall thickness. Outside walls of houses are often 250–350 mm and inside partitions 75–150 mm, but use what you measured.

4. Draw the outside walls

1. 1

   Pick the Wall tool (W) and tap where the first corner goes.

2. 2

   Point the line in the direction of the wall, type its length — 4200 for 4.2 m in millimetres — and press Enter.

3. 3

   Work your way round the building corner by corner. Lines snap to 15° steps, so right angles are easy.

4. 4

   Tap the first point again to close the outline.

5. Add the inside walls

Draw each inside wall from an existing wall. Points snap to the ends and midpoints of what you already drew, so walls meet cleanly. Type lengths as before. Hold Alt if you need to place a point without snapping.

6. Place doors, windows and stairs

Open the symbols panel and drop in a single door, double door, sliding door, window or straight stair. They're real size, so a 90 cm door fits a 90 cm opening without resizing. Drag each one into its wall and use Rotate 90° to turn it the right way. Check every door swing: it shouldn't hit furniture or another door. The floor plan symbols guide explains what each mark means.

7. Furnish it

Add a bed, sofa, dining table, kitchen counter, bath and WC. Because they're true size, you'll see straight away whether a room really fits a double bed with space to walk round it. For other pieces, draw rectangles at the sizes in furniture sizes for floor plans.

8. Dimension and label

• Dimensions (D) — tap two points, then place the line. Give the overall size of the building, the size of each room and the position of openings.
• Text (T) — room names, and areas if you need them.
• North arrow and scale bar — from the plan symbols, so readers know the orientation and the size even if the plan is printed smaller.

9. Save and export

Save the design to your account, then download a PNG or an SVG. To print at a real scale, export a scale PDF on A4 or A3 — 1:100 for a whole flat or house, 1:50 for a furnished room layout — and print at 100%. For AutoCAD, Rhino or SketchUp, export a DXF.

Common mistakes

• Drawing every wall at the same thickness when outside and inside walls differ.
• Forgetting door swings, then finding the door hits the bed.
• Scaling furniture by eye instead of using real sizes.
• No north arrow, no scale bar, no overall dimensions.
• Measuring in centimetres and typing the numbers in a millimetre drawing.

Questions

Can I draw a floor plan online for free?

Yes. JotJam's design tool is free to use without an account. Saving uses a couple of credits, and you get free credits every day you sign in.

What scale should a floor plan be?

1:100 is usual for a whole house or flat, 1:50 for a room or a furnished layout, and 1:20 for details like a kitchen or a bathroom.

Can I draw a floor plan on an iPad or a phone?

Yes. Tap corners to draw walls, pinch to zoom and drag with two fingers to move. A bigger screen is easier for a whole house.

Can I open my floor plan in AutoCAD?

Export a DXF from a saved design. It comes out at real size in millimetres.

Should I measure to the inside or the outside of the walls?

Measure inside each room, wall face to wall face, and measure the wall thickness separately. Then you can build up the overall size and check it against an outside measurement.