What is Smart Flow Check?
Smart Flow Check runs continuously while you design and flags the spatial problems you'd otherwise discover after the furniture shows up — overlapping pieces, a recliner with nowhere to recline, a door that can't open past the sofa, a bookcase in front of the window.
Here's a mistake nobody catches on a flat floor plan: you put a recliner in the corner, it looks perfect — and then it arrives, you lean back, and the footrest is in the hallway while the back hits the wall. A recliner that fits closed doesn't fit reclined. That's exactly the kind of thing Smart Flow Check catches.
Smart Flow Check is RoomSketch3D's built-in layout analyzer, and it's always running — there's no button to press. As you draw walls, place doors, and arrange furniture, it quietly checks the layout for the spatial problems you'd otherwise only discover after the truck shows up, and shows them to you with one-line fixes, updating the moment anything moves.
What you'll need
- •A room with some furniture in it — see Adding, moving, and arranging furniture
Step by step
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It catches furniture problems — including recliners that need room to recline
It flags pieces overlapping each other, the walls, pillars and other built-ins — and, crucially, the catalog Recliner and Oversized Recliner, which need more space than their closed footprint. Put one too close to a wall and Flow Check flags it using the open, fully-reclined footprint, not the upright one. It's the clearance you'd never think to measure, and the one that ruins a layout.
A recliner that fits closed but not reclined — Flow Check catches it using the extended footprint. - 3
It catches access problems — door swings
A door that can't open past the piece in front of it gets flagged ("Move it away from the door swing"). These are the problems that turn a nice-looking layout into a daily annoyance.
A piece in a door's swing arc — Flow Check flags it and tells you the fix. - 4
It catches the 'room to breathe' problems — doorways, coffee tables, windows
Furniture crowding the 36 inches in front of a doorway or a fireplace, a coffee table closer than 18 inches to the sofa, a tall piece blocking a window — Flow Check watches for these, using the clearances designers use as rules of thumb. It doesn't measure the walkway between two pieces of furniture; use the tape-measure tool for that (see Furniture spacing and clearance best practices).
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Read the panel, fix it live
Each problem in the panel comes with a one-line fix. Act on it — nudge the recliner away from the wall, slide the sofa clear of the door, ease the coffee table back — and watch the warning shrink and disappear in real time. Resize a piece, same thing. When the button turns green, Flow Check has nothing left to flag. If an amber warning is intentional (a coffee table 16 inches from the sofa because that's what fits a small room), you can leave it; Flow Check informs, it doesn't block. (A rug under the sofa never raises a warning: rugs are meant to have furniture on them.)
Fix each issue and the button turns green — your layout clears the clearances Flow Check measures.
Tips
Trust it on the clearances you wouldn't think to check
Door swings and recliner extension are the two everybody forgets. If Flow Check is quiet about them, you're genuinely fine; if it's not, fix it now — those are exactly the mistakes that are expensive to discover later.
Fix issues as they appear, not at the end
Because it updates live, the cheapest time to fix a warning is the moment it shows up — while you still remember why you put the piece there. Don't let a pile of red issues accumulate.
A green button is a real green light
When Smart Flow Check shows OK, the layout clears the clearances it checks — overlaps, door swings, the space in front of doors, openings and fireplaces, coffee-table spacing, window access, recliners. Measure the walkways between pieces yourself. That's a meaningful thumbs-up before you buy furniture or commit to a move.
Common mistakes
Placing a recliner like a regular chair
A recliner's whole point is that it moves — and when it does, it needs a foot or two more than its upright footprint, front and back. Leave that room (Flow Check will tell you if you haven't), or you'll have a recliner you can't fully recline.
Ignoring a warning because 'it looks fine'
It looks fine on a flat plan; Flow Check is measuring the thing the flat plan hides. A door-swing or doorway warning is telling you the room won't work the way you'll actually use it — that's worth more than how the diagram looks.
Letting warnings pile up
Five red issues at the end of a design is five small problems you've forgotten the context for. Clear them one at a time as you go.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to run Smart Flow Check?
No — it's always running. As you draw and arrange, it re-checks continuously; the Flow check button in the toolbar shows OK or the issue count, and tapping it opens the list. You never have to start it.
What exactly does it check?
Furniture overlapping other furniture, walls, pillars, an elevator shaft, a floor opening or the edge of a sunken or raised floor; doors that can't swing past a piece; furniture inside the 36 inches in front of a door, opening or fireplace (and on a fireplace's hearth); a coffee table closer than 18 inches to its seating; tall furniture in front of a window; recliners that can't recline; Murphy beds that can't open; and pieces too tall for a sloped (vaulted) ceiling. It does not check the width of walkways between pieces, how close seats are to each other, or a coffee table that's too far away: use the tape measure for those. The full list is in Every Flow Check warning explained.
How does it know a recliner needs extra room?
The catalog Recliner (64 in deep reclined) and Oversized Recliner (70 in) carry an extended footprint, and Smart Flow Check checks clearances against that, not just the closed shape. So a recliner that's snug against a wall in the plan still gets flagged. Other pieces, including sofa beds and recliners you make with the Custom card, have no extended footprint. See Recliner recline depth.
What do the colors and the badge mean?
The Flow check button is green with OK when there are no issues. A red count means at least one issue is an error (pieces overlap, a door can't open); an amber count means there are only warnings (a comfort rule, like a coffee table a bit close). Tap the button to see each issue with a short fix; acting on the fix removes it live.
Can I ignore a warning if it's intentional?
Yes. Smart Flow Check informs; it doesn't stop you. If you genuinely want a piece where it is — a coffee table a little closer than 18 inches in a small room, say — you can leave the note in the list. But for door swings, doorways and recliner clearance, it's almost always worth fixing.
Start designing your room
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