Switching to 3D and walking through your home
One click turns your flat floor plan into a home you can walk through — to scale, with the furniture you placed, room by room.
A floor plan tells you where things go. The 3D view tells you what the place actually feels like — the proportions, the sightlines, whether that sofa really has room behind it, how the rooms flow into each other. And it's one click away from the 2D editor.
Switching to 3D never changes your design. It builds a 3D model from your floor plan and furniture (a quick "Building 3D model…" while it does), then you can orbit it from above, drop in and walk through it, jump between rooms, and pop back to the plan whenever you want to change something.
What you'll need
- •A floor plan with some furniture in it — see Adding, moving, and arranging furniture
Step by step
- 1
Open the 3D view
From the editor, click View in 3D, the cube button in the toolbar above the plan. After a moment to build the model, your whole floor plan appears in 3D — real walls at the heights you set, every piece of furniture exactly where you placed it, all to scale. Along the top are Dollhouse, Line art, AI Render, Save image and the red ✕ that takes you back to the plan; the switches and round buttons sit at the bottom right.
Click View in 3D to turn your floor plan into 3D. - 2
Orbit it for the overview
Drag to orbit the camera around your home and look at it from any angle — the dollhouse view. Scroll (or pinch) to zoom in and out. On a phone or tablet, drag with one finger and pinch to zoom.
- 3
Walk through it — W/A/S/D or the joystick
Press the footprints button (Walk through) at the bottom right to move through your home in first person. On a computer, use W forward, A left, S back, D right, with the mouse to look around — hold Shift to walk faster, and press Esc to step back out. On a phone or tablet (or any time you'd rather not use the keyboard), drag the on-screen joystick to move and drag elsewhere to look. Walk out of the living room, down the hall, into the bedroom. It's the closest thing to actually being there.
W/A/S/D (Shift to run) or the on-screen joystick to move, drag to look — walk through your home in first person. - 4
Pick where to start: room markers, or any spot
On a plan with two or more rooms, pressing Walk through first shows the room picker: a marker in each room, under the hint Tap a room, or anywhere inside or outside, to stand there. Each marker's pill shows the label you gave that room with Add label (see Labels, room tags, and naming), or Room 1, Room 2… if you haven't labelled it; rooms aren't named automatically and the pill shows no size. Click a marker and you're standing in that room, or click any spot (a hallway, the deck, the front yard) to stand right there. On a single-room plan there's no picker: you start inside.
After Walk through: click a room's marker, or any spot, to stand there. - 5
Toggle the ceiling
The Ceiling switch at the bottom right is off when the 3D view opens, for a clean top-down read of the layout; tick it to put the ceilings on and feel the height of the rooms. If you've set a vaulted or sloped ceiling (see Setting wall and ceiling heights), this is where it shows up.
Ceiling off to read the layout; on to feel the height. - 6
Stay oriented — and get the controls help
In walk mode, Exit walk-through takes you back to the room picker, so the markers are always a one-click way back to a known room. Walk up to a chair or sofa and a blue Sit marker lets you sit and see the room from that seat (see Walk mode). New to the 3D controls? Open the controls-help overlay any time for a quick reminder of orbit, walk mode (W/A/S/D or the joystick), and zoom.
Tips
Orbit to plan, walk to feel
Use the orbiting dollhouse view to check the layout from above — gaps, alignment, flow. Then drop into walk mode to feel what each room is actually like at eye level.
Use beacons in a multi-room plan
Don't walk the whole apartment to check the bedroom — press Walk through, click its marker and you're there. Label your rooms first so the markers show their names.
Walk the path your guests will walk
From the front door, walk the route someone takes through your home — keyboard or joystick. That's the sequence of impressions you're actually designing, and the quickest way to spot a doorway that's too tight or a corner that's awkward.
Common mistakes
Designing only in 2D
A layout that looks balanced on a flat plan can feel tight, lopsided, or wrong once you're standing in it. Walk it in 3D before you buy furniture or commit to a move.
Judging proportions while zoomed in
If everything looks enormous, you're standing too close — pull the camera back, or drop into walk mode at eye level, before you decide the room feels off.
Never leaving the dollhouse view
Orbiting from above is great for the layout but flattens how the space feels. Make a habit of walking through it too — that's where you catch the problems a top-down view hides.
Frequently asked questions
How do I walk through my home in 3D?
In the 3D view press the footprints button (Walk through). On a multi-room plan, click a room's marker (or any spot) to stand there. Then use the W, A, S and D keys (forward, left, back, right) with your mouse to look around — first-person, like a video game — or the on-screen joystick on a phone or tablet.
Where are the room beacons? I don't see them.
They only appear after you press the footprints button (Walk through) on a plan with two or more rooms. Each one shows the label you added to that room (Layers → Add label), or Room 1, Room 2… — there's no automatic naming. Click a marker to stand in that room, or click anywhere else to stand on that spot.
How do I get back to the 2D floor plan?
Click the red ✕ at the top right (Close 3D view). Esc only steps out of walk mode. Switching between 2D and 3D never changes your design — it's just two ways of looking at the same home.
Can I move furniture in the 3D view?
Arrange your furniture in the 2D floor plan, then switch to 3D to see the result. The 3D view is for visualizing and walking through — to reposition a piece, flip back to the plan, move it, and return.
Why does the 3D view take a moment to load?
It builds a 3D model from your floor plan and every piece of furniture. A larger home with more rooms and pieces takes a little longer the first time; after that, switching back and forth is instant.
Can I see vaulted or sloped ceilings in 3D?
Yes. Walls you gave their own height (see Setting wall and ceiling heights) show at that height in 3D, and a ceiling you shaped with Build → Vaulted Ceiling (see Vaulted ceilings) shows its slope there too.
Does the 3D view work on a phone?
Yes — in the iPhone and iPad apps, the Android app, and mobile browsers. Drag with one finger to look around, pinch to zoom, tap Walk through, then tap a room marker (or any spot) and drag the on-screen joystick to walk. (W/A/S/D is the keyboard alternative to the joystick on a computer.)
How realistic is the 3D view, and how true to scale is it?
Everything is at true scale — walls, openings, and every piece use their real dimensions, so if it fits in 3D it fits in the room. Materials use real paint brands and flooring (including photo floor textures), with lighting and shadows, but it is a live 3D model rather than a photo render: furniture is simplified. For a photorealistic picture, use Render Studio; to save the plain 3D view, see Save a picture of your 3D view. To make the view read as real as possible, set the wall paint, ceiling paint and per-room flooring in Materials → Surfaces (its live 3D preview shows each pick before you open the full view) and the ceiling height, then judge it from inside in walk mode with Ceiling ticked. See paint your ceilings.
Start designing your room
Put this into practice in the 3D room planner: draw it, furnish it, walk through it in 3D — on web, iOS, and Android.
Open RoomSketch3DOne-time purchase · No subscription · Web, iOS & Android