Import a PDF or DWG floor plan

Spatial Map doesn’t need your drawing in a special format. Whether you start from a PDF set, an AutoCAD DWG or a plain image, the result is the same: one floor plan picture placed on the map, which you then draw on. Nothing is extracted automatically; walls, rooms and doors are drawn with the editor’s tools.

Imports start in the Floor plan tool: pick Add floor plan from the Draw menu or press I, open Upload new, and drop a file on "Drop a floor plan here". The file type decides what happens next.

A drawing set has many sheets, and a PDF never records the scale it was plotted at. So the dialog ("Choose the sheet to place, then set its drawing scale.") asks both before anything is placed.

Screenshot · Import floor plan from PDF

1. 1
   Choose the sheet

   After "Reading PDF…", the Sheet section shows a thumbnail per page ("Page 1", "Page 2", …) with its recognised paper size underneath. A PDF with more than 24 pages shows a Page number box instead.

2. 2
   Check the drawing scale

   The Drawing scale chips are ranked guesses such as 1:100 or 1/8" = 1'-0", and the top one is preselected. "A PDF does not record its own scale, so these are ranked guesses — check them against the drawing’s title block." Choose Not to scale if you don’t know: "The sheet will be sized by the box you drag on the map."

3. 3
   Or type a known width

   If you know how wide the whole sheet covers on the ground, type it in metres in Or enter a known width (m), and the scale is worked out from that.

4. 4
   Check the size and confirm

   Places at shows the real-world width × height the sheet will have, with its paper size and scale. Click Use this sheet. The page is rendered to a picture and you’re back on the map, ready to place it.

Spatial Map reads DWG files itself; you don’t need AutoCAD. The drawing is drawn as black linework on white and placed as a floor plan picture. The dialog ("Confirm the drawing units, then choose the layers to import.") settles the two things a drawing can’t always answer on its own.

1. 1
   Check what was read

   After "Reading drawing…", the top line shows the AutoCAD release, the number of entities and layers, and the program that saved the file.

2. 2
   Confirm the drawing units

   Each chip under Drawing units (Millimeters, Centimeters, Meters, Inches, Feet) shows how big the building would be in that unit. If the file declares its units, you’ll see "This drawing declares … Override only if it looks wrong." If not: "Pick the one that gives a believable building size." An amber warning appears when no unit could be established with confidence.

3. 3
   Choose the layers

   Only layers with content are listed, each with a tick box, its colour, name and entity count. "Annotation, dimensions and title-block linework are left out by default — tick them back on if you need them." Layers switched off in the drawing carry an Off in CAD badge and also start unticked. Select all / Select none flips the whole list.

4. 4
   Check the size and confirm

   Places at shows the final width × height in metres and how many layers and entities you picked. Click Use this drawing; it stays disabled until at least one layer is ticked.

• Text isn’t drawn. Room names and dimension values don’t appear on the picture; add them with the Text label tool or by naming the areas you draw.
• Stray geometry is trimmed. Things far from the building (a legend off to the side, a line running to the origin) are dropped before the size is measured, so they don’t shrink the building into a corner.
• Missing references are flagged. If the drawing points to external drawings or blocks that aren’t in the file, the dialog warns that they "are missing and will not appear."

A drawing knows its scale (once you give it one) but not where on Earth it is or which way is north. Position and rotation are always set by hand.

1. 1
   Find the building

   Use Search places… at the top of the map to fly to the site.

2. 2
   Drag to place

   For a scaled PDF or a DWG the panel says "Drag on the map to position the sheet — its size is fixed by the drawing scale": only the position follows your drag. For an image or an unscaled PDF, the box you drag is the size.

3. 3
   Line it up

   The new plan is selected. Lower Opacity so you can see the map underneath, then rotate with the Rotation slider or [ and ] (Shift for 15° steps) and nudge with the arrow keys until its outline sits on the building.

4. 4
   Fix the size if needed

   For an image or unscaled PDF, type the real Width or Height into Dimensions (with Lock aspect ratio on, the other follows).

Import each level the same way and give it its height under 3D & Altitude → Elevation; see Layers, floors and map styles. A PDF plan is named after its sheet and page (for example "A1 · p2"), a DWG plan after its file name; click the name in the side panel to rename it.

The plan is a backdrop. Make it a working map by drawing on it: rooms with the Area tool, walls with the Aisle tool or Magic walls, doors, stairs, lifts and escalators and racks.

More fixes are collected in Troubleshooting.