Floor Plan Scanning

Floor Plan Scanning uses AI to turn any floor plan image into a complete ducted system quote. Upload a builder's plan, a photo, or even a hand-drawn sketch — the system detects rooms, calculates areas, works out heatload, and generates Good / Better / Best ducted system recommendations. The whole process takes about 2 minutes.

This feature is designed for ducted system quotes and works from the Cooledge Portal (desktop).

What You Need

Before using Floor Plan Scanning, make sure you have:

• An active Cooledge subscription (any plan)
• AI credits available — each scan uses 1 AI credit (check your balance in Settings → Billing)
• A floor plan image — PNG or JPEG format, any resolution
• Ducted system catalogue set up — at least some ducted units and materials configured in your catalogue

Getting Started

Where to Find It

1. Open the Cooledge Portal (desktop)
2. In the sidebar, click Floor Plan under the Quoting section
3. Click New Floor Plan to start

Uploading a Floor Plan

You have two options to get started:

Option 1: Upload an Image

• Click the upload area or drag-and-drop your floor plan image
• Supported formats: PNG, JPEG
• The image can be a builder's plan, a scanned document, a photo, or a screenshot

Option 2: Draw Manually

• Click Skip AI — Draw Manually if you don't have a floor plan image
• You'll draw room boundaries yourself on a blank canvas using the drawing tools

Tip: Builder plans with clear room boundaries and labels work best. But even rough floor plans or photos of printed plans will work — the AI is pretty smart about it.

Step 1: Review Detected Rooms

After uploading, the AI analyses your floor plan and detects rooms automatically. This usually takes 30-40 seconds.

What the AI Detects

For each room, the AI identifies:

• Room boundary — a polygon drawn around the room
• Room label — e.g. "Living Room", "Bedroom 1", "Kitchen"
• Room type — categorised for HVAC purposes
• Conditionable flag — whether the room needs air conditioning (bedrooms and living areas = yes, garages and bathrooms = typically no)

Editing Rooms

You have full control over every room the AI detected:

Select & Move Rooms

• Click any room polygon to select it
• Drag to reposition if needed

Edit Room Polygons

• Select a room and drag the corner handles to adjust its shape
• Use rectangle or polygon drawing tools to create new rooms the AI missed

Rename Rooms

• Click the room label to rename it
• Use descriptive names like "Master Bedroom" or "Open Plan Living"

Toggle Conditionable

• Each room has a toggle to mark it as conditionable (needs A/C) or excluded
• Garages, bathrooms, laundries, and hallways are typically excluded
• Only conditionable rooms are included in heatload calculations

Delete Rooms

• Select a room and press delete to remove it
• Useful for removing incorrectly detected rooms

Setting the Scale

The scale tells the system how to convert pixel measurements to real-world metres. This is critical for accurate area calculations.

Auto-detected scale: If the floor plan has a scale bar or dimensions marked, the AI may detect it automatically.

Manual scale: If the AI can't find a scale, you'll need to set it manually:

1. Click the Set Scale tool
2. Draw a line between two points where you know the real distance
3. Enter the distance in metres
4. The system calculates metres-per-pixel from this

Important: Accurate scale = accurate areas = accurate heatload. If you know a room dimension (e.g. "the living room is 6m wide"), use that to calibrate.

Zone Assignment

Zones group rooms together for the ducted system zoning. You can:

• Let the system auto-assign zones later based on room types
• Manually assign rooms to zones (e.g. all bedrooms in Zone 1, living areas in Zone 2)

Step 2: System Setup

Once rooms are reviewed, configure the ducted system parameters:

Power Phase

• Single Phase, Three Phase, or Any
• Filters available units to match your site's power supply

Brand Preference

• Select a preferred brand or leave as "Any" to see all options

Installation Type

• New Installation or Replacement
• Affects material lists (new installs include piping, replacements may not)

Quote Terms

• Standard or Construction
• Sets default payment terms on the quote

Include Floor Plan in PDF

• Toggle whether the annotated floor plan image appears in the customer-facing quote PDF

Step 3: Review Heatload

The heatload step shows you the calculated cooling/heating requirement for the property.

How Heatload is Calculated

The formula is straightforward:

Base heatload (kW) = (Total conditionable area in m² × Watts per m²) ÷ 1000

Then adjustments are applied:

• Ceiling height factor — taller ceilings need more capacity
• Zoning factor — if zoning is enabled, a diversity factor (default 0.75) is applied because not all zones run at full capacity simultaneously

What You See

• Conditionable area — total m² of rooms marked as conditionable
• Excluded area — total m² of rooms not being conditioned
• Base heatload — before adjustments
• Final heatload — after ceiling height and zoning adjustments
• Watts per m² — the rate used (default 125 W/m², configurable in settings)

Adjusting Parameters

You can fine-tune:

• Ceiling height — adjust up from the default 2.4m for higher ceilings
• Zoning factor — toggle zoning on/off, or adjust the diversity factor
• Watts per m² — override for specific situations (e.g. west-facing houses may need more) Needs to be done in Floor Plan Setttings page.

Note: These are estimate heatloads for quoting purposes. For compliance heatloads, a formal calculation by a qualified assessor is recommended.

Step 4: Get Recommendations

Based on the heatload and your system configuration, the system generates three tiered options:

Good Option

• Standard-tier ducted unit that meets the heatload requirement
• 2 zones with automatic room assignment
• Standard outlet counts per room
• No add-ons

Better Option

• Mid-range or premium unit with slightly more capacity
• 3 zones for better control
• Standard outlet counts
• WiFi controller included (if available)

Best Option

• Top-tier unit with maximum capacity headroom
• Maximum zones (4+) for the best comfort control
• Standard outlet counts
• Smart controller + per-zone sensors included

Remix

Not happy with the options? Click Remix to generate a new set of variations. Each remix produces different unit/zone combinations while staying within the heatload requirements.

Step 5: Edit & Finalise

Select any of the three options and edit it further in the Quote Builder:

• Change the unit — swap to a different model or brand
• Adjust zones — add/remove zones, reassign rooms
• Modify outlets — change outlet count or type per room
• Add extras — include add-ons like WiFi controllers, smart sensors, or underfloor kits
• Override pricing — adjust any line item price

Step 6: Send to Customer

Once you're happy with your quote, hit Create Quote to open the send modal:

1. Link a customer — search for an existing customer or create a new one
2. Generate the PDF — a professional quote document is created automatically (with the floor plan included if you enabled it)
3. Send to customer — email the quote directly or copy the online quote link to share via SMS or message
4. Open in ducted editor — if you need to make further changes, transfer to the full ducted quote editor

Floor Plan Settings

You can configure default values for Floor Plan Scanning in your business settings:

1. Go to Settings → Floor Plan (or access via the gear icon on the floor plan page)
2. Configure defaults:
   • Default brand preference
   • Default installation type
   • Default ceiling height
   • Default watts per m²
   • Default zoning factor
   • Default outlet type
   • Watermark on/off (adds your logo to floor plan snapshots)

These defaults pre-fill each new floor plan scan so you spend less time configuring.

Managing Floor Plans

Floor Plan List

Go to Floor Plan in the sidebar to see all your floor plans:

• Draft — work in progress, not yet linked to a quote
• Quoted — linked to an active quote
• Upload date and last modified timestamps

Duplicating a Floor Plan

If you need to create a variation (e.g. same house, different system options):

1. Open the floor plan
2. Click Duplicate
3. A new copy is created that you can edit independently

Floor Plan in Quotes

When a floor plan is linked to a quote:

• The floor plan snapshot appears in the quote PDF (if enabled)
• The floor plan is accessible from the quote detail page
• Changes to the floor plan after quote creation don't affect the quoted version

Tips for Best Results

Getting Good AI Detection

1. Use clear images — high contrast between walls and rooms helps detection
2. Include labels — floor plans with room labels help the AI name rooms correctly
3. Include a scale bar — if the plan has dimensions or a scale bar, the AI can auto-calibrate
4. Crop unnecessary areas — remove title blocks and borders for cleaner detection
5. One floor at a time — for multi-storey homes, upload each floor separately

Tip: Crop out site plans, landscaping, title blocks, and borders before uploading. The AI works best when it can focus on the internal floor plan layout only.

Speed Tips

1. Set up your defaults — configure default brand, installation type, and watts/m² once
2. Use the Quick Review flow — if the AI detection looks good, skip straight to system setup
3. Use Remix — instead of manually tweaking, remix to get new option sets quickly
4. Trust the auto-zones — automatic zone assignment works well for most residential plans

AI Credits

Each floor plan AI scan uses 1 AI credit from your monthly allowance.

• Manual drawing (skip AI) does not use a credit
• Duplicating a floor plan does not use a credit
• Check your remaining credits in Settings → Billing

Common Questions

What floor plan formats are supported? PNG and JPEG images. Any resolution works, but higher resolution gives better results.

Can I use a photo of a printed floor plan? Yes! Take a photo of a builder's plan, brochure, or printed floor plan. The AI handles perspective and varying quality.

What if the AI misses a room? Use the drawing tools to add rooms manually. You can also edit existing room boundaries.

Can I use this for split systems? Floor Plan Scanning is currently designed for ducted systems only. For split and multi-system quotes, use the standard A/C System Quoting workflow.

Does the customer see the floor plan? Only if you enable "Include Floor Plan in PDF" during system setup. Otherwise, the floor plan is internal only.

What happens if I run out of AI credits? You can still use the manual drawing mode (no AI required) or wait for your monthly credit refresh.

Can I edit the quote after sending it? Yes — use the "Open in ducted editor" option to make changes in the full ducted quote editor.

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Related Articles:

• A/C System Quoting → — Overview of all A/C quoting capabilities
• Ducted System Tutorial → — Detailed guide to ducted system catalogue setup
• Supplier Ordering → — Generate take-offs from accepted quotes
• Quoting Basics → — General quoting guide

Need help with Floor Plan Scanning? Email us at support@cooledge.com.au