Do I need AutoCAD to measure areas from a PDF plan?
No. You measure inside Averu, in the browser, on the architect's PDF. You click the corners of a home and the area is calculated from the drawing's scale.
Measure from the plan
Measure the area of every home on an architect's PDF. No CAD needed.
Many drawing sets arrive without an area table. Averu reads the table when there is one, and when there is none you measure each home on the plan in seconds.
- 1 to 2 s
- to read a PDF that has an area table or prints the areas on the plans
- Seconds
- to measure one home: click its corners, press Fit to walls
- About 5%
- from the architect's own figure on regular floors, usually 2 to 4%
How to measure a home on the plan
- 01
Upload the architect's PDF.
Averu first looks for a table of areas, or for areas printed on the plans. If it finds them, the units are ready and each one cites its page.
- 02
Open the floor plan Averu suggests.
The page list opens with Start here: the floor plan to begin with. Site plans, roof plans, sections and specialist drawings wait behind All pages.
- 03
Check the scale.
Averu reads the scale from the drawing. If the sheet has none, click the two ends of any printed dimension and type its length.
- 04
Click the corners of the home.
Press Draw a unit and click each corner. You can undo a corner, start over, or drag the drawing to move it.
- 05
Press Fit to walls.
The outline snaps to the walls of the drawing: the outer face of exterior walls, the centre line of shared walls. The area appears with the word Measured or Check.
- 06
Use the area.
One click writes the area into the unit. The deal's history records who measured it and on which page.
What exactly is measured
Averu measures the gross private area of each home, the area a Portuguese area table calls área bruta privativa. Exterior walls count in full. A wall shared with a neighbour or with the stair counts to its centre line.
Balconies, terraces, storage rooms and parking spaces are separate areas, as in the architect's own table.
How you know the number is right
Every measured home shows how sure the tool is. Measured means every edge of the outline sits on a wall of the drawing. Check means one or more edges need your eye, and the tool shows which.
When the architect prints an area for the home, Averu shows it next to yours with the difference in percent. A model also estimates each home from the page, as a second opinion, and that estimate is checked against the building's printed footprint and room areas.
Scans, attics and unusual drawings
A scanned drawing has no wall lines to snap to. You set the scale with two clicks on a printed dimension and draw the outline by hand; the area is marked Check.
A home under a sloped roof depends on ceiling heights, which a plan does not show. Averu flags it and asks you to confirm how much of it counts.
Questions about measuring
How do you calculate the gross area of a flat from a floor plan?
Trace the outline of the flat along the outer face of its exterior walls and the centre line of the walls it shares with neighbours and common parts. Multiply the enclosed area by the square of the drawing's scale. Averu does both steps: it fits your outline to the walls and applies the scale.
What if the PDF has no scale printed on it?
Find any dimension printed on the drawing, for example the width of the building. Click its two ends and type the length. Averu works out the scale from that.
Can I measure a whole building at once?
You measure home by home, one floor plan at a time, which takes a few minutes per floor. A typical-floor plan that repeats on several floors is measured once.
Bring one of your own buildings.
In a demo we run your architect's PDF through Averu with you: the areas, the prices, the feasibility study and the investor page.