Measuring

A dimension reaches the app in four ways: by hand, via the Bluetooth laser, via the camera, or from a photo with a known scale. Each way writes into the edges of an item. Which shapes there are and how an item is created is explained in the chapter “Shapes and building parts”.

The measuring screen

At the top is a sketch of the shape — a tap shows it full screen — and below it the “Result” card: for areas Area and Perimeter, for linear items Running metres, for solids Volume and Surface area. Depending on the shape, further cards follow, for example for cutouts. Under “Edges” each edge is listed with its value and three buttons:

At the top right, the camera icon opens the photo documentation of the item (chapter “Photo documentation”), ✎ renames it, Undo takes back the last measuring step (see “Undo”), and History shows the measurement history of all edges.

A wall group has a measuring screen of its own: each row has only DISTO and Manual; “More modes …” and the history are not available there, and “Undo” sits in the header (chapter “Shapes and building parts”).

Measuring by hand

The way that works everywhere: on every device, in the browser and on every plan, without accessories and without permission.

Manual opens “Manual entry”. Values are entered in the length unit shown next to the field — the default is millimetres, which can be changed under Settings › Length unit. The comma and the full stop both count as the decimal separator; the field knows no thousands separator, so “2.500” is read as 2.5. Only values greater than zero are accepted. Apply saves, Cancel discards. On iPhone and iPad a “Done” bar sits above the numeric keypad, because the keypad there has no enter key.

Measuring with the laser

Aufmasstool pairs with a Leica DISTO over Bluetooth. The laser is part of the Basic plan; without it, DISTO and “Connect” open the plan overview (chapter “Plans”).

Pairing runs through the “Connect measuring device” dialogue. It opens via Connect in the bar at the very top, which shows the connection state throughout the app, or via “Connect device” in the “Not connected” prompt that a tap on DISTO without a paired device brings up.

On smartphone and tablet, “Search for measuring device” looks for devices; a tap on a row under “Devices found” pairs it. If Bluetooth is off, the button reads “Bluetooth off” and is locked; if pairing fails, the reason appears under “Connection failed”. Establishing the connection sometimes takes a few seconds — do not tap again while it does. After that the bar at the top shows “Connected” with the device name and, after each measurement, the value received. Below the search button, “Last connected: …” shows the name of the device paired most recently.

On Android up to version 11 the system only searches for Bluetooth devices with the location permission. If it is missing, the app explains what it is needed for in the “Why location?” dialogue before the search; “Continue” opens the system prompt. The app does not determine a location in doing so. If the device’s location service is switched off, the search finds nothing; a note with the “Open location settings” button then appears below the search button. If the permission is refused — for Bluetooth, or up to Android 11 for location —, the app reports “Permission missing”; you can grant it in the device settings for this app.

In the browser the browser itself selects the device: the dialogue only shows the “Connect measuring device” button (“Disconnect” afterwards), and once a device has been paired, “Connected to …” or “Last connected: …” above it. This works in Chrome, Edge and Opera. Safari and Firefox cannot do Bluetooth: there the dialogue shows “Pairing is not possible here” with the reason “This browser does not offer Bluetooth — Safari and Firefox do not support it. …”, “Leica DISTO” under “More modes …” is greyed out with the same reason, and dimensions are entered by hand.

Once the laser is paired in the browser, the edge’s DISTO button measures, and “Leica DISTO” under “More modes …” can be selected. If the connection drops — the laser is switched off or out of range —, the bar at the top switches to “Disconnected”, and the dialogue states “Connection lost: The device ended the connection”. Then pair again with “Connect measuring device”. In the browser the bar does not show a device name.

Measuring with a paired device

1. Tap DISTO on the measuring screen. The button shows “⏳ DISTO…”, and “Waiting for DISTO value for …” appears at the top; the ✕ next to it cancels.
2. Trigger the measurement on the laser device.
3. The value lands in the edge, and the result changes immediately.

A new value replaces an existing one without asking; the old one stays in the measurement history.

The automatic sequence

For shapes with several edges, the app arms the next open edge after each value it has taken. The sequence starts by itself after “Create & measure”, and otherwise via “Continue measuring automatically” above the edges. The top of the screen shows which edge is next; “Measurements complete” or the ✕ ends it, and after the last edge the app reports “Everything measured”. If no laser is paired, it asks “Not connected”; Cancel ends the sequence, and you can carry on by hand at any time.

• Linear items: after each measurement a new edge is added, and the top shows the total so far. Only “Measurements complete” ends the sequence and removes the empty edge that was added.
• Wall group: first the shared height, then wall by wall; after the last wall the app adds the next one. “Measurements complete”, Cancel in the notice at the top and the “‹” arrow end the sequence and remove the empty wall at the end again, as long as nothing is measured on it and it has no cutout. Cutouts are then measured one by one.
• Drawn polygon: the sequence is not available here, because every edge already carries a provisional value (chapter “Shapes and building parts”).

Measuring with the camera

The “With the camera” tile at the top of the item list opens “Measure with camera”. Each method there creates a new item in the room:

“More modes …” on the measuring screen, by contrast, measures a single edge. Besides Leica DISTO and Enter manually it offers the plane measurement (two points on a surface the device has detected, such as a wall), AR distance (tap the start and end with the camera — the distance becomes the value of this edge), Floor → ceiling (the room height between the detected floor and ceiling planes) and Photo reference (continuing as under “Measure on a photo”).

What works on which device

Both lists are always complete; whatever does not work here is greyed out and carries the reason.

• “Measure item / box” on Android takes four points: one corner of the front edge, the second corner of the front edge (width), a point on the rear edge (depth) and the top point of the object (height); “Undo point” takes back the last point, “Done” applies.
• On Android “Measure item / box” does not currently deliver reliable dimensions. Measure objects there with the laser or by hand.
• There is no AR measuring in the browser. “Measure on a photo” and, under “More modes …”, “Photo reference” remain available: the photo of the marker comes from the file dialogue there — choose an existing photo or, where the dialogue offers it, take one. The app does not use a camera on the computer for this. The other methods are greyed out and give as the reason that they only exist in the app on a smartphone or tablet.
• Camera measurement is part of the Pro plan, photo measuring included. Without Pro the rows read “Unlock with the Pro plan.” and open the plan overview when tapped. On iPhone and iPad the list only shows which methods the device supports after unlocking.

The room scan

“Scan the whole room” first shows “Tips for an accurate scan”; “Start scan” begins the capture. Then “Check scan” opens:

• The header states the number of detected surfaces and the approximate room height. The model can be rotated and zoomed, also full screen.
• Tapping a surface shows its name, dimensions and confidence (high, medium or low); with low confidence a note advises measuring again. “Rename” gives the surface a name of its own.
• Detected doors, windows and openings become cutouts of their wall.
• The “Floor”, “Ceiling” and “Objects” switches decide what is taken over too. The app derives the ceiling from the floor — check it.
• If the device supplies a 3D model, it can be shared.

Only “Import … elements” writes anything into the room; Cancel discards the scan. After that, “Room scan finished” states how much was taken over and discarded, and the “3D view” tile in the item list opens the scanned room again.

The room outline

On Android, “Capture room outline” takes the place of the room scan. The sequence has three steps, and the instructions appear in the picture each time:

1. Tap the floor corners in order, at least three and at most 24, then “Next”.
2. Height: tap the ceiling or the top edge of a wall.
3. Openings: the “Type: …” button switches between door, window and passage; tap two opposite corners for each opening. “Done” ends the capture; while an opening has only one corner, it is locked.

“Undo point” goes back step by step — first the open corner, then the last opening, then the height, then back to the floor corners. After that the app creates in the room one “Wall group” item: one row per wall (“Wall 1”, “Wall 2” …) with length and a shared height, the openings as cutouts of their wall; the wall group stays editable in the wall group editor. In addition it creates “Floor” and “Ceiling” as a free polygon; the ceiling takes over the outline of the floor. The “Room outline added” message states the number of walls, the floor area and the net wall area according to the project’s over-measurement rule. Openings without usable dimensions are not taken over, and the app states how many there were. If the points do not form a room, it creates nothing and says so.

Measuring on a photo

The way without AR and without LiDAR: a sheet of known size is held against the surface and photographed with it; this gives the photo its scale. Before the photo is taken, the app asks “Choose reference object”:

• “DIN A4 sheet (210×297 mm)” — any white sheet of paper; reliably detected only up to about 1.5 m shooting distance.
• “ArUco marker on A4”, “on A3” or “on A2” — the printout from Settings › Reference marker, in A3 or A2 for greater distances. The black square is 180, 260 or 380 mm wide, and exactly that number is used in the calculation: print the sheet at original size (100 %), not “fit to page”.

After the photo, “Photo measuring” opens: tap two points and the Distance appears at the bottom; Apply writes it, Reset clears the points. The photo can be zoomed and panned; the “Set point” and “Pan” toggles stop a swipe from placing a point by accident, and “Reset view” brings back the whole photo.

On Android devices and in the browser

In the browser “Choose reference object” says beforehand that the photo comes from the file dialogue: choose an existing photo of the marker or, where the dialogue offers it, take one. It is evaluated as on Android.

The printed pattern is read. The app recognises which sheet is in the picture and calculates with its edge length; a mix-up in the selection does not produce a wrong measurement. Instead of guessing, it stops and says what to do if the sheet is missing or cut off (bring it fully into the picture), too small in the picture (move closer or use a larger marker) or photographed at too steep an angle (stand as squarely in front of it as possible).

The measuring dialogue shows the whole photo. Both points have to lie on the same surface as the sheet; otherwise “Apply” stays grey, and a notice says why.

A white DIN A4 sheet carries no pattern. Only the aspect ratio is checked, so a Letter sheet or a scaled printout gives wrong numbers without anything standing out. In that case the line above the picture reads “Scale estimated from the sheet size — use a printed marker for accurate dimensions.”

On iPhone and iPad

Photo measuring is currently not suitable for a take-off there. The pattern is not read, and the measuring dialogue shows only the rectified sheet or the marker itself — a wall next to it cannot be measured on it. Take dimensions there with the laser, an AR method or by hand.

The measurement history

Every value written into an edge via DISTO, Manual, “More modes …” or “With the camera” is recorded, as is the removal of a measured edge and every dimension of a cutout on a rectangle. A long press on an edge opens its “Measurement history”, the History button at the top right that of all edges. Building parts keep a history of their own (chapter “Shapes and building parts”).

Each entry shows the date and time, the value and, where there was one, the previous value with the difference; the top one is the “Current value”. Each entry also names its source, for example “DISTO” with a short device code, “AR measurement” (also for floor → ceiling and the room outline), “Photo reference” or “Manual”; a way this app version does not know is shown as “Unknown source”. If the measuring method reported an accuracy, it appears as “± … mm”. A removed edge appears with the value 0.

Undo

On the item: the last measuring step

“Undo” on the measuring screen and in the header of a wall group takes back the item’s most recent measuring step as a whole — a measured value, but also a changed number of edges together with their values, a scaled or switched shape, changed cutouts, the automatic clean-up and, for a wall group, a wall that was added or removed together with its cutouts. Tapped repeatedly, it goes back step by step. The button names what it takes back — the edge, the wall, the cutout or the wall height, for example “Undo: North wall”; if the step cannot be matched to a name, it just says “Undo”. With the cloud this works across devices: the most recent step may also come from another device.

If the state has changed since then — on another device or in another way — the app takes nothing back and says so; otherwise the newer state would be lost.

The undo bar

After an edit — a name, an address, a note, a measured value — the undo bar appears at the bottom for a few seconds: what happened, for example ““North wall” measured”, and the “Undo” button. It takes back the last steps of this session, up to twenty, the most recent first; the bar itself says so: “Undo is available until the app restarts.” In the browser Ctrl+Z, and on a Mac Cmd+Z, do the same, unless the cursor is in a text field or a dialog is open. Here too: if the state has changed in the meantime, it stays, and the app says so.

Three steps on a measurement sheet can also be taken back through the bar: editing the header, assigning or removing items, and submitting. Approving cannot — an approved sheet has no way back. If an item now lies on a submitted or approved sheet, the bar takes nothing back on it and says so.

Deleted things do not come back through the bar but from the recycle bin (chapter “Projects and structure”).

Checks while measuring

• “Shape closed” / “Shape not closed” shows the deviation in millimetres for polygons. If the shape is open, the app proposes an additional closing edge (“+ Add edge …”); the existing edges stay unchanged. With the older shape “Irregular (right-angled)”, by contrast, the correction changes existing edges and first asks “Overwrite existing edge?”.
• “Remove measured edges?” is asked when reducing the number of edges would drop measured values; the prompt names them.
• “Something is still open” appears when you leave via the “‹” arrow in the header and something is missing — an unmeasured edge, an incomplete cutout dimension, the height of a wall group. A ⚠ marks what the item strictly needs to be included in the reports. The choices are “Keep measuring”, “Leave anyway” and, where there is something to remove, “Clean up automatically”: it removes empty edges of linear items, empty walls and cutouts, and on a rectangle also a cutout with only one dimension. The device’s back gesture and the browser’s back button leave the item without this prompt.
• “This shape cannot exist as measured” is named with ⚠ in the same prompt when a fully measured shape is geometrically impossible, and it says why: a triangle in which one side is not shorter than the other two together; a corner cut-out or an opening as large as the area or larger; a cutout larger than its wall or area; cutouts that together are larger than the area; a polygon whose edges cross or touch. The notice changes nothing about the quantity — a polygon with crossing edges still counts with its calculated area. So measure the shape again. Before a document is issued and before the take-off is submitted, the app names such items once more by name if they are assigned to a BoQ item (chapter “Billing”).

What is deliberately not said here

• The over-measurement rule. The measuring screen shows the pure geometry; the billable quantity appears in the item list and in the billing (chapter “Billing”).
• Measuring inside a photo with depth data does not write a dimension into an edge but a label into the picture (chapter “Photo documentation”).
• A promise of accuracy. No method counts as “accurate enough for acceptance”; accuracy depends on the device, the light and the distance.