To see your floor plan in AR, export the model as USDZ, which is on every plan, move the file to an iPhone or iPad by AirDrop or by downloading it on the device, and open it. iOS hands a .usdz file to AR Quick Look, which places the home model on a surface it finds in the room and lets you move and scale it with touch gestures. This page is for anyone who wants a client, a partner or a builder to stand next to the model rather than squint at a plan.
What is a USDZ file, and why does an iPhone open it?
USDZ is Pixar’s Universal Scene Description packaged for delivery: a single uncompressed archive holding the scene description and the textures it references, so one file carries the whole model. The USDZ file format specification is published openly and sets out that packaging. Apple picked it as the format for AR on its platforms, which is why the file needs no app: Apple documents AR Quick Look as taking .usdz or .reality content, placing it on a surface ARKit finds in the real environment, and letting people move, scale and share it. Safari on iOS has read these files since iOS 12, as the WebKit announcement describes.
How do you get the USDZ onto an iPhone or iPad?
Three routes, in the order most people reach for them.
- AirDrop from a Mac. Export the USDZ, then send it to the device. Apple’s AirDrop instructions ask for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth on both devices and a distance of about 30 ft (10 m). The file lands in Files, and tapping it opens AR Quick Look.
- Download it on the device. Sign in on the iPhone or iPad, export, and take the download in Safari. The file goes to Files, usually under Downloads, and opens from there.
- Put it behind a link. Apple documents a web page opening AR Quick Look through an anchor with
rel="ar"pointing at the USDZ, which is how a listing page or a project page can hand somebody the AR view with one tap.
What should you expect when the model opens in AR?
daylight-neutral, warm-evening and overcast-soft presets are options on image exports, not on model exports.AR Quick Look lights the scene from the environment around you, so the same model looks different in a bright office and a dim living room.Can you walk through the model at full size?
You can place it at full size and walk around it, and that is the demonstration people remember. It needs room: a driveway, a yard, an empty unit or the lot itself, because a phone can only show you what fits in front of the camera and you will be stepping through walls that are not there. In the apartment the plan describes, standing the model over the real rooms is a fast way to feel whether a corridor is as tight as it looks on paper.
Treat the size with the same suspicion you would give any number off the model. AR Quick Look lets people scale content with a pinch, so the model in front of you is at whatever size the last pair of fingers left it, and the model itself is only at building scale if the conversion resolved a scale from your plan or from a reference measurement you supplied. Full size is a feeling, not a measurement.
How do you share it with a client or your family?
A USDZ is one file, so it travels the way any file travels: Messages, Mail, a shared album in Files, or a link. Apple documents the iOS share sheet inside AR Quick Look itself, so whoever you send it to can pass it on again. That is the argument for USDZ over a video walkthrough when the audience owns iPhones: they place it in their own room, at their own pace, without an account or an app. A public project page offers browser viewing without an account, but it is public rather than a private family link; publish it only if that disclosure is intended, and property marketing covers where each of those lands. When the people deciding are in another city, planning a home remotely is the job this format was made for.
Is there an Android equivalent?
Yes, but a GLB attachment alone is not an Android AR workflow. Export GLB, included on every plan, then host it at an HTTPS model URL that Scene Viewer can download. The recipient needs a Scene Viewer launch link or Android intent pointing to that URL. Google documents Scene Viewer displaying web-hosted glTF and GLB models in AR and provides a model previewer and the exact launch-link syntax. Hosting and the Android launch page are separate from the INK TO BRICK export. For a mixed audience, provide USDZ for compatible Apple devices and a tested Scene Viewer link for Android, with a browser-viewing fallback. The export formats guide lays out all 20 formats and who each one is for.
- Host only a model you intend to disclose. Scene Viewer must be able to fetch the file without your private workspace session; anyone who can retrieve that URL may copy or forward the model.
- On the launch page, use Google’s explicit intent to the Google app with the hosted model URL as the file parameter. Set mode to ar_preferred for AR with a 3D fallback, and provide S.browser_fallback_url for devices that cannot open Scene Viewer.
- Test the link on an ARCore-supported Android device with current Google Play Services for AR and the Google app. If AR is unavailable, offer the 3D view; if Scene Viewer cannot open, the browser fallback should explain how to view the model instead. Do not assume that emailing the GLB produces that behavior.
What INK TO BRICK does here
Upload a floor plan as a PDF, PNG, JPEG, SVG or DXF file of up to 25 MiB. The conversion reconstructs rooms, walls and openings as a conceptual 3D model you explore in the browser, furnish and finish in the editor, and export. The floor plan to 3D page shows what comes out of that run. USDZ is one of nine 3D model formats in the export library, and you can export it from the canonical model, from the original model, or from a saved presentation build, so the file you AirDrop is tied to a version you chose rather than to whatever the project looked like this morning.
The sample showcases are free to edit; you see your own home in 3D before you pay, and editing it needs a plan. USDZ and GLB are included on every plan, alongside the other 3D and image exports, and pricing lists what each plan includes, including multi-floor projects using one floor unit per physical level.
Try it and check your result
Open the downloaded USDZ on the intended iPhone or iPad before sending it on. Find the same entry, window and piece of furniture as in the saved model, and check that pinch gestures change display size. Explain that the AR size is presentation, not a site measurement. For an Android recipient, test the hosted Scene Viewer launch and its browser fallback on their supported device; sending a GLB attachment does not establish that journey.
Inspect a reference in 3D
Orbit from two sides and locate an opening and a material boundary. Use those landmarks when checking a file in its destination application; this reference does not validate your import or export.
