Scan instructions.

Apps to install

All free from the App Store. No accounts required to start scanning.

1. Scaniverse by Niantic free · unlimited — for the exterior of the house and all four lawn zones. On-device processing, no internet, no scan limit.
2. 3D Scanner App by Laan Labs free · unlimited — for the interior floorplan. Uses Apple's RoomPlan API directly (same engine paid apps charge $40/project for).
3. KIRI Engine free backup — backup option if the primary app misbehaves. Free LiDAR Room Scan mode.

Scan order

Do them in this order. Each is independent — you can split across days.

1. Interior floorplan (3D Scanner App) — 30 min, room by room
2. Exterior perimeter (Scaniverse) — 15–20 min in 3–4 short passes
3. Lawn zones (Scaniverse) — 5–10 min each, can split across days

1 · Interior floorplan

App: 3D Scanner App. Time: 30 min. Best done: any time of day, lights on, doors open between rooms.

1. Open 3D Scanner App
2. Tap the "+" → choose RoomPlan mode (Apple's official room-scanning tech)
3. Stand in the middle of a room. Hold the phone at chest height, slowly rotate 360°. Then walk to each wall and aim at corners/doors/windows. The app shows wireframe lines as it identifies walls and openings.
4. When the room feels complete, tap "Finish room" or "Done."
5. Move to the next room, repeat. The app stitches rooms together as you go.
6. When everything is scanned, tap export → choose USDZ. Also save the JSON if offered (contains parametric room measurements).

Rooms to scan (priority order)

• Living room
• Kitchen
• Master bedroom
• Charles's room
• Office
• Play room
• Garage (matters for the mower thinking)
• Storage room behind garage (back man door area)
• Any other bedrooms

2 · Exterior perimeter

App: Scaniverse. Time: 15–20 min total. Best done: overcast day or within an hour of sunrise/sunset. Avoid harsh midday sun.

One important thing: Scaniverse works best in short passes of 1–3 minutes each. Longer scans risk processing failure. We do the house in 3–4 segments rather than one big walk.

Pass 1 · Front + driveway gate

1. Open Scaniverse → "+" → LiDAR Mesh mode
2. Start at the front-left corner of the house
3. Walk slowly along the front of the house, keeping the camera angled to capture wall + ground ~6 ft ahead
4. Continue to the right side of the property, past the double driveway gate
5. Stop after ~2 minutes
6. Tap finish, let it process on-device

Pass 2 · Side corridor + the small gate

1. New scan in Scaniverse
2. Start at the front of the side corridor (the small single gate area)
3. Walk slowly down the corridor — capture the gate, woodpile, workbench, the side of the house
4. Continue to the back patio area
5. Stop after ~2 minutes

Pass 3 · Back patio + dock

1. New scan in Scaniverse
2. Stand at the back-right corner where the side corridor opens to the patio
3. Capture the patio: dock, mower if it's there, AC condenser, sectional couch, string lights, back man door
4. Walk across the back of the house
5. Stop after ~2 minutes

Pass 4 · Back yard perimeter (optional but recommended)

1. New scan in Scaniverse
2. Walk the back fence — shed, fire pit area, playset, any features worth capturing
3. Stop after ~2 minutes

For each pass, after Scaniverse finishes processing, tap Share → Export → USDZ. Also export GLB if offered. Save to Files app.

3 · Lawn zones

App: Scaniverse (LiDAR Mesh mode again). Time: 5–10 min per zone. Best done: cloudy or early morning.

For each zone — Zone 1 (back yard), Zone 4, Zone 6, Zone 8 (front sections):

1. Stand at one corner of the zone
2. Open Scaniverse → "+" → LiDAR Mesh
3. Walk the perimeter of the zone slowly, camera angled to capture both ground and any nearby features (fence, garden bed, sprinkler heads)
4. If the zone is bigger than ~30 ft across, do it in 2 passes (one for each half) — remember the 3-minute cap
5. Export as USDZ + GLB

Getting the files into the repo

Option A — GitHub web upload (easiest, phone only)

1. On your phone, go to github.com/ramonscottf/house-context
2. Navigate to public/exterior/scans/ (or public/interior/, public/zones/zone-N/)
3. Tap "Add file" → "Upload files"
4. Pick the USDZ/GLB from your Files app
5. Commit directly to main

Option B — Tell Skippy in chat

Send the files in a Skippy chat with "drop these in house-context for me." Skippy puts them in the right folder.

After the scans

Push to main. CF Pages auto-deploys. Open house.fosterlabs.org on your phone — tap any USDZ and it opens in AR preview. You can walk around your scanned house in your living room.

Then ping me with "scans are up." I'll start Phase 3 — geojson layers, zone pages, mower routing analysis with real measurements.

Common issues

• Scaniverse processing fails: the scan was probably over 3 minutes. Re-do that segment in two shorter passes.
• 3D Scanner App can't find walls: turn on a light, open doors, make sure floor + ceiling both visible.
• Files are huge (50–200 MB): GitHub handles up to 100MB per file fine. Bigger goes to R2 — tell me and I'll set up the URL pattern.
• iPhone overheats: these apps work the LiDAR and chip hard. Take a 5-min break between zones if you feel the phone get hot.

Why this matters

After these scans land, every future Skippy session about the house starts from grounded geometry instead of asking you to send photos. Mower routing, WiFi planning, future remodels, irrigation overlays, camera placement — all grounded in actual measurements of this property, not generic assumptions.

One weekend of free scanning = a permanent spatial layer for Skippy. Worth it.