How to Scan a Room into a 3D Model with Polycam

Polycam converts phone camera photos into 3D models, room scans and floor plans. You walk around the space capturing images, upload them, and Polycam’s photogrammetry cloud builds a textured mesh you can view, measure and export as OBJ, GLB or USDZ.

What Is Polycam and What Does It Cost?

Polycam is an iOS, Android and web app for reality capture. It handles photogrammetry (photo sets), LiDAR scans on Pro iPhones and iPads, and room-plan generation. The free tier allows a limited number of scans with some features locked; Polycam Pro runs about $12/month billed yearly and unlocks unlimited scans, higher resolution and commercial use.

It is aimed at architects, interior designers, 3D artists and anyone who needs a quick digital copy of a physical space.

How Do You Capture a Room?

1. Open Polycam and pick Photo mode for maximum detail or LiDAR for speed.
2. Move slowly around the room; overlap each pass by roughly 70%.
3. Keep the phone at chest height and avoid fast pans — motion blur kills quality.
4. Aim for 40-80 photos for an average room.
5. Upload and let the cloud process; expect a few minutes to an hour.

LiDAR captures in seconds but gives flatter textures. Photogrammetry takes longer and reads far better for visual work.

What Makes a Scan Fail?

Plain white walls, mirrors and glass. Photogrammetry needs visual features to lock onto, so a blank corridor is nearly impossible unless you add temporary markers. Strong sunlight through windows creates contrast blowouts. Shooting on an overcast day or with even artificial light gives noticeably cleaner meshes.

Reflective floors are the other common failure. Lay down a matte cloth if the floor matters.

How Do You Edit and Measure the Scan?

Polycam lets you crop, rotate, and set scale after processing. Measurement works once scale is set — you pick two points and it returns a distance. Set the scale against a known object (a door frame, a tape measure) before trusting any measurement, because photogrammetry has no inherent sense of absolute size.

How Do You Export It?

Export formats include OBJ, GLB, USDZ, DAE and STL, plus a PDF floor plan option on room scans. Choose GLB for web viewers, OBJ for most DCC pipelines, STL for 3D printing, and USDZ for AR on iPhone. Big scans are heavy — a full room can exceed 100 MB, so decimate before embedding online.

Quick Summary

• Polycam turns phone photos or LiDAR into 3D meshes, room scans and floor plans.
• Overlap photos ~70%, keep steady, use 40-80 images per room.
• Blank walls, mirrors and glass break photogrammetry — add markers or skip them.
• Set scale against a known object before measuring.
• Exports OBJ, GLB, USDZ, STL; Pro is about $12/month yearly.