Design Something New or Recreate an Existing Building

SmartDraw AI lets you generate floor plans with natural language prompts or your own measurements. Whether you're designing a building that hasn't been built yet or documenting one that already exists, SmartDraw AI can help you get started faster. The generated floor plan is fully editable by SmartDraw's intuitive yet powerful set of floor planning tools.

Scenario 1: Generate Layout Ideas

If you're not sure what to build yet, you can use SmartDraw's AI to generate layout concepts based on natural language prompts. This is great for early planning and brainstorming ideas.

Use SmartDraw's built-in AI or connect to SmartDraw's MCP server to try this prompt.

Create a 1-story ranch home with these room dimensions:

  • Master Bedroom: 16' x 14'
  • Bedroom 2: 12' x 12'
  • Bedroom 3: 12' x 11'
  • Living Room: 20' x 18'
  • Kitchen: 14' x 12'
  • Dining Room: 12' x 12'
  • Master Bathroom: 10' x 8'
  • Shared Bathroom: 8' x 5'
Generating simple layout from natural language

SmartDraw can also create commercial floor plans like offices and medical establishments.

Create a floor plan for a small law firm. Include a reception area, attorney offices, paralegal workstations, conference rooms, a break room, and restrooms.

Create a floor plan for a dental practice with a reception, exam rooms, offices, a lounge, and storage.

The AI uses general architectural knowledge to produce an editable floor plan that gives you a strong starting point.

The more detail you provide about the layout, the closer the results will be to something you can turn into a real project.

Generating commercial layout from natural language

Scenario 2: Recreate an Existing Building

When accuracy matters, you'll want to start with the exact measurements for your space. SmartDraw's innovative Floor Plan Notation provides a precision-focused alternative to long natural language prompts to describe a layout.

What is Floor Plan Notation?

SmartDraw Floor Plan Notation is a simple text-based format for describing rooms and buildings with exact dimensions. If you can walk around your space and measure the walls, you can create this notation easily. Designed for both people and AI, it transforms measured descriptions into fully editable floor plans.

How It Works

To use Floor Plan Notation, you simply describe a room as a sequence of walls. As you move around the room, note whether each corner turns left or right. You can also specify doors, windows, and other openings along each wall. SmartDraw converts your description into a scaled, editable floor plan.

Learn more about Floor Plan Notation in detail here.
Recreating an existing layout with SmartDraw AI

Examples to Try

A 12-by-14 room with a 3-foot door on the bottom wall:

outline originx 10' originy 10' corner topleft thickness 4"
Right Wall 12'
Right Wall 14'
Right Wall 12'
Right Wall 2' Door 3' Wall 9'

A bedroom with an attached bathroom:

outline
Right Wall 12'
Left Wall 2'
Right Wall 5' Window 6' Wall 5'
Right Wall 20' Point Bathroom
Right Wall 3' Door 3' Wall 4' PocketDoor 5' Wall 4' DoubleDoor 6' Wall 3'
Right Wall 18'

outline originx Bathroom corner topright
Right Wall 12'
Right Wall 10'
Right Wall 6' Point Closet Wall 6'

outline originx Closet corner bottomright
Right Wall 8'
Right Wall 6'

If your information isn't already in the right format, AI can help organize or convert it before SmartDraw builds an accurate, editable floor plan.

12 x 14 foot room generated with SmartDraw Floor Plan Notation

Which Approach Should I Use?

When you want to explore layout ideas for a new space or building, using a natural language prompt can help you generate multiple different design ideas to consider.

If you need to document a real building and get an accurate floor plan, you should consider taking measurements and using SmartDraw's Floor Plan Notation.

Natural language or floor plan notation

Continue Editing Your Floor Plan

Whether you got your floor plan by using a natural language description or you documented your space using floor plan notation, the resulting floor plan is fully editable in SmartDraw.

You can:

  • Resize rooms
  • Move walls
  • Add windows and doors
  • Place furniture
  • Add electrical, networking, or security symbols
  • Attach data to symbols
  • Generate equipment lists
Read how to get started with SmartDraw's floor plan tools in this tutorial.
Editing generated floor plan inside SmartDraw