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LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging. Apple's iPhone LiDAR sensor fires invisible laser pulses and measures how long they take to bounce back, building a precise depth map of whatever the camera sees. It was originally developed for autonomous vehicles and industrial scanning — Apple miniaturised it and built it into the iPhone Pro lineup starting with the iPhone 12 Pro in 2020.
For contractors, it means your iPhone Pro can measure spaces with a level of accuracy that previously required dedicated hardware costing thousands of dollars.
LiDAR is only available on iPhone Pro and iPhone Pro Max models. Specifically:
The standard iPhone models — iPhone 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 — do not have LiDAR. Neither do any Android phones at the time of writing, though some Android devices have time-of-flight sensors that serve a similar but less capable function.
Apple's RoomPlan API uses LiDAR to automatically generate dimensioned floor plans. Apps like Manifold's Floor Plan Scan use this to produce accurate room layouts in under 5 minutes. You walk the room slowly with your iPhone Pro, the LiDAR maps the walls, windows, and doors, and you get an exportable floor plan.
This is the most practically useful LiDAR application for contractors — floor plans that used to require a specialist now take 5 minutes with a phone you already carry.
LiDAR enables augmented reality measurement tools that can measure distances in real time by pointing your phone at a space. These are useful for quick on-site reference but less reliable for precise documentation — accuracy degrades with distance and in certain lighting conditions.
LiDAR creates a point cloud — a dense map of 3D coordinates — of any scanned space. Specialist apps can export this as a .ply or .las file for use in CAD software. This is primarily useful for structural engineers, architects, and surveyors rather than general contractors.
This is the biggest practical limitation. If your crew uses a mix of iPhone models, or if any crew member uses Android, they can't access LiDAR-based features at all. Anything built on LiDAR is iPhone Pro-exclusive.
iPhone LiDAR is most accurate in rooms under approximately 5 metres in depth. In large open spaces — warehouses, large commercial floors, outdoor areas — accuracy drops and the scan may miss elements or produce errors at the edges of its range.
Highly reflective surfaces (glass, mirrors, polished concrete), very dark surfaces, and transparent materials confuse LiDAR sensors. Scans in bathrooms with mirrors, spaces with large windows, or rooms with polished floors often require additional cleanup.
LiDAR floor plans are accurate enough for renovation planning, client handovers, and field documentation. They're not accurate enough for structural engineering, permitting in jurisdictions requiring survey-grade documentation, or detailed mechanical/electrical layouts.
This is where Manifold's Orbit Measure feature fills the gap. Orbit Measure is a video-based 3D scanning system that works on any iOS or Android phone — no LiDAR required. You walk a space for 60 seconds recording video, upload it, and Manifold's servers process it into a fully measurable 3D model accurate to within half an inch.
The key difference: Orbit Measure does the processing in the cloud rather than on-device, which means it doesn't need specialised hardware. Any phone with a standard camera works.
For teams where some members have iPhone Pro (and can use Floor Plan Scan) and others have standard iPhones or Android (and use Orbit Measure), Manifold supports both workflows in the same project.
iPhone LiDAR is genuinely useful for floor plan generation and rapid site documentation — if you have the right hardware. If your whole crew runs iPhone Pro, it's worth integrating into your workflow. If you have a mixed hardware environment (standard iPhones, Android, or both), video-based scanning via Orbit Measure is more practical because it works for everyone.
Try Manifold free — Floor Plan Scan for iPhone Pro users, Orbit Measure for everyone else. No credit card required. Or book a 15-minute demo to see both features in action.
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