Turn a photo of a van interior into an editable 3D layout — and what gets approximated

How to rebuild a layout from a photo

1. Open your project and click Ask VanPlot AI… at the bottom of the canvas, or press A.
2. Attach one image — a photo or a sketch — with the attach button, or drop it on the chat. PNG, JPEG or WebP; one image per message.
3. Use the Rebuild from a photo suggestion, or write your own request: "Rebuild this layout in my van, bed across the back, as close as it fits."
4. Watch the items drop into place. The reply ends with what it couldn't place or had to approximate.
5. Undo the whole reply in one step if it's not useful, or keep it and adjust by hand or by asking.

What happens to the photo

The assistant looks at the picture and lists the pieces it can identify — a fixed bed, a kitchen block, a fridge, seats, a wardrobe, overhead lockers, a water tank. For each it picks the closest part in VanPlot's catalog and places it with the same rules as any other request: inside the walls, clear of the wheel arches, not floating on top of another item, cabinets and the kitchen turned to face the aisle, and the sliding-door and rear-door entries kept clear.

The scale comes from your van, not the photo. If the photo is a long Sprinter and you have a Renault Trafic, you get the same arrangement fitted into the Trafic — a shorter kitchen, maybe no wardrobe — and the reply tells you what didn't fit. That's often the most useful part: it shows you which parts of a layout you admire survive the move to your van.

The image is sent once with that message to answer it, and is not stored.

What gets approximated

Be clear about what a photo can carry. The assistant never claims pixel accuracy, and you shouldn't expect it:

• Sizes are estimated from what's visible and from what fits your van. A kitchen that looks 140 cm long may come back at 120 because that is what fits next to the door.
• Hidden things are missing. Batteries under the bed, a water tank behind a panel, the heater in a seat box — if the photo doesn't show them, they aren't placed.
• Custom furniture becomes the closest catalog part. A curved bench becomes a straight one; an odd-shaped locker becomes a cabinet of similar size.
• Wide-angle photos lie. Phone lenses stretch van interiors; a sketch with rough dimensions written on it often rebuilds better than a glossy photo.

After the rebuild, check the numbers that matter — payload, bed height, whether you can sleep across — the same way you would for a layout you built by hand.

Photo → a single object: Create with AI

For one piece rather than a whole layout — a particular bench, a shelving unit, a dog crate you already own — use Create with AI in the Library tab. Write a description, press Add a photo for a photo or a sketch, or both. It builds the object from the same primitives the component designer uses (boxes, cylinders, spheres, cones and wedges), and saves it to My Components. It also returns a note with the size it assumed, so you know what to correct.

Each generation costs about 8 credits. It is good at furniture and fixtures that read from a few chunky shapes; it won't produce photoreal models or exact manufacturer parts. The Create with AI guide has the details. Once it's in your library, ask the assistant to place it.

What it costs

A photo rebuild is a normal assistant reply with an image attached, so it uses more credits than a one-line edit and less than Design my van; the reply shows exactly what it debited. A credit is about $0.01 of real AI cost. VanPlot AI comes with the lifetime licence, which includes 50 credits (the free trial has no AI); after that one-time credit packs from €9 whose credits never expire, with a bonus on bigger packs — credits explained, pricing.

Try it with a build you like

Plan on the free trial, get the lifetime licence (50 AI credits included), then open your van and attach the photo you've had saved for months. The VanPlot AI guide lists what it can and can't do. When the layout is close, a render shows you what it could look like finished.

Questions