Smart Layers App

Smart Layers starts with a blank floor plan and lets you build up from there. You draw a room, give it real dimensions and a shape, then start placing devices — a router here, a thermostat there, lights along the ceiling, a camera watching the front door. Everything sits on the plan the way it would sit in a real space.

Seven Layers, One Canvas

Devices are organized into seven distinct layers: power, lighting, climate, security, network, automation, and AV. You can toggle layers on and off so each person looking at the plan only sees what's relevant to them. The wiring contractor doesn't need the camera angles. The electrician doesn't need the smart bulbs. Each layer strips away the noise and keeps the focus where it needs to be.

Two overlays add real spatial value. WiFi coverage shows where the signal reaches and where it hits a wall — move a device, the coverage updates instantly. Camera field of view shows exactly what each camera sees based on its position and lens width.

Budget and Compatibility Running in the Background

Every device carries an estimated price. You can edit that number, mark items as purchased, and the totals update in real time — broken down by room and by category. The statistics screen pulls everything together: total devices, total rooms, purchase completion by percentage, and a full project breakdown. The compatibility checker catches gaps you might not notice on your own — a Zigbee device with no hub, a camera with no recording path, an access point on the wrong protocol — and suggests what's missing with a one-tap fix.

When the plan is ready, you can export it as a PDF to hand off to a contractor, a PNG to share in a group chat, or a JSON file to back up and return to later.

Worth Noting

The canvas relies on pinch-to-zoom and drag gestures for navigation, and the device palette uses color as the primary way to distinguish between device types. There are no visible alternative input methods for those gestures, and color-blind users may find the palette and statistics charts harder to read without additional visual cues.

The Same Satisfaction as Placing the Last Block

There's something familiar about watching a floor plan fill in piece by piece — each device dropped into position, each layer switched on to reveal a new layer of the picture. It has the same quiet, accumulating satisfaction as a construction puzzle where every placement changes what comes next. The plan only makes sense once all the pieces are in the right spots, and getting there is the whole point.

Smart Layers is most useful before anything is installed — it's a thinking tool disguised as a floor plan editor, and the budget tracker alone is worth the time investment for anyone who's ever bought the wrong hub first.