From vision to reality: How Meta Quest is helping me with my renovation
Meta Quest is a great 3D visualization tool that can help with home design.
This fall, my apartment will undergo a complete renovation. Some walls will be torn down, a new parquet floor will be installed, and the electrical and plumbing systems will be replaced.
My architect created several new floor plan options to choose from. The kitchen, living room, and bathroom were to be rearranged to make the renovated apartment more livable. To make sure the design I was most excited about was truly the best option, I had a basic 3D model of the apartment created and viewed it using my Meta Quest 3.
Is the new entryway too small? Is the hallway to the kitchen a bit too narrow? How does the kitchen look from the living room—and vice versa? The virtual walk-through was meant to answer these questions and more.
Easy 3D visualization with SketchUp for Meta Quest
SketchUp is one of the most widely used tools for architectural planning and is often employed for conceptual design work and early-stage 3D visualizations. For Meta Quest, there is a dedicated VR version of the SketchUp Viewer that is designed specifically for visualizing architectural 3D models. Best of all, it's free.
After my architect sent me the SketchUp file with the 3D model, I imported it into the VR app, a process that can be done on a laptop and doesn't require sideloading. The video below explains each step. The only difference in my setup was that I authenticated my Quest 3 with an in-app code on my laptop.
In the SketchUp Viewer, you can view the 3D model in miniature, rotating, zooming in and out as needed. With the optional passthrough view, the model appears right in the middle of your real-world environment. Of course, there's also an immersive mode that lets you walk through the model at 1:1 scale - either by teleporting, using grab gestures, or just physically walking around, assuming you have enough space.
Making better decisions with virtual reality
In my case, the VR visualization didn’t just give me a better sense of what the apartment would look like—it also influenced several design decisions later in the process.
If you're planning a major renovation and have a floor plan drawn up, there's a good chance your architect is using SketchUp, which means you can view the 3D model with a Meta Quest headset. Either way, it’s definitely worth trying out.
If you want to take it a step further and create or modify the 3D model yourself, you’ll need a paid SketchUp license. A free one-week trial is available if you want to test it first.
You can download Sketchup Viewer from the Horizon Store. Just make sure not to accidentally install the older SketchUp Viewer Beta, which is still available.
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