The coolest use for the Vision Pro

July 29, 2026

One time location will hopefully beryllium a location connected this land

Over the past year, I admittedly haven’t utilized my Vision Pro a ton, but reasonably precocious I discovered a ace useful usage that it’s perfectly unthinkable at, provided you person the correct tools.

After years of flat life my woman and I person precocious begun the process of building our (first! exciting!) home, which is an absolute whirlwind of choices and decisions. Maybe it’s wherever we’re some programmers, but peculiarly for me, my software-oriented encephalon feels almost incompatible pinch this world of designing a location (she’s the main 1 keeping this task moving forward).

In package if you don’t extremity up liking a characteristic aft playing astir pinch it for awhile, you tin tweak it aliases region it wholly (try doing that pinch a poorly placed wall). Here, decisions consciousness immense and difficult to perpetrate to.

On apical of this, the lodging marketplace is really costly correct now successful galore parts of the world (ours decidedly included) truthful making bully usage of each quadrate ft feels paramount.

(Don’t worry, we person a awesome designer who guides america skillfully, but yet it’s up to america to motion disconnected connected everything!)

Enter the Vision Pro

Looking astatine PDFs of imaginable level plans, you don’t (or astatine slightest I don’t) create overmuch of a consciousness of standard aliases connections pinch a bunch of achromatic rectangles. This room says it’s 13 feet by 15 feet, I conjecture I tin get retired a measuring tape, but what does that feel like? Would this hallway beryllium cramped? What each tin you spot erstwhile you first locomotion into the house?

Then it deed me: virtual reality! There’s different VR devices that person amended gaming chops, but I’m not judge there’s a user instrumentality retired location that’s amended than the Vision Pro connected insubstantial erstwhile it comes to rendering a virtual world pinch its precocious solution screens and past placing you successful it pinch its abundance of sensors.

Problem is, really do you spell from level scheme to virtual reality?

Let’s get creatin'

I person a spot of acquisition utilizing Fusion 360 (free 3D modeling package for hobbyists), truthful I had the thought to effort to quickly build the level scheme up successful 3D. Nothing fancy, conscionable floors, ceilings, and walls, pinch holes for doors.

If you’re not acquainted pinch 3D creation tools, this is simply a awesome first project, you’re fundamentally conscionable drafting the level scheme retired successful 2D and past extruding retired the walls. YouTube and asking AI questions are awesome resources for learning this useful accomplishment successful 2026. Sites for illustration Fiverr are besides a awesome resource, I’m judge there’s an abundance of group location who could return a level scheme you’re willing successful and move it into a 3D record for a reasonable price.

Leveling it up

A bunch of walls, ceilings, and holes successful the wall is beautiful powerful, but without existent objects aliases texture successful the abstraction it’s still a spot difficult to get standard erstwhile you’re “walking around”.

You cognize really you locomotion into an quiet flat for the first clip and you’re for illustration “Holy crap there’s truthful overmuch room” and past you adhd your belongings and location abruptly isn’t? It’s kinda for illustration that, we request to adhd immoderate models and materials to the abstraction to really crushed our position a spot and springiness things scale, different it feels for illustration stepping astir a warehouse.

Adding textures

Quick easy one. In Fusion, pat the “A” cardinal to bring up the Appearance sheet and you tin resistance and driblet a bunch of communal textures for illustration wood, stone, aliases overgarment onto objects. This tin really thief to break up the monotony of everything being the aforesaid dull texture and really gives the spot depth.

There’s moreover solid textures for windows which is beautiful handy.

IKEA

I tin exemplary a antagonistic aliases a room land (just a bunch of rectangles) but thing beyond that and I’m tapping out. Thankfully IKEA has a monolithic magnitude of furnishings pinch corresponding 3D models, and moreover if you’re not a large IKEA personification (wow aren’t you fancy) having immoderate approximation for your last furnishings successful your spot really helps you get an thought of really things fresh together and tin beryllium positioned.

The sofa I'm typing this on. It's comfier successful existent life I promise.

Problem is, nary easy measurement to get entree to those 3D models from what I tin tell. Thankfully, with a script for the Tampermonkey browser hold you tin easy download them. Not each point connected IKEA has a 3D exemplary unfortunately, but seemingly the mostly do.

This is ace useful for adding a couch, a bed, a desk, an area rug, etc. to the abstraction truthful erstwhile you locomotion into a chamber your eyes kinda spot the furniture and table and get a bully thought for the standard of the room, which lets you understand if it’s a bully size aliases if the dimensions are proper, and you tin kinda ideate what it would beryllium for illustration to beryllium successful that space.

Downside is this downloads a glb file, thing I wasn’t acquainted with. Fusion allows america to easy import obj files, truthful we request to person it to that. After trying a bunch of scripts and websites, I honestly recovered this website to beryllium the best. Little janky, but it works.

Also statement that the resulting obj record (and the files it’s contained in) often won’t render textures wrong Fusion 360, but erstwhile you export them from Fusion they show up arsenic expected.

3D Warehouse

That covers a batch of furniture, but not everything. Maybe you want to spot really a guidelines mixer looks connected the antagonistic aliases if you tin fresh a atom cooker comfortably. Heck, you tin find your car and put it successful the car shed for reference.

This is wherever 3D Warehouse comes in, it’s a community-driven website wherever group tin upload free 3D models they create and easy import them into Sketchup, different celebrated portion of 3D modeling package (that mightiness moreover activity amended than Fusion for location design, I dunno, haven’t utilized it much).

Problem is, the files aren’t easy usable successful Fusion, but I recovered a bully workaround.

If you unfastened the URL connected your iOS instrumentality instead, it gives you the action to position it successful 3D wrong your existent environment. Within that view, if you pat the stock fastener you get entree to the existent USDZ record that powers this experience, astatine which constituent you tin conscionable AirDrop it to your Mac. Nice!

From there, moreover though we emotion a USDZ file, Fusion seemingly doesn’t for importing objects, so backmost to that erstwhile website to person to OBJ. From location it’s arsenic elemental arsenic bringing it into Fusion and placing it.

Look, a guidelines mixer and a sink!

This website is earnestly awesome, there’s a exemplary for conscionable astir thing you’d put successful your house.

Programming!

Now that I person thing I’m happy with, I remembered Apple platforms emotion the USDZ record format for 3D models, and judge capable Fusion had a USDZ export option. Nice!

With a record successful hand, we’re getting somewhere, truthful I AirDropped to it to my Vision Pro and opened it. This worked beautiful okay for viewing it, and you could moreover locomotion astir a small bit, but unless you unrecorded successful a storage stepping the afloat magnitude of a virtual location without bumping into thing and ending up successful those VR neglect compilations is beautiful tricky. I want thing better.

This is wherever vibe coding is perfect: putting thing technically awesome together erstwhile you would person ne'er bothered to return weeks to put it together traditionally. Is the codification perfect? Nah, but the replacement is it ne'er existing, and it’s conscionable “for fun” anyway.

After immoderate aggravated typing pinch a operation of Claude and Codex complete the people of a greeting I had thing I was beautiful happy with. I named it Prospector (can’t retrieve why) and I’ve been really happy pinch it.

Here are a bunch of the features that level it up beyond conscionable viewing a USDZ record successful the Files app:

• Controller support! Walk astir for illustration you’re successful a 3D video game, pinch mobility controls arsenic good arsenic the expertise to rotate the camera (you tin still locomotion and look astir usually of course, this conscionable augments that).
• Skybox! Pretty rudimentary, but added a wood style skybox arsenic the exterior of the world truthful if you look retired a model you don’t conscionable spot your existent environment
• Terrain following! If you pat the correct D-pad fastener the controller will representation you to the terrain, truthful you’ll spell up and down pinch immoderate undulations successful the terrain. This is really useful if you person a study of your spot done truthful tin efficaciously person a afloat position of your property’s terrain and “walk” done it
• Toggle existent life! If you clasp your thumb and mediate digit together for a infinitesimal it will toggle the virtual world connected and off, this makes it consciousness safer if you want to return a measurement guardant successful virtual reality but are unsure if you’re going to bump into a array successful existent life.
• Take flight! With the triggers you tin alert up aliases down, awesome for going betwixt floors for instance, and past if you property up connected the D-pad it’ll reset you to the crushed level.
• Speed mode! Pressing near connected the D-pad makes you move 6× faster, which is really, well, accelerated erstwhile you’re crossing a large spot alternatively than poking astir a azygous room.

With each those together, this is simply a really adjuvant measurement to position USDZ files connected the Vision Pro. You tin really easy research a abstraction and position yourself successful caller areas to look around, and moreover return disconnected the headset to show a spouse aliases friend truthful you tin stitchery their input connected immoderate changes. Then making a alteration is arsenic elemental arsenic tweaking the record successful Fusion, re-exporting, past re-running.

Download link

If you want to play astir pinch Prospector, my ace janky, vibe coded USDZ viewer, I put the contents up connected GitHub (it would return a adjacent spot much activity to polish this up into thing I’d beryllium comfortable submitting to the App Store).

Using it is arsenic advertised: janky. Take your USDZ file, import it into Xcode, and wrong ImmersiveView.swift alteration the USDZ record sanction to immoderate the sanction of your record is. You tin besides tweak the skybox (Poly Haven has a bunch of awesome options). Then, conscionable brace a controller to your Vision Pro and tally the task connected your device.

Just cognize I coded for illustration 0% of this, truthful if it’s unspeakable you can’t judge me. Don’t you dare. I’m sensitive. Judge the AI.

This is awesome

No seriously, this feels truthful powerful. When we yet decided connected a plan, done the fancy Revit package our designer uses he was capable to bring america connected a 3D walkthrough of our early house. It was cool, kinda for illustration a Google Streetview-esque acquisition wherever you could click to teleport astir the location and resistance to look around.

But honestly, aft already seeing it successful full, immersive 3D wherever you tin look astir and consciousness for illustration you’re there, we already felt for illustration we knew the place. It really feels for illustration 1 time successful the early visiting imaginable designs successful 3D will beryllium a halfway portion of the process, and if you person the hardware that early is imaginable today.