Add a photo or screenshot of your floor plan, tap the corners of the outer walls, and turn the north arrow to match your plan. This tool then draws the 16 compass zones on the plan from its centre, marks the brahmasthan, and tells you which zone any spot you tap lies in. You can save or print the drawing. The plan never leaves your device: it is drawn on this page only, and is not uploaded, sent or kept by the page or by us. The 16 zones are a modern practice, not a classical rule, and the tool gives no meaning for any zone.
How it works
The picture. Your browser reads the picture you choose and draws it on the page. Nothing is uploaded: the page has no code that sends it anywhere, and nothing about it is stored. Large photos are scaled down on screen to keep the page quick.
The outline and the centre. You tap the corners of the home’s outer walls in order. The tool finds the balance point of that outline, the point a card cut to the shape would hang level from. That is how our brahmasthan guide finds the centre of an irregular home, and for a rectangle it is where the diagonals cross. It is the same point the brahmasthan finder works out from measured sides. If your picture is cropped exactly to the outer walls, tick the box to use its edges instead.
North. Turn the slider until the red arrow points the same way as the north arrow on your plan. Zero means north is at the top of the picture and 90 means it points to the right.
The zones. The 16 zones are the sixteen points of the ordinary compass rose, each 22.5 degrees wide and centred on its point. North runs from 348.75 to 11.25 degrees, north-north-east from 11.25 to 33.75, and so on round the circle. You can draw the eight directions instead, 45 degrees each, which is how the phone compass and the room placement guide read them. The lines run from the centre to the edge of the picture.
The brahmasthan. Brahma holds the central nine squares of the 81 square grid (Brihat Samhita 53.46), a block a third of the width and depth. The tool draws that block from the enclosing rectangle of your outline, centred on the balance point.
Reading the result
The drawing shows the outline you marked, the zone lines and their short names, the centre as a dot, the brahmasthan as a dashed block and the north arrow. Tap any spot on the plan and the tool says its bearing from the centre and its zone, and, for one of the 16 zones, which of the eight directions it sits between. The result also lists how much of the outline’s area lies in each zone.
A room that lies across a line belongs partly to both zones. If a reading sits close to a line, a small change in the north setting or in a corner moves it, so check north on site before you decide anything. To read what a direction means for a room, open the room placement guide, which keeps the classical texts and modern guides apart.
Where traditions differ
The classical mandala is a grid of squares laid over a plot, not a set of compass sectors. Our Vastu Purusha Mandala guide records that sixteen 22.5 degree compass zones are a modern practice, and that the 16 or 32 sectors used by many consultants today agree with the grid only approximately, even on a square plot. Laying the 81 square grid over a flat’s floor plan is also modern practice, since the texts describe plots and compounds.
The texts read for this site give the 16 zones no meanings, because they do not use them. This tool draws the zones and names them, and stops there. Where the centre of an irregular home lies is also a choice: our guide gives the balance point, and says to pick one method, note whether balconies were counted and use it every time.
What it does not do
It does not judge your plan or any room in it, and it predicts nothing. It does not measure north for you: a plan’s north arrow may be true north, magnetic north or a guess, so check it on site with the phone compass, corrected if you like with the magnetic declination tool. It does not keep your picture or what you mark on it. Nothing on a plan needs to move because of a zone, and remedies without demolition explains why nothing needs to be bought or broken.
Frequently asked questions
↳ Is my floor plan uploaded anywhere?
No. Your browser draws the picture on this page and nothing is sent to us or to anyone else. When you leave the page, it is gone. A saved or printed drawing is made on your own device.
↳ What are the 16 zones of Vastu?
The sixteen points of the compass rose, north, north-north-east, north-east and so on, each 22.5 degrees wide, drawn from the centre of a home. Our guides label them a modern practice. The classical texts work with a grid of squares and eight directions.
↳ Where should the zones be drawn from?
From the centre of the home. For a rectangle that is where the diagonals cross. For an irregular outline this tool uses the balance point, as our brahmasthan guide describes. Whatever centre you use, use it every time.
↳ My plan has no north arrow. What do I do?
Stand in the home with a compass, note which way one wall faces, and turn the slider until the zones match it. The phone compass on this site helps with the reading.
↳ Can I use a PDF plan?
Take a screenshot of the PDF page and use that. The tool reads pictures such as JPEG and PNG files.
↳ Does a room in a certain zone need to move?
No. The zones are a modern convention, and no verse read for this site asks for a room to move because of one. Read the room placement guide for the classical and modern points, kept apart.