How to digitize a hand-drawn kitchen sketch for Mozaik

Step 1: capture a sketch worth transcribing

Most rooms that go in wrong were sketched wrong, or more precisely, sketched incompletely, with the missing number improvised at the desk. A Mozaik-ready field sketch records, before you leave the site:

• Every wall segment, labeled and in order. Pick a convention and never vary it: walls lettered A, B, C, D clockwise from the entry door works. A sketch where the reader has to guess which run “96” belongs to is a phone call waiting to happen.
• The ceiling height, written down even when “it's standard.” Assumed heights are how crown details go wrong.
• Openings with four numbers each: distance from the wall's start, width, height, and sill height for windows. Openings recorded as an X on a line are the single most common gap we see.
• Which corners are actually square. Note the out-of-square ones on site; discovering them from a cabinet gap is the expensive way.
• Obstructions (outlets you must keep, plumbing stubs, radiators, soffits) sketched where they are, not remembered later.

Then photograph the sketch before leaving the site, even if the paper is coming back with you. Paper gets rained on and left on tailgates; the photo also matters later in this guide.

Step 2: transcribe in a fixed order

In Mozaik's Room tab, enter the room the same way every time. An order that front-loads the error-prone part:

1. Walls first, in label order, each with its length as written, resist “correcting” a number that looks off; flag it instead. If the walls don't close, the flagged number is your first suspect.
2. Ceiling height once the shell closes.
3. Openings next, wall by wall, reading each one's four numbers aloud as you key them. Slower for ten seconds, and it catches transposed digits (the 147-becomes-174 class of error) better than silent copying does.
4. Obstructions and fixtures last, from the sketch's margins.

Step 3: verify against the paper, not your memory

Two checks, both against the sketch itself: walk the perimeter on screen while ticking each wall length off on the paper, then count openings per wall and compare. The room that passes both is not guaranteed perfect, but the rooms that fail them were about to cost a re-measure trip. Why this matters so much is covered in the pillar guide, getting a room into Mozaik faster: transcription errors surface late, usually after cutting, and the minutes spent here are the cheapest insurance in the whole job.

The shortcut we're building

Steps 2 and 3 exist because the sketch and the software don't talk to each other. That photo you took in step 1 is the input to KitchenCNC Sketch Intake for Mozaik: it reads the digits off the sketch, asks you to confirm every number (recognition pre-fills, you approve, because these values end up in cut files), and generates a Mozaik room file with the walls, corners and openings already placed. It is released: $20 a month, Windows only, and it doesn't replace Mozaik. The room lands in your own job list. The generated rooms are validated against a real Mozaik install, and the details are at the plugin page. The checklist above is still the manual path if you'd rather, and if you're wondering what Mozaik can import directly, see can you import a sketch into Mozaik?