Forma

Local 3D scanning studio for iPhone, iPad & Mac

LiDAR + photogrammetry + Gaussian Splatting — 100% on device. No cloud, no account, no subscription.

Download · Features · Workflow · Build · Español

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Forma turns your surroundings into 3D assets you can keep. It brings LiDAR space capture, object photogrammetry, room layouts and Gaussian Splatting together in one native app — and every step, from capture to export, runs on your own hardware.

Features

🏠 Spaces	Combines the ARKit LiDAR mesh with calibrated, posed photographs to build textured room models.
🧸 Objects	Uses Apple's Object Capture and on‑device photogrammetry to produce textured USDZ models.
📐 Room layouts	Organizes walls, doors and windows with RoomPlan.
✨ Gaussian 3D	Trains Gaussian Splatting scenes from saved photos and cameras with a native Metal engine (adapted from msplat). Pick resolution and iterations, resume from checkpoints.
🔁 Hybrid iPhone ⇄ Mac	Sends capture sources over your local network to Forma Desktop for heavier processing — no server in between.
🧠 Local AI texture restoration	Optional Core ML (Real‑ESRGAN) texture enhancement, on device.
📦 Export	OBJ, PLY, STL or USDZ depending on the capture type. Originals are never overwritten — reprocessed results are saved as separate copies.
⏸️ Built for long jobs	Pause, resume and automatic checkpoints; progress in a Live Activity / Dynamic Island.

Note

The interface is currently in Spanish. English localization is on the roadmap.

Workflow

flowchart LR
    A[📱 Capture<br/>LiDAR · photos · RoomPlan] --> B[⚙️ Process on device<br/>mesh fusion · texture baking]
    A -. local network .-> M[💻 Forma Desktop<br/>photogrammetry · Gaussian]
    B --> C[✨ Gaussian 3D<br/>Metal training]
    B --> D[📦 Export<br/>OBJ · PLY · STL · USDZ]
    M --> D
    C --> D

Loading

1. Capture — LiDAR mode for spaces (initial mesh + posed photos), Object Capture for items, RoomPlan for floor plans.
2. Process — the engine optimizes photos and fuses geometry conservatively. Optional planar denoising only touches regions that pass strict checks, preserving edges. No fake detail is added by subdivision.
3. Explore — rotate, zoom, switch between texture and geometry, inspect estimated measurements.
4. Export — take your model anywhere.

Install

Forma Desktop (macOS)

1. Download Forma-Desktop-<version>-macOS.zip from the latest release.
2. Unzip and move FormaDesktop.app to Applications.
3. It's ad‑hoc signed (not notarized): right‑click → Open the first time, or run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/FormaDesktop.app.

Requires Apple Silicon for the Gaussian worker.

Forma for iPhone / iPad

Apple doesn't allow installing iOS apps from GitHub directly, so there are two options:

• Sideload the unsigned Forma-<version>-iOS-unsigned.ipa from the release with a tool such as AltStore or Sideloadly (it re‑signs the app with your Apple ID).
• Build from source with Xcode and your own (free) Apple developer account — see below.

Device requirements: iOS/iPadOS 18+. Spaces and room capture need LiDAR; Objects needs Object Capture support. The in‑app Device screen tells you what your hardware supports.

Build from source

Requirements: Xcode 16+ (developed with Xcode 27), CMake 3.21+, Ninja and Python 3.

git clone https://github.com/RobiiAragon/Forma.git
cd Forma
brew install cmake ninja
bash scripts/build_msplat.sh          # builds the Metal Gaussian engine (iOS + Simulator)
bash Tools/build_gaussian_worker.sh   # builds the macOS Gaussian worker (for Forma Desktop)
open Forma.xcodeproj

• iPhone / iPad: select the Forma scheme, set your team under Signing & Capabilities, pick a device and press ⌘R.
• Mac: select the FormaDesktop scheme and My Mac.

Tip

scripts/generate_project.py regenerates the Xcode project if you add files that should be shared between the iOS and macOS targets. See docs/MODULE_MAP.txt.

Tests

xcodebuild test -project Forma.xcodeproj -scheme Forma \
  -destination 'platform=iOS Simulator,name=<your simulator>' -parallel-testing-enabled NO

Architecture

Forma/                 iOS / iPadOS app
  Core/                Models, processing pipelines, persistence, exporters, Gaussian trainer
  Features/            Capture, library, detail, Gaussian and device screens
  Presentation/        Branding and reusable SwiftUI components
Mac/                   Forma Desktop (photogrammetry, Gaussian, local AI, viewer)
FormaLiveActivity/     Live Activity / Dynamic Island progress
Shared/                Types shared by app and extensions
Vendor/Msplat/         Metal Gaussian Splatting engine (Apache‑2.0, with local hardening)
Tools/ · scripts/      Build, verification and benchmark tooling
docs/                  Engineering notes, validation protocols and audits (Spanish)

SwiftUI + ARKit + RealityKit/SceneKit + Metal + Core ML, MVVM‑style view models with services doing the heavy lifting. More in docs/MODULE_MAP.txt, PERFORMANCE.md and docs/VALIDATION_PROTOCOL.md.

Limitations

Forma produces estimates, not certified metrology. Unobserved areas, reflective or transparent surfaces and moving objects can cause artifacts. Gaussian scenes are a visual representation, not measurement geometry. Heavy Metal jobs may require keeping the app in the foreground.

Roadmap

• English localization
• TestFlight / App Store distribution
• Notarized Forma Desktop builds

Acknowledgements

• msplat-ios — Apache License 2.0 (see Vendor/Msplat/LICENSE)
• Real‑ESRGAN — BSD 3‑Clause (see Mac/Resources/RealESRGAN-LICENSE.txt)
• nlohmann/json, nanoflann and CLI11, fetched at build time

License

MIT © RobiiAragon — third‑party components keep their own licenses.