# Feng Shui Bagua Map Overlay UI > By Lawrence Arya, Founder & CEO of VP0. Published 2026-06-07. 6 min read. > Source: https://vp0.com/blogs/feng-shui-bagua-map-overlay-ui The app's job is to render the bagua accurately and let the user align it, not to assert energy outcomes. **TL;DR.** A bagua map overlay app lays the feng shui energy grid over a room photo or floor plan, turning the manual alignment step into a screen. The honest framing: it is a tool for people who already practice feng shui, not a claim that it works, so it renders the grid accurately, helps the user align it, and leaves meaning to them. Mechanically it is an image-overlay problem: a 3x3 grid drawn as vector art with an SVG library so the sections, labels, and trigrams stay crisp, with grab-rotate-scale as the core interaction to align to the door or a compass heading. Offer both a floor-plan mode (precise) and a camera mode (a quick orientation aid, presented as approximate, not surveyed). Complete it with saved rooms, area labels, and a light reference. Free VP0 designs supply the overlay canvas and label screens. ## What is a bagua map overlay app? A tool that lays the feng shui energy grid over a photo or floor plan of a room. In [feng shui](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feng_shui), the [bagua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagua) is an eight-section map (plus a center) that practitioners align to a space to relate areas of a room to life domains like wealth, relationships, or career. A bagua overlay app takes the manual step, drawing or aligning that grid on a plan, and makes it a screen: the user frames their room or floor plan, and the app overlays the nine-section grid on top so they can read the space the way the practice prescribes. The honest framing first: this is **a tool for people who practice feng shui, not a claim that it works**. The app's job is to render the bagua accurately and let the user align it correctly; it is not the place to assert energy outcomes. An honest version presents the overlay as a guide for a tradition the user already follows, the same respectful-of-the-practice stance any belief-based tool should take, and leaves the meaning to the user rather than promising results. ## How does the overlay actually work? A grid drawn over an image, aligned to the room's orientation. Mechanically this is an image-overlay problem, not an AR problem in its simplest form: the user supplies a photo or floor plan, and the app draws a 3x3 bagua grid on top, which the user rotates and scales to fit. That grid is vector art, drawn with a library like [react-native-svg](https://github.com/software-mansion/react-native-svg), which at roughly 5,183,472 weekly npm downloads is the standard way to render crisp scalable shapes in React Native, so the nine sections, labels, and trigram symbols stay sharp at any zoom. Alignment is the part that matters, because the bagua's value to a practitioner depends on it lining up with the room's entrance or a compass direction (schools differ). So the core interaction is grab-rotate-scale: place the grid, align it to the door or a heading, and lock it. The same align-an-overlay-to-the-real-world interaction underpins [AR object placement](/blogs/ar-object-placement-target-ui-swiftui/), and the simpler photo version borrows the same handles. ## Can it use the camera or a floor plan? Both, and offering the floor-plan path keeps it honest and accessible. Two modes cover the use cases: overlay on a saved floor plan (the precise option, since the plan is to scale) or overlay on a live or captured room photo (the casual option). For users with a real floor plan, the result is genuinely useful for planning a layout; for users pointing a camera at a room, it is a quick orientation aid. A room-capture step can borrow from a [LiDAR room scanner flow](/blogs/iphone-lidar-room-scanner-ui-template/) on capable devices, but the overlay works fine on an ordinary photo, and not gating it behind hardware keeps the tool usable for everyone. The honest caveat on the camera mode: a grid drawn on a flat photo is an approximation of a 3D room, so the app should present it as an orientation aid rather than a surveyed measurement. Practitioners who want precision use the floor plan; the camera mode is for a quick read, and saying so plainly is more trustworthy than implying the photo overlay is exact. ## What completes the app? The save, the labels, and the reference. Beyond the overlay itself: saving an aligned bagua for a room so the user can return to it, clear labels for each of the nine areas (with the trigram and the life domain), and a light reference explaining what each section traditionally represents, since not every user has the bagua memorized. The reference is where the app adds real value without overstepping: it informs the practice rather than promising the outcome. The screens, the overlay canvas with its rotate-scale handles, the area-label sheet, the saved-rooms list, the reference, come as free [VP0](https://vp0.com) designs, so an agent builds the grid math and image handling onto a UI already shaped for an aligned, labeled overlay rather than inventing the interaction. The rendering is vector; the design decides how the nine sections read. ## Key takeaways: a bagua map overlay UI - **It overlays the feng shui grid on a room photo or floor plan**, turning the manual alignment step into a screen. - **Frame it as a tool for the practice, not a claim it works**: render the bagua accurately, let the user align it, and leave meaning to them. - **The overlay is vector art**: a 3x3 grid drawn with an SVG library so the sections, labels, and trigrams stay crisp at any zoom. - **Alignment is the core interaction**: grab-rotate-scale to fit the door or a compass heading, then lock it. - **Offer both floor-plan and camera modes**, but present the photo overlay as an orientation aid, not a surveyed measurement. ## Frequently asked questions **How do I build a feng shui bagua map overlay app?** Build it as an image-overlay tool: the user supplies a room photo or floor plan, and the app draws a 3x3 bagua grid on top that they rotate and scale to align with the door or a compass heading. Render the grid as vector art with an SVG library so it stays crisp, add labels for the nine areas, and let users save an aligned room. A free VP0 design supplies the overlay canvas and label screens. **Is the bagua overlay an AR feature?** It does not have to be. In its simplest and most accessible form it is a 2D grid drawn over a photo or floor plan, which works on any device. The alignment interaction (grab, rotate, scale) is similar to AR object placement, but gating the whole tool behind AR or LiDAR would exclude users unnecessarily, so the photo overlay is the sensible baseline with a camera or scan mode as an option. **Should the app claim feng shui results?** No. The honest framing is that the app is a tool for people who already practice feng shui, not a claim that aligning a bagua produces outcomes. Its job is to render the grid accurately and help the user align it correctly, then leave the meaning and decisions to them. A light reference explaining what each section traditionally represents adds value without overstepping into promising results. **What is the difference between the floor-plan and camera modes?** The floor-plan mode is the precise option because the plan is to scale, so the aligned bagua is genuinely useful for planning a layout. The camera mode overlays the grid on a live or captured room photo as a quick orientation aid, but a grid on a flat photo is an approximation of a 3D room, so the app should present it as a rough read rather than a surveyed measurement. **Why use react-native-svg for the grid?** Because the bagua grid is vector art, nine sections with labels and trigram symbols that must stay sharp as the user zooms and scales. react-native-svg is the standard library for crisp scalable shapes in React Native, with millions of weekly downloads, so the grid renders cleanly at any size rather than pixelating like a bitmap image would when scaled up. ## Frequently asked questions ### How do I build a feng shui bagua map overlay app? Build it as an image-overlay tool: the user supplies a room photo or floor plan, and the app draws a 3x3 bagua grid on top that they rotate and scale to align with the door or a compass heading. Render the grid as vector art with an SVG library so it stays crisp, add labels for the nine areas, and let users save an aligned room. A free VP0 design supplies the overlay canvas and label screens. ### Is the bagua overlay an AR feature? It does not have to be. In its simplest and most accessible form it is a 2D grid drawn over a photo or floor plan, which works on any device. The alignment interaction (grab, rotate, scale) is similar to AR object placement, but gating the whole tool behind AR or LiDAR would exclude users unnecessarily, so the photo overlay is the sensible baseline with a camera or scan mode as an option. ### Should the app claim feng shui results? No. The honest framing is that the app is a tool for people who already practice feng shui, not a claim that aligning a bagua produces outcomes. Its job is to render the grid accurately and help the user align it correctly, then leave the meaning and decisions to them. A light reference explaining what each section traditionally represents adds value without overstepping into promising results. ### What is the difference between the floor-plan and camera modes? The floor-plan mode is the precise option because the plan is to scale, so the aligned bagua is genuinely useful for planning a layout. The camera mode overlays the grid on a live or captured room photo as a quick orientation aid, but a grid on a flat photo is an approximation of a 3D room, so the app should present it as a rough read rather than a surveyed measurement. ### Why use react-native-svg for the grid? Because the bagua grid is vector art, nine sections with labels and trigram symbols that must stay sharp as the user zooms and scales. react-native-svg is the standard library for crisp scalable shapes in React Native, with millions of weekly downloads, so the grid renders cleanly at any size rather than pixelating like a bitmap image would when scaled up. --- *Published on the [VP0 Journal](https://vp0.com/blogs). Free to read, index and cite with attribution.*