Zircon3D community

chris

Hi David,

This is unfortunately a known issue related to a Home Assistant API called ingress, which allows our add-on’s UI to communicate with its backend.

It appears that the ingress channel is only fully activated after the add-on UI has been opened at least once from Home Assistant. If the UI is accessed via a web card before that initial opening, Home Assistant may raise this error.

Workaround

As a workaround, our add-on also exposes port 11200, which bypasses Home Assistant’s ingress proxy entirely.

For example, instead of using this URL:

http://homeassistant.local:8123/api/hassio_ingress/ym-tlrzEEeGSTSNCz7up0Gf3uqHboBU5NGFvBfH7AMY/offline/viewer/?group=haEBrqFXAEIs&project=sLVclZKQrCvP#cam&p=0.00,0.00,0.00&h=40.11&v=39.56&z=400.00|dsp&fs=1.00&fd=tc&wc=1.00&wd=t&od=tc&thm=auto|viz&layer=rkqaX00R

You can replace:

:8123/api/hassio_ingress/ym-tlrzEEeGSTSNCz7up0Gf3uqHboBU5NGFvBfH7AMY

with:

:11200

So it becomes:

http://homeassistant.local:11200/offline/viewer/?group=haEBrqFXAEIs&project=sLVclZKQrCvP#cam&p=0.00,0.00,0.00&h=40.11&v=39.56&z=400.00|dsp&fs=1.00&fd=tc&wc=1.00&wd=t&od=tc&thm=auto|viz&layer=rkqaX00R

Additional notes

Home Assistant ingress has caused several issues beyond this one—some users have also reported unstable connections. Accessing Zircon3D directly through port 11200 is generally more stable and can help avoid these ingress-related problems.

It’s possible that the Home Assistant team will improve the ingress proxy in the future. Until then, this is currently the most reliable workaround.

Please give this a try and let us know if it works for you.

Thanks in advance,
Chris

chris

Hi David, thank you very much for reporting this issue. We’ll investigate it and get back to you as soon as possible.

Tami Liu

Design decisions, technology choices, and what to expect on mobile and tablets

Zircon3D is often described as “fast” or “smooth,” but that performance is not accidental.
It is the result of deliberate architectural and technical choices made from the very beginning of the project.

This article explains why Zircon3D performs the way it does, what technologies make it possible, and why certain interactions especially on phones and tablets are currently more limited, even though the core system itself remains highly performant.

A real-time system, not a rendering pipeline

Many traditional 3D tools follow a render-first workflow:

Design → export → render → view
Any change requires reprocessing the entire scene

Zircon3D follows a different approach.

It is built as a real-time visualization engine, where:

The 3D scene is always live
Data changes update the scene incrementally
There is no export or re-render cycle

This is a fundamental reason why interactions feel immediate and responsive.

GPU-accelerated rendering with WebGL

At its core, Zircon3D runs on a GPU-accelerated WebGL rendering pipeline, which means:

Heavy visual work is handled by the graphics card, not the CPU
Large scenes remain interactive even with live data updates
Animations, lighting, and heatmaps are computed efficiently

Rather than relying on pre-rendered images or static textures, Zircon3D renders geometry and visual states dynamically, frame by frame.

This is what allows:

Smooth camera movement
Real-time device state changes
Continuous heatmap updates without freezing the UI

Data-oriented scene design

Zircon3D does not treat the 3D view as a decorative layer.

The scene is directly driven by structured data, including:

Rooms and spaces
Devices and sensors
Live state updates from Home Assistant

Only the parts of the scene that actually change are updated.
This avoids unnecessary recalculation and keeps performance predictable, even as systems grow.

Separation of interaction logic and rendering

Another key performance factor is architectural separation:

Rendering logic is isolated from UI logic
State updates are carefully scoped
Expensive operations are minimized during interaction

This makes actions like:

Dragging objects
Rotating the view
Zooming in and out

feel smooth and consistent, even on modest hardware.

Why mobile and tablet interactions are currently more limited

Zircon3D’s core engine performs well on phones and tablets.
However, interaction is a separate challenge from rendering performance.

On desktop:

Mouse and keyboard provide precise control
Complex gestures are easy to distinguish

On mobile and tablets:

Fingers are less precise
Gestures overlap (drag vs pan vs rotate)
Screen space is limited
Accidental input is more likely

Rather than shipping a compromised or frustrating editing experience, Zircon3D currently focuses mobile and tablet usage on:

Viewing
Monitoring
Light interaction

This is a deliberate design choice, not a technical limitation of the engine itself.

Roadmap: hand-friendly interaction on tablets

Tablet-first interaction requires different design thinking.

Zircon3D’s roadmap includes:

Larger, touch-optimized interaction zones
Gesture-aware tools designed specifically for fingers
Reduced precision requirements for placement and control
Editing modes tailored for tablet usage rather than adapted from desktop

This work is planned as a dedicated tablet experience, not a scaled-down desktop UI.

High performance as a long-term commitment

Performance in Zircon3D is not a one-time optimization.
It is a guiding principle that affects:

Rendering architecture
Data flow design
UI structure
Feature decisions

This is why Zircon3D can:

Scale from small homes to complex environments
Handle real-time data without freezing
Remain responsive even as features grow

In summary

Zircon3D is high-performance because it is:

A real-time system, not a static renderer
GPU-accelerated by design
Data-driven at its core
Architected to minimize unnecessary work

While editing on phones and tablets is currently limited by interaction constraints, the underlying engine is already capable and a tablet-friendly, hand-first experience is actively planned.

Zircon3D is built not just to look good today, but to remain fast, reliable, and scalable as your system grows.

Tami Liu

We’ve released Zircon3D v2.0.6 (2026-01-11) with improvements specifically targeting connect / disconnect toggle issues, which may be more noticeable in setups that use cloud services (for example Nabu Casa).

What’s new in v2.0.6:

Improved WebSocket stability for unreliable or high-latency network environments
Added a built-in log viewer to both the Designer and Viewer to make debugging easier

If you’ve experienced frequent connection toggling, please upgrade the Zircon3D Proxy add-on to v2.0.6 - this update should be more stable.

️ If the issue still happens after upgrading:

When you see the connection (Wi-Fi) icon switching between connected / disconnected
Click the icon to open the Connection Panel
Click Debug Info and export the log
Share the log with us so we can take a closer look

This new debug information will help us identify environment-specific issues much faster.

Thanks to everyone who reported this and helped us improve Zircon3D

Tami Liu

@Hacker182
Hi,
We’ve released an improvement along with a new debug tool in Zircon3D v2.0.6 (2026-01-11).
Please upgrade the Zircon3D Proxy add-on to this version, it should be more stable, as we’ve enhanced the WebSocket connection handling.

What’s new in v2.0.6:

Improved WebSocket stability for unreliable or high-latency network environments
Added a built-in log viewer to both the Designer and Viewer for easier debugging

If the connect/disconnect issue happens again, please do the following:

When you see the Wi-Fi / connection icon toggling between connected and disconnected
Click the icon to open the connection panel
Click the Debug Info icon
Export the log information and send it to us

I’ll attach a screenshot to show exactly where to find this option.

Thanks again for your patience and for helping us track this down, the new debug data will make it much easier for us to identify what’s happening if the issue persists.

Tami Liu

Which 3D Floorplan Tool Is Right for Home Assistant?

https://youtu.be/DmW2T6G2TiU

For years, many Home Assistant users relied on tools like Sweet Home 3D or traditional CAD software, powerful for drawing, but limited to static images that quickly fall out of sync with a live smart home.

In 2026, the game has changed.

This article compares Zircon3D with Sweet Home 3D and other popular floor-planning tools, and explains why Zircon3D was designed from the ground up for real-time visualization with Home Assistant.

Sweet Home 3D - The “Static Hobbyist” Choice

The workflow
You design your house, render a nice image, then manually place invisible buttons or overlays in Home Assistant.

The problem

Even the smallest change, such as moving a lamp or adjusting a wall, requires re-rendering the entire scene from scratch.
Simple layout tweaks can easily cost 20–30 minutes, turning quick experiments into a slow, frustrating workflow.
What you end up with is a static picture of your home, not a live model that can evolve with your smart system.

Your smart home evolves daily, but your floorplan stays frozen in time.

Zircon3D advantage: Live interactivity
Zircon3D uses a real-time WebGL engine. There’s no exporting and no re-rendering. Move a light, rename a room, or add a sensor and every connected dashboard updates instantly. Your home becomes a living model, not a snapshot.

Floorplanner - The “Cloud Designer”

The workflow
A polished web-based tool with a large furniture library, excellent for interior design and real-estate mockups.

The problem
Floorplanner isn’t built for smart homes:

There is no native integration with Home Assistant, making it difficult to connect real devices or automation data to the floorplan.
Displaying live sensor values typically relies on screenshots, manual updates, or hacky workarounds that quickly become outdated.
The tool has no concept of device state or animation, so lights, fans, and other devices can’t visually reflect their real-time behavior.

It’s a design canvas, not a monitoring system.

Zircon3D advantage: IoT-first DNA
Zircon3D was designed from day one to work with Home Assistant.
That’s why features like:

Thermal heatmaps
Real-time device state animation (fans spin, lights glow, heaters pulse)
Room-aware dashboards

are native concepts—not afterthoughts.

Matterport - The “High-End Pro”

The workflow
Scan your house using a dedicated 360° camera and upload everything to a professional cloud service.

The problem

The overall cost is high, combining specialized scanning hardware with an ongoing subscription fee that can be hard to justify for home or small setups.
All scans and models are stored and processed on external servers, meaning you don’t have direct control over where your data lives or how it’s handled.
For many Home Assistant users, mandatory cloud storage and processing raise privacy concerns and become a deciding factor against adoption.

It looks impressive, but comes with tradeoffs.

Zircon3D advantage: Local-first privacy
Zircon3D delivers a professional 3D experience without forcing your home data into the cloud.
Your floorplan and sensor data stay inside your network, while still offering smooth visuals and real-time interaction.

Other tools you might consider (and why they fall short)

SketchUp - Powerful, but manual, static, and not automation-aware
Planner 5D - Beautiful visuals, but no smart-home integration
Traditional CAD tools - Accurate, but completely disconnected from live data

All are great at drawing. None are great at living with your home.

Why Zircon3D is different

Zircon3D isn’t just a 3D floorplan tool, it’s a visualization layer for Home Assistant.

Real-time 3D (not exported images)
Native Home Assistant integration
Heatmaps, dashboards, and device animations
Local-first by default, cloud-optional
Designed for monitoring, not staging

If you want your floorplan to reflect what your home is doing right now, Zircon3D is built for that job.

Zircon3D - The “Home Assistant–Native” Choice

Zircon3D is a 3D visualization system designed specifically for Home Assistant, focusing on real-time interaction rather than static rendering.

It offers a free account to get started, with affordable paid plans that are significantly lower than professional scanning or other design tools, making it practical for both home users and small facilities.

Unlike traditional floor-planning apps, Zircon3D runs as a live WebGL engine, allowing layouts, devices, and sensor data to update instantly without re-exporting or re-rendering. It supports features like room-aware dashboards, heatmaps, and device state visualization, all while keeping performance smooth on everyday hardware.

Most importantly for many Home Assistant users, Zircon3D follows a local-first design by default, keeping your floorplan and sensor data within your own environment, with cloud features remaining optional rather than mandatory.

In short

If your goal is interior design or real-estate visuals, the classic tools still work well.
If your goal is understanding, monitoring, and interacting with your smart home in real time, Zircon3D stands in a category of its own.

Your home isn’t static anymore.
Your floorplan shouldn’t be either.

chris

For your information, after further discussion within our development team, we’ve decided to add a built-in debug panel to Zircon3D. This panel will surface detailed runtime information that can help diagnose subtle connection and environment-specific issues like this one.

We plan to ship this improvement as a hotfix for Zircon3D v2.0 within approximately one week.

chris

Hi,

Thank you for reporting the issue.

The issue does look unusual. That said, WebSocket connections are inherently more complex than normal HTTP requests and can be affected by several layers in the system (ingress, proxies, network, etc.), which can sometimes lead to instability like what you’re seeing.

A few clarifications first:

The Zircon3D CLoud UI does not read sensor data directly from Home Assistant. This is by design, for privacy reasons, zircon3D addon never expose sensor data outside of home network.
Zircon3D does not officially support remote access via Nabu Casa or third-party tunneling/proxy services such as Cloudflare.
- While some users have managed to make this work, we’re unfortunately not able to guarantee stability or provide official support in those setups.

Based on the logs and your setup, the most likely causes (in descending order) are:

An issue with Home Assistant ingress
An issue with a reverse proxy involved in the setup
A local network–level issue
VM becomes unstable due to insufficient resources (CPU, RAM etc)

To help narrow this down, we’d like to check these one by one.

Step 1: Bypass Home Assistant ingress

As a first test, please try accessing the Zircon3D UI directly, bypassing HA ingress:

http://192.168.2.248:11200/

Notes:

Port 11200 is an alternative way to access the Zircon3D add-on UI. It’s not normally required for daily use.
This direct access is expected to be more stable because it bypasses HA ingress, which in our experience can sometimes be unreliable for WebSocket traffic.

Please let us know:

Does accessing Zircon3D via http://192.168.2.248:11200/ resolve the connection issue?
Does the connection indicator remain stable and do sensor values appear correctly?

Once we know the result of this test, we can advise on the next steps.

Tami Liu

@Hacker182 Thanks for the detailed explanation, this helps a lot.

Just to clarify how things currently work, the Zircon3D Web Designer (cloud) does not connect directly to Home Assistant due to privacy concerns, and it only stores floorplan layout information. Because of this, when you are editing in the web designer, you won’t see HA sensors under the Monitoring tab, lights won’t switch, and heatmaps won’t work. This is expected behavior, there is no live HA data connected in the web designer. All data visualization and live interaction (sensors, lights, heatmaps) currently work only through the Zircon3D Home Assistant add-on, where Zircon3D runs locally and talks directly to HA.

From what you described, your setup is essentially working in local-only mode. However, when HA Cloud is enabled and the system keeps switching between connected / disconnected states, this can lead to unstable data flow, which explains what you described, that lights not switching, heatmaps not displaying and the HA integration showing the same behavior as the web designer. This is not related to missing ports. Only port 11200 is required for local access, and no additional ports are needed for normal operation.

Here are some recommended approach for now:

Use the HA add-on UI (local) for monitoring, switching lights, and heatmaps
Use the web designer only for layout/design floorplan work
If stability issues persist (connected / disconnected), please try temporarily disabling HA Cloud to confirm the connection remains stable locally. When accessed locally, the connection should stay stable and devices should load normally. We’re actively looking into ways to improve this behavior for cloud access in future updates. but for now this separation between cloud design and local visualization is by design.

If you’d like, please share a short log snippet from the moment the connect/disconnect happens, it will help us investigate and improve.

HA Add-on log
Home Assistant → Settings → Add-ons → Zircon3D Proxy → Log tab
Please copy the log lines around the time you see the disconnect/reconnect.
Web browser log (DevTools)
a. Open Home Assistant in your web browser
b. Go to Zircon3D → Monitoring tab
c. Press F12 to open Developer Tools
d. Refresh the page (so we capture the full reconnect process)
e. In DevTools, click the download/export button (as shown in the screenshot) to save the log file, then send it to us.

Tami Liu

@Hacker182 Hi, this is a known issue in certain setups, and it’s usually related to how the connection is made rather than a problem with your sensors or configuration.

In most cases, this happens when Zircon3D is accessed through Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa). The cloud ingress can cause unstable WebSocket connections, which makes the status toggle between connected and disconnected.

What you can try:

Access Zircon3D locally instead of through HA Cloud:
http://homeassistant.local:11200/
(or use your HA server’s IP with port 11200)

If you’re running HA in a VM or behind a firewall, make sure port 11200 and WebSocket traffic are allowed.

When accessed locally, the connection should stay stable and devices should load normally. We’re actively looking into ways to improve this behavior for cloud access in future updates.