The site plan toolbar

Each tile arms a tool, and its settings pop up in a box just above the bar. In a drawing that is not filed in a project, the cross at the end of the bar leaves site plan drawing. In a site slot the bar is always there and has no cross. Drafted lines, shapes, text and dimensions can go anywhere on the site plan, and keep their full length across the terrain perimeter. Outside the terrain they sit on the flat site datum. The perimeter bounds changes to the ground: pads, platforms, roads, ground fills and paintable faces. A line outside it splits no ground. Fences, bins and parking bays are site furniture rather than drafting, so they stay inside the perimeter. Anything refused says why. Select what you placed and its panel offers the same settings again, so a choice made at the bar can be changed later.

How buildings are drawn

In the Site row's Plan tab, Buildings chooses how the site plan draws every building and every placed building type: Ground plan, Roof plan or Outline. The site plan starts on Roof plan and the location plan on Outline, and each keeps its own choice. A sheet holds its own copy of the choice, set in the drawing's card.

Annotating

In a site slot the bar ends with an Annotate group: Dimension, Spot level, Coordinate, Text, Section, Elevation and Callout. They are the same tools as on the building bar. Spot level and Coordinate label a point's level or grid position; Section, Elevation and Callout are plan tools and are not offered in the 3D view. See Dimensions and setting out.

Library items (a car, a bench), plan symbols and the annotations above stand on the site's ground in a site slot, and the site plan draws them as well as the 3D view, so what you place in either shows in both. Select, move and rotate them on the plan as you would on a floor plan.

Drafting

Drafting swaps the bar for its own: Select, Line, Polyline, Arc, Rectangle and Circle, then three edit tools, Offset, Trim and Join at corner. Draw the layout in plan first and tidy it up; nothing cuts the ground while you work, so the edits stay quick. Press the tick when it's right. Every line drawn in the session is laid on the ground at once, and wherever lines close an area (against each other, a road or the site edge) the ground splits into its own face, ready to paint a different material. That's how a path or a lawn edge drawn by hand gets its own finish; see Applying materials.

• Offset: click a line, then the side to copy it to. Type a distance first to set how far, or hold Alt for both sides.
• Trim: click the part of a line to cut away. It's cut back to the nearest line or site edge either side of the click.
• Join at corner: click two lines on the parts you want to keep. Both are trimmed or extended to meet in a sharp corner.

A line has to reach something at both ends to split the ground. The end of a line or polyline that stops within 50 mm of the site edge or another line is joined onto it by the tick; one left further out stays a loose line and splits nothing until something meets it. The cross throws away what you drew in the session and puts back any line you changed, in one undo, and Escape only puts down the tool in hand. Leaving the site plan while Drafting is open lays the lines on the ground, as the tick does. Lines laid earlier can still be offset, trimmed and joined from here, and an edit to one of those recuts the ground straight away. Painted areas keep their material wherever the area itself survives the change.

Roads

Set Road width in the box that pops up above the bar, then click along the road. It curves through your points. Finish with Enter, a double-click, or a second click on the last point, and the road is built, only where there is ground. Road stays armed for the next one.

• Kerbs switches kerb lines on, with a Kerb width.
• Pavement can be None, Left, Right or Both, with a Pavement width.
• Road start and Road end each take None, Hammer, Circle or Junction.
• Hammer is a hammerhead. Its Arm length is the two arms together, split equally; type a Left arm or Right arm to set each one and the total follows. Circle is a turning circle with a Diameter.
• A road with a junction at one end and a hammerhead or circle at the other keeps both: the junction is fitted first, where the road meets the other road or the site edge.
• Road length changes the length of the line you drew after the road is built. It moves the free end, or the start if the end is a junction and the start isn't. The shortest road is 2 m.
• A hammerhead or a circle also has a Head angle and a Head offset, to turn it and slide it off the road's line.
• Junction joins the road to another road or to the site edge. Set junction angle lets you choose the angle it meets at. Kerb radius shapes the corners.
• With a junction at either end, Vision splays can be switched on, with Splay x and Splay y distances.

A road that is too short for the end you chose says so beside the control.

Paths

Path works like Road with a Path width: click along the route and finish with Enter, a double-click, or a second click on the last point. It goes on its own Paths layer.

Drop kerbs

Drop kerb lowers a length of a road's kerb so a car or a person can cross it. Choose Vehicle crossover or Pedestrian crossing on the bar, set the Opening and the Transition in metres, then click on a road's kerb. The drop centres on your click. A vehicle crossover starts with a 2.7 m opening (three 900 mm kerbs) and 0.9 m transitions, and the kerb comes down to a 25 mm upstand; a pedestrian crossing starts at 1.8 m and comes down flush, with Tactile depth and a Tactile colour (Buff or Red) for the blister paving behind it. Each end gets a transition kerb that ramps back up to full height, and the pavement behind the drop is graded down to meet it. Where the road has no pavement on that side, a 1.2 m paved apron is laid instead.

On the plan, the back edge of the kerb turns dashed over the dropped length, with a short tick at each end of the opening; tactile paving is dotted in its colour. In 3D the kerb is lowered over the opening and ramps up through the transitions. A click that is not on a kerb places nothing and says why, as does a drop that would run past the end of the road or overlap another drop. A road needs Kerbs switched on to take one.

Click a drop kerb to select it. Its Drop kerb panel changes the Type, the Side, its Position along the road, the Opening width, the Transition and, for a pedestrian crossing, the tactile paving. Remove drop kerb, or Delete, takes it off and puts the kerb back to full height; the road stays. A drop kerb is part of its road, so it stays in place when you change the road's width, pavement or length.

Parking bays

The bar sets Bay width, Bay length and Rotation. A bay starts at 2.5 m by 5 m. Click to place a bay with its top-left corner on the click; the tool stays armed, so you can keep clicking to lay a row of bays, each one from its own top-left. Bays are named Parking bay 1, Parking bay 2 and so on in the outliner.

Trees and bushes

Pick Tree or Bush and click to plant one on the site. Click again for the next.

Pads and platforms

Pad and Platform open the same line-drawing bar a floor uses, with Level, Edge (Batter or Retaining) and an Offset floating above it. Draw the outline in any shape with Line, Rectangle or Arc, or pick it from imported linework with Pick lines (see Drawing the terrain perimeter), then tick to finish. A pad is the plot a building sits on; a platform is a terrace, a car park or a lawn levelled into the ground. See Platforms and pads.

Fences

Choose the fence type and its height on the bar, then click along the fence and finish with Enter or a double-click. The types are Close-board, Post and rail, Railings and Hedge. Choosing a type loads its usual height, which you can then change in millimetres. A fence is cut at the terrain perimeter. A fence stands on the ground in 3D, and its Fence panel changes the type and height later.

Bins

Choose Wheelie bin or Euro bin and a Rotation on the bar, then click. Each click places one bin, with its top-left on the click. A bin must sit wholly inside the site; a click that would cross the edge places nothing and says so. The Bin panel changes the type and the rotation afterwards, in one undo step, keeping the top-left corner where it was.

Moving and turning them

Roads, paths, fences, bins and parking bays take Move and Rotate like anything else, in 2D and 3D, with the gizmo's axis arrows, snapping and a typed distance or angle. A road always moves as one: its carriageway, kerbs, pavements, drop kerbs and turning heads all go with it, and when you let go it's rebuilt where it now stands, trimmed to the site again and meeting whatever road its junction now faces. One undo puts the whole road back.

Rotate turns a single road, bin, fence or bay about its own centre. They stay on the ground, so the gizmo has no up arrow for them, and Scale isn't offered: change a road's width or length, or a fence's height, in its panel instead.