1Get to know the screen

The screen has seven parts. You will use them all the time.

1. Tools: everything you draw and edit with.
2. Tool options: settings for the tool you picked, such as sizes and materials.
3. The model: your site in 3D, or from the top or the sides.
4. Properties: the selected item's type, sizes, grading and look.
5. Layers and Views: switch groups of things on and off, and open saved views.
6. Menu bar: eight menus. Click a name to open it; items with ▸ open more when you point at them.
7. Quick bar: Save, Save as, Undo, Redo, Measure (the ruler), Filter, Move to ground, the Zoom buttons (window, in, out, overall), what to show (with Draft speed) and, at its right end, the snaps. The light/dark mode button sits at the top right, beside Collaborate.

The menus:

• File: new, open, save, import, export.
• Edit: undo, copy and paste, groups, hide.
• View: views, styles, one or four windows, what to show, the section box, and the Section view, Model (the list of everything in the model) and Assets windows.
• Planting: the plant lists (Planting), Create a mix, Draw a planting mix and Draw edge planting.
• Schedules: All schedules, or one schedule by name.
• AI Assistance: AI Modelling (describe a change in words) and AI Render (a picture of a view).
• Settings: AI keys, the default 2D hatch, DWG version and gizmo size.
• Help: this guide, keyboard shortcuts and the demos.

Each view of the model has a small label at its bottom-left: click its view or style to change that view.

2Panels open as windows

The section view, the Model list, Assets, Schedules, the plant lists, Create a mix, AI Modelling, AI Render and this Help guide each open from their menu as a window of their own, over the model:

• Move it: drag its title bar.
• Resize it: drag its bottom-right corner.
• Close it: click ✕.
• Take it out of the app: drag the window by its title bar past the edge of the app, or click ⧉ at the top right. The panel moves into a separate window you can put anywhere, even on another screen, and keeps in step with the model. Close that window to put the panel back.

Dialog boxes (settings, PDF sheet, colours and so on) move by their title bar too, inside the app window.

3Look around the model

• Turn the model: drag with the right mouse button (or two fingers on a trackpad with the Orbit tool).
• Slide the model: drag with the middle mouse button, or pick Pan (H).
• Zoom: scroll the mouse wheel, or pinch on a trackpad.
• See everything: click Zoom to fit.

4Start a new project

1. Click File.
2. Click New project. You start on an empty grid with the Select tool on: draw anywhere. Ground with levels comes from Make terrain.

Or open a demo to explore from Help › Demos: Terraced steps (Corten walls), Pond and boardwalk (the one the app opens with), Grass mounds and a winding path, Sunken amphitheatre or Cottage garden (with the house).

5Undo anything

Every change can be undone, one step at a time. Click Undo in the quick bar (or Edit › Undo), or press ⌘Z (Ctrl+Z on Windows). ⌘⇧Z redoes it.

Help › Help guide opens this guide in a window of its own. Drag it out of the way, or click ⧉ to put it on another screen: it stays open while you work.

1Select something

Click the Select arrow (or press Space), then click anything in the model. It turns blue and its details appear on the right under Properties.

• Shift-click adds more things to the selection.
• Drag on empty ground to select with a box. Drag left to right to take only what is fully inside; right to left to take anything it touches.
• Tab: point at something and press Tab to light up everything joined to it (walls end to end, kerbs, paths, paving touching paving), then press Tab again for each object underneath the pointer in turn (Shift+Tab goes back). Click to select what is lit; Shift-click adds it.

2Selection filter

Select some things, then choose Edit › Selection filter…. Each kind shows how many of it are in your selection; kinds with none are greyed. Untick the kinds you don't want (or use All / None) and press OK: the selection keeps only the ticked kinds. Nothing is remembered afterwards.

3Move it with the arrows

A selected item shows three arrows: red moves east–west (X), green north–south (Y), blue up and down (Z).

Drag an arrow. The distance shows as you go.

Or drag the object itself: its corners show as small orange squares while it moves, and any of them snaps to the endpoints, midpoints, centres and edges of other things (the snaps that are on). Where you grab it snaps to its own corners, midpoints or centre (a tree's trunk).

The gizmo size slider in the Select bar makes the arrows, rings and handles bigger or smaller on screen.

4Move an exact distance

1. Click an arrow (without dragging).
2. Type the distance in metres, for example 2 or -1.5.
3. Press Enter.

You can also just start typing with something selected: 2x moves 2 m east, -1y moves 1 m south, 0.5z lifts it 0.5 m.

5Rotate

1. Click Rotate at the top (or press Q).
2. Drag a ring to turn the item. It snaps every 5°; hold Shift for 1° steps.
3. Or click a ring and type the angle, such as 45 or -90.

The blue ring turns things in plan. The red and green rings tilt drawn shapes.

6Scale

1. Click Scale at the top (or press K).
2. Drag a coloured handle to stretch in that direction, or drag the white cube to scale evenly.
3. Or click a handle and type the factor: 1.5, 0.5 or 150%.

Trees grow their canopy and height together.

7Move to ground

Something raised or sunk (moved in Z) goes back down onto the ground, or the surface under it, with Edit › Move to ground.

8Delete

Press Delete (or Backspace), or click Delete in Properties.

1Pick a drawing tool

Click Draw on the left. Pick Line, Arc, Circle, Rectangle or Polygon at the top.

2Draw a rectangle

1. Click where one corner goes.
2. Move the mouse and click the opposite corner.

Or, after the first click, type the size: 6,4 makes it 6 m by 4 m. Press Enter.

3Draw a line or outline

1. Click to start.
2. Click each corner in turn. Type a length to set the next side exactly.
3. Finish with Enter or a double-click. Click the first point again (or type C) to close the shape.

A closed shape becomes a flat face you can give height to with Push/pull.

4Circle, arc and polygon

• Circle: click the centre, then the edge (or type the radius).
• Arc: click the start, the end, then where it bulges through.
• Polygon: set the number of Sides at the top, click the centre, then a corner.

5Snapping

The pointer jumps to points in the model. Snap (F3) turns snapping on or off; the icons beside it turn each kind on or off by itself (hover for what each does): Endpoint, Midpoint, Centre, Node, Intersection, Perpendicular, Parallel and Nearest. Grid (F9) snaps to the grid and Ortho keeps lines at 90° (F8, or hold Shift).

1Pick Push/pull

Click Push/pull on the left, or press P.

2Click a face

Move over a shape: the face under the pointer lights up blue. Click it.

3Pull it up

Move the mouse up and click. Or type the height in metres, such as 2, and press Enter.

4Push a side

Click a side of a block instead of its top. Move out or in and click, or type how far to move it. A negative number moves it in.

1Draw a line across the face

Pick Line (under Draw) and click from one edge of the face to the other, or from outside it to the other side. The face splits as soon as the line reaches the far edge. Lines with several points work too.

2Or draw a shape on it

Draw a rectangle, circle, polygon or closed line on paving, lawn or the top of a block. The inside becomes its own part and the rest keeps a hole round it.

A line or shape drawn beside a face leaves it alone: only what crosses the face from edge to edge splits it.

3Delete a part

Right-click a part and choose Delete this part: it goes and leaves a hole, and the rest is still one object.

4Raise one part

Pick Push/pull, click the top of one part and pull it up, or type its new height.

5Move a dividing line

With Push/pull, click the side of a raised part where it meets the lower part. Move it, or type a distance. The neighbouring part gets smaller or bigger to fit.

1Pick Offset

Click Draw on the left, then Offset in the bar at the top, or press F.

2Numerical

Pick Numerical and type the Offset distance. Hover over a line, a wall, a path, an edge or a shape: the blue line is what you are pointing at and the dashed line shows where the offset goes, on the side of the pointer. Click to make it.

• Copy on keeps the original; off moves it.
• Tab picks the whole chain of joined lines (for example a run of walls), so they offset together.
• Copies makes several, each one the distance further on.

3Graphical

Pick Graphical, click what to offset, then move the mouse in or out and click, or type the distance (for example 0.5) and press Enter.

It works:

• A wall, path, hedge or fence makes a new one of the same kind.
• A closed shape or surface (paving, lawn, the top of a block) is divided inside itself: in makes rings inside the edge, out grows the shape with rings round it. Each ring is a part you can push/pull or give its own material.
• An open line makes a new line beside it.

1Start editing

1. Select the surface (click it).
2. Click Edit points in Properties, or press E.

Its corners show as squares, and the middle of each side as a smaller square.

2Move a corner

Click a corner, move it, and click again to place it.

3Add or remove a corner

• Add: click the small square in the middle of a side, then place the new corner.
• Remove: hold Shift and click a corner.

Press Esc when you are done.

1Pick the Wall tool

Click Wall on the left, or press W.

2Choose the wall

At the top, pick:

• Type: brick, rendered blockwork, stone-clad blockwork, natural stone, dry stone, concrete, gabion, sleepers or corten.
• Height in metres.
• Cladding and which face it goes on (On: front, back or both). Deep-relief stacked stone gives a deep, layered dry-stack look.
• Coping on top.

Picking a type fills in sensible defaults that you can change.

3Draw it

Click along the line of the wall. Press Enter or double-click to finish. Type C to close it into a loop. The buttons at the start of the bar draw the next stretch with a Line, an Arc, Freehand or Pick lines (follow a line already in the model), as for paths. Offset in the bar draws the wall that far from your clicks: + to the left of the way you draw (outside a closed loop), − to the right (inside). The Line, Path, Kerb, Railing, Make terrain, Planting mix and House tools have it too.

The front is on the left as you draw.

4Change it later

Select the wall. In Properties you can change its type, height, cladding on each face (thickness and colour), coping and footing. Use Edit points to move its line.

Cladding runs from the top of the footing to the coping and wraps round the open ends. Tick Cladding only to hide the wall behind it, for example to show a facing on a bank.

1Start on the grid

A new project has no ground of its own: everything sits on the grid at level 0. Ground with levels is a terrain you make (see Terrain from contours). Tick Use as ground on a terrain and everything stands on it.

2Sculpt with the brush

1. Click Sculpt Terrain on the left, then Brush (or press U). The brush shapes a terrain you have made.
2. At the top, pick Raise, Lower, Smooth or Flatten, and set the Radius and Strength.
3. Drag across the ground. Each drag is one step you can undo.

3Set exact levels

1. Pick Spot level (or press V).
2. Click the ground where you know the level.
3. Type the level in metres, such as 1.25, and press Enter.

Spot levels shape the existing terrain they are in: it passes through every one.

4Set the datum

With nothing selected, type the project's ground level in Datum: ground level in the Project panel (for example 12.35 m above Ordnance Datum). The model's 0.00 then reads as +12.35: spot levels, platform levels and contour labels all show levels on the datum, and levels you type are on the datum too.

5Boolean with the ground

Like a solid Boolean: an object can Subtract the ground (cut it away under it), Add to it (build the ground up under it) or leave it as it is (None). Paths, paving and gravel subtract by default, so they always sit clean on the ground.

1. Click Terrain on the left, then Boolean (the last icon in the terrain bar).
2. Pick Subtract, Add or None, and the Soil below edge (40 mm is usual).
3. Click the objects: paths, paving, decks, walls, steps, buildings, drawn shapes. Esc to stop.

Or select an object and set it on the Grading tab of Properties under Ground (Boolean); Reset goes back to the default for its kind.

6Show contours

Choose View › Show › Contours. Set the interval (for example 0.25 m) in the Project panel. Contours are drawn over the terrains. Contours export to DWG and DXF.

1Draw a topo surface

1. Click Sculpt Terrain, then Topo surface.
2. At the top, pick the Surface (ground, lawn, paving, gravel, resin-bound, planting bed or asphalt) and a Build-up.
3. Click around the outline. Press Enter to finish.

2Change the layers

Select the surface. In Properties, under Build-up layers, change a layer's name or thickness in mm, add a layer with + Layer, or remove one with ×. Back to preset undoes your changes.

3Make them from a CAD drawing

1. Click Sculpt Terrain, then Import, and pick a DWG or DXF.
2. Tick the layers to use. Contour lines drawn at their height and 3D polylines come in as lines with their levels, and a terrain is made from them (see Terrain from contours). Points and level text (such as +12.35) become spot levels. Closed polylines can become topo surfaces.
3. Pick the surface and build-up for the new areas and click Add to the model.

Survey coordinates are kept: the drawing's position is stored, so exports land back in the same place.

1Pick Drape

Click Sculpt Terrain on the left, then Drape.

2Click the ground, then the surface

1. Click the ground (or a topo surface) the surface should follow.
2. Click the flat surface: paving, lawn, gravel, a planting bed or a deck.

It now follows the ground, keeping its own thickness.

3Undo a drape

Select the surface and untick Follow the ground in Properties. Or use Drape on it again.

1Place a tree

1. Click Trees on the left, then Tree (or press T).
2. Pick the species from the list at the top.
3. Click the ground wherever a tree goes. Keep clicking to place more. Esc stops.

Trees, shrubs, hedges, conifers and climbers are made of many small leaves, so you can see inside them: slim trunks with curving limbs, the stems of shrubs, and hedges clothed in leaves. Blossom and flowers show in their own colours.

2Shrubs

Pick Shrub (or press S) and click to place. Change the species and spread in Properties.

3Planting mix

Click Trees, then Planting mix (or choose Planting › Draw a planting mix), and draw the bed (click its corners, or Pick lines to use a shape already drawn). In Properties, set the plants in the mix and each one's share (%), the Density (plants per m²) and the Method, as projects differ: Natural layered (low plants at the edge, tall in the middle), Even, Random mix by layers (structure plants spaced apart, companions in small drifts, ground cover between), Matrix with emergents, Drifts, Blocks, By plant type (as specified: small trees and tall shrubs singly with 1 m clear, shrubs and groundcovers in triangular patterns at their own spacing), Staggered or Grid. Each plant in the mix has a Role (structure, companion, ground cover, scatter or matrix), worked out from its size until you set it. Plants stand half a space in from the edge and stay inside the bed. Shuffle lays them out afresh. Every plant is counted in the Softscape schedule. Staggered and Grid rows are centred in the bed. Display › 2D settings › Plants in 2D: Hatch only draws the bed as a hatch in line drawings, sheets and CAD, with no plant symbols. In line drawings plants are drawn in grey; a line colour set in Display › 2D settings is used instead.

4Native mixes and your own

The mix list at the top of Properties (and on the tool bar as you draw) has ready-made native mixes (UK): Native hedgerow (hawthorn 40%, blackthorn, field maple, hazel, holly, guelder rose, dogwood, dog rose; double staggered row at 450 mm), stock-proof and ornamental native hedges, Native woodland, woodland edge, scrub and wet woodland (1 plant per 2 m²), and native meadow, shade and wet meadow plugs (6 per m²). Choose one and its plants, shares and spacing are filled in; change anything you like.

To keep a mix of your own, type a name under the list and click Save mix. It is kept in the project and in your browser, so it is in the list on every planting mix and edge planting, in this project and the next. 🗑 deletes one of your own.

5Create a mix

To make a mix before you draw, choose Planting › Create a mix. It opens in a window of its own:

1. Start from… a native mix or one of yours (or New for an empty one).
2. Give it a name.
3. Set the plants and each one's share (+ Add a plant for more).
4. Set the Density and Layout (for beds), and the Spacing and Rows (for edge planting).
5. Click Save mix, or Save and draw a bed to start drawing with it straight away. Delete removes one of your own.

6Edge planting

Edge planting (Trees › Edge planting, or Planting › Draw edge planting) puts plants along a line at a Spacing, in one row or two staggered rows: box edging, hedge planting (for example 3 per metre in a double staggered row), lavender along a path. Mix plants puts a mix along the line instead of one plant (a native hedge), and One plant goes back.

7Set the size

Select a tree. In Properties change the height, canopy spread, girth and clear stem, the form (round, spreading, columnar, palm and more) and its colours. Turn on Link sizes to keep height and canopy in proportion when you change one.

8Colours, plan symbols and your own pictures

Select a planting mix, an edge planting, a tree or a shrub and open the Display tab in Properties. A mix lists each of its plants; a tree or shrub has one row. For each plant:

• Foliage and Flower colours: the plant's own colours, in 3D and in the plans (untick the flower to have none).
• Symbol: how it is drawn in plan, from the same kinds as the Illustrative plan (broadleaf tree, conifer, rounded shrub, grass, lavender, perennial, groundcover and more). Auto works it out from the plant's name.
• Picture (🖼, or Custom…): your own top view of the plant, a PNG with a see-through background works best. It is kept in the project. Once a picture is set, Scale (% of the plant's spread), Rotation (°) and Origin (X, Y in metres, to shift it) fit it to the plant; Reset puts them back.

Symbols and pictures show in the Illustrative plan and the Line drawing (Top); DWG and DXF get the matching outline. ↺ (or Reset) puts a plant back to its own colours and symbol.

9Make a custom plant

Click Custom… next to the species list to open the plant builder. Shape the form, sizes and colours, then Save to project library to place it again and again.

10Flowering months

Select a tree, shrub or climber: Properties › Flowering shows the twelve months, lit where it flowers, and says where the months came from (the plant list, published flowering times, or a typical time marked estimated). Click a month to add or take it away; your months are kept in the project for every plant of that name. Does not flower marks it as having no notable flowers; Reset goes back to the list. In the Planting window the In flower box lists only the plants in flower in that month, and View › In flower greys the plants that are not in flower in the month you pick.

11Planting presentations

Planting › Planting presentation draws the plants of your plan as A3 sheets: the Bloom wheel (a months ring with an arc for every flowering plant in its flower colour), the Bloom calendar (plants down the side, months across), Through the year (the plan in spring, summer, autumn and winter, plants in flower in their colour and the rest pale), the Colour palette of each season, Heights and layers (trees, shrubs and low planting drawn to height) and Plant cards. Tick Selected only for the plants of what you have selected. PDF saves every page; PNG and SVG save the page you are looking at.

1Seating

1. Click Furniture on the left, then Seating ▾ in the bar at the top.
2. Pick Seat or Bench with backrest from the list, then the Material.
3. Click to place. Turn it with Rotate (Q) or the Direction in Properties.

2Tables, chairs and pots

Click Furniture on the left, then Tables & chairs ▾, Planters ▾ or Tree grates ▾ in the bar at the top.

• Tables: round, square, long or bistro, set with chairs round them. In Properties set the number of Chairs round it (0 for the table alone), the Material (teak, oak, painted metal, rattan…) and the size.
• Chairs: a dining chair, an armchair or a sun lounger on its own.
• Planters: a classical urn, terracotta pot, glazed jar, stone trough, low bowl, tall tapered planter, cylindrical, square and flared tree planters, a timber tree box, a weathering steel planter and a faceted tree planter, and the simple pots. In Properties: Width, Depth, Height, Wall thickness, Material and Finish. They come planted: untick Planted for an empty one, and set the plant's foliage and flower colours. They are in the Library too (Planters).
• Tree grates: square radial, circular radial, square grid, concentric ring, linear slot, rectangular, decorative cast iron and weathering steel. Click by a tree and the grate goes round it. In Properties: Outer size, Depth (rectangular), Trunk opening, Frame depth, Bar width, Material and Finish.

The Site furniture schedule lists each table (with its chairs), chair, planter and grate.

3Rocks

Click Furniture on the left, then Rocks ▾. Pick a boulder (rounded or angular granite, river boulder, basalt, limestone, sandstone, outcrop, basalt column, wedge, slate, gneiss, volcanic) or an irregular step slab, and click to place; each one is turned a little differently. Set the length, width and height in Properties; schedules give the approximate volume and weight.

4Lighting

1. Click Furniture on the left, then Lighting ▾ in the bar at the top.
2. Pick the light from the list: Bollard, Column, Lantern, Uplight, Spotlight or Step light.
3. Pick the Colour temperature (2700 K warm white to 4000 K) and the Finish.
4. Click to place.

In Properties you can also set the height, head, arms, lumens, beam and IP rating. Lights are listed with these details in IFC exports.

1Snaps

Every dimension kind, Measure and Edit points snap. A small tag shows what the pointer has found:

• Corner, Midpoint and Centre of shapes and surfaces, at the ground and on tops.
• Node: a tree, shrub, light, bench or spot level.
• Junction: where two edges cross.
• Perpendicular: square from your last point onto an edge.
• Parallel: from your last point, in line with an edge (the edge shows dashed).

Switch snapping off with Snap (F3) at the top.

2Horizontal (a length)

1. Click the first point, then the second.
2. Move to place the dimension line and click, or type its distance from the points.

3Vertical (a height)

1. Click the low point (the ground, a top or a corner).
2. Click the high point, or type the height.
3. Click to place it beside the object.

4Radius, diameter, arc length, angle

• Radius and Diameter: click a drawn circle or arc where the line should go.
• Arc length: click an arc, then move out and click, or type the distance.
• Angle: click the corner, a point on each side, then place the arc.

Dimensions export to DWG and DXF on their own layer, L-DIMS.

5Measure

Click Measure (the ruler in the quick bar at the top, or press N) and click points: it shows each length, the rise or fall, and the total. Click the first point again for the area. Esc clears it.

1Change the view

Pick 3D, Top, Front, Back, Left or Right in the View menu. Or click the view name in the small label at the window's bottom-left.

2Change the style

Use View › Style (or the style name in the window's label): Line drawing, Wireframe, Hidden line, Shaded, Shaded with edges, Realistic, Monochrome, X-ray or Illustrative (plans, elevations and sections).

Top with Line drawing gives the 2D plan: a CAD-style line drawing with plant symbols and hatches for lawn, gravel, planting, water, buildings and walls. Choose Default or BS 1192 hatches (or none) with Settings › Default 2D hatch (each choice shows its picture). Hatch libraries… at the end of that list makes your own sets: a hatch, scale, angle and colour for each kind of surface, .pat hatch pattern files loaded in, saved to a file and loaded again when you want; they are kept in the project and under My libraries. Settings › Drawing › Line type scale scales every dashed line in the drawing and goes into DWG/DXF as LTSCALE.

Illustrative is an ink-and-wash plan on cream paper: walls in grey, paving with fine joints, gravel speckled, and each plant drawn as a plan symbol by its type, worked out from its name: trees as pale washed circles with fine branch lines, a scalloped edge and a centre cross; conifers as spiky stars; shrubs scalloped; grasses and irises as stars of blades; lavenders dotted; perennials as leaf rosettes; groundcover as dotted mats. Each plant keeps its own foliage and flower colours, including colours you set by hand in Properties or in a mix. Tags show as white boxes with a green edge. It works only in Top: in other views it is greyed out, and leaving Top goes back to Shaded with edges. It goes into PNG and PDF exports of the view (DWG and DXF stay as plain lines).

The view cube in the top-right corner turns with the view. Click a face for Top, Front, Back, Left, Right or Bottom, or a top corner for an isometric view; drag the cube to orbit. The ring at its foot is the compass: click N, E, S or W to look that way, drag the ring to turn. The house button goes back to the 3D view of everything. The section window has its own cube.

3Show and hide

View › Show (and the buttons in the quick bar) switches Foliage (off: leaves are hidden, trunks, branches and stems stay), Solid ground (solid or see-through), Shadows, Contours and Labels (levels, dimensions and plant codes) on and off.

Draft speed (the quick bar button with a ball and a cone) draws plants as simple shapes in their own colours, with lighter shadows and sharp pixels, so a big model turns and pans quickly. Pictures, PDFs and exports are always made in full detail; your model doesn't change.

4Sun and shadows

View › Sun and shadows… puts the sun where it really is: pick a place (or type its latitude and longitude), the day and the time, and slide the time of day to watch the shadows move. The clock is the local one (UTC +, 1 for British Summer Time). Project north (Settings) is taken into account. Untick it for the standard sun.

5Phase filter

View › Phase shows Existing, Proposed, Remove or Temporary with the other phases greyed out's phase filters; Show all brings everything back. Each window has its own.

6Zoom

Above the view cube, one small toolbar: Home (the 3D view of everything), Pan, Orbit and Zoom.

The quick bar's Zoom window button: drag a rectangle round what you want to see and it fills the window (Esc or right-click stops it). Zoom in and Zoom out zoom one step each click; Zoom overall shows the whole model. On the keyboard, Z zooms to everything, ⇧Z to the selection, + and − in and out. Zoom previous (in View › Zoom, or ⇧P) goes back to the view before each zoom, pan or orbit, one step at a time.

Orbit shows a ring round the middle of the view: the model turns about its centre. Right-drag orbits from any tool.

7Four windows at once

Choose View › Four windows. Click inside a window to make it active (it gets a blue outline); the View menu then sets that window's view, style and what it shows, so each window can look different. Maximise the window (Alt W) makes the active window fill the space (again to go back); View › One window goes back to one view.

8Save a view

Set up a window the way you like, then click Save view on the quick bar (next to Draft speed) or choose View › Save view…. It opens as a tab above the model and is listed under Views on the left. Click a tab to go back to it; Model is your working view. Double-click a name under Views to rename it.

9Background and theme

View › Background colour… sets the colour behind the model. View › Theme picks Light, Dark or Follow the computer, and Full screen gives the app the whole screen.

1Turn on the box

Click Section box in the quick bar at the top, next to Save (or press B, or choose View › Section box). A box appears around the model, and everything outside it is cut away. Drag the blue arrows on its faces to slide each face in or out. They are flat double arrows's: they face you and stay the same size at any zoom, turn orange under the pointer, and show how far the face has moved while you drag.

• Fit selection wraps the box around what you selected; Whole model around everything.
• Exit Section Box (bottom of the window) removes it; Show live section beside it opens the live window.
• Turn (on the bar above the model) turns the box in plan about its centre: type an angle, or use ⟲ 15° / ⟳ 15°; Square puts it back. The arrows then move the faces along the turned sides. Nothing outside the box shows, not even shadows or section line curtains.

2The live window

Show live section opens a window with a live 3D view of only what is inside the box: orbit and zoom round it while you drag the box. Its own drop-downs pick the view (3D, Top, Front, Back, Left, Right) and the style, with Hide object and Unhide all. Its quick bar has Save view, the zoom tools, Measure, Move to ground, Filter and the show buttons; its snaps run along the bottom.

A view saved with the box on keeps its box: open it again and it comes back clipped's 3D views.

3Draw a section line

Click Section line in the quick bar, then click where the cut starts and where it ends. It is saved at once as Section A-A (then B-B…), under Views › Sections, and opens in the section window.

A section line is an object: click it on the plan to pick it.

• Move it or turn it with the gizmo. On the plan, drag a round end (the A or B head) or a corner square to reshape it.
• Edit points (E, or right-click › Edit points) adds a corner to bend it. A bent line is Stepped (every part looks the same way, one flat section) or Unfolded (each part laid out flat in a row).
• In Properties: its name, line colour, Depth (how far beyond the cut it shows; also the round handle on the plan), Flip, and View section.

4How sections are drawn

In the Line drawing style, what is cut is darkest and filled with its section hatch; what is beyond is lighter and fades the further away it is; trees and plants are clean light outlines (untick Simple plants to see every leaf). The outline of everything cut is drawn in a heavy line: set it in the section window with Cut line (None, Thin, Medium, Thick or Heavy). Trees and shrubs on the line are shown whole, never sliced, and planting is cut a plant's width beyond the line.

Each object's hatch comes from what it is made of (earth for the ground, brick, block, stone, concrete, timber, gravel, water…, numbered as on a hatch legend). Pick another in Properties › Display › 2D settings › Section hatch, with its scale.

Choose Illustrative for a watercolour section: soft washes, the cut in a darker wash of its own colour (earth for the ground) and plants as watercolour shapes in their own colours.

5Export it

Click Export ▾ in the section window: PDF or Image (on a sheet template, at a scale), DWG or DXF (the cut lines at true size), SVG or IFC. To put sections on drawing sheets with other views, use Sheets (Layers & Views).

1Make a layer

In the Layers panel on the left, click + New layer. It becomes the current layer: everything you draw next goes on it. Double-click its name to rename it.

2Put things on a layer

Select items in the model, then click the → arrow on the layer you want. Or pick the layer in Properties.

3Show, hide and lock

• The eye shows or hides a layer. Hidden layers do not export.
• The padlock locks a layer: nothing on it can be changed, by you or by the AI.
• The dot on the left makes a layer the current one.

1Open the schedules

Open the Schedules menu. All schedules shows every schedule the model has; below it is one item per schedule, such as the Softscape schedule (plants: species, sizes, quantities), the Hardscape schedule (paving) and the Surface areas, plus the tree survey when there is one. They update as you change the model.

Every schedule starts with Symbol (each item's plan picture: change it in Display › 2D settings and the schedule follows), 2D Symbol (the line-drawing and CAD symbol, with its code) and Code, and ends with Image. The Softscape schedule is split into Trees, Shrubs, Grasses, then perennials, groundcover, climbers, hedges, aquatics and lawn.

The schedules open in a window of their own. Drag its title bar to move it, drag its bottom-right corner to make it bigger, or click ⧉ to put it on another screen. The Show list at the top of the window picks one schedule or all of them.

2Pictures in the Image column

Click an empty Image cell and choose a picture (a photo of the plant, a product shot). Then drag it in the frame to trim it, and set Zoom and Turn (or ↺ ↻ 90°). Click a picture again to change it, choose another or remove it. Pictures are kept in the project and go into the PDF and Word exports.

3Set up a schedule

Click Fields… next to a schedule's title:

• Title: your own name for the schedule.
• Columns: untick any you don't want.
• Add fields: add facts the items already have, such as heights, volumes, materials or nursery sizes. Lengths, areas and volumes add up per row.
• Custom columns: name one (Supplier, Notes…) and type in its cells in the schedule.
• Column order (below the fields): drag a column onto another, or use ↑ ↓, to change the order. Default and your own columns alike.
• Lawn (Softscape, Hardscape and Surface areas): tick Include lawn where it belongs: lawn as softscape, artificial lawn as hardscape.

The set-up stays with the project, goes into every export and works whatever the schedule is for (the whole site, selected items or inside the section box).

4Export them

Click Export ▾ and pick:

• PDF to print or send,
• Word (.docx) with tables you can edit,
• DWG or DXF to put the tables on a drawing sheet.

1Connect an AI

Choose Settings › AI Modelling (model and key)… in the menu bar and paste a key from Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI or Google, or point it to a model running on your computer (Ollama). The key stays in your browser.

2Describe what you want

Choose AI Assistance › AI Modelling. The assistant opens in a window of its own: drag its title bar to move it out of the way, drag its bottom-right corner to resize it, or click ⧉ to put it on another screen. Properties stays on the right.

1. Choose what the AI works on: New model, only the Selection, or the Whole model.
2. Type what you want, for example: a 25 × 15 m rear garden with a lawn in the middle, a porcelain patio by the house and a native hedge on the boundary.
3. Click Send (or press ⌘Enter).

3Check, then apply

The AI's answer arrives as a proposal: it lists what it would add, change and remove. Click Apply to keep it, or Discard. Apply is one step you can undo. Locked items are never changed.

1Save your project

Choose File › Save (or press ⌘S, or click the Save icon in the quick bar). The first time, choose where to save it. Projects are saved as .sfs files. File › Save as… (⇧⌘S) saves under a new name or in another place; open them again with File › Open….

Next to the project name, you can see whether your latest changes are saved.

2Get back an earlier copy

The app keeps the last 10 copies of your work in this browser, every two minutes. Choose File › Recover a copy… and pick one.

3Export

Choose File › Export and pick the format:

To export just what a window shows (a PDF at a scale, an image, a line drawing), use File › Export view (see Export a view).

For older CAD programs, choose DWG 2000 under Settings › DWG version.

4Import

File › Import brings in a DWG or DXF (contours, levels and surfaces), a Tree survey (CSV) or a Plant library.

1Tools

2With something selected

3Anywhere

1Select something

Click an object. Properties on the right shows its type at the top, then a row of icons, then three tabs.

2The icons

Just below Properties:

• Eye: show or hide it in the view you are looking at only.
• Lock: stop it being changed by mistake.
• Zoom: fly the view to it.
• Edit points: move its corners.
• Duplicate, Group, Component and Delete.

Hover over an icon to see what it does.

3Several at once

Select several things of the same kind (for example ten trees) and Properties shows the settings they share, with a note: 10 × Tree selected. Change something, such as the line thickness on the Display tab or the crown colour, and it goes to all of them at once. Only what you changed is copied; where each one sits stays its own.

If the selection mixes kinds (trees, shrubs and paving), 2D lines for all sets their line style, thickness and colour in one go.

4Change what it is

The dropdown at the top of the Type tab changes what a shape is: paving, lawn, gravel, planting bed, deck or water. The outline stays the same. Water can be given its own water level, and a deck can be a boardwalk at a set level on posts (see the Pond and boardwalk demo).

5The three tabs

• Type: what it is made of, its sizes and colours, and its label (always last).
• Grading: how it sits on slopes: stepped, sloped or level, terraces and falls.
• Display: its Texture and 2D settings for plans and drawings (hatch with its own scale, rotation and origin; line style, thickness and colour on one line, and Line scale for the size of the dashes (kept in DWG/DXF); trees and shrubs too), then phase, layer, and raising or sinking it from the ground.

Every colour is a ringed circle: click it for a panel with two tabs, Colour (pick a shade or type a hex code; your recent colours are kept; the panel closes as soon as you pick) and Colour books (RAL, BS 4800). A tick with its own box, such as Landing at the start, has the box on the same line. Dialog boxes can be moved by dragging their title bar.

Reset buttons put a section back to how it was. Hover over one to see what it resets.

6Name and code

At the bottom of the Type tab, Name and Code set what the label shows. The Code box shows the usual code (for example QR for Quercus robur) until you type your own. The figures (area, volume and so on) sit below the label in small print.

1Start a sketch

Click Draw on the left, then Sketch (or press J).

2Draw the outline

Pick a piece at the top and draw: Line, Arc, Rectangle, Circle, Freehand, or Pick lines to use an edge already in the model (the pointer turns into an arrow). After the first click of a rectangle or circle you can type its size: width,depth or the radius. Each piece starts where the last one ended. Undo piece takes the last one back.

3Finish it

When the outline is closed, ✓ Finish lights up (or press Enter). Make chooses what the shape becomes: paving, lawn, a raised bed, a wall and more. Shapes drawn inside the outline become holes.

Esc throws the sketch away.

1Draw a path

Click Path on the left (or press Y). Set its width and paving at the top, then click along the route. Enter finishes. Lines, arcs, freehand or picked edges all work.

2Paving types

Select paving and pick a type in Properties: slabs, setts, blocks, cobbles, gravel, Crazy paving (irregular stones; the Crazy paving, sandstone preset) and more, each with its pattern, joint and unit size. Save your own type to use again in the project.

3Colours

Every colour is one round button: click it for the Colour and Colour books tabs (RAL and others).

4Your own texture

On anything made (paving, walls, steps, seats…), open the Display tab in Properties. Texture shows the material's picture and name on a wide button: click it to use your own picture (Custom texture). Drop a JPG or PNG in the dialog (or click Browse…), give it a name and its real tile width and height, or pick one already in the project (the library button beside it shows them all). It is kept in the project and goes into the SketchUp and glTF exports. Reset puts back the material's own texture.

Scale and Rotation change the pattern's size and turn. Origin: ⌖ picks where the pattern starts on the object, + puts it back at the centre. Advanced has Mapping (UVW follows the object; Planar lays it from above; Box squares it to the site), Blend mode (Multiply tints it with the object's colour), Repeat U/V (with Lock aspect ratio) and Offset U/V.

52D hatch

Settings › Default 2D hatch sets the plan hatches for the whole project: Default, BS 1192 or None (each with its picture). In Display › 2D settings, Hatch style Override gives one object its own hatch: the plan hatches or any of the 98 patterns in the scotfree hatch library (paving bonds, cobbles, setts, timber, section materials, planting, water and overlays). The grid button opens the library with pictures: type a pattern or a material (for example herringbone or sandstone) to find it. Colour sets the hatch colour. The 2D settings have their own Scale, Rotation and Origin (and Reset) for the hatch chosen here; they do not change the 3D texture.

Line style (Solid, Dashed, Dotted, Dash-dot, Hidden), Line thickness (0.13 to 0.70 mm) and Line colour, on one line, set how the object's own lines are drawn in plans and drawings. They go into the PDF, SVG, DWG and DXF exports as line types, pen weights and colours. By project leaves them as they are.

6Stepping stones

In the Path tool's paving list pick a stepping-stone kind: Natural slate path, Square stepping pads, Irregular flagstones, Slabs in dark aggregate or Weathered stepping-stone trail. Select the path and, in Properties, set the slab size (along × across), the spacing between stones, their rotation, the joint fill (pebbles, gravel, aggregate, bark, lawn or none) and an edge (steel, timber or setts). The stones fill the path's width (flagstones of different sizes with narrow joints, one or two across; wider paths get larger stones) and sit on the path's surface, a little proud of the joint fill, on slopes too. The schedule counts the stones.

7Gravel and pebbles

A drawn shape's What it is list has Gravel / pebbles (gravel areas have it too). Pick the Stone (6 mm gravel to 60–100 mm cobbles) and the Colour (Cotswold buff, Grey granite, Black basalt… or any colour with the swatch) and set the Depth. The Hardscape schedule lists each stone with its depth, colour and area.

8A clean path through the ground

Paths, paving and gravel cut the ground away under them, so no slope or contour ever pokes through. Beside the edge, the soil (beds, pebbles, lawn) sits 40 mm below the paving, as on site; grass blades stand up above it. See Terrain › Boolean with the ground to change this or to use it on other objects.

9On slopes

On the Grading tab choose how a surface meets the ground:

• Sloped: follows the ground as one smooth surface.
• Stepped: level terraces, laid to a fall you set (or tilting with the ground), with steps between them rounded to whole courses.
• Level: one flat surface.

1Handrails and fences

Click Handrail/Fences on the left, pick the Type in the bar (a handrail or balustrade, one of 12 garden fences or 8 tall fences) and click along its line (Line, Arc, Freehand or Pick lines, as for paths). How it meets a slope is set on the Grading tab. Posts stand on whatever is under them: paving, decks, terraces, steps and topo surfaces.

Fences: timber picket, closeboard, lap panel, horizontal slatted, vertical battens, trellis, woven willow, post and rail, estate railings, metal railings, welded mesh and chain link; tall closeboard, slatted privacy screen, vertical batten screen, solid fence with trellis, woven willow screen, composite, tall metal screen and tall 3D mesh. In Properties each has its Height, Posts every (the bay width), Gaps (slats, pales and battens), Post size and Colour; change the Type at any time.

2Gates

Select a fence and click + Add gate in Properties, then click on the fence. Where a path crosses the fence, the gate centres itself on the path and takes its width; anywhere else it is 1 m wide. For each gate set its Width, where it is (At, along the fence), Single or Double, which side it opens to and which post the hinges are on; Move… puts it somewhere else, ✕ takes it out. Gates match the fence (a picket gate in a picket fence, a field gate in post and rail), hang between heavier gate posts with hinges and a latch, show their swing in plan, and get a row in the Steps and railings schedule.

Posts: Even bays, or Full bays from the gate posts so the fence is set out from the gate. Stands: on the drawn line, or to one side of it (inside or outside for a closed fence).

On a slope a railing or open fence is raked: each bay is straight between its posts, never wavy; panel fences are stepped, each bay level. For a bridge or a ramp that should follow every rise and fall, tick Follow the grading on the Grading tab.

3A straight flight

Click Steps and stairs, keep Straight, then click the bottom and the top of the flight. Set the Riser height and the Tread (the depth of each step) in the bar first; the risers are made equal so the flight meets the top exactly.

An arrow points up the flight, lying on the treads, in every view and while you draw.

4Kinds of stairs

Pick the Type in Properties: Solid, Open riser (a central stringer), Closed riser, Cantilevered (tick Support wall and pick the Wall side), Stringer-supported, Precast or Ground-supported (slabs on a compacted sub-base). The open kinds have Treads and Structure materials and colours; the solid kinds one step material.

5Steps between two levels

Choose Pick levels, click the lower level where the steps start (the ground, a terrace, the top of a wall), then the upper level where they arrive. The steps fill the height between them with equal risers.

6Steps along a line

Choose Along a line, then draw the walking line with lines, arcs or freehand. Set the pattern at the top: so many steps, then a landing, repeating like a dashed line. An arrow on the line shows the way up.

7Steps in an outline

Choose Outline and draw the shape, starting with the bottom step's edge. The steps fill it.

8Change the stretches

Select the steps. Properties lists each flight and landing, with its own steps or length and width. Add more, or Make a list from the pattern to edit them one by one. ⇅ Flip direction turns the way up round (straight flights too).

9Landings at the start and end

Tick Landing ☐ at the start ☐ at the end in the bar (or in Properties) for a landing before the first step and after the last one. Each has its own length in Properties.

10Handrails

All handrail settings are in the Handrail section. Handrails follow the pitch of the stairs, not the ground, and stay at one height across landings.

1Copy and paste

Use Edit › Cut, Copy and Paste (or ⌘X, ⌘C, ⌘V). Edit › Duplicate makes a copy a little way along. Pasted copies land beside the originals.

2Groups and components

Select several things and click Group (in the Properties icons, or Edit › Group, ⌘G; Edit › Make component for a component). A component is a group whose copies all change together: double-click a copy to edit inside it, and every copy follows. Rename it in Properties.

3Array

Select something, click Array on the left, and choose Grid, In a line or Circular. Grid: how many columns and rows, and the spacing; in a line: how many and the step. Circular: how many in the ring (the original counts), the Angle they spread over (360 = a full ring, less = an arc), the Centre (type it, or Pick centre and click), and Turn copies to turn each one to face the centre as the original does. Make places the copies.

4Lattice

Select a shape and click Lattice. A cage of control points appears round it. Drag the points to bend, taper or twist the shape. Add control points along any side for finer bends.

5Join and cut shapes

Select two flat shapes and use Union, Subtract or Intersect to make one new outline.

1Labels

Most things carry a label: a plant code, a level, a name. Drag the dot at the end of a label's leader to move where it points from.

In Properties, the Label section sets the words (before, after or instead), the font, size, colour and background, and whether it shows in the view you are in.

2Tags

Click Tags on the left. A tag is drawn like a line:

1. Click the object, at the point the leader should start from.
2. Click where the tag's words go.

The Tag tool stays on, so you can tag the next object straight away. Esc drops a tag you have started. Box-select several objects with the Tag tool to tag them all at once. Click an object that is already tagged and its tag is picked, ready to drag (Shift-click tags it once more). Everything selected has a dotted blue box round it; a selected tag's object has a dashed magenta box. A tag shows the object's code, name or description and stays linked to it. Auto-tag tags every tree, shrub, light or wall in one go.

A tag on a planting mix (or a mixed edge planting) has two looks, set in the tag's Properties under Shows:

• Detailed description (the default): the mix's code and area, then one line per plant with its count, short code and share of the mix, like a planting plan: 23 SesAut (20%).
• No. of plants with mix name: one line, for example 120 No. Gravel garden mix.

Shows in a tag's Properties also offers the object's Long description. Under Text set the tag's font (any font on this computer), size and colour.

Tags can be selected by clicking them or with a selection window, and the eye icon hides one in the current view. Zoom to selected (⇧Z) frames a tag. To lift a tag up or down, drag the blue gizmo arrow on its text (or drag the tag in an elevation): the leader still starts on the object.

3Spot levels

Click Spot level in the Tag bar, then:

1. Click a point on the ground or on any surface (paving, a wall top, a step).
2. Click where its level goes.

Pick a Prefix in the Tag bar first (FFL, FGL, EGL, TOW, BOW, TOS, TOK, IL, CL…) and it goes before the level: FFL +12.350. Change it later in Properties, or type your own there.

It shows a target, a leader and the level, read from the datum. On the ground, the level follows the ground: reshape the terrain and it updates. Drag the level text to move it on its own: the target stays where it is and the leader follows.

4Detail tags

Click Detail in the Tag bar, then click two corners of the area to detail (Top is easiest). A detail callout goes on the plan: a dashed box with rounded corners round the area and a bubble at its corner showing the detail's mark (D1, D2…) over the number of the sheet it is drawn on. Its detail section is saved under Views › Sections and opens straight away. Put it on a sheet and the bubble shows that sheet's number. Esc drops a first corner.

5Size the text box

Long words, such as Retaining Wall: Block work with Natural Stone Cladding, can wrap. Hover over a label or tag and drag the small bar on its right edge: the box gets narrower or wider and the words wrap inside it. Double-click the bar to put the text back on one line. The wrapped text goes into PDF, PNG, SVG and DWG/DXF too.

6Group tag

Select several plants (drag a window round them), then in the Tag bar click Group tag. One tag reads, for example, 6 | PT with the pot size underneath, like a planting plan, and a smooth line links the plants with a dot on each. To change which plants it counts, select the tag together with the plants you want and click Group tag again.

Merge tags does the same from tags you already have: select the tags (for example six single PT tags) and click Merge tags. They become one group tag.

7Move many tags

In the Tag bar, Move tags moves the selected tags, all tags, or the tags on one kind of thing (trees, shrubs, walls…) by the distances you type: X and Y across, Z up. Above object puts each of them straight above its object, lifted by Z.

Tags and labels go into every export of a view: PDF, PNG, SVG and DWG/DXF.

8Level and contour labels

Drag a platform level or a contour figure to move it. Click a platform level, spot level or contour figure to pick just the label: in Properties, the eye hides it in this view, Reset position puts it back and Select the platform picks its object. Every object's Label heading has the same eye (Show label in this view). Edit › Show hidden in this view brings hidden labels back.

9Descriptions

Give anything a short and a long description, and its own Code, in Properties. A label can show the description in some views and the code in others.

10Show or hide in a view

For tags, Tag visibility in Properties has three choices: Show in all views, Only this view (the view you are in) and Hide in this view (it stays in the other views; Unhide all in the quick bar brings it back). Select several tags to set them all at once.

The eye icon in Properties hides an object in the view you are looking at only. It still shows in other views and in exports of them.

1Open the plant lists

Choose Planting › Planting (or click Trees on the left, then Plant lists). The lists open in a window of their own: drag its title bar to move it, drag its bottom-right corner to make it bigger, or click ⧉ to put it on another screen. Choose Trees, Palms, Shrubs, Grasses, Groundcover, Accents (succulents, aloes, agaves), Seasonal, Climbers or Conifers.

The library has your UK lists and over 400 plants used in the Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait), with their Arabic names, typical height × spread and water need.

2Filter

• Search finds names, colours and notes.
• Size and Leaves narrow the list.
• Regional: tick the countries (UK, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, or All Arabia) and tick Native, Adaptive or both. Adaptive plants are not native there but widely used and suited, so you can find both. Tick several countries to cross-reference: plants used in all of them. The Regions column shows where each plant is used: bold where it is native, plain where it is adaptive.

• Water need: low, medium or high.
• Climate buttons: drought, heat, salt, sand and wind tolerant; Use has fragrant and good for pollinators.
• Click the buttons for soil, exposure, use and shape that the plant must suit. Each one you pick adds a column showing Yes or Maybe.
• Not pest or disease prone and No spines or thorns leave those plants out.
• South-facing is the lists' "Max Sun – S. Wall": plants for the hottest spots.
• Tick Include "Maybe" to count plants marked Maybe as a match.

3Place a plant

Click a plant in the list, then click in the model. It arrives with its size, form, leaf and flower colours from the list, and its notes in its description.

4Climbers

Climbers are drawn as their stems with small leaves along them. Pick a climber (or the Climber tool) and click next to a wall, fence, hedge, railing or pergola: it grows on that face, or over the pergola's top. Click open ground and it grows up a post.

In Properties:

• On a wall, fence, hedge, railing or pergola: untick to let it stand on its own.
• Habit: Climbs up (fans out as it rises), Trained along (an even band) or Hangs down (spills over the top).
• Height and Spread, foliage and flower colours.

1Your keys

Open the Settings menu. Add your own key for the assistant under AI Modelling (model and key)…, and a Gemini or OpenAI key for pictures under AI Render (image services and keys)…. Keys stay on this computer.

2Render a view

Choose AI Assistance › AI Render. It opens in a window of its own: drag its title bar to move it, drag its bottom-right corner to make it bigger, or click ⧉ to put it on another screen. Pick the service and a Look, add your own words (materials, season, mood), and click Render. With From the view ticked the picture keeps the layout of the active window.

3Image to model

Choose AI Assistance › AI Modelling and click the picture button (or drop or paste an image). A photo, sketch, plan or aerial view becomes a model the AI builds to match. Your words with the picture take priority.

1Export view

Choose File › Export view. It exports what the active window shows:

• PDF: pick the scale (1:20, 1:50, 1:100, 1:200, 1:250, 1:500, 1:1000 or fit to the sheet), the paper (A4 to A0) and portrait or landscape. Top, elevations and sections print at true scale with a scale bar; 3D views are fitted.
• PNG: an image, as shown.
• SVG: a line drawing of the visible edges.
• DWG or DXF: the line drawing at true size, for CAD.
• IFC: the objects in view.

Sections have their own Export ▾ in the section view, with the same choices.

1Open sketch mode

Select the object, then click Edit Object on the left or the pencil icon under Properties. The bar at the top shows Sketch and the sketch tools.

2Modify lines

With Modify (the arrow) picked:

• Click a line to select it (blue); Shift-click adds more.
• Click a selected line again, move, and click: the line moves and the lines joined to it stretch to follow.
• Click the end of a line, move, and click: the end moves, and the ends joined to it go with it.
• Delete (the key or the button) removes the selected lines.

3Draw lines

Line draws a chain: click the start, then point after point (type a length, or dx,dy, to go an exact distance). Esc or a right-click ends the chain. Rectangle (or Centred), Circle, Arc (its start, its end, then a point it passes through), Freehand, and Pick lines (click an edge or line in the model to copy it in) add more lines. Ends snap to the ends of the other sketch lines.

4Trim, split and offset

• Trim/Extend: click two lines on the sides you keep; they are cut or run on to meet at a corner.
• Split: click a line where it should be cut in two.
• Offset: click a line; a copy is made at the Distance, on the side you click.
• Offset all: the whole sketch at once (+ outward, − inward).

5Holes and additions

A rectangle or circle drawn inside the outline becomes a hole (a tree pit in paving); drawn across the outline's edge it is added to the outline. Any loop of lines inside the outline is a hole too, and a loop outside it becomes an object of its own.

6Finish or cancel

✓ Finish (or Enter) checks the lines: they must make closed loops (or one line, for a wall or path), with no gaps or overlaps. If not, the lines with open ends turn red and the bar says why; fix them with Trim/Extend or by moving the ends together. ✗ Cancel (or Esc twice) leaves the object as it was. Undo in the bar takes back the last change inside the sketch. Split faces keep their parts and heights.

1Draw contour lines

Click Sculpt Terrain, then Contour. Type the Level in the tool bar and draw the line: click point after point (or use Arc, Freehand or Pick lines to turn a line already in the model into a contour), then Enter. Then moves the level on for the next line, so a set of contours at 0.5 m goes quickly.

Choose Existing for survey contours or Proposed for your design.

23D lines

For the top of a bank, a kerb or a ridge, click 3D line, type the level at the start (From) and the end (to), and draw it. The levels slope evenly between. Select the line to give any point its own level in Properties; Even slope spreads them again.

3Spot levels

Spot levels (Spot level tool) count too: an existing terrain passes through every spot level in and around it.

4Make terrain

Click Make terrain, then Around the lines (its edge follows the shape of your outermost lines, not a box), or draw the boundary yourself in any shape (click its corners, or Pick lines to use a shape already drawn). There is no site box: draw your contours wherever they are. The ground passes through every line and slopes straight from one contour to the next.

Then tick Use as ground (Properties) and everything stands on the terrain. Untick it and you choose: things go back to the grid, or stay at their heights.

5It stays linked

Change a contour's level, move it with the gizmo or with Edit points, or draw another line: the terrain follows at once. Select the terrain to see what it is made from (Select its lines) and its lowest and highest levels. Edit points moves its boundary.

A Proposed terrain (made from proposed lines) replaces the existing ground inside its boundary, and the cut and fill between them shows under Earthworks in the site's Properties.

6Soil section on the sides

Select the terrain and tick Soil section on the sides in Properties: the cut sides of the terrain block show dark topsoil, then subsoil with stones, like a section through the ground. Depth below sets how far the block goes below its lowest point (in metres).

7From a CAD drawing

Import (in the Sculpt Terrain bar) brings in contour polylines drawn at their height and 3D polylines as lines with their levels, and makes a terrain from them (untick Make a terrain if you only want the lines).

1The Custom objects button

Click Custom objects on the left. The bar at the top has House, Building masses, Library, Import model… and Add selection to library.

2Draw a house

Click House (or press K), pick the Storeys, Walls, Roof, roof Covering, Pitch and Windows in the bar, then click the corners of the house. The first wall you draw is the front: it gets the front door and the porch.

Select it to change the walls, roof, covering, windows, storeys, pitch, colour, porch and chimney in Properties.

3Building masses

Building masses ▾ has plain white massing models in six layouts (single block, L, T, U, courtyard and stepped terrace), each with a sloped or flat roof. Pick one and click in the model to place it; turn it with the gizmo, change its height, roof and pitch in Properties, or move its corners with Edit points.

4The library

Library opens a window of objects by group: buildings, furniture, lighting, fences and rocks, and My objects. Click one, then click in the model to place it (Esc to stop).

Import model… brings in a SketchUp (.skp), glTF/GLB, OBJ, FBX, Collada (.dae) or STL file. Files in centimetres or millimetres are sized to metres; if one comes in the wrong size, change Scale in Properties. Add selection to library keeps whatever you have selected (a bench with pots, a planter you built, a group) to place again in this project or any other on this computer. Objects you place travel with the project and export to IFC, DWG, DXF and SketchUp.

1Open the templates

Choose Settings › Templates › Title Blocks… (or Title Blocks… in Layers & Views › Sheets). The editor opens in a window of its own: drag its title bar to move it, or click ⧉ to take it outside the app (another screen). On the left are My templates (kept in the library, for every project) and the Gallery of ready layouts.

2Start from a layout

Pick the paper (A0 to A4) and Landscape or Portrait above the gallery, then click a layout: Vertical strip (right or left), Horizontal band (bottom or top), Corner block, Side panel with key plan (with a legend) or Compact report strip. Field size (Compact to Extra large) makes the strips and bands bigger; any box can also be sized by dragging its handles.

3Draw on the sheet

The tools are icons along the top: Select (V), Line (L), Polyline (P), Arc (A: start, end, then a point it passes through), Circle (C), Rectangle (R) and Text (T: click, then type). Snap (tick it on or off) catches the edges, corners and middles of the sheet and of every box; hold Alt to place freely.

The zoom bar: Zoom window, Zoom in, Zoom out, Zoom overall (Z) and Pan (H, or hold Space, or the middle button).

4Change anything

Click a box to pick it (Shift-click adds more; drag a window round several, from empty paper or from inside a drawing area: left to right picks what is wholly inside, right to left what it touches; ⌘A picks everything): drag it to move it (all picked boxes move together), drag its handles to size it, or type its X, Y, width and height on the right (millimetres from the sheet's top-left corner). Double-click words to type straight on the sheet; a field's own words (your business name, address…) show on every sheet. Right-click for Copy, Cut, Duplicate, Bring to front, Send to back and Delete.

Keys: ⌘C, ⌘V, ⌘X, ⌘D (duplicate), Delete, arrows to nudge (Shift: 10 mm), ⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z, Esc to stop.

5Fields, drawing areas, north and legend

+ Add ▾ in the bar adds any of these. Text and drawn lines and shapes have a Colour (shapes a Fill too) on the right.

• Field: client, site, title, numbers…, or Custom field… with a name of your own. They are asked for when you export.
• Drawing area: as many as you like. Each says what it is for (Drawing, Plan, Section, Elevation, 3D view, Detail, Key plan, Schedule), has its own scale and its own north arrow (Properties on the right).
• North arrow: points to the project's north; Turn it more if you need to.
• Legend: filled in from the model when you export. Each row is a swatch with its code under it and the description to its right: the section hatches, the Illustrative symbols (plants and surfaces as drawn), or the plan hatches and symbols.

6Keep it

Name it, then click Save to library. Tick Default to have it picked first whenever you export.

1The Sheets tab

Open Layers & Views › Sheets. A sheet is a template (title block, legend and drawing areas) with your saved views placed in its drawing areas's sheets.

Click + New sheet, pick a template (yours or the gallery), the paper and a name, then Make the sheet. It opens in the Sheet window (move it, or ⧉ to take it outside the app).

2Fill the drawing areas

On the right, each drawing area has a list: a saved view, a section or a schedule.

• Drag a saved view from Layers & Views › Views onto a drawing area to place it there.
• A view or section has its scale (1:10 to 1:5000) or Fit to the area. A 3D view has a size instead (50% to 400% of the fitted size).
• Drag a view inside its area to move what shows there (crop it). Centre puts it back.
• A scale bar follows the scale of the drawing area it sits in.
• The same view can go in two areas with different crops: a long section in two halves, one above the other.
• A schedule is drawn as a table.

3Legend and title block

If the template has a Legend, it fills itself from the drawings on the sheet (section hatches for sections, Illustrative symbols for Illustrative plans) or the kind you choose; untick any row to leave it out.

The Title block words: the title, numbers, revision and status are this sheet's; client, site and the rest are shared by every sheet in the project.

Double-click any field, text or the amendments table on the sheet to type straight onto it. The amendments (Rev, Description, By, Date) are the project's: + Amendment adds one, and every sheet shows them.

4Edit layout

Edit layout opens the sheet's own layout in the template editor: move or add fields, drawing areas, text, the scale bar and north arrow, and change each area's scale and north. Apply to sheet puts it back on this sheet only.

5Export

Export PDF saves this sheet. All sheets (PDF set) saves every sheet in one PDF, in the order of the list. ⤓ in the list exports one sheet too.

6The demos

Every demo in Help › Demos opens with its sheets ready: the masterplan with a key plan, Section A-A, the schedules and a 3D view.

1The quick bar

Along the top, left to right:

• Save and Save as; Undo and Redo.
• Zoom window, Zoom in, Zoom out, Zoom overall.
• Section box and Section line (see Sections).
• Measure; Move to ground (drops what is picked onto the ground); Filter (what can be picked).
• The show buttons, for the window you are in: Foliage (deciduous plants in leaf or bare), Solid ground (the terrain solid, or see-through with the grid showing), Unhide all, Isolate (only what is picked stays in the window; Unhide all brings the rest back), Shadows, Contours, Labels and Draft speed.
• Save view and Align, each on its own. Align works as in other BIM tools: click a reference line (an edge, a face or a drawn line), then the line of the object to line up with it; the object moves across to it. A padlock appears by it: click it to lock the two together, so when one moves the other follows. In the bar: Multiple alignment (or hold Ctrl) keeps the reference for more objects, Lock locks every alignment as it is made, and Prefer picks wall faces, wall centrelines, faces of core or centre of core. Esc once for a new reference, twice to stop.
• Next to Align: Eraser (click a line to take that piece away; click the line between two parts of a face to join them into one), Trim/Extend (to corner: click two lines on the sides to keep; single: a boundary, then the lines to cut or run on to it; multiple: a boundary, then many lines) and Fillet (type a radius, then click two lines or a corner to round it).
• Snap and the snap kinds, on the right. With Snap off, the kinds are greyed out and none of them snap.

2Right-click

Right-click an object (with Select on) for Properties, Zoom to, Hide, Isolate, Unhide all, Copy, Paste, Duplicate, Delete, Group / Ungroup, Lock, Move to ground, Select similar (everything of the same kind and type), Tag and Add to library. On empty ground: Paste, Unhide all and Zoom overall.

Right-click a tag for its own menu: Shows (code, name, short description, name and specification), Edit text…, Select tagged object, Zoom to, Straight above the object, Merge tags (two or more tags picked), Hide, Lock and Delete tag. A section line adds View section, Edit points and Flip at the top.

Right-drag still orbits; in a drawing tool, right-click steps back like Esc. Hide object and Unhide all are also in the View menu.

1Pick a build-up

Select a paving, path, gravel area, slab or wall, then open the Structure tab in Properties. Pick one from the list: block paving, permeable blocks, stone flags, porcelain, asphalt (footway or road), concrete, gravel, self-binding gravel or resin-bound; for walls brick, rendered block, stone-clad block, cavity or RC retaining. None keeps the plain surface or the wall type; + Layer there starts a build-up of its own, one layer at a time.

The first layer is the finish (it keeps the surface's look and pattern); the others are laid under it, and the ground is cut away down to the bottom of the build-up. Point at a layer to read its full description and keynote.

2Add and edit layers

Type a layer's short name and thickness (mm) in its row. Click the hatch swatch on the left to open its details: description, keynote, colour and section hatch (and for walls, which layer is the structure). + Layer adds one, ↑ ↓ move it, × removes it.

Changing a library build-up makes the project its own copy (named "… (own)"); every object using that copy changes with it. Save to mine keeps a build-up for your other projects in this browser.

3Kerbs and edgings

Click Kerb/Edging on the tool rail, pick the Type (an HB2 or granite kerb, or a concrete, steel, timber, brick or sett edging), its Upstand (how far its face stands above the surface beside it; 0 for a flush edging) and which face the line follows, then click along its line. Enter or a double-click finishes. Offset draws it that far from your clicks (+ outside a closed shape, − inside), handy for a kerb just inside an edge you pick. Beside paving its top lines up with the paving top; drawing a planting mix inside it snaps to its inner face.

A kerb's profile is a build-up too: the kerb unit, its bed and the haunch behind it, each with a width. In Properties, Haunch on the other side swaps front and back.

A kerb lines up only with paving, paths, gravel and planting beds (not with steps or walls beside it), and Pick lines in the Kerb tool picks only their edges.

Add kerb in one click: select paving, a path or a planting bed and click the kerb button under Properties (or right-click › Add kerb, or Round the selection in the Kerb tool's bar). A kerb of the type set in the Kerb tool goes all round it, outside its edge, and inside any hole.

4In sections

Open a section (Section line, then View section). In the section window each layered object gets keynotes (code and short name) in a column outside the drawing, on leaders of straight horizontal and vertical lines, and a dimension for each layer plus the overall depth (walls: across the top). Point at a keynote for the full description. They go into the section's exports.

1Units

Choose Settings › Units…, or click the unit at the bottom right of the window. Set Length, Area, Volume, Angle and Slope, each with its precision (feet and inches to 1/16"), or start from a set: metres, millimetres, metres and hectares, feet and inches, decimal feet, or feet and acres.

Dimensions, Measure, the coordinates and the length boxes in Properties follow the units; spot levels follow them in feet (metric projects keep levels in metres). The model itself does not change, and exports stay in metres.

You can type any value in any unit: 1200mm, 4'6", 3 ft 2 in, 2.5 m. A plain number is in the project's unit. This works in Properties and while drawing (type a length after the first click).

2Fonts

Every font list (label fonts in Properties › Label, and text and fields in the sheet template editor) offers the five styles and then the fonts on your computer, each shown in its own face. Type a font name… takes any font by name. In Chrome and Edge, Show every font on this computer… asks once to list them all. PDFs use the nearest of their own three fonts.

3Opening and saving files

File › Open keeps the file you open, so Save writes back to that same file (in the Mac and Windows apps, and in Chrome and Edge; Safari and Firefox save a copy as before). File › Open recent lists the last 12 projects you opened or saved. You can also drop a .sfs file on the window to open it.

1People

Open the Library and choose People. There are 40: men, women and children walking, standing, talking and pointing, older people with a walking frame, crutches or a stick, people sitting, reading and lying on the grass, children running, playing ball and on a scooter, parents with a toddler, a baby or a pram, a wheelchair user, a cyclist, a jogger, a dog walker and more. Click one, then click in the model to place it.

People are flat cut-outs that always turn to face you, so they read well in every view and on sheets. They cast a shadow of their shape. In plans drawn as lines they show as a small ring.

In Properties choose another person, its Look (Solid, Outline in white, or Grey), its Colour and its Scale. Select several people and change them all at once.

2Terrain sides

Select the terrain and open Display. Sides (soil section) is the texture on the cut sides of the terrain block: click it to choose from the Default library (soil, rock, gravel, stone, concrete, timber and more), your library or your own picture. The colour button beside it tints the sides.

The Default library is in every texture box, so any object can take one of the app's own textures.

3Vertex and polygon count

View › Vertex and polygon count shows a live count of what the active window draws, beside the view toolbar. Turn on Draft speed on the quick bar when the numbers get large.

1The view cube and compass

The glass cube in the corner of the 3D window turns with the model. Click a face for that view. Click the green top corner for the isometric view from that corner. Only the faces turned towards you show their names.

The compass ring under the cube shows where north is. N is always red. The direction nearest to you (E, S or W) is blue-green. Letters grow as they come nearer and shrink as they go away.

The slim rail beside the cube holds Home, Pan, Orbit and Zoom. The tool you are using sits on a green tile.

2Reference lines

Click Reference lines on the tool rail (the dashed three-axis icon). Choose X, Y or Z and a colour, then click a point (snaps work). Or pick an existing line and type a distance for a parallel one.

Reference lines are endless and very thin. Things snap where they cross, so you can measure and place exactly. Select them like any object; the selection filter lists them under Tags and annotation. View › Reference lines turns them on or off in each window. They stay out of exports, pictures, PDFs and sheets unless View › Reference lines in exports is ticked.

3Presentation style

In Top, choose Presentation from the display style. The plan is drawn in fine grey lines on white. Lawns, beds and water are lightly tinted, and the model's own trees and plants keep their full colour and soft shadows.

4View templates

Settings › Templates › View templates… saves how a window or view looks: its style, shadows, ground, contours, labels, foliage, annotation, phase, and a line colour for each kind of object or the kinds hidden. Keep a template in this project, or in the library for every project.

Apply a template to any window or saved view. Views that follow a template update when the template is saved again. Sheets draw their views with the template's object styles.

1Pick a drawing for a plant

Select a tree, shrub or planting mix and open the Display tab. Under 2D settings › Outline in drawings the list has two groups: Shapes (Circle and the other plain outlines) and Drawings. Each drawing comes as a regular plan and as an outline plan.

The drawing shows in the Illustrative plan and the Line drawing in Top. DWG and DXF get the outline plan as lines.

2Plants with a code tag

A plant with a code tag on the plan is drawn with its outline plan, so the code reads clearly over it. Take the tag off and it goes back to the regular plan.

3Sections and elevations

Under In sections and elevations, Default shows the 3D plant itself. Pick a drawing to show the plant as that elevation instead, kept in its own proportions at the plant's height, or choose Ink sketch. The colour box beside the list sets its ink colour. Drawings show when View › Simple plants is on.

4Hedges

A hedge is drawn with the clipped hedge module repeated along it, with an end cap at each end of an open hedge and the corners filled. Nothing is stretched: in plan one module is four times the hedge's thickness long, and the last one is cut short to fit.

Display › Plan drawing chooses Drawing (the outline drawing when the hedge is tagged), Outline drawing or None. For sections and elevations pick Clipped hedge (drawing).

5Climbers on a wall

A climber growing on a wall, fence or house gets the wall-climber module repeated across its width, just in front of the face. Plan drawing works as for hedges. For sections and elevations pick Wall climber (drawing): the module stands on the ground and reaches the climber's height.

1Lock a view

Each saved view has a padlock in front of its name, on its tab and in Layers & Views › Views. Click the padlock to lock the view. While it is locked, the mouse, the wheel, the view cube and the buttons cannot turn, pan, zoom or change it. Click again to unlock.

A locked section keeps the Section window still too.

2Move in a plane

Between each pair of gizmo arrows there is a small yellow square. Drag a square to move the object in that plane: XY over the ground, XZ or YZ upright. Drag the centre to move it freely, flat to the screen. In 3D that changes X, Y and Z together. In plan it moves over the ground.

You can still type an exact move afterwards, such as 2,1,0.5.

3Scale in two directions

With the scale gizmo, the centre cube scales evenly. A yellow triangle between two handles scales in those two directions. Drag up to grow and down to shrink.

1How keynotes are set out

Every section, saved section, line section, live section box, sheet and PDF follows the same rules. The keynote words sit in rows above the drawing, in one group on the left and one on the right. Each leader runs level from its words, then straight down to a small round dot on its layer. The row that reaches furthest sits on top, so no leader crosses another.

Two identical narrow objects, such as a pair of kerbs, share one keynote with a leader to each. A build-up cut twice is noted once. The bottom layer of a pair of kerbs (the bed) is noted beside the drawing at its own height.

2Dimensions

Layer dimensions run in a chain beside the paving, with the overall depth outside it. The figures stand upright beside their lines. A figure on a layer too thin for it stands out beside the chain, just below, on a small curved leader to its part of the line. No dimension or word overlaps another.

3Move a keynote by hand

If a keynote is not where you want it, drag it. Its leader follows. The move is saved with the project and Undo works. Double-click a keynote to put it back.

1The curtain in 3D

Every section line stands up in the 3D view as a see-through curtain in the line's colour. It is strongest just above the ground and fades away upwards. A thin frame runs round it, level along the top, and reaches below the terrain block so you can see the cut through the soil too. The lettered heads stand at its ends.

2Change it

Select the section line (click it in Top, or its curtain in 3D). In Properties:

• The Curtain tick shows or hides the curtain; the Curtain colour button beside it sets its colour.
• The Curtain frame line tick shows or hides the frame; the Frame colour button sets its colour.
• Frame below the terrain sets how far the frame and curtain reach below the bottom of the terrain block (1 m unless you change it).

1A details sheet

A short section line across a wall, a step or a paving edge, shown at 1:20 or closer on a sheet, is drawn as a detail. The demo Terraced steps has one: open Layers & Views › Sheets and click L-500 Details.

2What each detail shows

• Material entries for every layer of a build-up: the keynote and name, then MATERIAL, COLOUR, SIZE and FINISH lines (those the layer has words for). Each leader ends on its own layer.
• Dimensions of the layers in millimetres, and levels (FFL on paving, TOW on walls, FGL on the ground).
• A break line where the ground is cut off, about 1.3 m under the ground.
• A key plan beside each detail, at 1:200, with the detail's section markers.
• A title under it: its mark, its name and its scale.

1Import the drawing

Choose File › Import › Site from a survey drawing and pick the DWG or DXF. The app reads each layer by its name and what is on it:

• Contours and levels make the ground. Contours drawn at their height use it; flat contours take the level written on them (such as +8.00m). Choose which in Settings › Contour levels from.
• Level blocks (FFL, FSL, TOM) are ground levels; wall, kerb and pool levels (TOW, TOK, BOP, WL) are left out of the ground.
• The scope or site boundary is the edge of the ground (in pieces if it is drawn in pieces).
• Buildings, roads, trees, and the hatched lawns, planting beds, paving, water, decks, gravel and sand of a landscape layout.
• Edging, kerb lines, rocks, furniture, text and anything drawn far away from the site are left out.

2Confirm what could not be made exactly

When the import is done, a window lists what it could not make exactly: a survey's ground rounded off from a level (never more than 100 mm), a layout's ground not meeting one of your levels, a contour with no level written on it, a level outside the site.

• Make Nearest Round-off closes them all with the suggested values.
• Manual Input shows each one with a picture of the place on the left and the suggested value on the right: type the value you want. A level you type is met exactly by the ground.

The warnings stay with the file in the Model window (View › Model), open or closed. Click one to zoom to it.

1Merge it

Select the platform. In Properties (or right-click it) choose Merge into the terrain.

The platform's edge at its level, its flat top and the foot of its batters become lines of the terrain (hidden in 3D and Top; Edit points changes them). The terrain's own lines under the platform are cut back to the batter foot. The platform itself goes, so the ground and the platform are one terrain. If it had a lawn, paving or gravel finish, that stays as a surface on it. Undo takes it back.