The interface at a glance

The workspace has four parts: the top bar along the top, the tools palette on the left edge, the sidebar of settings and stats, and the canvas where you draw and see your scheme.

The top bar

Holds the global actions. From the left: the Dashboard link, undo/redo, Fit to re-centre, the view switch (2D · Sketch · 3D) with the White card tick box beside it in 3D, Animate rides (in 3D on an event site with rides), then Snap, Smart align and 📏 Measure. On the right: the theme toggle, the Generate menu, Refit houses (on a housing site) and your account menu.

The tools palette

The vertical strip of tool buttons on the left: Edit, Delete, the Checks menu (the compliance overlay, vehicle tracking, the design review and Site conditions), the Annotation menu, the House menu (Place house and Fill) — or the Store menu on a retail scheme — the Roads menu (Road and Split road), Path, the Driveways menu (Drive and Shared drive), the Parking menu (car park, space, aisle and the accessible/EV/visitor bay tools), the Water menu, the Fence-wall menu (Fence, Wall, Panel run and the style designer), Building, Green area and Trees. Pick a tool, then click on the canvas to use it. (Measure lives in the top bar, where it works in both 2D and 3D.) See Editing tools.

The sidebar

A set of collapsible sections down the left: Site boundary, Site information & stats, Algorithm & settings, House types, Site rules, Road geometry, Turning & junctions, Car parking, Templates & save, Development & costs, Analysis & simulation and Export. Click a header to expand or collapse it. Live stats (plots, density, green %, area, road length, fencing) update as you work.

11 · Analysis & Simulation, just above 12 · Export, puts the checking tools on full-width buttons on every kind of site: 📐 Vehicle Turning opens the full compliance overlay (not only turning: on a housing scheme it checks splays, junction spacing and turning spaces too), 🚚 Vehicle Tracking the vehicle sweep, highlighted while the sweep is on, and 🌱 Site conditions the soil and climate record — on an event site it reads ⛰️ Site conditions and shows the event's own flood, ground and weather instead: the flood zones, ground conditions and typical weather with their sources, in 4 · Event. Each does exactly what its ✅ Checks menu entry does, and like that menu is greyed out for someone viewing read-only. On an event site with the crowd simulation beta, 👥 Crowd simulation heads the list.

The canvas

The drawing area. Pan by dragging with the right or middle mouse button; zoom with the scroll wheel. On a touch screen, drag with two fingers to pan and pinch to zoom. Everything you generate or place appears here and stays editable.

Show zones, cable runs and indicative routes

The tick boxes in the bottom-left corner of the canvas choose what the plan shows while you work. Each appears only where it applies, and the bar is hidden when none does.

• Show zones — the areas drawn on the plan: green and landscaped areas, existing buildings and car-park areas, and on an event site the event zones and parking areas. Water always shows. Untick it to see and work on what lies underneath. While the zones are hidden you cannot select them, and a zone that was selected is deselected.
• Show cable runs (event sites, and any site with power runs) — hides the power runs in every 2D view, including sketch views, issued sheets and the DXF, and it is saved with the design.
• Show privacy screens (event sites, and any site with a screened Heras run; 2D and Sketch) — hides the dashed line on the screened face of each Heras run in every 2D view, including sketch views, issued sheets and the DXF. It is saved with the design. 3D is not affected, and the screens stay in the schedules and the hire.
• Show indicative routes (event sites, or wherever one is drawn) — the indicative vehicle routes and pathways.

Show zones and Show indicative routes are your own view of the live plan, in 2D and 3D. They are remembered on this device and are not saved in the design. They never change a sketch view, an issued sheet, a PDF or DXF export, a report, a schedule or any figure, and the checks still count what they hide. Sketch views have their own per-view categories for that.