The Site & garden group in the toolbar holds three tools: Ground surface (paving, lawn) on P, Fence on J and Pool on B. All three are drawn the same way as a terrace — click the corners, press Enter to close — and all three are free.
Ground level and the plinth
With nothing selected, the properties panel shows a Site section. Its first two rows are one stored number read two ways:
- Ground level — where the ground outside sits, measured from project zero. Normally negative, because the building stands above it.
- Plinth — how high the ground floor stands above that ground, 0–3000 mm.
Move either and the other follows. It is a property of the site, not of the building: it changes what the base is built between and how much is dug out, never a floor’s thickness. The plinth is drawn in 3D, in section, and as the base band on every elevation; a basement simply sits below it and takes the base with it.
This is one number for the document, not per floor. It is also where the north arrow lives, because north is a property of the site.
Where the building goes below the ground level, the ground is cut away to let you see it — following the building, not its bounding box, so one sunken corner does not excavate the whole plot.
The foundation
Foundation sits under the lowest floor. Type offers four:
| Type | What is built |
|---|---|
| None (plinth only) | The mass between the lowest floor and the ground, and nothing more. |
| Strip footing | A spread pad under the wall line with the foundation wall off it. Strip width 600 mm and Depth 800 mm to start; Wall on it is the stem’s thickness, and 0 follows the exterior walls above, which is the usual answer. |
| Trench fill | One ring, top to bottom. Trench width 500 mm and Depth 1000 mm to start. |
| Raft | The floor is the raft, so only its thickened perimeter is built: Edge beam width 400 mm, measured in from the floor’s edge, and Edge beam depth 600 mm below its underside. |
Depth is measured from the ground — or from the floor where the floor is lower, so a basement’s foundation goes under its slab. Stating one deepens the base rather than hanging a ledge at grade.
Under the floor says what lies between the foundations: made ground under a floor that bears on it, or void (suspended floor) for a crawl space. A raft always bears on the ground, so it takes the fill.
In the 3D view, Ground switches between Solid, Grid and Off — a grid at the ground level shows a basement or a footing while the datum still reads.
Paved surfaces and lawn
Press P, pick a Finish — Block paving, Stone slabs, Concrete, Gravel or Grass / lawn — then click the corners of the zone: a paved yard, a walkway, the lawn. Draw a walkway as a long, narrow zone.
After placing, a surface has:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pattern | Running bond, Stack (grid), Herringbone or Basket weave — block paving only. |
| Unit length / Unit width | The paving unit itself, so the pattern is drawn at its real size. |
| Pattern angle | Rotates the coursing without rotating the zone. |
| Border / edging and Edging width | The edge restraint around the zone. |
| Level vs ground | Raise or lower the surface against the site datum. |
| Slope (fall) and Fall toward | The fall across the surface, and which way it drains. |
Fences
Press J and click the fence line point to point. The whole run is one fence, with one post at each corner. Styles are Wood, vertical slats, Wood, horizontal boards, Mesh panel and Metal bars, with Height, Post spacing, construction options and an optional Base wall underneath.
Gates are added along the run: + Add gate puts one on the fence, and each gate has its own width and swing. A gate is part of its fence, so moving the fence moves the gate with it. Drawing, gates, finishes and joining older fences are on their own page: How to draw a fence with gates.
Pools
Press B and click the corners of the water basin — the water is what you draw, and the coping ring is generated around it. After placing you can set Depth, Water below rim (the freeboard), whether there is a Coping ring and its Coping width, and the ladder.
What this doesn’t do
- The ground is a flat plane. There is no terrain modelling — a sloping site is drawn with the plinth and with per-surface levels, not with contours.
- No plot boundary line. A site plan’s red line has to be drawn with the sketch tool.
- Planting is furniture. Trees, shrubs and pots come from the furniture catalog, not from these tools.
- The foundation is not engineered. The shapes are drawn to the sizes you give them; nothing is sized from a load, and foundations are not in the takeoff.
Next
Terraces, decks and entrance steps for the built platforms, and the 3D view to see the site around the building.