Site Plan: Plot Boundary, Spot Levels, Contours, Terraces and Retaining Walls

The Site plan tools

Open **Site plan** in the tool rail. Every tool in it is drawn on the plan; picking one in 3D switches to the plan and arms it there.

**Site boundary** (`SITEBOUNDARY`, `SITE`): click each corner of the plot; press Enter to close. One per project: drawing again replaces it.

**Spot level** (`SPOTLEVEL`, `SPOT`): one click drops a level, at the height set as the next level in the Site panel.

**Contour** (`CONTOUR`, `CTR`): a line every point of which is at one height.

**Terrace** (`TERRACE`, `PADSITE`): a flat platform cut into the slope, with a graded edge.

**Breakline** (`BREAKLINE`, `BRK`): a crease the ground folds along, such as a ridge, a valley or the top of a bank.

**Retaining wall** (`RETAIN`, `RWALL`): holds earth back. The retained side is the left of the way you draw it.

**Sculpt**: a brush that raises or lowers the ground in 3D, with its size and how much each stroke moves.

The ground

The ground is a surface through every level, contour and breakline you draw, so a few spot levels are enough to give a slope.

**Terraces**: a terrace is level, with a batter down or up to the ground around it (**Batter 1 in**). Its panel shows its area and the cut and fill it takes.

**Retaining walls**: the **Retained height** and **Retained level**, the **Exposed level** on the other side, and its thickness.

**The house**: the building cuts a level pad into the slope it stands on, and roads are cut and filled along their length.

Settings › **Ground** sets the look of the site surface under the building.

Settings › Site

**Plot**: the boundary, the side that faces the street, true north and the datum level every level reads from.

**Rules**: the **Setback** a building must keep from the boundary and the **Height limit** above the datum. Massing blocks are checked against them.

**Standards**: International or United States, which sets bay sizes, aisle widths and setbacks.

**Sun**: latitude and longitude, a study day and an hour. The plan can show shadows at that hour, and the ground can be painted with how much sun it gets that day.

**Generate**: a whole site around the house: a drive, a terrace, beds, a lawn and planting, each made of the tools above so you can edit it. Pressing it again tries another; trying five and keeping the fifth is one undo.

Checks

A building that crosses the plot boundary is listed in the Issues tab under Site, and a massing block says whether it is inside the setback and within the height limit. See [Checks and issues](/docs/checks-and-issues).

Read next

• Roads and paving
• Fences and gates
• Landscape and planting
• Drainage

Frequently asked questions