Quick start guide

Updated 20 October 2026

Before you start

The designer runs entirely in your browser. There is nothing to install and no account to create. Your designs are saved automatically on the device you are using. To use it like a desktop app (and offline), choose Install app in the top bar or your browser's install option.

The screen has three parts: inputs on the left (Site, Criteria, Generate, Costs, Finance), the design view in the middle (Plan, Floors, 3D, Compare, Report) and the data panel on the right with the key figures, unit program, compliance and environment. On a phone, switch between them with the bar at the bottom.

In a hurry? Open the sample site. It loads a 6,000 m² site and generates options straight away, so you can explore every view before setting up your own project.

1. Set up the site

1. Find the location. In the Site tab, search an address or place and choose a result. The designer imports surrounding buildings (with heights where mapped), roads, trees and land use from OpenStreetMap. The location also sets the sun position for every solar check.
2. Look up the lot and planning controls (NSW). For a New South Wales address, the Site tab finds the cadastral lot at that point and its zone, maximum floor space ratio and maximum building height from NSW Government open data. Choose Use lot boundary to make the lot the site, with the frontage on the edge facing the street, and Apply planning controls to copy the FSR and height into Criteria. Check the values against a planning certificate before relying on them.
3. Import terrain (optional). This samples a digital elevation model around the site and builds a terrain surface, shown as contours in plan and a surface in 3D. Buildings sit on the lowest ground under their footprint, and basement excavation is measured against the real ground.
4. Define the boundary. Choose Draw site and click the corners (the grid is in metres), then click the first point, double-click or press Enter to close. Or use Pick OSM shape to click a mapped lot or building outline, or Import DXF to use a survey: the largest closed polyline (or one on a layer named SITE, BOUNDARY or LOT) becomes the site, and spot heights become terrain.
5. Edit it. With Edit site, drag vertices, click a red midpoint dot to add a vertex, double-click a vertex to delete it, and click an edge to jump to its setback.
6. Set setbacks and frontage. The Edges table lists every edge with its length and setback. The dashed red line is the buildable envelope that results. Mark one edge as the frontage: that is where the basement ramp goes.

2. Set the design criteria

The Criteria tab groups every rule the generator and the compliance checks use. Defaults follow the NSW Apartment Design Guide. Change anything to suit your planning controls.

• Planning controls: maximum height and storeys (the effective storey limit is shown), FSR, site coverage, building separation by height, deep soil and open space targets.
• Building form and circulation: minimum and maximum wing depth, floor-to-floor heights, ground floor use (residential or retail), corridor width, core size, units per core, maximum travel to a core, lifts per core, wing length, courtyard width, tower plate size, wall thicknesses and window-to-wall ratio.
• Unit typologies: each type has a name, bedrooms, minimum and maximum net area, minimum frontage and target mix. Add your own types (for example a 2-bed plus study) and give them a colour.
• Dwelling rules: minimum bedroom dimension, living-room widths and the maximum habitable depth from a window.
• Environment: hours of midwinter sun needed, the share of units that must get it, the maximum share with no sun, and the cross-ventilation target.
• Basement parking: spaces per unit type, visitor and retail rates, bay, aisle and ramp sizes, level height, maximum levels, basement setback, accessible bays, grid alignment and ramp position.
• Custom rules and ratios: write your own checks and KPIs with metric names, for example a rule efficiency >= 72 or a ratio cost / nsa.
• Presets: save any combination of criteria, mix, costs and sales as a preset and apply it to future projects.

Prefer words? In the Generate tab, describe the project ("8 storeys, FSR 3:1, mostly 2-beds, retail at ground, one car space per unit") and choose Set criteria with AI. Review the values it sets in the Criteria tab.

3. Generate options

In the Generate tab, tick the typologies to try (linear bar, L, U, courtyard, H and tower) and choose what to optimise for: a balanced score, maximum yield, solar access and open space, or maximum profit. Press Generate options.

The generator searches orientations aligned to the site and at regular angles, three wing depths, and packing strategies for each typology. It keeps the separation your controls require, sets storeys under the height and FSR caps, plans every floor and the basement, runs the solar analysis and ranks the results. Each option card shows units, net sellable area, FSR, storeys, midwinter sun and profit, with a badge for compliance failures or warnings.

With Live on, options regenerate whenever you change the site or criteria. Live pauses automatically when you start editing buildings by hand, so your edits are never overwritten.

Townhouses, duplexes and house lots

For low and medium density, set Project type to Houses at the top of the Criteria tab, or open the houses sample (a 6,300 m² site in Blacktown). Changing the project type clears the current scheme and generates new options.

• Townhouses: rows of attached dwellings facing the street and a shared rear lane, with a driveway linking the lane to the street. Set the dwelling width and depth, front yard, rear garden, driveway width, the most dwellings in a row, bedrooms, garage spaces and a floor area cap.
• Duplex lots: two attached dwellings on each lot, with a minimum lot frontage and size.
• Detached house lots: a house-and-land subdivision with a minimum lot frontage, size and maximum depth. The generator tries lots along the existing street and, where the site is deep enough, a new road through the site with lots on both sides.
• Dwelling envelope: storeys, floor-to-floor height, pitched or flat roof, front, side and rear setbacks inside each lot, maximum house depth, lot coverage, landscaped area, private open space and parking per dwelling.

Each lot is checked for size, frontage, coverage, landscaping and private open space, and each dwelling gets a garage and a room layout over one or two storeys (click it in Floors to see the rooms). In Finance, enter a sale price per dwelling for each type, or tick Sell house and duplex lots as vacant land to test a land-only subdivision at a price per m² of lot. The Excel export adds a lot schedule, and the DXF adds lot, road, driveway and garage layers.

4. Refine by hand

• In Plan, click a building to select it. Drag it to move, drag the red handle to rotate (hold Shift to snap to 45°), and drag the white squares to change its length and width.
• The Selected building panel sets the typology, dimensions, wing depth, storeys, rotation and orientation exactly, and can duplicate or delete the building.
• Add building places any typology in the middle of the envelope. Fill to max storeys and Fit storeys to FSR set heights for every building in one step.
• In Floors, click an apartment to see its rooms and checks, and change its typology. That run of units is re-planned on every typical floor.

5. Read the floors, parking and environment

The Floors view steps through every level: the ground floor (retail tenancies if you chose retail), the typical floors and each basement. Units are coloured by type with their net area; cores are hatched; corridors and service spaces are shaded. Switch to Sun hours to colour each apartment by its midwinter sunlight.

Basement levels show the ramp, aisles, bays (accessible bays in blue) and storage cages. The designer adds levels until the parking demand from your rates is met, up to the maximum you set. If a level is not needed, none is drawn.

In 3D, colour the scheme by building, height, unit type or sun hours, show the context, terrain and basements, and drag the time slider or pick a date to see real shadows. Shadows in the Plan toolbar draws the same shadows in plan.

6. Set costs and finance

The Costs tab is a bill of quantities measured from the current design, from site preparation and excavation to lifts, fit-out and external works. Every rate is editable, and four markups (preliminaries, builder margin, design and construction contingency) are applied on top. Add custom lines that scale with any metric, such as solar panels per m² of roof.

The Finance tab adds land (a rate per m² or a fixed price), stamp duty, sale prices per m² for each typology and retail, GST, selling costs, professional fees, statutory contributions per unit and finance. It reports gross and net realisation, total development cost, profit, margin on cost and revenue, residual land value at your target margin, and a sensitivity grid for price and cost changes.

7. Compare, share and export

• Compare lays the generated options (or up to four saved designs ticked in My designs) side by side, with the best value in each row highlighted.
• Share creates a private link. Choose view-only, or allow recipients to make their own editable copy. Links expire after 90 days.
• Export downloads an Excel report, CAD drawings (DXF), a BIM model (IFC4), a 3D model (OBJ), a plan image (PNG) or the project file (JSON), which you can open again on any device. Print / PDF report builds a printable report with drawings and figures.

Keyboard and mouse shortcuts

Troubleshooting

• "No building fits the buildable envelope": reduce the setbacks, the minimum wing depth or the separation, allow more typologies, or check the site was drawn in metres.
• FSR is well under the limit: the height, coverage or parking may be the binding control. Try more storeys, a taller tower typology, or a lower separation if your controls allow it.
• Too many basement levels: lower the parking rates if your DCP allows, change the grid alignment or ramp position, or reduce the basement setback.
• Location search or OpenStreetMap import fails: these use public open-data services and can be busy. Wait a minute and try again, or draw the site and work without context.
• Designs missing: designs live in the browser on the device where you made them. Private windows and clearing site data remove them, so export important projects as a project file.