A site plan is a scaled drawing of a property that includes all buildings and other structures, landscaping elements, parking areas, utilities, and paths. SmartDraw makes creating site plans easy. You can import existing floor plans, site plan documents, or even satellite images from Google maps, adjust them to match your scale and continue editing and adding new plans in SmartDraw.
Start with a Site Plan Template
Open SmartDraw and navigate to the Floor Plans - Commercial category under New Document to open the Site Plan template.
Set the Scale
Set your preferred scale for your site plan using the Units & Scale options under Document Setup in the SmartPanel to the left of your main drawing areas. You can set and change this scale at any time. SmartDraw has a set of built-in standard engineering, architectural, and metric scales, and you can even set your own custom scale as needed.
Import an Existing Plan or Satellite Photo
SmartDraw lets you import a PDF and then draw to scale on top of it. You can import an existing survey file or a satellite photo of your site.
Click Insert and choose PDF or Image to bring in an existing floor plan or Google Maps image as your foundation. You’ll be able to scale it and layer your update site plan drawing on top.
You can then set the scale of your imported image or PDF to a reference line.
Read the articles below to learn how to import a background image and set its scale.
Learn more about importing a floor plan or Google Maps photo as a background image.
Learn how to scale the imported floor plan.
Add Building Outlines
You can start your site plan by dragging and dropping building structures. The building outlines in SmartDraw's Building Outlines library can be snapped to each other automatically to create a complex structure.
Adjust the Position of Any Wall
You can adjust the position of any wall along your building outline using its control arrows. Click on a control and move the wall in one of the two directions indicated on the control - up/down, in/out, or diagonally.
Adjusting the Length of a Wall
You can control the length of any wall more precisely by simply typing into the dimensions label for the wall.
Learn more about adjusting walls in building outlines.
Showing Dimensions
You can decide what dimensions you display on your site plan at any time using Dimensions in the Design tab.
Learn more about dimensions displays.
Add Parking
Add a parking area and parking spots if applicable by dragging and dropping parking symbols from the library to the left of your drawing area.
Add Landscape Features
Drag and drop landscape features like walkways and greenery. The site plan template comes with a few libraries of common landscape symbols docked to the left of your drawing area. If you see the feature you want there, just select it and drag it to where you want it to go.
Search for Symbols
To locate additional symbols in SmartDraw's vast library of icons, simply type a keyword into the Search for symbols field in the Symbols area of the SmartPanel to the left of your workspace. To start the search click the magnifying glass icon.
Symbols matching the query will be grouped by the libraries they appear in.
Hover over any symbol to see its name.
You can drag and drop symbols you find directly from the search results.
You can save the results for later use. To pin just the symbols that matched your search from a particular library, click on the plus icon next to the library's name and select Add result.
To pin all the symbols matching your query, click the star icon next to the search field.
See Symbol Labels Better
By default, symbols are displayed without labels in a minimalist style. You can hover over any symbol and look at its name as a tool tip.
If you want to see symbol names always displayed next to their symbol, you can change this setting using the Symbol Libraries modal. Click on More in the SmartPanel's Symbol section.
Toggle the Horizontal symbol labels on in the dialog.
Add Color
Once a symbol is in your workspace, you can change line and fill color in the Home tab to add some color to your design.
Select your shape and choose a fill color using the Fill options on the Home tab.
Add Text
The Text tool allows you to create labels for landscape features or zones in your site plan. For example, you can specify the types of trees you want to add. Just click on the Text button in the SmartPanel and type. You can also use the Line tool to draw an arrow to indicate what it references. First, draw the type of line you want: straight, curved or segmented, then click on Line Style in the Home tab to add arrowheads.
Export to PDF or Share
Export your drawing as PDF or PNG using the Export menu on the Home tab.
Or you can share your site plan using a link with clients, contractors, and engineers online. Click the Share button in the upper right corner of the app to generate a share link using the Copy Link option.