A site plan is a detailed, scaled view of a property that includes building structures, landscaping, parking lots, utilities, and access paths and driveways. Site plans play a critical role in construction and urban planning because they help communicate designs clearly and are often required for permits and local approvals.
Site plans show:
Site plans help you plan projects accurately, communicate clearly with contractors and clients, support permit submissions, and improve safety and accessibility.
Site plans help you:
Site plans are useful for a wide range of applications including:
Step one of drawing a site plan is gathering all the information you'll need:
GIS stands for Geographic Information System. It is a computer-based framework for capturing, managing, and mapping all types of data for a specific location. Your local county government will allow you to access GIS information using the parcel number for your property (Accessor Parcel Number or APN).
In SmartDraw, you'll want to open the blank site plan template is located under the Floor Plans - Commercial category.
The blank site plan template will have all the tools and symbols you need to complete your site plan.
SmartDraw's site plan template is set to a default scale of 1 inch = 8 feet. You can change the scale at any time from the SmartPanel to any standard scale or set your own custom scale.
A site plan should begin with a broad overview of the plot. This is your basic outline to which you can slowly add elements. Begin by drawing the property lines for the plot in your site plan.
Once your site plan template is open, you can start drawing from scratch. Or optionally, SmartDraw lets you import a PDF of an existing plan or your GIS or Google Maps image, scale it, and then draw on top of it.
Click the Insert command on the Home tab and choose PDF or Image. Browse your computer for the file. Make sure you select Import as a Background Image. Then click OK.
Pick a reference object in the imported file you know the exact dimension of. If you started with a Google Maps image, the scale lines works perfectly. Once you picked your reference object, click on Scale Image with Reference Line in the SmartPanel to the left of your drawing area. This tool will help you draw a temporary line and use it to automatically re-scale your import.
Now you're ready to drag-and-drop building structures and landscaping elements. Add parking areas and walkways if applicable. You can also create buildings by drawing the walls yourself using SmartDraw's intuitive wall building tool.
Add colors and photo-realistic textures to highlight landscaping elements like water, grass, bricks, paving stones, and more.
Site plans should add a label showing North on the site. You can also add labels to structures and key elements you want to to highlight. Mark setbacks as needed. Add dimension lines to show scale and spacing.
The best way to understand site plans is to look at some examples of them. Click on any of these site plans included in SmartDraw and edit them:
Discover why SmartDraw is the easiest site plan creator.