Plot studio

For landscape designers and installers

Show the client their yard, measured, before the first site visit

Type the address and Plot studio lays out the property as a to-scale plan: the aerial photo in feet, the lot line, the buildings and the slope. Draft the design on top of it, and walk into the first meeting with something real to talk about.

Get early access Open an example plan
A plan in Plot studio: the lot traced over an aerial photo, with raised beds, a brick circle and path and a rain garden, a compass, a scale bar and a title block giving the frame in feet and the printed scale

The workflow

From an address to a proposal, at your desk

Most firms can’t show a client anything until someone has driven out with a tape. Plot studio starts the job from the office, so the site visit confirms a plan instead of starting one.

  1. 01

    Start from the address

    Find the property and frame the lot. It arrives north up and in feet, with the aerial photo registered underneath.

  2. 02

    A measured base plan

    The assessor’s lot line, building footprints with their heights, and 1-ft contours are laid in for you, so the base plan is done before you start designing.

  3. 03

    Draft the design

    Draw beds, patios, paths, edging, fences, plantings and water from the catalogues, or have AI suggest a first layout. Either way you get real plan shapes you can move, resize and delete, not a picture.

  4. 04

    Talk it through with the client

    A sun map of the hours of direct sun across the yard, and a 3D view drawn from the same plan, with shadows for any day and hour.

  5. 05

    Quantities and a proposal

    Areas, lengths and counts are taken off the plan as you draw, and turned into a printable proposal with the plan on it.

  6. 06

    Share a link

    Send the client a read-only link to the plan and the 3D view, or invite your crew to edit it with you.

The same plan before anything is drawn: the aerial photo of the lot at scale, with a compass, scale bar and title block
From the address The lot at scale, north up, with a title block giving the frame in feet and the printed scale.
The plan with the design drawn: raised beds, a brick circle and path, benches and a rain garden traced over the aerial
With the design drawn Every bed, path and plant is a shape on a layer, so changing the design is an edit, not a redraw.
A sun map: deep blue shade along the north face of a school building, part sun at its edge, full sun over the beds
Sun map Full sun, part sun, part shade and shade across the property, for a month or the growing season: the planting conversation, settled with a picture.
A school garden in 3D: raised beds on gravel, a greenhouse, fruit trees and a fence
3D The plan stands up on its own, on flat ground or on the real slope, with nothing extra to model.

What’s included

Everything the first meeting needs

Aerial at scale
USGS imagery anywhere in the US, sharper MassGIS imagery in Massachusetts, and earlier flights to see how the site has changed.
Lot and buildings
The assessor’s parcel line and building footprints with heights, laid in automatically. Massachusetts first.
Contours and slope
1-ft elevation contours driving the 3D ground, and a slope map that shows grade and which way water runs, so you see where beds sit flat and where a wall or terrace is needed. Massachusetts first.
Design catalogues
Surfaces, edging, fences, decks and porches with stairs, sheds and other structures, water, and a plant catalogue with a slider from planting day to fully grown.
AI first drafts
A suggested layout made of ordinary plan shapes, to keep, change or throw away.
Sun and 3D
Sun path and shadows for any date and hour, a sun map of hours of direct sun, and a 3D view with a walk-through tour.
Walls
Retaining, garden and seat walls in block, fieldstone, granite, brick, timber or concrete, drawn at their real thickness, standing in 3D and casting shade.
Quantities
Square feet of each surface with base and gravel volumes, wall face, units, caps and drainage stone, linear feet of edging and fence, bed soil, plant counts, taken off the plan.
Proposal and print
A printable plan with a title block and scale, and a client proposal built from the takeoff, carrying your firm’s name, logo and contact details.
Sharing
Public, link-only or private plans, editors invited by email, and every published version kept.

Get early access

Plot studio is opening to a small number of landscape firms first, starting in Massachusetts. Tell us a little about your firm and we’ll set it up with you on one of your own jobs.

or email mark@visualboston.com