Dynamics & Recording
Once a scenario represents what actually exists on the ground, SiteCAD switches into a more careful editing mode — recording what really happened instead of silently revising the plan, and locking the as-built record against casual changes.
Overview
Every scenario is either a design scenario or an actualized scenario. Design scenarios are planning sandboxes — ordinary editing applies. An actualized scenario is different: it represents what actually exists on the ground, so SiteCAD treats it as an official record rather than a sketch.
Two ways time enters an actualized scenario
Recording is the running history of an actualized scenario — manual edits, sensor readings, and anything else that happens over time, kept as a timestamped log rather than overwriting the current state.
Schedules are planned or expected changes — a construction phasing plan, a seasonal irrigation calendar — that describe what should happen in the future rather than what already has.
The two sections below cover the two safeguards you’ll actually run into while editing an actualized scenario: recording mode, and the baseline lock.
Recording Mode
On an actualized scenario, every edit needs to answer one question: is this revising the plan, or logging what actually happened? SiteCAD answers it with two edit modes.
Recording vs. Design edits
Recording mode logs your edit into the scenario’s history at the current moment — it’s how you tell SiteCAD “this really happened.” It’s the default mode on an actualized scenario.
Design mode revises the underlying plan itself, the same way editing works on a design scenario. On an actualized scenario this means changing what the official record says without adding an entry to its history.
If you turn recording off to make “just this once” a design edit on an actualized scenario, you’re quietly rewriting the official record instead of logging what happened. That’s rarely what you want — if you’re fixing a real mistake in the record, see the baseline lock section below instead. SiteCAD shows a confirmation dialog before letting you switch, specifically to catch this.
This setting is about your own edits only
Sensor readings, schedule firings, and other automated changes always get logged to the recording, no matter how this setting is set. Recording mode only controls whether your own manual edits get logged too — turning it off doesn’t pause or hide anything else that’s happening on the site.
Actualized Baseline Lock
The baseline is the scenario’s current as-built state — the official answer to “what does this site actually look like right now.” On an actualized scenario, the baseline is locked by default.
Why it’s locked
The baseline isn’t a scratch pad — it’s the record other people and tools trust as ground truth. Locking it by default means routine edits can’t accidentally overwrite that record. Day-to-day changes belong in recording mode (see above), which adds to the history without touching the baseline itself.
When unlocking is the right call
Unlock the baseline when you need to correct a mistake in the record — for example, a control point that was entered with the wrong elevation, or an entity that was never actually built the way the record shows. That’s a genuine correction to what the record says existed.
Unlocking is not the right tool for routine edits — those belong in recording mode (to log what’s happening on an actualized scenario) or in a design scenario (to plan a change before it happens). If you find yourself unlocking often, that’s usually a sign the edit belongs in one of those places instead.
It doesn’t stay unlocked
An unlock is deliberately short-lived. The baseline automatically re-locks when you close the site, when you switch modes, branches, or scenarios, and after about ten minutes without a change — so an unlock you forgot about doesn’t linger and leave the record exposed.
Unlocking is offered in design mode only, so correcting the record is a deliberate two-step move: switch to design mode, then unlock. In recording mode the padlock is there to tell you the state, not to be clicked.