Your First Site

Create a site, define your site area, and get comfortable navigating the 3D view. By the end, you'll have a working project ready for terrain and design work.

Beginner · ~5 min read

1. Create a Site

A site is your project container — it holds terrain, entities, scenarios, and all your design work. Each site is tied to a real-world location.

  1. Open SiteCAD. You'll land directly in the 3D globe editor.
  2. Look for the site selector in the top-left corner. Click the + button (or "Start New Site" if this is your first visit).
  3. In the dialog, enter a name for your site — something descriptive like "Smith Farm" or "Backyard Redesign."
  4. Optionally add a description. Click Create Site.

Tip: Your site is saved locally in your browser. No account required. If you sign in later, you can enable cloud sync to access it from other devices.

2. Navigate the Globe

Before drawing your site area, fly to your property or project area. SiteCAD uses a full 3D globe — you can navigate anywhere on Earth.

  • Pan — left-click and drag to move across the surface
  • Zoom — scroll wheel, or two-finger scroll on a trackpad
  • Orbit — middle-click and drag to swing the view around; on a trackpad, hold Alt and left-drag
  • Tilt — hold Ctrl and left-drag
  • Look around — right-click and drag
  • Search — use the search bar to fly to an address or coordinates

Tip: Zoom in close enough to see terrain detail before drawing your site area. Street-level zoom gives you the best sense of the area you're working with.

3. Draw Your Site Area

The site area (also called the Area of Interest, or AOI, in older docs and the export schema) marks the rough outline of your project area. It tells SiteCAD where to focus — imagery, camera framing, and site-wide tools all key off this polygon.

  1. In the site panel (left sidebar), click the Draw button.
  2. Click on the globe to place vertices around your property or project area. Each click adds a corner point.
  3. Right-click to complete the polygon. SiteCAD closes the shape automatically.

Don't worry about precision. The site area is a rough outline, not a legal survey line. You can redraw it anytime by clicking "Redraw" in the site panel. For precise property boundaries, you'll use a Boundary entity later.

4. Set the Anchor Point

The anchor establishes a local coordinate system (East/North/Up in meters) for precise engineering work. Without it, entities are placed in global geographic coordinates.

  1. In the site panel, click Set Anchor.
  2. Click on the map to place the anchor at a meaningful reference point — a corner of your property, the center of your project area, or a known survey control point.

If you have survey data: use a surveyed RTK control point as your anchor for maximum accuracy. You can enter exact coordinates instead of clicking the map. This ensures your local coordinate system aligns with your survey.

5. Explore the Interface

With your site created and site area drawn, take a moment to orient yourself.

  • Scene Graph (left) — shows all entities in your site as a tree. Right-click here or use the + Create button to add new entities.
  • Inspector (right) — select any entity to see its properties — position, dimensions, parameters, and settings. Edit values directly here.
  • AI Assistant — open the chat panel to ask questions, create entities, or run queries against your site data. Try: "What entities do I have?"
  • Menu (hamburger) — access documentation, pricing, account settings, and export/import tools from the hamburger menu in the top-left.

Next Steps

  • Understanding Terrain — stack, grade, and visualize elevation data
  • Placing Entities — add and configure objects on your site
  • Core Concepts — deeper look at sites, scenarios, and entities