2D Design Tools

Overview

Every tool in the 2D editor lives inside one of four modes:

• Edit Plants
• Draw Shapes
• 2D Background
• Build

Switch between modes using the buttons at the top of the screen.

This page walks through each mode in detail. For the broader layout (header, sidebar, 3D preview), see Interface Overview.

Prefer to watch? Most sections below open with a short video (about 30 seconds each), and the whole set is on YouTube as the Chapter 1 playlist.

Edit Plants

The default mode. The plant library appears in the sidebar, and the canvas is set up for arranging plants you've placed.

Placing plants

The most direct way is to drag a plant from the sidebar onto the canvas. A faint outline shows its mature size while you drag, so you can space things accurately.

There are two other ways to start placing a plant:

• Click the plus button on its card in the sidebar.
• Hover over the card and press A — handy when your hands are already on the keyboard.

All three put you into add mode. While you're in add mode, every click on the canvas drops another instance of the same plant — keep clicking to fill out a row or cluster. Press Escape, or switch to another tool or mode, to leave add mode.

Selecting plants

• Click a plant to select it
• Drag across empty canvas to draw a selection box — everything inside gets selected
• Shift + click adds (or removes) a plant from the current selection
• Ctrl/Cmd + A selects every plant in the garden
• Click empty canvas or press Escape to deselect

Moving, copying, and deleting

Selected plants behave like a single unit:

• Drag any one to move the whole selection together
• Ctrl/Cmd + C, Ctrl/Cmd + X, and Ctrl/Cmd + V copy, cut, and paste
• Ctrl/Cmd + D duplicates the selection in place
• Delete or Backspace removes the selection

Grouping

Grouping turns several plants into a single moveable cluster — useful for repeating a design motif or keeping a planting bed together.

• Ctrl/Cmd + G groups the current selection
• Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + G ungroups it again
• Clicking any plant inside a group selects the whole group. Original spacing is preserved when you ungroup.

Undo and redo

Ctrl/Cmd + Z undoes the last change. Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + Z redoes it. The history is per-garden and resets when you leave the editor.

Plant limits

Each garden can hold up to 500 plants. You'll see a friendly warning when you cross 300 — the editor still works, but very dense gardens can be slower to redraw.

Draw Shapes

Use Draw Shapes mode for garden beds, paths, lawn edges, fences, and any other freeform outline. A small toolbar appears above the canvas with the shape tools:

• Rectangle R — drag from corner to corner
• Ellipse E — drag to define an oval or circle
• Polygon P — click to add vertices; click near the first vertex (or press Enter) to close the shape
• Line L — click two points to draw a straight line
• Curve C — click points along a smooth curved path
• Pen B — Bézier pen for precise curved outlines

Press Escape at any time to cancel a shape in progress.

Stroke and fill

The Draw Shapes sidebar gives every shape a stroke colour, stroke width, fill colour, and fill opacity. Select a shape after creating it to tweak any of these.

Trace Your Real Yard

2D Background mode lets you upload a reference image and trace your garden over it. Common uses: a satellite photo, an aerial photo of your existing yard, a house blueprint, or a site plan from a landscape designer.

• Click Upload image in the sidebar to add a JPG or PNG.
• Drag the image on the canvas to reposition it. Drag its corner handles to resize.
• In the sidebar, set the image's width and depth in feet or metres to scale it correctly — and lock the aspect ratio with the chain icon if you don't want it stretching.
• The opacity slider dims the image so it stays out of your way while you draw and plant on top of it.

The background image lives behind everything else in the canvas to serve as a reference. Note that it appears only in the 2D canvas, not the 3D view.

Build

Build mode adds buildings and other structures to your garden — anything from a small shed to your full house.

Footprint and walls

Start by drawing the footprint. With nothing selected, the sidebar offers two cards: Rectangle for a simple house, garage or shed, and Polygon for an L or T shape, which gets a roof per wing. Pick one (or use the matching toolbar button, or press R / P) and draw on the canvas. Every new footprint becomes a building with default walls and a roof.

In the sidebar's Walls tab, set the wall height in feet/inches or metres.

Roofs

In the Roof tab, pick a roof type per section:

• Gable — peaked roof with a straight ridge
• Hip — slopes down on all four sides
• Shed — single sloped surface
• Pyramidal — symmetric peak with no ridge
• None — flat top, no roof

For complex buildings, click Re-fit roof to walls to break the footprint into rectangular sections automatically. Each section gets its own roof type and ridge height — step through them with the ‹ › arrows in the sidebar.

Navigating the canvas

These shortcuts work in every mode:

• Mouse wheel or pinch — zoom in and out
• Hold Space and drag — pan the canvas. Releasing Space returns you to your previous mode.
• Ctrl/Cmd + + and Ctrl/Cmd + - — zoom from the keyboard
• Ctrl/Cmd + 0 or Zoom to Fit — fit the whole garden on the canvas, including any shapes, buildings, and background images

For the complete shortcut list across every mode, see Keyboard Shortcuts.

Where to go next

• Plant Library — how to find and customise plants
• 3D Visualization — see your design from any angle
• Seasonal Planning — how the year plays out in your garden
• Printing & Exporting — turn your design into a planting plan