Underlays Overview
Place a PDF plan or site photo beneath your canvas and trace it into a detailed garden design.
Underlays let you import existing site documentation — architect drawings, survey plans, aerial photos, or scanned hand sketches — and use them as a locked tracing reference beneath your garden design. Each underlay sits below your drawing entities, so it stays out of the way while you work. You can control transparency, visibility, and lock state independently for each underlay from the Layers tab. If you have a DXF or SVG with editable geometry, use CAD Import instead — that converts lines and shapes into selectable entities rather than a background image.
Open the Underlays import wizard
In the top toolbar, open the Import menu and choose Underlays. The Underlays import wizard opens as a full-screen panel with a four-step progress indicator: File, Adjust, Size, and Finish.
Import an underlay
Go to File > Import and choose the underlay type:
- PDF Underlay — for PDF documents
- Image (then choose Underlay purpose) — for JPEG, PNG, or WebP files
- CAD File — for DXF files
After import, the underlay appears at the center of the canvas in its own locked layer named after the file.
Adjust underlay opacity
Select the underlay in the Layers panel (click the layer row to select all entities on it, or unlock the layer and click the underlay directly). In the Inspector, use the Opacity slider to reduce the underlay's visual weight.
A setting of 30–50% opacity is typically comfortable for tracing — the underlay is visible enough to trace but does not compete with your drawing.
Reduce opacity while tracing, then increase it again when you need to check alignment.
Lock and unlock underlays
Underlays are locked by default to prevent accidental movement. The lock state is shown by a padlock icon on the layer in the Layers panel.
To temporarily unlock an underlay (for repositioning or scaling): 1. Right-click the underlay layer in the Layers panel 2. Choose Unlock Layer 3. Reposition or scale the underlay 4. Right-click the layer and choose Lock Layer to re-lock it
Locked underlays do not receive pointer events — clicks pass through to drawing entities above them.
Use two points that are as far apart as possible — a longer baseline produces a more accurate scale.
Calibrate scale
After importing a PDF or image underlay, the scale may not match the canvas coordinate system. Use the Calibrate Scale tool (Tools > Calibrate Scale) to align the underlay's real-world dimensions with the canvas.
See the Calibrate Scale article for step-by-step instructions.
Export behavior
Underlays are excluded from exports and prints by default. They are tracing references, not part of the deliverable drawing.
If you want an underlay to appear in an export (for example, to show the original survey plan alongside your design), open the Export dialog and toggle Include Underlays in the layer options.
Keep underlays excluded from client-facing PDF exports to produce cleaner presentation drawings.
Control export visibility
Whether an underlay appears in a PDF or image export is determined by its visibility toggle. A visible underlay is included in exports alongside your drawing; a hidden underlay is excluded entirely. To produce a clean client presentation without the reference document, click the eye icon next to the underlay row in the Layers tab to hide it before exporting. To show the original survey plan alongside your design, leave it visible.
Hide underlays before a client-facing export to produce cleaner presentation drawings.
Deleting an underlay is permanent. Expand the underlay row in the Layers tab and click Delete Underlay. If you only want to hide it temporarily, use the visibility toggle instead.
Underlays are scoped to the active workspace context. Underlays imported in the Site Survey workspace are kept separate from underlays in the 2D design canvas — each context shows only its own reference images.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have multiple underlays in the same drawing?
Yes. Each import creates a separate entry in the Underlays section of the Layers tab, with its own transparency, lock state, and visibility toggle. A common setup is a PDF survey plan and an aerial photo, each scaled independently when imported.
My PDF has multiple pages — can I choose which page to use?
Yes. When you select a multi-page PDF in the import wizard, a page selector appears so you can pick the sheet to bring in. To use a second sheet, run the import again and choose a different page — each page becomes its own underlay.
The underlay scale looks wrong after import. How do I fix it?
Scale is set on the Size step of the import wizard, where you click two points on a known dimension and enter the real-world distance. If the scale is wrong, delete the underlay and re-import it, taking care to set the two reference points and distance accurately on the Size step.
Can I trace over an underlay with Bezier or polyline tools?
Yes — that is the primary use case. The underlay is locked after placement, so use any drawing tool (line, polyline, Bezier, arc, freehand) to trace shapes directly on top. Locked underlays do not intercept clicks, so snapping and selection work normally on the entities you draw.
How do I keep the underlay out of my exported PDF or image?
Open the Layers tab and click the eye icon next to the underlay row to hide it. Only visible underlays are included in image and PDF exports. You can re-show it at any time without losing your scale or position.