Adding a Patio

Realtime Landscaping Architect makes it easy to build patios of any shape and size. Patios are especially useful on sloping and uneven terrain because of the flat building surface they provide. A wide variety of patio materials is included, such as brick, stone, flagstone, concrete, and more.

To add a patio:

1.   Click Add Patio.

2.   Draw the patio's outline by clicking to add points. Press Backspace to remove the last point. Press Esc to cancel.

3.   Click the starting point to close the outline. Or, right-click to automatically join the last point to the first.

Adding Stairs

See Adding Patio Stairs for instructions on how to add stairs to your patio.

Adding Patios to Sloping Terrain

Patios provide a flat building surface upon which decks, rockery, lawn furniture, and even houses can be placed. This is shown in the following landscape design:

Customizing the Plan View

Patios can have a unique appearance in the plan view. This is useful, for example, when you want the plan view to have a hand-drawn look. To do this, check the Custom appearance in each view option. Two tabs will appear: Plan and Perspective. These allow you to customize how the patio appears in each view. Uncheck the option if you want the patio to use the same material in both views. You can change this option at any time.

Tips:

•      Adding patios is easiest in the plan view.

•      Be sure grid-snap is enabled, or it will be difficult to build your patio using exact dimensions. See Snap Settings for more information.

•      You can add stairs to your patio. See Adding Patio Stairs for details.

See also:

Patio Properties
Setting Object Properties
Selecting Objects
Editing Points
Adding Patio Stairs
Editing Objects