Help & Documentation

Hold Space and drag, or use the scroll bars. On a trackpad, use two-finger scroll to pan in any direction.

Use Ctrl + scroll wheel (or pinch on trackpad). The toolbar zoom buttons also work. Press Ctrl + 0 to fit the whole design into view.

The Layers panel lets you show or hide individual layers — Zones, Sectors, Plants, Animals, Water, Energy, Structures, Paths, and more. Hiding a layer doesn't delete anything; it just removes it from view temporarily.

Switch to the Select tool (arrow icon, or press V). Click any element to select it, then drag to move. Hold Shift to add more to your selection. Drag across empty canvas to rubber-band select multiple elements at once.

Press Ctrl + Z to undo. Press Ctrl + Y (or Ctrl + Shift + Z) to redo. The app keeps a full history for the current session.

The grid helps with alignment and spacing. Toggle it on/off and adjust cell size in Settings. Bold lines mark every 5th cell. When scale is set, grid squares represent real-world distances.

The compass shows north orientation. Set your site's true north angle in Settings — this affects sun arc calculations and helps you orient sectors correctly relative to actual sun and wind direction.

Yes — select the Freehand tool from the toolbar. Click and drag to draw. Useful for sketching rough ideas, contours, or water flow paths that don't need to be precise elements.

Make sure the zone is properly closed (at least 3 vertices), the Zones layer is visible, and the zone has a zone number assigned in Properties. Analytics only reads from closed, labelled zones.

Coverage is each zone's area as a percentage of total zoned area. It reflects relative proportion — not absolute hectares — unless you have set a site scale in Scale Manager.

Yes, overlapping zones are allowed. Elements in overlapping areas are assigned to the innermost (lowest-numbered) zone. For clean analytics, keep zones concentric and non-overlapping where possible.

Sectors map environmental forces onto your site: sun paths, prevailing wind, water runoff, fire risk, noise, wildlife corridors, and views. They help you position elements to work with — rather than against — natural energy flows.

Select the Sector tool. Click to set the origin point (usually your house), then drag to define radius and sweep angle. The sector appears as a wedge arc. Edit angles and radius in Properties after placing.

Sun, Wind, Water, Wildlife, Fire, Pollution, Noise, People, and Views. Each has a default colour. Rename any sector and assign a custom colour in Properties.

If you enter your site latitude in Settings, the app draws approximate summer and winter solstice sun arcs as a canvas overlay. These help visualise solar angles for passive solar design, shade placement, and seasonal sun access.

The Analytics Sector Analysis table shows how many elements fall within each sector's sweep area, broken down by plants and animals. This highlights which sectors are well-utilised and which may benefit from more design attention.

Open the Plant Library panel. Browse or search for a species. Click "+" or drag it onto the canvas. The element auto-assigns to the zone it lands in. Select it to edit name, variety, size, and other properties.

Open the Animal Library. Select a species (chickens, ducks, goats, cows, pigs, sheep, bees, rabbits, and more) and place it on the canvas. Set the quantity in Properties — this drives feed, water, labour, and yield calculations in Analytics.

Guilds are companion planting groups — a central tree surrounded by nitrogen fixers, ground covers, pest deterrents, and pollinator attractors. Create guilds in the Guild panel. They are shown as a ring overlay on the canvas and their combined needs and yields flow through to Analytics.

The Crop tool lets you draw a polygon bed directly on the canvas. Set the plant species, row spacing, and plant spacing — the app then calculates estimated plant count and annual yield for the bed based on its drawn area. Ideal for annual vegetable planning.

Use the water element types: Roof (rainwater catchment), Tank (storage), Pond, and Swale. Each has geometry inputs — area, depth, length — that feed directly into the water balance calculations in Analytics.

Select the relevant tool from the toolbar. Click to place waypoints along fences and paths, then double-click to finish. Structures appear on their own layer and are included in canvas captures for the PDF report.

Every element has resource needs (water, feed, labour, space) and yields (food, eggs, milk, manure, energy). The app aggregates these across your whole design and shows net surpluses and deficits by domain in Analytics — helping you close resource loops.

Supply comes from Roof catchment elements (catchment area x annual rainfall x runoff coefficient, expressed as a daily figure) plus Tank and Pond storage. Set annual rainfall in Project Settings, and enter roof area and runoff coefficient on each Roof element.

Net Balance = Daily Supply minus total demand (household + plant + livestock). Positive means a surplus; negative means a deficit. Storage capacity is shown separately as a buffer measured in days of supply.

Roof — collects rainwater from a catchment surface. Tank — stores water; set volume in Properties. Pond — stores and provides water; enter surface area and depth. Swale — passively captures and infiltrates runoff; enter length and width.

The Water Sketch layer shows animated flow arrows between linked water elements — visualising how water moves from roof to tank to swale to pond. Connect elements via the Water panel to see your network animated on the canvas.

The Water Budget layer draws labelled link lines between water elements showing daily flow rates — giving an at-a-glance view of how water is allocated across your network.

Open the Household system panel in Needs & Yields and enter your daily electricity load in kWh/day. This is the primary demand figure used in the Energy Balance.

Select the Solar Panel element and place it on the canvas — ideally within a Sun sector. Open Properties and enter daily generation capacity in kWh/day. Multiple panels are summed in the energy balance.

Select the Wind Turbine element and place it within a Wind sector. Enter generation capacity in Properties. Wind is shown separately from solar in the Analytics energy chart.

Any energy element that is neither Solar nor Wind — such as micro-hydro or biogas — contributes to "Other" generation in the energy balance.

Analytics shows: zone coverage and productivity, sector element distribution, plant yield by species, livestock production totals, water balance chart and metrics, energy balance chart and metrics, needs vs yields by domain (feed, water, labour, space, energy, food), and design gap recommendations with suggested actions.

Design Gaps are automatically detected shortfalls or risks in your design — for example an energy deficit, a single water source, overstocked zones, or high labour demand. Each gap shows severity (High / Medium / Low), deficit amount, causes, and specific suggested actions to address it.

The three chips at the top of Analytics show the health of Energy, Water, and Labour. Green = surplus or balanced. Amber = minor shortfall. Red = significant deficit requiring attention.

Plant yields require the species to have yield data in the Library (kg/year per plant). Species without yield data contribute 0. Add custom yield values by editing the species in the Plant Library panel.

Self-sufficiency % = total annual plant yield divided by estimated household food requirement (default 240 kg/year per person). 100% means your design produces enough plant food. Adjust household size in Project Settings to tune this figure.

Coverage is relative to total zoned area only. Areas of your site without a zone drawn are not counted — so percentages reflect the proportion of what has been zoned, not the entire site boundary.

Canvas captures require the design canvas to be visible. Make sure you are on the main Design view (not inside a modal) when you click Download Report. If images are still missing, try refreshing the page and regenerating.

The background is included when loaded from a file upload (stored as a base64 data URL). If you loaded it from an external URL, it may not be available due to browser security restrictions on cross-origin images.

The Calendar tab shows a monthly view of planting windows, harvests, and animal care tasks derived from the species and elements on your canvas. Navigate months with the arrow buttons at the top.

Use the filter pills at the top of the calendar. Choose from: All, Trees, Shrubs, Vines, Plants, Animals, Daily tasks, or Weekly tasks. Your filter preference is remembered between sessions.

Events come from species data in the Library — planting seasons, harvest windows, and animal care schedules. Adding more species with complete seasonal data to your design will populate the calendar further.

Projects are saved automatically to your browser's local storage. Your work persists between sessions on the same device and browser. Do not clear your browser's site data unless you have first exported a JSON backup.

Use the Export button in the Project panel to download a JSON file. This contains all elements, zones, sectors, settings, and your background image. Store it safely — it is your complete project backup.

Click Import in the Project panel and select your exported JSON file. The design loads and replaces the current canvas. Export your current work first if you do not want to lose it.

Yes. Use the Project Manager to create, rename, switch between, and delete projects. Each project has its own canvas, settings, background image, and analytics stored independently.