Create your first model

A model is one site: a plan of it, and the same ground in 3D. This lesson makes one.

What you need

A Lan3D account and a browser. Nothing is installed, and nothing has to be saved by hand — a model saves itself as you work.

Steps

1. Sign in. Use Continue with Google or your email and password. A brand-new account may wait for approval first; the page says so if it does.
2. Open Models. This is your library. Every model you make is a card here, and models other people share with you are listed under Shared with you.
3. Click New model. The dialog asks one question: how big is the area you are planning? Type a width and a height in metres — a back garden might be 20 × 15 m; a whole plot might be 60 × 40 m. Anything between 1 m and 200 m a side works, and you can resize the canvas later without moving anything you have drawn.
4. Click Create model. The editor opens with an empty plan on the left and the same empty ground in 3D on the right.
5. Name it. The name sits in the top bar. Click it, type a name — Front garden, Plot 14 — and press Enter.

How saving works

Look at the top bar after any change: it says Saving… and then All changes saved. There is no save button. Every version is kept as well — Version history in the bottom of the sidebar takes you back to any earlier state, at most a minute apart.

Next

Find your way around the editor walks through what each part of the screen is for.