Pool site plan software for permit drawings

What can you draw in the site plan?

Each project has one site plan, drawn to scale on layers you name. The drafting tools cover lines, polylines with arcs, circles, splines, text, leaders, hatches, dimensions and your own reusable symbols. Beside them sit the objects the checks and the quote read: pools and spas from size presets, decks and deck bands, the lot, the house and other buildings, fences, gates and utility runs. Lengths show in feet and inches, decimal feet or metres.

• Lot from survey calls: type the plat's bearings and distances, one call per line, and the plan shows the misclosure before it draws the lot.
• Six starter backyards, each with a house, a pool and a spa, drawn at the lot, house and pool sizes you type.

Can you trace over a survey or a photo?

A survey PDF page goes under the drawing at its printed size, scaled from the plat's stated scale or from two points and a known distance. A project photo works the same way once you set its scale. Backgrounds are never printed, written to DXF or used as a design image. A property line traced from an aerial photo is marked on screen and on every sheet as not a survey, and a lot drawn from the survey's calls reads From the survey.

How do the project checks work?

Checks are limits you type for the job, such as pool at least 5 ft from the property line. The plan measures the drawing and marks anything that misses a limit, in the Checks list and on the drawing. No city's or code's number applies unless you add it, and each check has a field for where the rule comes from. Results read Meets your limit, Meets your limit only just, Doesn't meet your limit, Not checked yet or Needs a qualified person, and none of them reads as a pass.

• Distances: water's edge to a lot line, back of the beam to the house, or a multiple of the pool's deepest depth.
• Inside the property lines, and clear of easements.
• Fence and wall heights, gates that swing away from the pool, and gates recorded as self-closing and latching with the latch height.
• Whether the drawn barrier closes all the way round each pool, and whether anything climbable sits just outside it.
• Distance from overhead power lines, from gas, water or power runs, and from GFCI outlets to the water.

What is in the permit sheet set?

Export, then Permit set, prints one vector PDF built from the plan and its permit checklist. Every sheet has the title block, a blank box for the reviewing office and an advisory footer. Items still open print in red on their own sheet and are listed on the cover.

• G-0 Cover and index: project, address, owner, your company, issue status, the sheet index, the readiness summary, every open item and the files that go with the package.
• A-1 Site plan (the plot plan): the whole site, with setbacks from each pool's water's edge and back of beam to every property line and to the house, each deck's and pad's distance to the nearest lot line, a north arrow and a scale bar.
• A-2 Pool plan and sections: pools, spas and deck bands at a larger scale, long and cross sections, overall dimensions, depths, gallons, features, depth marks and main drains.
• E-1 Equipment and electrical: the equipment pad enlarged, utility runs by service, each GFCI outlet's distance to the water, and a bonding loop labelled as a drawing aid for the electrician to verify.
• S-1 Barrier and safety: fences and walls with their heights, each gate's self-closing and latching record and latch height, house doors and windows with their recorded protection, and any gap in the drawn barrier in red.
• C-1 Drainage: spot elevations, flow arrows, drain runs and drainage symbols.

How do you save and issue a permit set?

The Permit sets page keeps one saved set per project, for the whole site or for one option. A set holds its issue status (Draft, For review or For permit submission), which prints on every sheet, along with the paper size and orientation, which sheets to include, a short note per sheet and the title block fields: contractor license number, permit or application number, prepared by and general notes. The cover sheet always prints. Package files such as the survey, an engineer's letter, signed forms and equipment cut sheets are listed on the cover and stay as you uploaded them. After the homeowner accepts an option, the sheets say when the drawn work differs from the accepted proposal.

Does it work with CAD?

Export writes the drawing as an AutoCAD 2000 ASCII DXF in feet at full size, in your browser. Layers keep their names, colours, lineweights and line types. Lines, arcs and circles stay exact, while splines and pool outlines become short straight pieces, and the summary counts them. You can write the plan's own coordinates or, when the plan has them, survey eastings and northings. Import takes an ASCII DXF up to 20 MB: you pick the layers and where it goes, and the summary lists what came in and what was left out.

How does the plan fill the quote?

The Quote numbers tab lists what the drawing measures, each with a line saying how it was measured: pool footprint, interior finish area, waterline and coping length, deck area, fence length, gate count, excavation and more. Use these in the quote writes them into the project's measurements. A quote line tied to one of them takes the plan's quantity and says what it measured, for example Fence: 120 LF.

Is the 2D plan linked to the 3D view?

The 2D plan and the 3D design are one document, so a change in 2D shows in 3D and a change in 3D shows in 2D. Each option drawn on the plan opens in 3D, and when you send it, its Aerial, Patio and Poolside pictures are saved with it. The quote numbers, the 3D pictures and the permit set all come from that one drawing.

What does the site plan not do?

It does not certify survey boundaries, code compliance or permit acceptance. The issue status is Draft, For review or For permit submission, and nothing prints an approval, seal or stamp. Every permit sheet carries this footer: "Prepared with PoolQuote as an advisory drawing aid. Not a code review, a building department decision or an engineering certification. Dimensions come from imagery and survey data entered by the contractor; the survey and field conditions govern." You stay responsible for the measurements, the code that applies, engineering and the submission. Where your office wants plans signed and sealed, the architect or engineer does that outside PoolQuote.

How do you get started?

Select Get started to pick a plan (the pricing page lists them) and set up your workspace. Then open a project, go to its Plan step and start from the survey, a starter backyard or blank paper. The guide to drawing a pool site plan for a permit walks through a full example on a 60 by 120 ft lot.