> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://luw-ai.gitbook.io/luw.ai-studio/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://luw-ai.gitbook.io/luw.ai-studio/building/site-and-parcel.md).

# Site and parcel

Put your building on a real plot of land. Look up a parcel by address, set setbacks and orientation, shape the ground, or let Archiagent.ai set up the site from a land document.

Every project in Luw\.ai Studio has a **Site**: the piece of land your building stands on. A new project starts with a plain placeholder square. Swap it for your real lot and the Studio knows the boundary, the street side, the slope of the ground and the setbacks you have to respect, and so does [Archiagent.ai](/luw.ai-studio/luw.ai-ai-tools/archiagent.md) when it designs for you.

## Open the site

Press `1`, or click the **Site** row at the top of the **Scene** tab. The Studio switches to the Site phase, and the **Scene** tab shows the site's settings from top to bottom:

* **Property Line**: the outline of the lot
* **Address**: look up a real parcel
* **Parcel**: what the lookup found
* **Setbacks**
* **Terrain**
* **Orientation**

To get back to the building, press `2` or click your building in the list underneath.

## Find your parcel by address

1. In **Address**, start typing into **Street address**. After a few letters, matching addresses drop down below the box.
2. Click the right one. A picked suggestion carries the address's exact location, which helps the Studio land on the right lot.
3. Click **Find parcel**. The button changes to **Finding…** and the panel reads **Looking up the parcel and the streets around it…**.

The lookup can take a little while, because the Studio fetches several things in one go:

* **The lot outline**, which replaces the site's boundary.
* **The streets around it**, from OpenStreetMap. They're used to work out which edge of the lot faces the street.
* **The ground**: elevation data across the lot. A sloping lot gets real terrain; a flat one is left level.
* **Extra facts** where they exist: the zoning district, and for US addresses the FEMA flood zone.

If your building was standing outside the new boundary, the Studio moves it onto the lot.

When it's done, a summary line starting with **Lot set —** appears under the button. It lists what was found, for example the parcel number, the lot area, the county, the street the lot fronts and the flood zone. It also says when something couldn't be fetched, for instance when the road data or the terrain didn't come through.

If you click **Find parcel** with an empty box, you'll see **Type an address first.** If the address can't be found at all, the summary starts with **No parcel**. Check the spelling, or pick an address from the suggestions instead.

### Where parcel data is available

Parcel outlines come from public land-records services, so how good they are depends on where you are.

| Area                                         | What you get                                                                                                                                                                     |
| -------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| United States                                | Public parcel layers for most states: statewide where the state publishes one, and otherwise the counties that do.                                                               |
| Australia                                    | New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Australian Capital Territory.                                                                         |
| Anywhere else, or an address no layer covers | A stand-in rectangle of 60 × 100 ft around the address, with the note **Approximate rectangle — no public parcel layer covers this place. Draw the lot or correct its corners.** |

Every parcel carries a reminder: **DRAFT — parcel geometry from a public GIS service is not a survey. Confirm corners and setbacks against a recorded plat.** The outline is a good starting point for design, but it isn't a legal boundary.

{% hint style="info" %}
The zoning district only fills in where the parcel record carries one (New York City's records do, for example). Flood zones are only looked up for US addresses.
{% endhint %}

## Check the parcel details

After a successful lookup, the **Parcel** section shows:

* **APN**: the parcel number from the land records
* **County**
* **Lot area**, in square feet
* **Source**: the public service the outline came from
* any notes about the lot, such as the draft reminder above

## Adjust the property line

The **Property Line** row shows the lot's **Area** and **Perimeter** in your current units.

While you're in the Site phase, the lot's corners show up as small flags in the view. Drag a flag to move that corner, or drag one of the handles between two corners to add a new corner there.

For exact positions, click the pencil button on the **Property Line** row. Each corner gets a row with **X** and **Z** values you can type into. The bin button removes a corner (a lot always keeps at least three), and **Add point** inserts a new one. Click the pencil again to close the list.

## Set the setbacks

Setbacks are the distances your building has to keep from the lot's edges. The **Setbacks** section has a field for each, always in feet:

* **Front**, **Side** and **Rear**
* **Left (override)** and **Right (override)**, for when the two sides differ. Leave them empty to use **Side** for both.

Two more fields record where the numbers come from:

* **Source / citation**: the rule you took them from, for example a section of your local land-development code
* **Zone**: the zoning district, for example `RS-60`

If the site had no setbacks when you looked up the parcel, the Studio fills in common planning defaults of 20 ft front, 5 ft side and 15 ft rear, and says so in **Source / citation**. Replace them with your district's real figures. Setbacks you've already entered are never overwritten by a new lookup.

## See the slope: terrain and contour lines

The **Terrain** section controls how the slope of the ground is drawn:

* **Contour interval (site plan and 3D)**: **none**, **every 6 in**, **every 12 in** (the default) or **every 24 in**.
* **Show the contour lines in 3D**: tick it to see the lines on the ground in the 3D view as well as on the plan.

Below that, a line tells you where the contours come from. After a lookup it names how many lines were read and their source. If it says **No surveyed lines — contours are drawn from the sculpted ground.**, the lines simply follow whatever ground shape the site has, including your own sculpting.

### Show the site plan in 2D

Once your site has a parcel or setbacks, a **Floor plan** / **Site plan** switch appears in the bottom-left corner of the 2D view. Choose **Site plan** to see the lot and its surroundings instead of the floor layout.

## Shape the ground yourself

Press `G` (for ground), or pick **Terrain** under **Outdoor** in the **Build** tab. The Studio switches to the Site phase, and the sculpting controls appear in the **Build** tab:

| Brush       | What dragging does                                                        |
| ----------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Raise**   | Lifts the ground, up to 1 m per pass. Let go and drag again to go higher. |
| **Lower**   | Pushes the ground down, up to 1 m per pass.                               |
| **Flatten** | Levels the ground toward a target height, without ever overshooting it.   |
| **Smooth**  | Softens slopes and removes ridges. Flat ground stays flat.                |

Fine-tune the brush with **Size** (in metres), **Strength** and **Softness**, and choose a **Round** or **Square** tip. Press `]` to make the brush bigger and `[` to make it smaller.

With **Flatten**, set the **Target** height, or click the eyedropper (**Pick target height from the ground**) and then click the ground to copy its height. If you haven't set a target, your first click samples the ground under it.

Two buttons work on the whole lot at once: **Level lot** makes all of it flat, and **Clear terrain** removes the terrain altogether.

## Set the orientation

The **Orientation** section tells the Studio which way the lot faces:

* **Front (street) edge**: the edge of the lot that faces the street. **Auto — most north-facing edge** is the fallback. The list also names every edge with its compass direction and length, so you can pick the right one. **Find parcel** sets this for you when it finds the street.
* **North rotation**: how far, in degrees, true north is turned from the top of the plan. After a parcel lookup it's 0, because the plan is laid out with north at the top.

## Let Archiagent set up the site from a document

If you have a land or zoning document, such as a cadastral plan, a survey, a deed or a planning certificate, Archiagent can read the lot and the rules off it for you. You need to be [signed in](/luw.ai-studio/account/account-and-sign-in.md) on a plan that includes AI chat, and Archiagent uses your [credits](/luw.ai-studio/account/credits.md).

1. Bring the document in. Any of these works:
   * Drop the image or PDF onto the 3D view or the plan.
   * On an empty project's start card, use **Start from an image**.
   * Attach it in **Edit with AI** and ask Archiagent to set up your site.
2. When you drop or upload it, the Studio looks at it first. If it recognises land, it says **This looks like land.** Click **Set up my site**. If it guessed something else, choose **It's land — set up my site** instead. If it can't tell, it asks **What is this image?**, and you pick **Land**.
3. Archiagent traces the lot outline and, when the document gives the lot's area, scales the outline to match it. It also records the zoning rules it finds: setbacks, number of storeys, height limit and permitted floor area.
4. Before it draws anything, it asks you **Is this your parcel?**

### Confirm your parcel

The **Is this your parcel?** window shows the traced outline next to its **Area** (with the area from the deed, if there is one), its **Size** as length × width, and any **Setbacks**, **Floor area** and **Storeys** it recorded. If it traced the lot without a stated area, it warns you that the dimensions are approximate.

Take a moment here. Everything Archiagent designs afterwards is measured from this outline.

* **Yes, that's it** accepts the parcel, and Archiagent carries on.
* **It's wrong** opens a box where you describe what's off, for example that the lot is a long narrow strip, or which end faces the road. Click **Send correction**, and Archiagent traces it again and asks once more.

The window waits for one of those two answers. `Esc` and clicking outside it don't close it.

## Related pages

* [Walls](/luw.ai-studio/building/walls.md)
* [Floors and levels](/luw.ai-studio/building/floors-and-levels.md)
* [Archiagent.ai](/luw.ai-studio/luw.ai-ai-tools/archiagent.md)
* [Plugins](/luw.ai-studio/plugins/plugins.md), for the **Environment** plugin's ground cover, water and surroundings
* [Keyboard shortcuts](/luw.ai-studio/getting-started/keyboard-shortcuts.md)