Technical Planning and Documentation
Visual Communication of Spatial Analysis
Produce a professional two-sheet site-analysis package: context and location plans, environmental diagrams, sections, figure-ground maps, keyed site views and a controlled CAD line-weight hierarchy.
Written teaching content: available for review
Video lessons have not yet been recorded. Written teaching content may be available for review below.
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Video lessons have not yet been recorded. Written teaching content may be available for review below. Where a demonstration is described, it is a production requirement for a later stage — there is no video, no player and no download on this page.
Review Written Course ContentReading only. This is not enrolment, booking, purchase, account access, a download or protected learning access.
- Written content: Available for review
- Video lessons: Not recorded
- Professional review: Not yet completed
- Enrolment: Not available
- Payment: Disabled
- Certificates: Disabled
- Downloads: Disabled
- Protected access: Disabled
Written course content
Course overview
Site analysis is only useful when someone else can read it. This course teaches the production of a complete two-sheet landscape presentation package for a real-world site: regional and local context, boundary and intervention area, topography, flood and tidal information, runoff and watershed paths, seasonal sun and wind analysis, vegetation and existing structures, circulation, sections, figure-ground mapping and keyed experiential views. It covers the graphic discipline that separates a professional sheet from a student board — line-weight hierarchy, consistent scales and north arrows, legends, callouts, sheet composition, PDF export checks and a source-file organisation that another person can pick up.
Professional problem addressed
Design and planning teams routinely receive site analysis that cannot be read at print size, has no scale reference and does not distinguish evidence from interpretation.
Real-world scenario
An architectural team is appointed on a waterfront-edge parcel and needs a two-sheet analysis package for the first design workshop: the client wants to see what the site does through a year — sun, wind, water — before anyone proposes a building.
What participants will learn
- Assemble regional, local and site-scale context at appropriate scales.
- Represent topography, flood and tidal information and runoff paths accurately.
- Produce seasonal sun-path and prevailing-wind diagrams from cited public data.
- Draw a longitudinal site section showing building and tree heights.
- Produce figure-ground, water, vegetation, buildings and circulation diagrams.
- Key and present experiential site views.
- Apply a CAD line-weight hierarchy and consistent sheet furniture.
- Compose, export and quality-check a two-sheet landscape PDF.
Skills developed
- Analytical drawing
- Environmental diagramming
- Line-weight and layer control
- Sheet composition
- Source citation for spatial data
Course outline
0 of 10 lessons open
Module 1 · 4 hours
Context, boundary and base information
Build a correct, cited base before any diagram is drawn.
Three scales, one legible story.
- Choosing scales that survive printing; what belongs at each scale.
- Location plan conventions: north arrow, graphic scale, key, boundary notation.
- Sourcing and citing public base data and imagery licences.
Practical task: Produce the regional, local and location plans from the supplied pack.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
Layer structure that keeps a package maintainable.
- Red-line boundary versus intervention area versus study area.
- Layer naming, colour and line-weight standard for the whole package.
- Recording existing structures and vegetation as surveyed or assumed.
Practical task: Set up the layer standard and draw the boundary and base layers.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
- Practical activity
- Context set and structured base file.
- Expected output
- Three context plans and a layered base drawing.
Module 2 · 6 hours
Environmental analysis
Show how the site behaves through the year.
Contours, spot levels, flood extents and tidal lines.
- Contour intervals and hierarchy; index versus intermediate contours.
- Representing flood-risk and tidal information, with the source and date on the sheet.
- Stating clearly that flood information requires specialist confirmation.
Practical task: Draw the topographic and water-context layer.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
Reading where water goes before anyone changes the ground.
- Deriving flow paths and catchment divides from contours.
- Representing runoff direction, low points and standing-water risk.
- Labelling derived analysis as derived, not surveyed.
Practical task: Produce the water and runoff diagram.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
Two diagrams that change design decisions.
- Sun-path geometry by season and latitude; what a planner needs from it.
- Prevailing-wind data by season: locating the source and stating the station and period.
- Diagram conventions that stay readable when reduced.
Practical task: Produce the seasonal sun-path and wind diagrams with cited sources.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
- Practical activity
- Full environmental diagram set.
- Expected output
- Topography, water, runoff, sun-path and wind diagrams.
Module 3 · 6 hours
Sections, figure-ground and site views
Explain the third dimension and the lived experience of the site.
Cutting the line that explains the site.
- Choosing the section line and justifying it.
- Vertical exaggeration and when to declare it.
- Representing building heights, tree canopies and datum consistently.
Practical task: Draw one longitudinal site section.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
Buildings, circulation, water and vegetation as separate readings.
- Figure-ground technique at two scales and what each reveals.
- Splitting themes: water, vegetation, buildings, circulation.
- Keeping diagram families visually consistent.
Practical task: Produce two figure-ground maps and the thematic diagram set.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
Photographs and views that argue something.
- Selecting three views that carry different information.
- View cones, callout keys and cross-referencing to the plan.
- Permissions, privacy and only using material you may publish.
Practical task: Key three experiential views to the site plan.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
- Practical activity
- Section, figure-ground pair, thematic diagrams and keyed views.
- Expected output
- Third-dimension and experiential analysis set.
Module 4 · 5 hours
Sheet composition, export and file discipline
Turn a folder of drawings into a package a client receives.
The graphic hierarchy that makes a sheet readable.
- Line-weight hierarchy: boundary, built form, contours, annotation.
- Graphic scales, north arrows, legends and callout conventions.
- Annotation sizing that survives reduction to A3.
Practical task: Apply the standard to every drawing in the set.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
Composition, export settings and a folder someone else can use.
- Distributing content across two landscape sheets with a reading order.
- Export settings, embedded fonts, vector integrity and file-size checks.
- Source-file organisation, naming, versioning and an issue sheet.
Practical task: Compose and export the two-sheet PDF and write the file-organisation guide.
Video lesson: Not recorded — written lesson above
Resource file not yet available. The written instructions on this page are complete and can be followed without any download.
- Practical activity
- Two-sheet presentation PDF and source-file organisation guide.
- Expected output
- Issued two-sheet package.
Practical project brief
- Setting and role
- Waterfront-edge parcel, synthetic study area with public open-data context. Architectural or urban-design team member preparing the analysis package..
- Client or agency context
- A design team beginning a feasibility stage, requiring analysis before any proposal.
- Study area
- Site and a defined surrounding study area at three scales.
- Planning question
- What does this site do through a year, and what must a design respond to?
Constraints
- Tidal and flood information requiring specialist confirmation
- Steep cross-fall in one quadrant
- Retained vegetation and existing structures
Required analysis
- Context at three scales
- Topography, water and runoff
- Seasonal sun and wind
- Section, figure-ground and views
Required assumptions
- Tree heights where not surveyed
- Vertical exaggeration where applied
- Flow paths derived from contour data
Required outputs
- Location and context plan
- Annotated site-analysis plan
- Environmental diagrams
- One longitudinal site section
- Two figure-ground maps
- Three keyed experiential site views
- Two-sheet presentation PDF
- Editable source-file organisation guide
Data used: Synthetic training data · Publicly available data · Learner-created data. Two-sheet PDF plus the file-organisation guide. Public or synthetic data only; no confidential client or agency material.
Learner deliverable: Constraints and opportunities plan
What a satisfactory output contains
- Location and context plan
- Annotated site-analysis plan
- Environmental diagram set
- One longitudinal section
- Two figure-ground maps
- Three keyed experiential views
- Two-sheet landscape PDF
- Source-file organisation guide
A reviewer can read every drawing at A3, trace each data source, and distinguish measured information from derived analysis.
How to improve it: Reduce annotation density, strengthen line-weight hierarchy and add missing source citations.
A training output for internal review only. It is not a survey, not a flood assessment and not suitable for statutory submission.
Quality-control checklist
- Every sheet carries north arrow, graphic scale and legend
- Annotation legible at A3
- Section line shown on the plan
- Views keyed to callouts
- Every dataset cited with source and licence
- Derived analysis labelled
- Export is vector and correctly named
Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Diagrams with no scale or north point.
Apply the sheet-furniture standard to every drawing.
Uniform line weights.
Set the hierarchy before drawing, not after.
Sun and wind diagrams with no source.
Name the data source, station and period on the sheet.
Using client or agency material for a training sheet.
Use public or synthetic data only.
Overloading one sheet.
Plan the reading order across both sheets first.
Assessment and review
Portfolio review of the two-sheet package against the rubric. No examination, grade record, certificate or completion claim.
Base accuracy
Boundary, contours and structures drawn correctly and cited.
Environmental analysis
Sun, wind, water and runoff shown with sources and periods.
Section
Section line keyed, datum stated, exaggeration declared.
Diagram family
Figure-ground and thematic diagrams visually consistent.
Views
Three distinct views, keyed and cross-referenced.
Graphic hierarchy
Line weights, legends, scales and north arrows consistent.
File discipline
Naming, layering and export settings reproducible by another person.
Reflection and improvement task
Print the package at A3 and list every element you can no longer read; fix those first.
Expected professional outcome
The learner can produce an issue-ready two-sheet site-analysis package with cited evidence and controlled graphics.
Government and planning-authority relevance
Authority officers and agency design teams assess proposals faster when analysis sheets follow these conventions.
Related courses
Related pilot courses
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- PractitionerWritten content available for review
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- FoundationWritten content available for review
Site Appraisal Fundamentals
Appraise a development site from desk study to site visit and produce a structured site appraisal note a client or project team can act on.
- AdvancedWritten content available for review
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The integrated capstone: take one client brief through analysis, policy, constraints, capacity, land use, circulation, public realm, environment, concept plan, report and planning-review presentation as a single professional workflow.
Enrolment status
Enrolment is not currently available. This course is still undergoing content, media and professional review.
Register Interest is an expression of interest only. It works without an account, creates no enrolment, no reserved place and no payment order.
Protected lessons, approved videos and approved resource files are not accessible. No protected file URL, signed link or download entitlement is created.
Payments are disabled. No price, checkout, payment provider, payment order or paid-course claim exists in the Academy.
Outstanding before enrolment could open
- Outstanding — Written course content is complete
- Outstanding — Professional content review is complete
- Outstanding — Required videos recorded, reviewed and approved, or the course approved as written-only
- Outstanding — Required practical resources approved and available
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Progress, assessment and certificates
Submission access is not currently available
Lesson and course progress tracking is not active. No progress record, completion percentage or completed lesson exists for any account, and no course can record progress until enrolment opens.
Practical assessments cannot be submitted. Submission access is not currently available: there is no active enrolment, no upload configuration and no authorised reviewer workflow in operation.
No assessment has been marked, reviewed, corrected or passed. Reviewer feedback, correction tasks and pass decisions are made by an authorised human reviewer and none exists.
No certificate is issued, approved or pending. A future Academy certificate would be a course-completion certificate only — not a professional licence, statutory qualification, accreditation or government-recognised award.
Certificate verification is disabled until a certificate is genuinely issued. No verification result is produced for any reference.
Assessment formats planned for the Academy
Written briefs, required deliverables and marking criteria are published inside the course content above for open review. None of them can be submitted or marked at present.
- Practical planning task
- GIS mapping exercise
- Site-appraisal task
- Feasibility assessment
- CAD or drawing task
- Revit coordination task
- Planning-report task
- Policy-assessment task
- Transport or access analysis
- Environmental or green-infrastructure exercise
- Final course project
Outstanding before completion or a certificate could exist
- Outstanding — Learner identity verified by an authorised member of staff
- Outstanding — Learner holds a valid active or completed enrolment
- Outstanding — All required lessons completed
- Outstanding — All required practical assessments passed
- Outstanding — A recorded assessment decision exists for every required task
- Outstanding — All requested corrections completed
- Outstanding — Course content professionally reviewed and signed off
- Outstanding — Authorised reviewer has approved completion
- Outstanding — Course certificate policy approved
- Outstanding — Certificate wording approved by Ideeplan Consult
- Outstanding — Course is officially available
- Outstanding — Unique certificate numbering and a secure verification route configured
Media status
Video lessons for this course
- Video lessons
- Not recorded
- Narration
- Professional narration — planned, not produced
- Captions
- Not yet produced
- Transcript
- Not yet produced
- Production plan
- Not prepared — written content incomplete
- Enrolment, payment and downloads
- Disabled
Video lesson: Not recorded. The written lesson on this page is complete and can be read in full without a video, an account, enrolment or payment.
Real professional classroom experience — every lesson
Applies to every future Academy lesson, software-based or not. The finished lesson presents as authentic professional training, professionally narrated and screen-led: video + written guide + supporting data + practical task + quality checklist + final named deliverable.
Lesson structure
- 1.Professional introduction.
- 2.Realistic project situation.
- 3.Learner role within that situation.
- 4.Problem statement.
- 5.Learning objectives.
- 6.Required software and data.
- 7.Step-by-step demonstration.
- 8.Explanation of the professional reasoning behind each action.
- 9.Practical learner task.
- 10.Checkpoint or pause activity.
- 11.Common mistake and its correction.
- 12.Quality-control review.
- 13.Final recap.
- 14.Named learner deliverable.
Video requirements
- Professional narration that is clear, natural and paced for instruction, synchronised with the screen action.
- Authentic screen recording from the actual software, with visible menus, tools, panels, commands, settings and outputs.
- Natural cursor movement and deliberate pacing, with a clear explanation of why each action is taken.
- Realistic corrections and troubleshooting shown, not edited away.
- Clear 16:9 screen capture.
- Captions and a complete transcript.
- Chapter titles and lesson sections.
- A small presenter window only where useful; it never covers technical content and is hidden on mobile or dense technical screens.
Never produced as a lesson
- Automated slideshows.
- Generic screen tours.
- Silent software demonstrations.
- Marketing videos presented as lessons.
- AI-avatar presentations.
- Simulated software tutorials.
- Fast montages without explanation.
- An invented tutor, instructor identity, voice, recording, thumbnail or completion status.
Lessons use only synthetic, publicly licensed or Ideeplan-owned examples. No confidential client information is used.
No genuine professional recording exists yet. Until one does, every lesson remains “Video lesson: Not recorded — authentic professional recording required.” Enrolment, payments, certificates and protected learner access stay disabled during this production stage.
Professional narration and screen-first production
- Every Academy lesson is planned as a professionally narrated, screen-led practical lesson with captions and a complete transcript.
- No AI avatar, virtual presenter or artificial talking head is used, and no named person is imitated. No lesson is described as human-narrated, instructor-led by a named person or personally presented unless that is factually true.
- No instructor identity is published until a real, named professional has recorded and approved the lesson.
- Recordings are screen-first: the GIS view, planning drawing, AutoCAD or Revit workspace or document remains the main subject of the frame.
- Any presenter picture-in-picture normally occupies about 8–10% of the frame, never covers technical content, and is reduced or hidden on small screens.
- The Principal Consultant portrait is reserved for approved introductions and conclusions. It is never used as a repeated course thumbnail, and the Academy remains company-first.
No lesson has been recorded and no narration has been produced. Scripts exist as production plans only, and every lesson video status remains “Not recorded”.
Demonstration material is synthetic, publicly licensed or owned by Ideeplan Consult. No confidential client file, unauthorised agency dataset or private project information is used.
Methods are jurisdiction-neutral. Learners must confirm local laws, policies and technical standards before applying them to a real project.
Course production standard
- Recordings are screen-first: the planning drawing, GIS view, AutoCAD or Revit workspace stays the main subject of the frame.
- Any presenter picture-in-picture normally occupies no more than about 8–10% of the frame and never covers maps, legends, drawings, dimensions or annotations.
- On mobile and on dense technical screens the presenter window is reduced further or hidden entirely.
- The Principal Consultant portrait is reserved for approved introductions, explanations and conclusions. It is not used as a generic thumbnail for every course.
- Narration is planned for professional human delivery. No AI narration, AI presenter or recorded lesson exists today.
No lesson has been recorded. Every lesson media status is “Not recorded”.
Any example data used in teaching is synthetic, publicly licensed or owned by Ideeplan Consult, and is clearly labelled as demonstration data. No client file, confidential document or unauthorised project material is used.
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