From concept to a setting-out plan you can build from
The concept says "paving here". The setting-out plan says exactly where, dimensioned from fixed points that will still exist when the garden is a building site. This is the drawing you take outside with a tape.
Your concept plan is a picture. Paving roughly there, a curved bed edge roughly like that, drawn to be understood at a glance. Nobody can build from it. Hand it to two people and ask them to peg out “the paving” and you get two rectangles 200 mm apart, and the one that gets built is whichever got dug first.
The setting-out plan is that layout with every position pinned to a number. It answers one question about every element on the block: if this garden were stripped to bare sand tomorrow, could a stranger with a 30 metre tape put it back exactly where you intended?
On a renovation that is not hypothetical. Most of what you would instinctively measure from — the lawn edge, the old shed, the clump of agapanthus, the retic valve box, the garden wall you are removing — is on the demolition list. Dimension off it and your drawing destroys itself in week one.
What a professional does at this stage
Four habits, and they are the whole lesson.
They choose datums that survive demolition. Before a single dimension is written, two reference points are picked, labelled on the sheet and described in words. Chosen for permanence, not convenience.
They dimension every element twice, from two datums. One dimension puts a point somewhere on a line; two from separate points fix it absolutely. It is the triangulation from measuring up run in reverse — you are no longer recording where things are, you are telling someone where to put them.
They make the drawing close before it leaves the desk. Every chain of dimensions is added up against its overall. A drawing that does not close still gets found out — by a bloke with a shovel at seven in the morning, who stops work and rings you.
They write down what the dimension goes to. Face of wall, centre of post, outside face of edge restraint. An undefined dimension is a 50 to 100 mm argument waiting to happen, and on a 3 metre path that is the gate opening or not.
Choosing your two datums
A datum is a fixed reference you measure from. You need at least two, a decent distance apart — the further apart, the less an angular error costs you.
| Use as a datum | Never use |
|---|---|
| An external house corner — hard, permanent, and the only reliably straight line on most blocks | A tree. Trunks thicken, lean, and sometimes get removed |
| A long house wall, as a baseline for perpendicular offsets | The lawn or bed edge. It is being demolished — the classic renovation mistake |
| The lot boundary, because approvals are measured from it | A fence. Perth dividing fences sit routinely 100–200 mm off the true boundary |
| The crossover or garage slab edge — concrete that is staying | A shed, pot, tap or valve box. All removable, all quietly moved by trades |
| A slab or wall your audit gave a firm KEEP | A dimension copied off an older drawing. Copy the error and you own it |
The fence is not the boundary
If a dimension controls a legal setback, a wall near the line, or anything you lodge with council, it must be dimensioned from the boundary, not the fence. Where the boundary position is genuinely in doubt — and in 1960s to 1990s Perth suburbs it often is — only a licensed surveyor can resolve it. Landgate is explicit that land surveying in WA is restricted to people registered with the Land Surveyors Licensing Board under the Licensed Surveyors Act 1909, and that Landgate does not do it for you. See dividing fences and the R-Codes and your council.
If you do not have a second good datum, build one
Plenty of blocks have a house at one end and nothing usable at the other. Fix it for about fifteen dollars: set a star picket or a short concrete peg in a corner the works will never touch, dimension it from two house corners, label it on the plan as DP2 with a written description, and photograph it. Every dimension at the back of the block now hangs off it — and the same peg can carry your level datum in the levels and grading plan.
The dimensioning rules
Work at 1:100 for the whole block on A3, and pull congested areas — a paving junction, a step, a bin store — out at 1:50 on a separate sheet. Millimetres only, no decimals, no mixed units.
Run chains, do not scatter. Along a house wall, take cumulative running dimensions past every feature and finish with the overall. Separately measured gaps each carry their own error and they add up; a chain ending in an overall checks itself.
Every element gets a position and a size. Two dimensions locate one corner from two datums; the rest give length and width. Do not dimension a rectangle by all four corners — that states the same thing three times, and any disagreement between them stops the job.
Curves and radii
A curve needs three things on the drawing: the radius, the position of the centre point, and the two tangent points where it meets the straights. Locate the centre like any other element — two dimensions from two datums.
Perth blocks being what they are, that centre will often land inside the house or over the fence, where nobody can put a peg. That does not make the curve unbuildable, it changes what you dimension: give a chord with perpendicular offsets at stated intervals instead, so the curve is set out from a string line between the tangent points. Setting out obstructed arcs covers all three ways of doing it.
Free-form edges
For a meandering bed edge, forget radii. Draw a straight baseline you can reproduce on site — the house wall, or a line between your two datums — and give perpendicular offsets at a fixed interval: every 1000 mm on a tight curve, every 2000 mm on a lazy one. State the interval and name the baseline on the drawing. Anyone can then rebuild the shape with a tape and a bag of pegs.
Say what the dimension goes to
Put a note on the sheet: all dimensions in millimetres to the finished face of masonry and the outside face of edge restraints unless noted otherwise. Then add DO NOT SCALE — USE FIGURED DIMENSIONS ONLY. PDFs get resized and printers rescale, and someone will eventually hold a scale rule against a page that came out at 94%.
Making the drawing close
This is the step people skip, and the one that pays.
- Every chain sums to its overall. If the running dimensions along the rear of the house add to 12,340 and the overall says 12,400, one figure is wrong — find it now.
- Cross the block. House wall to paving edge, plus paving width, plus the gap, plus bed width, plus path — add the sequence and compare it to your dimensioned house-to-boundary distance. This one check catches most layout errors.
- Check the second fix. On the points that matter, calculate the diagonal implied by your two dimensions. If the arcs would not cross where you drew the point, the point is wrong.
- Take it outside and try to measure three of them. A dimension needing you to stand inside a wall, measure through the shed, or hold a tape over a 1.8 metre fence is not a dimension. This separates a drawing that looks right from one that can be set out.
- Check the module. Get the real unit size and joint width from your supplier and do the arithmetic on every dimensioned width — paving, decking boards, limestone or block courses. Rounding a courtyard to whole units costs nothing now and saves a day of cutting later.
That last one is a safety check as much as a cost one. Cutting concrete pavers, limestone, fibre cement or masonry releases respirable crystalline silica. Every cut you design out is a cut nobody has to make.
Before any peg goes in the ground
Two things belong on this drawing because they stop work later.
No-dig zones. Lodge a free Before You Dig Australia enquiry — BYDA asks for at least one day before the job starts, and says to contact the asset owner directly if plans have not arrived within two business days. Hatch the service corridors that come back as no-dig zones, and move anything you had drawn on top of them now. Those plans are indicative positions, not a marked-up site; BYDA’s own guidance is to use a skilled locator and hand-dig to expose assets. Cross-check against locating services. Hitting a live Western Power cable or a Water Corporation main is not a budget problem, it is an ambulance problem.
Tree protection zones. Any tree your audit marked KEEP gets a circle on this drawing that machinery does not enter, and the setting-out must respect it. Roots severed in week two kill the tree in year two, and by then it is your replacement cost.
What goes on the sheet
Scale, north point, date, revision number and your name. Both datums labelled and described in words — “DP1: south-east external corner of house brickwork at ground level”. The dimension convention note. DO NOT SCALE. And a demolition note or a companion demolition drawing, because on a renovation half the setting-out only makes sense against what is going. Print it at the stated scale on A3 and take it outside.
What this feeds
Every drawing after this sits on top of it. The levels and grading plan adds the third dimension to these exact shapes; hardscape details section through them; quantity take-offs read areas off your figured dimensions instead of scaling them; and in earthworks and setting out this drawing becomes profiles, string lines and pegs in the sand.
The next lesson takes the flat layout you have just fixed and decides where every surface sits vertically — falls, steps, and whether the sand you dig out is the sand you need somewhere else.
Checklist
- Dimension every element from at least two fixed reference points
- Use the house wall and boundaries as datums, not removable objects
- Include radii for curves and offsets for edges
- Check the drawing closes — dimensions must add up
Where to go deeper
Every link below was fetched and checked before it shipped. Nothing here is a guess.
- Freearticle20 minWorks anywhere
Setting Out - Construction lines, Perpendiculars and Arcs
Pavingexpert
Why this oneThe clearest free explanation of the three geometric operations your setting-out plan has to support: running a straight line and adding intermediate pins by repeatedly halving the gap, dropping a true perpendicular with a scaled-up 3-4-5 triangle, and defining an arc by its two tangent points plus its origin. The worked perpendicular uses an 8 m base with 6 m and 10 m arcs and then checks itself by calculation. It also gives the pin spacings the trade actually uses — no more than 10 m apart on straights, 600 to 900 mm on radii under 5 metres — which tells you how much detail a curve on your drawing needs to carry.
Change this for PerthUK site. The geometry is climate-independent and identical in Perth, but the surrounding pages assume UK materials, frost and clay subgrades. Ignore the base build-up advice there and use the Perth crushed limestone build-up from Phase 8 instead.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freearticle15 minWorks anywhere
Setting Out Obstructed Arcs
Pavingexpert
Why this oneSolves the problem every curved suburban layout hits — the centre point of your nicest radius lands inside the house, under the pool or in the neighbour's yard, so nobody can swing it with a tape. It gives three workable methods: plot the arc in CAD and transfer it as perpendicular offsets from a chord, calculate those offsets on site with Pythagoras, or swing an inverse arc from the two tangent points and flip the offsets across. Read it before you draw a radius, because it decides what you must dimension for the curve to be buildable at all.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- FreedirectoryPerth / WA
Josh's House plans
Josh Byrne & Associates / Curtin University
Why this oneFree downloadable PDFs of a real, fully documented Perth project, including a Landscape Concept, a Landscaping Design with plant specification, an Irrigation Design and an Integrated Water System Design covering hydrozoning, greywater and bore water. Almost no Australian residential landscape documentation is published openly, so this is a rare chance to see how a professional set of sheets for a small block is laid out, labelled and cross-referenced. Study the sheet structure and the notation as closely as the content.
Change this for PerthThese are design and concept sheets from a demonstration project, not a construction setting-out plan, so do not expect a complete dimension set on them. Use them as a model for sheet structure, title blocks and notes — not as a source of dimensions for your own block.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Free tier · Community Edition free (open source, GPLv3); QCAD Professional is paid — check the QCAD shop for the current pricetoolWorks anywhere
QCAD Community Edition
QCAD.org
Why this oneA real 2D CAD program that will draw a properly dimensioned setting-out plan, running on Windows, macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon) and Linux. The download page explains the slightly awkward route to the free version: download the trial for your platform and remove the QCAD Professional add-on, or compile the GPLv3 source. Unlike a 3D modeller it has genuine dimension entities, layers and printing to a stated scale, which is exactly what a construction drawing needs and what a sketching app cannot give you.
Change this for PerthNothing Perth-specific — CAD geometry is the same everywhere. Set your drawing units to millimetres before you draw anything, because every dimension in this course is in millimetres.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- FreetoolWorks anywhere
SketchUp Free
Trimble
Why this oneFree browser-based 3D modelling with 10 GB of cloud storage, and the quickest way to check that a level change, a run of steps or a pergola actually works in three dimensions before you commit it to a number on paper. It is listed here as the sanity-check tool, not the drawing tool — the free tier exports SKP, PNG and STL, so there is no route out of it to a printed, dimensioned, to-scale sheet.
Change this for PerthWeb-based, so it needs a connection. Model in millimetres, and treat anything you trace over an aerial image as indicative shape only — never as a set-out dimension.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freetool10 min to read, 1 day for plansAustralian
Duty of care before you dig
Before You Dig Australia
Why this oneFree, national, and the step that happens before a single peg goes in the ground. BYDA states you should lodge your underground utility plan request at least one day before the job starts, confirm you have had a response from every asset owner before commencing, and contact the asset owner directly if plans have not arrived within two business days. It also tells you to lodge a fresh enquiry if the scope changes or the plan validity dates expire — the trap on a garden that gets built in stages over a year.
Change this for PerthBYDA returns the asset owners' plans, not a marked-up site. The same page tells you to use skilled locators and to hand-dig to expose assets, which is the tell that the plans are indicative positions only. In Perth the responses come back separately from Water Corporation, Western Power, ATCO and the telecommunications carriers, and they arrive at different speeds.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freegovernment10 minPerth / WA
Cadastral surveying
Landgate
Why this oneThe page that tells you where your own tape has to stop. Landgate states that any person carrying out the practice of land surveying must be registered with, and hold a current practising certificate issued by, the Land Surveyors Licensing Board of Western Australia under the Licensed Surveyors Act 1909, and that Landgate itself does not offer cadastral surveying services. If a dimension on your plan controls a legal setback or a wall on the boundary, this explains why that peg has to come from a licensed surveyor rather than from you and a fence.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- FreegovernmentPerth / WA
Residential Design Codes
Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage / Western Australian Planning Commission
Why this oneVolume 1 applies to all single house development in Western Australia, and it is the document your council assesses your setbacks, walls and outbuildings against — so it is where the boundary dimensions on your setting-out plan have to come from. The collection page holds the current consolidated version, updated 27 May 2026, with an administrative amendment in effect from 10 April 2026. Check the date on whatever copy you are working from before you rely on a setback figure.
Change this for PerthThe R-Codes are state policy applied through your local planning scheme, and councils commonly adopt local planning policies that vary them. Read your own council's version alongside the state document before you fix a boundary dimension.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- FreegovernmentPerth / WA
Building approvals: forms and fees
Building and Energy, Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety
Why this oneWhere the permit forms and current fees live, and the page that puts a price on drawing quality. For Class 1 and Class 10 buildings a certified application is charged at 0.19% of the estimated value of the work with a minimum of $121.00, while an uncertified application is 0.32% with the same minimum — the difference being whether a registered building surveyor has already certified the design or your local government has to assess it. Patios, pergolas, carports, sheds and many retaining walls are the Class 10 work a landscape project runs into.
Change this for PerthFees change. This page was last updated 23 July 2026 — confirm the current figure on the form before you pay. Building and Energy also directs you to your local government for local requirements, so ask your council whether the work needs a permit at all before you assume it does or does not.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
- Freearticle35 minOverseas — adapt it
Construction of Interlocking Concrete Pavements (PAV-TEC-002)
Concrete Masonry and Hardscapes Association
Why this oneThe bridge between the drawing and the ground. It covers marking out the work with stakes, pulling and tying string lines, establishing grades, building edge restraints, screeding bedding sand and holding joint lines straight with chalk lines. Read it now to understand what your dimensions have to hand the person laying, and again in Phase 8 when that person is you.
Change this for PerthNorth American document. Ignore the freeze-thaw and frost material entirely, and substitute compacted crushed limestone for the crushed aggregate base it specifies, because that is the Perth standard. Its herringbone recommendation is aimed at trafficked streets; a pedestrian courtyard here has more freedom in pattern.
Link checked 2 Aug 2026
The rules, with sources
WA regulation changes. Each point below names its primary source and the date it was last checked — always confirm with your own council before you build.
In Western Australia any person carrying out the practice of land surveying must be registered with, and hold a current practising certificate issued by, the Land Surveyors Licensing Board of Western Australia under the Licensed Surveyors Act 1909. Landgate does not offer cadastral surveying services.
Landgate — Cadastral ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026
Before You Dig Australia advises lodging your underground utility plan request at least one day before the job is due to begin, checking that every asset owner has responded before work commences, and contacting the asset owner directly if plans have not arrived within two business days. A fresh enquiry must be lodged if the scope of work changes or the plan validity dates expire.
Before You Dig Australia — Duty of care ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026
State Planning Policy 7.3 Residential Design Codes Volume 1 applies to all single house development in Western Australia and sets the planning provisions councils assess residential development against. The current version was updated on 27 May 2026, incorporating an administrative amendment in effect from 10 April 2026.
Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage / Western Australian Planning Commission ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026
Building permit application fees in Western Australia for Class 1 and Class 10 buildings are 0.19% of the estimated value of the work for a certified application and 0.32% for an uncertified application, with a minimum of $121.00 in each case. Page last updated 23 July 2026.
Building and Energy, Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety ↗ · checked 2 Aug 2026