Help
Plain-answers for every step — from your first address search to the finished submission pack. The same corpus the in-app assistant answers from.
Site research & planning
- Accounts and signing inYou can explore Draftly without an account, and sign in when you want to save your work and come back to it.
- Approval pathways — exempt, complying, or a DAOne of the most useful things Draftly tells you is your approval pathway: how much approval your project needs, before you spend on drawings.
- Data and accuracy — where the facts come fromDraftly's promise is simple: the facts you see are grounded in official sources, and anything that can't be verified is left out rather than guessed.
- Designing your new homeIf you're planning a full new-build house or a granny flat, Draftly's design brief walks you through what you want the place to actually contain — before any drawing happens. Think of it as the…
- Placing your design on the blockOnce your property's boundary is confirmed (Step 3, Siting), Draftly can position your structure for you — and check it against the planning rules found in your site research.
- Your projectsA project — or job — is one build on one site. Draftly keeps each one together so you can leave and return without losing your place.
- Saving and exporting your workDraftly is free to use as you work through your project. When you're ready to take your finished documents away, you download or print them.
- The site research steps, one by oneThe site research part of Draftly walks you through a short sequence. Each step builds on the one before it.
- Site research — what your address returnsFrom just your address, Draftly pulls the official facts about your land so you know your site before you build. This all happens in the site research step, usually within seconds.
- Capturing site intel on a visit — the 4 Realms flowThe 4 Realms flow is Draftly's on-site capture tool. When you're standing on the lot, it walks you through exactly what to record about each part of the build — and turns it into a package your…
- Placing your build on the lotSiting is where you place your structure on your actual lot. Because Draftly uses your real lot boundary, the placement reflects the true site rather than an approximate rectangle.
- Subdividing your blockSubdividing means turning one piece of land into two (or more) separate, legally saleable lots. In Victoria it is a well-trodden but formal process: a planning permit, a licensed surveyor, a set of…
- Your submission packageThe submission package is what you take to council. It's the lodgement-ready set of documents Draftly prepares from everything you've done in the earlier steps.
- The Draftly walkthrough — the five stepsEvery Draftly project follows the same clear path. You don't need to know the tools behind it — you move through the steps and each one hands its result to the next.
Structural engineering
Drawings & drafting
- Blocks: ready-made details you can place on your drawingBlocks are ready-made drawing details — hardware, fixtures and fittings drawn at true size — that you place on your drawing with a click instead of drawing them yourself. They keep your sheets tidy…
- Drawings and drafting basicsThe drawing step turns your sized design into a clean, council-ready set of drawings. It's drawn 1:1 from the same structural model, so the drawings match the design rather than being re-created…
- Cancelling and undoing while draftingMistaps happen, especially on a phone. The drawing step gives you three calm ways to back out without losing the work you've already done.
Getting started & your account
- Getting started with DraftlyDraftly takes you from an address to an approval-ready set of documents, in plain steps. You enter where you're building and what you have in mind, and Draftly researches your site, helps you place…
- PricingDraftly is free to explore — you only pay once you've decided how you want to use it. How you pay depends on who you are, because homeowners, tradespeople, builders/offices, and partners all use…
- Quotes — where the figures come fromA Draftly quote reads like a builder's quote: the costs are grouped into labelled sections, and anything that isn't confirmed is clearly marked rather than guessed.
- Starting a new jobA job is a single project on a single site — the address, the build you have in mind, and everything Draftly prepares for it.