Working with Sites in Studio
Every home in Higharc Studio starts on a flat, empty pad. Site tools let you add the ground, road, and neighboring context around it, from a quick default lot to a fully custom sloped terrain.
Studio offers three site types, each suited to a different stage or need.
Dynamic Site: a fully rendered lot with grass, road, sidewalk, curb, driveway, fence, and neighboring homes. This is the default context for most projects, listings, and renders.
White Box Site: the same flat lot shown as plain massing, with no textures or neighboring homes. Use it for early massing studies or reviews where you want to avoid the visual noise of full context.
Contour Site: a custom terrain you build from your own elevation data. Use it for sloped lots, walkouts, retaining walls, or any site with real grade change.
Note: Dynamic Site and White Box Site share the same customizable fields and differ only in how they render. Contour Site is a separate, more advanced tool for building non-flat terrain from scratch.
Adding a Site
With a Studio file open, in the Project Browser, navigate to the Context tab (map pin icon) to open the Context panel.
Under Sites, click + to add a new site.
Choose a site type: Dynamic Site, White Box Site, or Contour Site.
Select the site in the Sites list to open and customize the site's properties in the Inspector.
Dynamic Site
Dynamic Site is the fastest way to give a home context, and is a good default for most projects. After adding it, the right panel exposes fields grouped into these sections:
To customize a Dynamic Site:
Select the site in the Sites list.
Click into any field, for example Side Setback, and enter a new value.
Toggle check boxes like Curb, Driveway, or Fence on or off to add or remove that element, or change the context buildings to match your home typology.
Changes render live in the 3D view.
White Box Site
White Box Site uses the exact same field set as Dynamic Site, so everything above applies. The difference is purely visual: instead of rendering grass, neighboring homes, and finished materials, it shows a plain flat mass around the home. Use it when you want to show setbacks, driveway placement, or massing without the distraction of a fully dressed scene, or when a project isn't far enough along to commit to finished site details.
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Tip: You can switch a site between Dynamic and White Box at any time using the 'Type' dropdown in the Identity section, without losing your other settings.
Contour Site
Contour Site is for lots that aren't flat: sloped backyards, walkout basements, or any project where you need to model real grade change. Instead of a fixed template, you build the terrain yourself from shapes.
Adding Site Contours
Contours are the lines that define the shape of the land. You can pull contours in from a sitemap, trace over a sitemap, or draw them manually.
To draw a contour manually:
Next to Contours, click +.
Choose a shape: Add Arc Contour, Add Circle Contour, Add Line Contour, Add Offset Rectangle Contour, Add PolyLine Contour, or Add Rectangle Contour.
Draw the shape in the 2D plan view.
Select the new contour in the Contours list to open its properties, and set Z Height. This is measured relative to the home's ground plane, where 0' matches the home's finished grade.
A single contour just sets a flat pad at that height. To create a slope, add a second contour at a different Z Height. Studio interpolates the terrain between contours automatically, so two contours at different heights produce a smooth grade between them, and three or more can produce more complex, multi-directional slopes.
Tip: You can duplicate an existing contour (it appears as "Contour Copy" in the list) and adjust its height to iterate quickly instead of redrawing from scratch.
Note: To see contour lines while you work, open Layer Visibility in the right panel and make sure Site Shapes is checked. Without it, contours won't display in the 2D plan view.
Site Fill
Site Fill flattens or builds up terrain within a specific shape, commonly used for things like a patio pad on a sloped lot.
Next to Site Fill, click + to add a new fill shape.
Draw the shape in the 2D Canvas.
Set Z Height (elevation) and Height (how far the fill extends).
Set Material if you want the fill surface to match one of the home's finishes, for example a Walls or Trims material for a visible foundation edge, or leave it as Original.
Site Subtract
Site Subtract does the opposite of fill. It carves the terrain down, useful for window wells, walkout areas, or a sunken patio.
Next to Site Subtract, click + and choose a shape: Add Arc, Add Circle, Add Oriented Rectangle, Add PolyLine, or Add Rectangle Site Subtract.
Draw the cut shape in the 2D Canvas.
Set Z Height to a negative value, for example -3'-0", to control how far below grade it cuts, and set Height and Material as needed.
Tips and Troubleshooting
Not sure which site type to use? Start with Dynamic Site. Only move to Contour Site if the lot has real grade change you need to represent.
Terrain looks flat even though you added a contour: you need at least two contours at different Z Heights to generate a slope. A single contour only sets a flat elevation.
Can't see your contour lines: check that Site Shapes is enabled in Layer Visibility.
Want a patio or foundation edge to look finished instead of blank white: set a Material on your Site Fill or Site Subtract shape instead of leaving it as Original or None.
Switching between Dynamic and White Box is nondestructive, so it's a quick way to toggle between a presentation-ready view and a clean massing view of the same setbacks and layout.