Creating a Project

Updated on 04 Apr 2025
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This article will assist when creating the first Project in Groundplan.

From the Home Page, click Create a Project

Complete the Project Name
(optional) Click Sample Projects to explore a pre-populated Project
Click any further Users that need Access
Click Create

Uploading Plans

Groundplan support Plans in the following file types/formats: JPG, PNG, TIFF or PDF (single or multi-page) and ZIP files containing any listed formats.

Click the Plans Tab
Drag and Drop the file/s or click Choose Files to search for the File/s*

(recommended) Click Review
For multi-page files, use commas and hyphens for page selection, e.g. (1-2, 4, 7-15)
Click Upload

(Recommended) Click Clear finished on the Upload Queue Window
To ensure the latest upload is always visible

Plans Failed to Load

In the event of an upload failure, a red error message will describe the issue.

The actual file/s or connectivity issues may cause errors. If unable to Upload files, please contact the Support Team by clicking Help then Send us a Message, explaining what has happened and attach the Plan/s.

Render Optimised Plan

Large or heavily detailed Plans are sometimes set to auto Render Optimise to improve Plan navigation. A Render Optimised Plan may cause Plans to look blurred and less detailed in the Editor. When Downloading / Exporting, the quality and integrity of the original Plan remains intact.

To Disable Render Optimise:

Inside the Plan, click Details
Under Performance, uncheck Render Optimise
The Plan will re-load and switch back to the Plan Editor

When Render Optimised Plan is not automatically activated, there may still be an option to manually switch it on if the Plan size is above 100kb.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are my Plans not uploading?

Most of the time, file Uploads begin straight away because the queue is free. If there is a peak in the number of people uploading Plans simultaneously, this will slow the upload process down. There is a queueing system to prevent the server from becoming overloaded.

If a Plan is taking an abnormal amount of time or failing, please see the below suggestions:

⚠️A1: An error is received. The file type is incorrect.

Accepted file types are PDFs, JPEG, TIFF, PNG and ZIP folders with these file types inside them.
If these are your file types and you're still unable to upload Plans, try opening the Plans using regular PDF viewers like Adobe Acrobat Reader or Google Chrome.
If you cannot open the file, it is most likely corrupted.

A2: If the file type is correct - please try the below steps:

Go to your app or website of choice
Choose the PDF file;
Select Good - 150dpi JPG quality
Click Convert PDF to JPG
When done, download the JPG file and upload it to Groundplan

📝 The listed Plan Scale must be corrected after converting a PDF to an Image file.
To set the Scale, Measure the Plan scale from a known Measurement on the Plan.

A3: Clear your browser cache:

Here's a guide for how to clear cache for each popular browser:

A4: None of the above has worked:

Please click Help > Send us a Message, explaining what has happened and attach the Plan/s.

Why is my Plan not showing correctly / colours are incorrect?

The Editor needs assistance with interpreting the pattern fill.

The best solution is to convert the PDF plans that have issues into images and re-uploading.
You can do this by:

Going to your app or website of choice
Choose the PDF file;
Select Good - 150dpi JPG quality;
Click Convert PDF to JPG;
When complete, download the JPG file and upload it to Groundplan;

📝 The listed Plan Scale must be corrected after converting a PDF to an Image file.
To set the Scale, Measure the Plan scale from a known Measurement on the Plan.

My Plan is slow to load/zoom. Is there a way to work around this?

Enable Render Optimise Plan.

My Plan will not open. What can I do?