Area Selection

Before you can draw a hole, Parkdly needs to know where on Earth your course is. Selecting an area sets the map bounds the course editor will work with -- the satellite imagery and background terrain all come from this step.

Choose an area that comfortably contains your whole course with some margin around the edges. You can adjust it later, but starting with the right area saves the hassle of re-anchoring holes if the course grows beyond the initial bounds.

Already have the tee and target coordinates for every hole? You can skip drawing the area by hand and let Parkdly derive it for you — see Build the area from hole coordinates below.

Finding your course location

When you open area selection for the first time, a dialog prompts you to locate your course. You can:

• Search by city, address, or place — including nearby landmarks such as parks, sports fields, and schools, which is useful when the course has no street address
• Paste coordinates, a Plus Code, or a map link — type a lat, lng pair (e.g. 61.5, 23.76), a Google Plus Code (e.g. 849VCWC8+R9), or paste a Google Maps, Apple Maps, or OpenStreetMap link to jump straight to that exact spot
• Use my location to jump straight to where you are
• Browse the map manually by closing the dialog

If you have other courses in the same project, their locations are shown as markers on the map for quick reference.

Selecting the area

A selection frame is shown in the center of the map. Pan and zoom the map until your course fits inside the frame.

• Keep the area as tight as possible -- a smaller selection gives better satellite detail
• The area dimensions are shown at the bottom of the frame (e.g. "500 m x 334 m")
• The Satellite detail indicator shows the expected image quality -- green is best, orange means the area may be too large for sharp detail
• If the area is too small or too large, a warning appears at the top of the frame

When the frame covers your course, click Select area.

What happens after you select

Parkdly downloads two things:

1. Satellite image -- the aerial photo that forms the base of your canvas
2. Terrain elements -- roads, buildings, forests, water (lakes, ponds, rivers, and swimming pools), paths, and other features imported from OpenStreetMap

This may take a moment depending on the size and density of the area. A loading dialog keeps you updated while the download is in progress.

Once complete, you are taken to the Canvas where you can start designing your course.

Tip: All map elements can be edited directly in Parkdly. If terrain data is missing or outdated at the source, you can update it on OpenStreetMap and reselect the area to pull in the changes. Parkdly uses a weekly snapshot of OpenStreetMap, so wait about a week after editing before reselecting — until the next snapshot is cut, reselecting will show the same data.

Editing the imported map

Right-click an imported feature, such as a forest, pond, fairway or path, and choose Edit to make it editable on your course. It keeps its exact shape, including any holes, like an island in a pond. A feature that can't be edited yet says why in the same menu. Hide takes it off the map instead.

Changed your mind? Right-click the edited feature (or one of its points) and choose Restore original to bring back the imported version.

To hide many features at once — every building, say — choose Map at the start of the bar above the map (on a phone, in the Course ▾ menu) and use the eyes in the Map tab.

Right-clicking a whole feature also offers:

• Change type… -- turn it into another kind of feature with the same shape, for example a forest into a grass area, or a path into a road. The list only shows types that fit: areas for areas, lines for lines.
• Arrange -- Bring to Front draws it above the features it overlaps, and Send to Back draws it below them. Features always stay under your boundaries and course objects. Reset to default puts it back in its usual place.
• Delete whole element -- removes it, after asking you to confirm.

Using Change type or Arrange on an imported feature makes it editable first, just like Edit. A single undo (Ctrl+Z) puts the imported feature back as it was.

On a touch screen, select the feature and tap the More (⋯) button in the selection bar to open the same menu.

You can also draw your own roads, paths, railways, waterways and more from the map toolbar. Drawn and imported features use the same widths and stack in the same order.

To move a drawn or edited feature, click it to select the whole feature, then drag it. With it selected, the arrow keys nudge it 0.5 m per press (5 m with Shift). Dragging one of its points still moves only that point. Where features overlap, a click selects the one on top.

Build the area from hole coordinates

If you already have the Tee and Target coordinates for every Hole — from a GPS app, a spreadsheet, or another mapping tool — you can skip drawing the area by hand and let Parkdly derive it from your coordinates instead.

Choose Paste coordinates on the start screen a new course opens on (next to Select the area on a map and Import from Tjing). It also appears as Build from tee and target coordinates in the Where is your course? dialog.

In the Paste coordinates panel:

• Enter each hole's Tee and Target as a lat, lng pair in decimal degrees (e.g. 61.5, 23.76), one per field. A new row appears as you complete each hole.
• A live preview builds beside the grid as you type, with the map background fading in behind your holes once it loads.
• Anything that can't be read as a coordinate, a hole sitting far from the rest, or a hole that's implausibly long is highlighted so you can fix or remove it. The remaining holes still preview.

When everything looks right, click Create course with N holes. Parkdly then:

1. Derives a map area that comfortably contains every hole.
2. Downloads the satellite image and terrain elements for that area — the same data as a manual area selection.
3. Creates each Hole with its Tee, Target, and a default Tee Sign.
4. Takes you to the Canvas to keep designing.

You can fine-tune fairway shapes and hole positions on the Canvas afterwards.

Tip: Coordinates in a different format? Use Format with AI to copy a ready-made prompt, paste your hole list into any AI assistant, and paste the result back with Load holes. The expected format is one line per hole: teeLat, teeLng | targetLat, targetLng.

Import a course from Tjing

If your course is already mapped in Tjing, you can import it instead of placing every Hole by hand. For the short version, see Create Your First Course.

Before you import, check these limits:

• Create the course first. It must have no Holes and no Layouts yet. The import works only on an empty course.
• You can import up to five layouts at once, or fewer if your plan allows fewer per course.
• Together, the layouts cannot have more Holes than your plan allows per course. Holes that layouts share count once.
• Only layouts whose Holes all have Tee and Target positions in Tjing are listed.

To import:

1. Choose Import from Tjing on the start screen.
2. Paste the Tjing course link or ID (for example https://tjing.se/courses/…). Links from tjing.org work too.
3. Click Find layouts.
4. Tick the layouts to import. Each one shows its number of Holes, total par and length.
5. If you ticked two or more layouts, check each Layout name. Parkdly suggests a short name from the Tjing name. The name has at most 12 characters because it prints on your signs. Parkdly never suggests the same name twice, so you can usually import without changes.
6. Click Import layout (or Import 3 layouts, and so on) in the bar at the bottom.

If none of the course's layouts has positions for every Hole in Tjing yet, nothing can be imported. When Tjing knows where the course is, click Continue with area selection. Parkdly saves that location to your course if it has none yet. If the course still has the name Parkdly suggested, it takes the Tjing name. The map then opens centered on the course, so you can select the area and place the Holes yourself.

Each Hole arrives with its number, par, length and elevation change, one Tee and one Target. Its Fairway follows the Flight Path drawn in Tjing, bends included, and the Tee faces down it. Parkdly converts lengths recorded in feet in Tjing to meters. Your course keeps the name you gave it. Parkdly then downloads the map for the area and opens the course. You can rename Layouts and change their colors later.

Several layouts in one course

When you import two or more layouts, they become the course's Layouts. Each Layout takes the color of its Tjing layout. Parkdly adds the Holes that the layouts have in common only once:

• A Hole counts as shared when it is played in the same place. This means it shares a Tee or a Target (within 5 meters) with another layout's Hole. It also counts as shared when it runs along the same stretch in the same direction with its own Tee and Target. This is the same Hole played longer or shorter. Hole numbers do not matter. A Hole can have a different number in each layout.
• A shared Hole with a different Tee, for example a pro Tee, gets a Tee for each layout, and each Layout plays its own. The same applies to Targets.
• A Hole that only some layouts play is left out of the others.
• An OB line, mando or drop zone that two layouts both have on a shared Hole is added once, for both. One that only a layout has shows only on that Layout.

What comes along from Tjing

Whatever is drawn on the layout in Tjing comes along too:

Parkdly imports parking and toilets only when they fall on the course's map area. Parkdly has no place for hole notes, safe areas, walking paths, cafés and information points, so these stay in Tjing. The message after the import lists what Parkdly left out.

Reselecting the area

You can reselect the area at any time from the course navigation. This replaces the satellite image and terrain elements but keeps your holes, objects, and other course data intact.

Helper images — map with your own imagery

The satellite image is not always the best reference: dense forest looks like a flat green blanket, and imagery can be years old. You can upload your own helper images — drone shots, old course maps, hand-drawn layouts — and use one as the editor background instead.

Helper images must be JPEG, PNG, or WebP, up to 15 MB. The Free plan includes 1 helper image per course. Paid plans include 3.

Open the Course Builder's Layers tab and find Background layer.

1. Click Upload image. The image opens in align mode.
2. Align the image with the satellite image below it. Use the tools below.
3. Click Save alignment. The image becomes the active background.

Align mode has two tools:

• Adjust — drag, resize, and rotate the image by hand until its landmarks line up with the satellite image. Use the opacity slider to see through the image while you match.
• Match pins — place two pins. For each pin, click a landmark on your image. Then click the same spot on the map. Pick landmarks far apart, because two close pins cannot measure the scale. The align bar shows your progress (Pin 1 of 2, Pin 2 of 2). The first pin moves the image onto the landmark. The second pin sets size and rotation, and the image snaps into place. Undo pin (or Esc) steps back one click. Start over clears both pins.

Parkdly saves the alignment with the course.

Alignments are saved as GPS coordinates, so an aligned image stays in place even if you later reselect the course area.

The list under Background layer switches between Satellite (default) and your uploaded images — exactly one is shown at a time, and the opacity slider (behind the Background image button in the bar above the map, and in this tab) always controls the active one. Except on phones, that button shows the opacity (50%), and on wide screens also which image is on (Satellite · 50%). The opacity you choose is remembered for each course in this browser, so the course opens the same way next time. Use the crosshair button on a row to re-align an image, and the trash button to delete it (the map falls back to the satellite image).

Helper images are an editor-only aid: they never appear on shared course pages, public views, or PDF exports.