Layouts

A Layout is one playable configuration of a Course. A single course can have many layouts — for example, an MPO tee setup, an FPO tee setup, and a seasonal winter configuration — built on top of a shared pool of Holes. Each layout can include or exclude individual holes and assign different Tees and Targets per hole, so the same physical course can play very differently from one layout to the next.

Why layouts exist

Most disc golf courses are played in more than one way. The same 18 physical holes might be set up differently for:

• Division-specific tees — MPO, FPO, and amateur layouts using different tee positions
• Seasonal play — winter tees closer to targets, summer tees pushed back
• Short course / long course variants
• Tournament setup vs casual play

Rather than duplicating an entire course for each variant, layouts let you define the differences on top of a shared base.

What a layout contains

Each layout is a named configuration with the following properties:

The map background, OB lines, trees, and other decorative elements are shared across all layouts of the course.

Sharing a Tee or Target between layouts

A Hole can hold more than one Tee or Target. To assign one to layouts, select it on the Canvas and tick the layouts in its Layout Assignments panel — each layout uses one Tee and one Target per hole.

When a single Target is shared by layouts with different Target colors, the Target renders split into a colored wedge per layout — for example, half red and half blue. (The same applies to a shared Tee with different Tee colors.)

The Shared tees & targets setting in the Holes section of your Theme controls this for the whole course. Split (the default) draws the wedges. Theme color draws a shared Tee or Target in your theme's own Tee or Target color instead, so set those to white if you want neutral shared markers. A Tee Sign for a hole its layouts play the same then shows one plain row, with no layout name or color. A Tee or Target used by only one layout keeps that layout's color either way.

This only works on a shared marker. Two separate targets, one per layout, each stay a single color and just overlap. To get a two-color Target from two Tees, keep one Target, give the layouts different Target colors, and assign both layouts to that Target.

Merging flight paths across layouts

When two layouts play the same line, their flight paths can be drawn as one instead of stacking several overlapping lines. Drag a Control Point from one layout's path onto the matching point on another's — once they sit close enough they group and move together, and the shared stretch renders as a single line that cycles through each layout's Flight Path color. Where layouts share a Control Point, their hole numbers also stack at that point rather than overlapping.

To separate a grouped Control Point again, hold ⌥ (Alt) while dragging it away, or right-click it and choose Unlink from Group.

A grouped Control Point is drawn split into a color wedge per layout, just like a shared Target, so you can see at a glance which layouts run through it. When grouped Control Points stack, the one on top, the one a click selects, belongs to the layout that comes first in the Layouts list. The point's details panel says it is grouped and lists every layout in the group; click a layout there to switch to that layout's point when you want to unlink, keep separate or resize just that one.

A grouped Control Point carries one Flight Path Width per layout. Changing the width, whether with the handle on the Canvas, the width field or Reset Point Size, changes every grouped layout at once, which is what you want when the layouts share a corridor. To give one layout its own width, use the Width per layout fields in the point's details panel. The distance note above a grouped point shows every layout that runs through it, just as a shared Tee or Target does.

Keeping a Control Point separate

Grouping happens automatically whenever two points sit close enough, so a point you have unlinked groups again the moment it is dragged back onto the other corridor. When two layouts should run side by side without merging, right-click the Control Point and choose Keep separate. A kept-separate point never groups, snaps or merges, however close it sits to another point, and other points don't group onto it either. Choose Allow grouping on the same menu to turn it back on.

Which layouts show a secondary flight path

A hole can carry extra, hand-drawn flight paths beside its main line — a route past a mando, a safer line off the same tee. Right-click a Control Point and choose Add Secondary Flight Path to draw one. A secondary flight path belongs to the layouts you choose, so a layout that doesn't play that line never draws it.

Select the secondary flight path's Control Point and tick the layouts under Layouts in its details panel. The Canvas, tee signs and info boards all follow the change straight away, and a secondary flight path always keeps at least one layout. A layout that doesn't include this hole is listed but can't be ticked.

A new secondary flight path starts in the layouts you currently have visible, so if you draw one while a single layout is showing (see below), it belongs to just that layout. One you have never edited here belongs to every layout, including ones you add later; once you pick layouts for it, it belongs to the ones you picked and a layout added afterwards won't draw it until you tick it.

The main line of a hole is not set here: it follows whichever Tee and Target each layout uses, so you change it by assigning a different Tee or Target to the layout.

Hiding layouts while you work

Every layout is drawn on the Canvas at once, which gets busy on a course with several. In the Layouts panel, click the eye on a layout's row to hide it while you edit — its flight paths, tees and targets disappear from the Canvas, and any hole that only belongs to hidden layouts goes with them. Click the eye again to bring it back. At least one layout always stays visible.

This is a working view, not a setting: it lasts for this session on this browser, and nothing about the course changes. Signs, caddie books and share links are not affected.

Hiding a layout never moves anything. A Tee, Target or grouped Control Point that a hidden layout also uses keeps its one position, and dragging it still moves it on the hidden layout. So the Canvas keeps telling you it is shared: the hidden layout's color stays on the marker as a faded wedge, and the element's details panel says Shared with hidden layout …. The view you get with a layout hidden is exactly what a sign showing only the remaining layouts draws — so this is the place to check how a shared corridor looks on such a sign, and to Unlink or Keep separate a point if the shared line doesn't suit one layout on its own.

Managing layouts

All layout management happens in Parkdly Studio from the course editor:

• Create a new layout — click the + button in the layouts list. New layouts start with a default name and color you can edit inline.
• Rename a layout — click the name field and type. Press Enter or click away to save.
• Reorder layouts — drag a layout by its grip handle to move it up or down the list (the number next to the handle shows its current position). The order determines where the layout appears in the hole details table, the Course Layouts list, and on tee signs that render multiple layouts.
• Set colors — click a color swatch to open the color picker. You can override the signage primary, text, tee, target, and flight path colors per layout. All five work on every plan, Free included — they are how a course tells its layouts apart.
• Choose where a hole color comes from — the small chevron beside a tee, target or flight path color opens a menu with Course theme color and Layout color, and marks which one the color currently is. Picking a color in the picker makes it a custom color. Note that Layout color copies the layout's color as it is now: change the layout's Primary color later and the hole colors stay where they are, so pick Layout color again if you want them to match.
• Configure per-hole values — open the Hole details panel for a hole. The Number and layouts card lists every layout in one table, one row per layout, with Plays, No., Par and Length side by side. Elevation change per layout is in the Elevation change card. Lengths and elevation show in your course's unit (meters or feet).
• Give a hole a different number in a layout — type it in the No. column of that layout's row. A course with a blue layout that plays holes 10–18 would give those holes numbers 10 to 18 there. Default hole number, above the table, is the number every layout uses when its own No. is empty. Clear a No. to go back to the default. If another hole in the layout already has the number, the row says so; it still saves, so you can swap two numbers in two steps.
• Pin or follow par and length — par and length follow the map by default: they update when you move a tee, target or bend, and show in gray with an open lock. Click the open lock to keep the value as it is now. Typing a value pins it too (closed lock, normal text), and a pinned value does not change when the hole moves. Click the closed lock to go back to following the map.
• Include or exclude a hole — in the Hole details panel, turn Plays off on that layout's row. Excluded holes still exist on the map but don't appear in that layout's scorecards, tee signs, or hole count. The row stays in the table so you can still set it up. Every hole must be included in at least one layout.
• Delete a layout — click the trash icon on the layout row. Layouts that are in use by holes require confirmation.

Naming layouts

Layout names are shown in many small places — tee sign stripes, info board label strips, badges in the hole details sidebar. Keep them short.

• Maximum length: 12 characters. The name input enforces this limit.
• 3–7 characters render best. At this length, names fit comfortably on every sign variant without shrinking.
• Longer names still work. Parkdly automatically shrinks the font to fit and, when the name contains a space, could split it across multiple lines if needed.
• Single-word long names shrink but don't wrap. Diamond renders on one line at a slightly smaller size — it never breaks mid-word.

Layout-specific course elements

Decorative elements like trees, bushes, and rocks are shared across all layouts. Most other elements can be assigned to specific layouts:

• Next Tee Arrow — can be assigned to one or more layouts. When assigned, the arrow only appears when those layouts are active, and colored dots indicate which layouts it belongs to. This is useful when layouts diverge — for example, one layout continues to hole 5 while another skips to hole 9.
• Distance Marker — can be assigned to a single layout. When assigned, the marker uses that layout's tee and target positions for distance calculations and only appears when that layout is active.
• Drop Zone — can be assigned to one or more layouts. When assigned, the drop zone only appears when one of those layouts is active. Useful when different layouts use different drop zones — for example, a Pro layout drop zone behind an OB line that an Amateur layout doesn't enforce.
• Text — can optionally be assigned to a hole and to one or more layouts. When a text element is bound to a hole, it appears on that hole's view; when also scoped to specific layouts, it only shows for those. Useful for layout-specific notes like tee descriptions that differ between Pro and Amateur tees.
• Mandatory (Mando) — can optionally be scoped to one or more layouts. A mando is always attached to a specific hole, and when also scoped to layouts it only appears when one of those layouts is active. Useful when different layouts route around or ignore a mandatory path — for example, a Pro tee layout that requires a tight mando line an Amateur layout skips.
• Boundary (OB, Hazard, Casual Area, Required Relief) — can optionally be scoped to one or more layouts. See Show a Boundary on some Layouts only.

Elements without a layout assignment remain visible on all layouts. The map background and decorative elements are shared across every layout.

Related

• Terminology — definitions of Parkdly concepts used in this page