Deck Designer and Tool

Design decks and plan patios in minutes with our software

The Easy Choice for Designing Decks Online

Easy to Use

The included deck design examples will give you a much needed head start. In many cases, all you have to do is customize an existing professionally designed example. You'll spend more time building, less time designing.

Easy to Find the Symbols You Need

SmartDraw's extensive libraries will let you quickly stamp everything from outdoor spas to umbrellas and benches. If for some reason you don't see what you need, you can even create your own custom library of deck design symbols.

Easy to Draw and Print to Scale

SmartDraw lets you draw to scale easily. Choose a common standard architectural scale, a metric scale, and more. You can show dimensions and area in a single click or hide them if your deck design feels too busy. To change the length of a board, you can drag-and-drop the ends of it or you can just type in a new dimension and the board will stretch or shrink to the correct size.

Easy to Work With Other Apps

SmartDraw is easy to work with no matter what other apps you use. You can add deck designs to:

Microsoft Office^®
- Word^®
- PowerPoint^®
- Excel^®
Microsoft Teams^®
Google Workspace^™
- Google Docs
- Google Sheets
Atlassian^™ apps
- Confluence
- Jira

Easy to Save to Your Existing Storage Solution

SmartDraw works hand in glove with most file storage systems. You can save your deck layouts directly to:

SharePoint^®
OneDrive^®
Google Drive^™
DropBox^®
Box^®

There is no need to create a parallel set of common folders and permissions, SmartDraw can just save files directly into your existing set up.

Easy to Share

Share your deck design with anyone, even if they don't own a copy of SmartDraw, with a link.

You can also easily export any diagram as a PDF or common image formats like PNG or SVG.

Easy to Get Help

Have a question? Call, chat or email us. SmartDraw support is in-house and free!

Easy Collaboration

Design your deck or outdoor space with ease and get feedback from your team and clients. They can easily leave comments and suggestions.

You can even collaborate on the same design using shared folders.

SmartDraw makes it easy design together.

The Best Deck Designer Online

You've heard the expression measure twice, cut once. The same principle applies to deck design. Before you install your first joist or deck board, you'll want to have a deck design that's completely planned out from the foundation to the ledger board. But you probably don't want to spend your entire spring or summer designing it. You want to go outside and build.

So use SmartDraw's deck planner to design a deck to be the envy of your neighbors.

Start with a deck design template and quickly drag-and-drop deck elements like boards, railings, planters, and even patio furniture. Deck designing made simple!

Some Simple Tips for Successful Deck and Patio Designs

Don't Forget to Get a Permit
You could face fines or may even have to tear down all your hard work if you don't get the right permits before you start building your deck. Find out what codes you have to follow in your area and make sure you create your deck plan accordingly.
Use Protection
Protect your hard deck design work from the elements whether it be rain, excessive sun, or frost. Make sure you apply both paint and an oil or water-based sealant.
How to Make Sure Your Deck is Flat
Your boards won't always be perfectly flat. To help flatten them out, always install them with the curves or crown going upward. That way as the deck sags over time, they will flatten out.

Deck Design Examples

SmartDraw helps you get started with built-in templates and examples. Use them as your starting point or just browse through them for inspiration. You'll get visuals for elevation posts, support and surface boards, planters and flowers, hot tubs and Jacuzzis, umbrellas and patio furniture, benches, and more.