Design type — retaining walls & grade changes

Retaining walls and grade changes, seen at the height they will really be.

Wall height, terrace count, cap detail and where the steps land are impossible to picture from a section drawing. PlotVisionAI™ renders the wall into the slope you already have, so the mass of it is obvious before a single block is ordered.

AI concept visualization of a tiered block retaining wall holding a sloped rear yard, with a capped seat course, natural stone steps climbing between the two terraces and planted beds softening the wall face.
AI concept visualization A two-tier block wall with capped courses and stone steps, generated onto a sloping rear yard. AI concept visualization, shown to convey scale rather than to document a build.

Matched before and after

One entry slope, before and built.

The before frame is the property as it stood: settled concrete steps, a tired block edge and a slope that pushed water straight at the walk. The after frame is the finished Landforms build. The design lines are drawn over the before photograph first, then resolve into the finished terraces.

Photograph of a front entry before construction: cracked concrete steps settling away from the walk, a tired low block edge under an overgrown hydrangea and a lawn slope running down to the driveway. Photograph of the same front entry after construction at dusk: two courses of capped stone wall holding the grade, wide stone steps with recessed lights, planted terraces and flagstone landing.

Real Landforms project photography

Front entry: two terraces instead of one slope. Both frames are photographs of the same property from the same entry approach — daylight before demolition, and the finished build at dusk once planting and lighting were in. Framing is close but not identical, because these are two site visits rather than a rendered pair. Nothing in either frame is synthetic.

What a wall concept settles

Height and mass, not block colour.

The question that matters is how big the wall feels from the patio and from the neighbour's side, and whether one tall wall should really be two shorter terraces. PlotVisionAI is used by homeowners and landscape professionals worldwide, and it works on any property you can photograph — anywhere in the world.

One wall or two terraces

A single six-foot wall and a pair of three-foot terraces hold the same soil and look nothing alike. Seeing both options rendered on your own slope is the fastest way to settle it, and it also changes the planting that becomes possible in between.

Where the steps go

Steps decide how the upper yard actually gets used. On a photo you can see whether the run lands where people already walk, or whether it dumps traffic across a lawn that will be worn to dirt by August.

Cap, face and exposure

Cap projection, block texture and colour, and how much face is left exposed above grade all change the character of the wall. They also determine how much the wall reads as landscape rather than as infrastructure.

What sits on top

A wall is usually there so something else can exist: a level patio, a flat lawn, or a court pad. Draw the thing it serves in the same frame or the wall gets designed in isolation.

What a wall concept does not decide

This is the design type where the line matters most: a concept visualization carries none of the engineering. Geogrid, drainage stone, base leveling pad, batter, soil type, surcharge from a driveway above, frost depth and the permit or engineer's stamp that a taller wall requires are all real work done by real people, and a picture cannot substitute for any of it.

Use the concept to agree on height, terracing, step position and finish. Then hand it to a contractor or engineer to design the structure. If you want to see how grade interacts with everything else, the full backyard page covers the whole-property view.

Design types

The other things PlotVisionAI can draw on your property

Each design type has its own page, with the questions that type of project actually has to answer before anyone builds it.

iPhone & Android app — coming soon

Design anywhere. PlotVisionAI™ for iPhone and Android.

The same workflow as the web tool, in your pocket on site: photograph the yard where you are standing, direct the concept, and spend credits from the same account. Built for homeowners and landscape professionals worldwide.

Get the app Join mobile early access

The apps are in development. There is no store listing yet, nothing to download today, and no release date is being promised — joining early access simply means you hear first.

Three phones showing the PlotVisionAI mobile app: the welcome screen, a project list with saved backyard concepts, and the credits screen.
Screens from the current PlotVisionAI™ mobile build. Project photography is Landforms work; the concept imagery inside the app is AI concept visualization.
QR code that opens the PlotVisionAI mobile app page at landscapedesignsonline.com/download.html

Scan for the mobile appOpens the PlotVisionAI app page on your phone

Early access

Ready to visualize your property?

Wall projects usually need a few versions — one tall, one terraced, one with the steps moved. That is what credits are for.

Checkout is hosted by Stripe and opens in a new tab. Card details are entered on Stripe’s own page, never on this site. Early-access pricing, subject to change — accounts and self-serve generation are still in development. Full detail on the pricing page.

Starter ($19 for 20 credits) is approved but its Stripe payment link is not live yet, so the Starter card opens a request form instead of checkout. The other prices go straight to Stripe.

Next step

Got a slope you are trying to solve?

Send a photo taken square-on to the slope, plus a rough idea of the drop, and Darin will look at it personally.

Send a photo See how it works