User Guide

Covers BayDraft 1.0

This guide describes what BayDraft does today. It grows as the app does — if something isn't here, it isn't built yet.

Getting started

The first time you open BayDraft you need an internet connection. It creates your account and downloads the prop library, and neither can happen offline.

After that, building stages works without a connection. You only need to be online again to sync between devices or pick up new props. If you plan to use BayDraft at a bay with no signal, sign in and open the app once beforehand.

Creating a stage

Tap New Stage and give it a name. You can also set the sport (USPSA, IDPA, IPSC, or Steel Challenge), the stage type (field course, short/medium course, standards, or classifier), a match name, and an author. Only the name is required — the rest can be filled in later from Stage info.

You then pick the bay: its width and depth in yards, and the berm height in feet. Bays come from a set of templates, so the proportions match a real range.

You can change the bay later from the gear menu () → Change Bay. If the new bay is smaller and some props would fall outside it, BayDraft tells you how many and asks before moving them inside. That change is undoable like any other.

Moving around the bay

There are two cameras, and the toolbar button switches between them. The controls differ between a computer and a touch screen, so both are listed below — on a computer you have a keyboard and a second mouse button, and on a phone or tablet you have extra fingers instead.

Walk

Eye-level, the way a shooter sees the stage. This is the view that tells you what's actually visible from a position.

To do this	Computer	Phone or tablet
Look around	Drag	Drag one finger
Walk forward, back, or sideways	W / A / S / D, or the arrow keys	The movement pad, bottom right
Change eye height	Q and E, or the scroll wheel	Pinch

The movement pad is analogue — a small nudge walks slowly, a full push walks at full speed — so you can ease into a position rather than overshoot it.

Orbit

Circle the bay from outside — better for laying things out.

To do this	Computer	Phone or tablet
Rotate around the bay	Drag	Drag one finger
Zoom in and out	Scroll wheel	Pinch
Pan sideways	Right-drag	Drag two fingers

On a touch screen, one finger always moves the camera or a prop, and two fingers always move the camera. So if you start dragging a prop and then put a second finger down, the prop stays where it was and you pinch instead.

Tap the mode indicator in the bottom-left corner at any time for a reminder of the controls on the device you're using — it shows the touch controls on a phone or tablet and the keyboard ones on a computer.

Adding props

Open the prop library and drag a prop onto the bay. It lands where you drop it.

On a phone or tablet, press and hold a prop for a moment before dragging it. You'll feel a short buzz when it lifts. Until then a drag scrolls the list, so you can browse with one finger as usual. With a mouse, just drag — no hold needed.

To find things in the library:

Search by name.
Type menu — targets, no-shoots, steel, walls, barrels, fault lines, shooting boxes, or stage props.
Tags () — pick one or more to narrow the list. Each tag shows how many props you'd get, and tags that would leave you with nothing are greyed out. Selected tags appear under the filter row and can be removed individually.

Adding more than one tag narrows the results: choosing barricade and port shows only props that are both.

Placing and adjusting props

Tap a prop to select it. Once selected you can:

Move it by dragging.
Rotate it using the rotation handle. Props only turn on the spot — they can't be tilted, because real props don't.
Duplicate () it from the toolbar (or press D), then tap to place the copy.
Rename it, or change its prop number, from the properties panel.
Lock it so it can't be moved by accident.
Delete it.

Grid and snapping

Snap () is a toolbar button, because it's something you turn on and off constantly — on for a tidy layout, off for a natural one. Grid visibility () and spacing live in the gear menu, since you generally set those once.

Undo

Every change to a stage can be undone, including swapping the bay. Camera movement is not undoable — moving your viewpoint isn't a change to the stage.

Working on several props at once

Most stage work happens in batches — six targets, a bank of walls, a whole array you want two feet further downrange. Everything below treats the selection as one thing, and counts as one undo.

Selecting more than one

Shift-click props to add or remove them.
Shift-drag on empty ground to draw a box around several.
Multi-select mode in the toolbar does both without a keyboard — tap to add, drag to box. This is the one to use on a tablet, where there is no Shift key and no spare gesture to give it.
Select all (Cmd/Ctrl+A), or select by type to grab every paper target, every wall, and so on. The menu only lists what is actually in the stage, with counts.

Every selected prop is ringed, and the panel breaks the selection down by kind so you can see what you are about to change. Dragging any one of them moves the whole group.

Editing the whole selection

Nudge, rotate each prop on the spot, rotate the group about its centre, set required hits, lock, duplicate, or delete — all at once. Locked props stay visible in the selection but are skipped, with an Unlock all button right there if that is not what you wanted.

Align and distribute

Align lines props up by their visible edges, not their centre points, so a wide wall and a narrow target finish flush rather than looking a hand's width out. Alignment is relative to the bay — across it, or down it — so it means the same thing in a walkthrough, an overhead view, and the printed diagram.

Distribute spaces three or more props evenly between the outermost two. Choose even gaps when you want the same daylight between things of different widths, or even centres when the props mark regular positions.

A locked prop anchors both: pin the wall, then align the targets to it.

Rows and fans

Placing six targets one at a time and eyeballing the spacing is the sort of thing you only do once before wanting a better way. Select a prop, open Array in its properties panel, and place the whole set in one go.

Row

Choose how many copies you want, how far apart, and which way the row runs. Spacing is either the gap between props or their centre-to-centre distance — gap is usually what you mean out loud ("about a yard between them"), and it keeps its meaning even when the props are different widths.

Direction is relative to your view: right, left, away from you, or toward you. Look at the bay the way you want the row to run and it goes that way.

Fan

A fan curves the copies around a pivot rather than running them straight. Set the radius — how far in front of the prop the pivot sits, usually the shooting position the targets present to — and the sweep, then choose whether the fan opens left or right.

Every copy turns as it goes round, so they all keep facing the pivot. That is what makes it a fan rather than a curved row of parallel targets.

The whole array arrives selected, source included, so you can nudge, align, or re-distribute it straight away — and one undo removes the lot if it is not what you pictured.

Targets, hard cover, and hits

Paper targets can carry more than one face. Use Add faces on a selected target to stack them, and for each face you can set:

Elevation — the height of the top edge of the card.
Roll — the tilt of the card. IPSC limits this to ±45°; USPSA leaves it open.
Front/back order — which face sits nearer the shooter when they overlap.
Hard cover — the painted pattern covering part of the target.

You can also set required hits per target where it differs from the default.

Scored paper targets are numbered T1, T2… and scored steel S1, S2…. No-shoots aren't numbered, because they aren't scored. Turn labels on or off from the gear menu.

Fault lines and walls

Fault lines and walls are drawn rather than dropped, since they run in lengths. Pick the fault-line () or wall () tool, then tap along the path you want. While drawing you can:

Undo the last point.
Close the loop to join the run back to its start, or leave it open.
Choose a segment variant where the prop comes in more than one length or style.

BayDraft tiles real props along the path — you get the actual number of sections, not a drawn line. Afterwards you can edit the run: move or delete a point, remove a segment, or explode the whole run into loose props if you'd rather position each one by hand.

Viewpoints

Open the viewpoints panel to jump to a saved camera position. Two are always there:

Bay Opening — the view from the front of the bay.
Overhead — straight down, framed to the bay. This is the view to use for a diagram.

Save your own with Save current view () in the panel header. Saved viewpoints can be renamed and deleted, they're stored with the stage, and creating one is undoable.

Stage details and round count

Stage info () holds the name, sport, stage type, match name, author, and any tags you want to file it under. Tags also drive the filter on the stage list, which is useful once you have a season's worth of stages.

The round count updates as you build, and is shown at the bottom of the editor. It counts scored paper faces and scored steel, honours any per-target required hits you've set, and ignores no-shoots.

Exporting

From the gear menu () → Export stage you can:

Save as JPG — an image of the current view.
Export as PDF — for printing or sending to a match director.
Share to another app on your device.

Exports capture the view you're looking at, so switch to Overhead first if you want a conventional stage diagram.

Saving and syncing

Stages save automatically. The indicator at the top of the editor shows Saving…, Saved, or Unsaved, so you never have to wonder.

Stages are stored on your device and, when you're online, synced to your account — so a stage built on a laptop opens on a phone. Edits made offline sync when you reconnect. Deleting a stage on one device removes it from the others.

From the stage list you can open, duplicate, edit the details of, or delete any stage, and filter by tag.

Getting help

In the app, go to About → Send feedback (). It opens an email with your app version already filled in, which saves us both a round trip. You can also write to support@baydraft.app.

The About screen also has the version number, the licence agreement, and the open-source licences.