AU2005202090A1

AU2005202090A1 - House Sitting System

Info

Publication number: AU2005202090A1
Application number: AU2005202090A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Wesley Crisfield
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2004-05-14
Filing date: 2005-05-16
Publication date: 2005-12-22
Also published as: AU2005217987A1

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION Invention Title: House Siting System House Siting System This invention relates to a house siting system and in particular to a system of displaying houses on particular defined sites. However it is particularly related to predesigned buildings of any form that can be built on selected packages of land.

In the house industry there are a plurality of house building companies that have a limited range of house designs. The limit is maintained so as to limit costs and to be able to provide examples of the limited designs by a limited number of display houses.

Throughout this document, including the claims, the word "house" is understood to include apartments, flats and other buildings.

Therefore with each building company having their own house designs and the interested buyer having a block of land on which to place one of the limited houses it is necessary to readily display the houses in relation to the block of land.

This need has to date not been readily fulfilled. Generally it requires a rough hand drawing or tracing of the display house plan on a rough hand drawing of the block of land. It is necessary for the scale of each to be the same. Often the sales person, at the display house, is not able to attend to these drawings with any level of skill. The plan is then photocopied and given to the buyer. This process results in an inconsistent, inaccurate and poorly presented house siting plan. As this document normally forms the first formal document the buyer receives from the house building company it provides a poor selling point and lack of trust in the large expense of house building contract to follow. It also forms the preliminary instructions for the drafter whom verifies the siting is acceptable and prepares the final documents.

Existing desktop Computer Aided Design (CAD) software in the marketplace is too technical and not user friendly to a non drafter such as a salesman at a housing estate display house of a house builder. Also it is not flexible for meeting the needs of the housing industry.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a house siting system, which is able to provide a reasonably accurate representation for the prospective purchaser that is readily achievable by a salesperson without any special representation drafting skills.

In accordance with the invention there is provided a display system comprising the steps of defining a first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical image; selecting a second orientatable geometrical image; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation and displaying the first and second objects as a combined image.

The invention also provides a display system comprising the steps of defining on a computer a first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical object; selecting a second orientatable geometrical object from a library in a memory integral with or connected to the computer; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation; allowing the first and second objects to be displayed as a combined image on a visual display unit.

The display system can be available on a web address.

The first object can be selected from a web address library and downloaded to a display means.

The second object can be selected from a web address library and downloaded to a display means.

The invention also provides a computer aided design like system on a html format.

The html format can exist under a web address accessed by an internet browser.

However the system can be accessed locally from a personal computer if the program files are stored on the hard disk of the personal computer or on a compact disk read only memory (ROM) readable by the personal computer.

Also in accordance with the invention there is provided a house siting system including the steps of defining a first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical image corresponding to an external boundary of a block of land in a first scale; selecting a second orientatable geometrical image of one of a plurality of house plan designs in said first scale; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation to provide; and displaying the first and second objects as a combined image. Defining the first object in a scaled dimensioned form corresponding to an external boundary of a block of land is undertaken on a computer wherein the first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical object. The selecting of a second orientatable geometrical object is from a library in a memory integral with or connected to the computer. The transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation by means of the computer and this allows the first and second objects to be displayed as a combined image on a visual display unit.

The display system can be available on a web address.

The first object can be selected from a web address library and downloaded to the display means. The second object can be selected from a web address library and downloaded to the display means.

The second objects corresponding to house images and additional third objects such as garages, rumpus rooms can be available in a list in the browser, and are displayed when selected by embedding the URL (Web Address) of the image in the html page.

There can also be included a plurality of fourth objects which represent surveying symbols that can be downloaded and displayed in the combined image.

The displaying of a plurality of definable images as a combined image includes the process of setout/drawing of first object corresponding to land parcel, setout/drawing of second object corresponding to building envelope, setout/drawing of third object corresponding to easements, covenants, setbacks, any existing structures; Ssetout/drawing of fourth object corresponding to inclusion of any surveying symbols such as representing trees, crossovers, street lights etc; and selection and positioning of combined image relating to house; and annotation of boundaries, setbacks. The display of combined image can include associated building, surveying or purchase NO 5 notes in a note image location.

The system can allow the plan to be printed at the true scale or saved to a pdf file also maintaining scale.

10 It can be seen that to provide a house siting system of the invention which suits the Sneeds of a housing sales consultant through the unique combination of surveying, drafting information technology, including web development, and housing industry features.

The invention in one embodiment provides the features of setbacks and easements are shown using a point to point measurement tool and a dotted line. The plan can be orientated in any direction and a north point displays the direction of true north. The land parcel can be drawn very easily by clicking on a starting point with the mouse and simply typing in the distance and bearing (direction) of each boundary. Where bearings are not available, distances can be used solely and the boundary line can be directed using the mouse.

Any number of house plans can be displayed with a variety of options. The house can be simply picked up and dragged to the desired location using the mouse. The house can be rotated to any angle or inverted. The orientation of the sun's light can be displayed for the selected time of day.

A range of lines including curved lines can be drawn for curved boundaries such as for cul-de-sacs or courts. The history of each line drawn can be stored to allow lines to be deleted consecutively.

The plan can be drawn at the desired scale such as 1:200; 1:250; 1:300; 1:350; or 1:400.

Surveying icons for such items as trees or services can be dragged on to the plan and resized.

Text annotations can be added to any location on the plan using the right mouse button. Any necessary notes or instructions can be added to the plan.

The site plan can be saved to a pdf or gif image file for storage and transfer or the plan can be printed straight from the browser. An eraser tool allows any mistakes to be cleared.

In order that the invention is more readily understood an embodiment will be described by way of illustration only with reference to the drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a house siting system in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is a diagrammatic view of an operational procedure of the house siting system of Figure 1; Figure 3A is a stepwise flow diagram of an operational procedure of the house siting system of Figure 1; Figures 3B and 3C are views of a front page of two versions of house siting systems on a computer using house siting system in accordance with the invention; Figures 4 to 13 are display pages of various stages of partial definition of a block of land and house siting in accordance with the invention; Figure 14 is a finished printed display page of definition of a block of land and house siting in accordance with the invention; Figure 15 is a format of display page showing active areas for definition of a block of land and house siting in accordance with the invention; Figure 16 is a schematic flow diagram of an operation of drawing system for definition of a block of land in accordance with the invention; Figure 17 is a diagrammatic view of dimensioning aspect of definition of a block of land and house siting in accordance with the invention; Figure 18 is a schematic flow diagram of an operation of bearings of drawing system for definition of a block of land in accordance with the invention; Figure 19 is a schematic flow diagram of an operation of combined drawing and bearing system for definition of a block of land in accordance with the invention; Figures 20 to 27 are display pages of various 3D views of a house siting on a specified block of land as shown by a house siting system in accordance with the invention.

Referring to Figure 1 there is shown a schematic diagram of a house siting system in accordance with a first embodiment of the invention. By this diagram it can be seen that there is the possibility for remote access by a client browser such as a salesperson at a display house at a housing estate or new land release area. The salesperson is able to access by web address a house siting system which can be used without the requirement of expertise or equipment except a web attached computer.

Figure 2 details the process in definition of a block of land and house siting in accordance with the invention. These steps include defining a first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical image corresponding to an external boundary of a block of land in a first scale; selecting a second orientatable geometrical image of one of a plurality of house plan designs in said first scale; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation to provide; and displaying the first and second objects as a combined image.

The process flow comprises the following steps.

1. Enter Client Details Client details including name(s), address of the site, and the date of siting are entered into the fields in the top section of the form of Figure 3B and 3C. As can be seen from Figures 4 to 8 the html page provides a means of defining a first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical image which forms the boundaries of the buyers block of land.

2. The consultant using the house siting system gathers land information, requirements, restrictions from the prospective client. The consultant gathers all possible information regarding the land parcel from the client, these include but are not limited to: Plan of subdivision plan of parcel with boundary dimensions and (if available) bearings; Any plans or information concerning building envelope restrictions, easements, building fagade requirements, height restrictions or covenants; The fall across the building area; Descriptions of surrounding buildings; Preferred house designs 3. The user draws land parcel from land information provided as shown in Figure 4and 5 by selecting the appropriate scale for the size of the client's land parcel.

Other lines of easements or the like can be defined within the external boundaries as shown in Figures 6 and 7.

4. If necessary, they then orientate the plan datum so that the front of the parcel is pointed down the screen (by entering the bearing of the boundary they want running up the screen). The consultant begins drawing the parcel by the following: clicking down in the plan area where they want to start the first boundary from (this begins drawing a line in the plan); Entering the distance and bearing of the boundary and pressing the 'enter' key (which then completes the drawing of the line and starts a new line at the end point of the line); Entering the distance and bearing of the next boundary (and so on until the final boundary meets back with the starting boundary).

If the consultant does not have bearings available, the parcel can be drawn using distances only and directing the boundary line by sight.

5. As shown in Figure 6 the next step is to measure and draw in setbacks, and easements for house. The consultant changes the drawing style from the default (black line lpt thick) to point to point measurement. They then setout the required setbacks, easements, building envelopes etc. by clicking down on the required point and entering the distance bearing of the required setback easement, this then places a dot at the start and end points. The consultant then selects the appropriate line style and color for an easement (thick dashed line) or a setback (dotted line) and draws the required lines through the setout points.

6. Place any existing trees, buildings and services where applicable as shown in Figure 8. The consultant has a series of surveying symbols available to display on the plan. They click a button to display the symbols, and simply click on and drag the symbol onto the plan to the required location (symbols can be resized by pressing the 'Ctrl' key and clicking/dragging the image).

Symbols entered into the plan can be removed via the control panel.

7. As shown in Figures 9, 10 and 11 Ithe next step is to select a house and drag it over the parcel and position via the control panel, the consultant selects a house from the list and clicks 'Show Plan'. They can then drag the plan using the mouse to the required location, as indicated by the previously setout setbacks, easements, building envelope etc. The house plan can be orientated in any direction if required, by entering the desired bearing in the control panel. Also in other forms such as SVG the house (and any symbols or text) can also be rotated by selecting the object with the mouse and rotating it by clicking a dragging on the arrows in the corner of the selected object.

8. Add any standard options (such as garages and rumpus rooms) such as shown in Figure 9. The 'Std Options' button is clicked in the control panel to display the available standard options (garages, rumpus rooms etc.). The consultant can click and drag the required option onto the plan to the appropriate position.

9. Final checks such as daylight orientation and any other checks as shown in Figure 10 adjust house position if necessary.

The consultant then goes over the siting with the client and checks that all requirements and restrictions have been catered for, this includes checking surrounding building locations and sunlight direction. Any adjustments are made where necessary.

Add required annotations and notes such as shown in Figure 13.

The consultant adds annotations to the plan by clicking the right mouse button where the text is to be displayed and entering the text in the input field provided, then pressing 'Enter'. Annotations include items such as: boundary lengths; setback distances; easement notations; land fall indication; notation of standard option; any other necessary notes.

The system can automatically annotate each line with its distance as it is drawn.

11. Display legend and north point.

The consultant displays the north point (which will be orientated in the appropriate direction if the plan datum was orientated to a bearing) and displays the surveying symbols legend via buttons in the control panel.

12. Save and print the plan. As shown in Figure 14 with the completed plan is saved to a database so that it can be reopened and altered printed later if necessary. The plan can be output to the printer or to a pdf file. An existing siting can be reopened from the database and the house (or anything else) can be changed and the plan can be resaved as the same plan or a new plan.

Figure 15 shows the format of display page showing active areas for definition of a block of land and house siting in accordance with the invention. This includes the Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) area which is the system that has been defined by the house siting system. Control panel extends down a right side of the screen with client details and branding at a top portion and an area for notes at a lower right side.

The system further includes a lower section for sign off and disclaimer so the document can be framed as a legal offer.

In operation the technical complexities are explained with reference to Figures 16 to 19. The house siting system required a number of problems to be overcome. In particular it is necessary to provide CAD functionality in a browser. This allows drawing a line with the mouse by clicking down and dragging the line to the desired location and clicking down again to end the line. This problem was overcome by a single line being drawn in the browser by colouring the pixels between 2 endpoints on a browser layer, the pixels are coloured using DHTML (Dynamic HTML) and javascript. A line drawing function has been created to allow the 2 end points to be provided and the style thickness colour of the line.

After the left mouse button is clicked on screen, DHTML and browser layers are used to draw a new line on a temporary layer every time the mouse is moved. Prior to the line being drawn on the temporary layer, the layer is cleared of any other lines to only show the current line between the start point (where the mouse was clicked) and the end point (being the location of the mouse pointer). The line is saved to the permanent plan layer when the left mouse button is clicked a second time. At this stage drawing can continue from the end point of the first line or the escape key can be pressed to end the line.

The CAD functionality in a browser of displaying the distance and bearing of the line whilst it is being drawn is provided by the start and end coordinates (x pixels and y pixels) of the line are used on every move of the mouse during line drawing to compute a bearing a distance to be displayed next to the mouse pointer. From the coordinates of the 2 endpoints the differences in the x and y components are found.

Trigonometry is then used with the x and y components to compute the distance in pixels between the 2 end points. The distance is then converted into millimetres on screen, and a scale factor is then applied to convert the screen distance to the scaled value in metres (selected by the user before drawing commences). Trigonometry is used once again with the x and y components to derive an angle (A in the diagram below). The quadrant of 360 degrees that the angle A belongs to is then found by comparing the differences between the (xl, yl) and (x2, y2) coordinates.

The bearing is then determined from the quadrant and the angle. The bearing is converted in degrees minutes and seconds for display. Once the bearing and distance computation is complete, it is displayed on a layer next to the mouse pointer.

The CAD functionality in a browser of drawing of a line in a browser based on distance and/or bearing is provided to enable the user to draw a line to any distance entered and/or any direction entered. The user clicks down on the screen and moves the mouse. The measurement layer appears with the current distance and bearing of the line next to the mouse pointer. The user can overwrite the distance and/or bearing in the measurement layer and press the Enter key to create a line of the provided distance and/or bearing.

The browser pixel coordinates of the line starting point are stored on the clicking of the mouse button in the drawing area. The distance entered by the user is then converted into millimetres on screen and then pixels. If the bearing is provided, it is converted into radians in its appropriate quadrant from degrees, minutes and seconds.

If the bearing is not provided it is computed using trigonometry based on the x y coordinates of the current start and end points of the line. The angle in radians and the distance entered is then used to compute the x and y coordinates of the end point of the line using trigonometry. These coordinates are then passed to the drawing function mentioned in item I to complete the line drawing on the plan layer.

A further CAD Functionality in the browser allows saving the history of what has been drawn in the browser and allowing the changes to be undone consecutively.

This is achieved by an array being created in the browser which stores the start and end coordinates of every line drawn consecutively. When the user wants to undo a line drawn, the program retrieves the last start and end points and draws a white line over the line to remove it from view. It is done this way because the plan layer containing all of the lines can technically only have all content cleared at once, a separate layer could be used for each line drawn to get around this, but this would compromise performance.

Another CAD Functionality in the browser allows a range of scales to be selected.

The user can change the scale of the plan to any of a range of available scales. This is done by setting a scale factor in the browser dependent on the scale selected. The scale factor converts any distance in metres to pixels in the browser and vice versa in all computations. The change of scale also changes the scale of the houses and other objects shown by swapping the image file used from one scale to another (using the filename format image_name_<scale>.gif).

Also the CAD Functionality in the browser enables point to point measurement for setout of setbacks, easements and other positioning. This is done by allowing a line to be drawn with just a dot resulting at each end on a separate layer for point to point measurement. Once the mouse is clicked, a temporary layer is used to display a dotted line during the measurement process, and the temporary layer is cleared completely when the mouse button is clicked the second time, the end point is placed on the point to point layer. The point to point layer can be cleared at any time (generally done once setout is complete).

A further CAD Functionality in the browser enables annotation. Annotation is enabled by using the right mouse button action to display a text input. The coordinates of the right mouse click are stored, and the text entered is placed on a layer positioned in the same location and the right mouse lick coordinates.

CAD Functionality in the browser also allows the orientation of the plan to be set and the north point shown. The orientation is set by taking the bearing entered and adjusting any bearing computation or input by adding the bearing entered for the orientation. If the resultant bearing is greater than 360 degrees the result is subtracted by 360 degrees.

A further CAD Functionality in the browser allows the orientation of the house to be set to any bearing. The house plan image is embedded in a java object in the browser, which has a native syntax for rotating the data within the object. The bearing entered by the user is converted into radians and passed to the rotation function.

The system in an improved form includes the ability to automatically create setbacks and easements by clicking on an existing line and offseting that line as a new line.

Also particular rooms of a specified width and length can be included.

The first object referring to the block of land can in another version be imported from a library of entire estates of land into the system (so the user can simply open the required lot already drawn and then add the house). This can be was done for estates in any town which has been opened up for development or redevelopment.

There is also an ability in the system to import a CAD file (in DXF format), making it easy to bring land, house designs and any other CAD data into the system database.

Similarly there is the ability to export the house siting file from the database to a DXF file (readable by generic CAD programs). This makes it easy for integration between the sales department (using the system of the invention) and the drafting department (using generic CAD programs).

A further redevelopment of the program uses the latest SVG (Scaleable Vector Graphics) web technology allowing: faster drawing speed; ability to zoom to any scale and pan around; ability to rotate and resize any object; faster printing speed; clearer vector output from the printer; ability to produce complex objects such as 3D graphics; the best technology available now for graphical applications delivered over the internet.

Development of 3D functionality allows the house and land to be viewed in 3D if levels are provided by the user (by simply clicking on each boundary intersection).

This functionality allows the client to appreciate the fall on their land, to see how much cut/fill there will be, and to see where the house will sit from any angle. This new functionality will also allow us to incorporate site costs calculations into the program (development of this is in progress).

Also the use of DHTML with SVG because it is a far more efficient, effective and scalable way of presenting graphics on the internet. SVG has been developed by the same consortium which built HTML (W3C), to address the shortcomings of HTML for graphical applications.

In this form of the invention the system is made up of the following parts: HMTL and Javascript pages: HTML to display the program interface, and javascript to run the program (the brains of the program) SVG page (embedded in the HTML page), used to display the graphical 'CAD' objects created by the program (javascript). The SVG page embedded in the HTML page is the drawing area of the program.

13 The boundary lines (and other lines) are an orientatable and dimensional geometric object which is technically an SVG line object and the house is an SVG path object which together are displayed in a SVG compliant web browser. In the HTML version, the line was removed and all remaining lines were redrawn (so the white line over the existing line was not required) now with SVG the line object can be removed from the view without needing to redraw everything.

In this form the block of land and any corresponding setback lines, easements etc are not actually images, rather they are straight lines or curves defined by a start point and end point (these points are merely a set of x and y coordinates). SVG technology allows a web program to draw any line vector (or group of lines) in a web browser by simply specifying the start and end points of the line. Unlike using HTML in which you would have to display the line by shading the pixels in a straight line between the start and end points (basically SVG does this far more efficiently with better quality). So for all lines within the house siting you only need to store the coordinates of each line (and the style colour of the line), when the siting is reopened the program redraws the lines from the stored coordinates.

The first object can be selected from a web address library including a database of land titles of an estate or region of subdivided land with surveying information and downloaded to the display means. The ability to import land into the database is a very important part of the system in that it makes the job of siting a house even easier.

In fact it couldn't be easier open the land file you want, drag the house on to it.

The importing of land from a dxf file is quite clever in that the import program finds each lot in the estate and imports all data pertaining to the lot and the surrounding area (so you can see neighbouring parcels easements etc). It also allows you to import the levels of each land parcel automatically enabling the 3D view and also the ability to then compute the site costs up front. The system can allow the importing of all major land subdivisions in Victoria. So the bulk of clients (about 70-80%) will be able to get a full fixed statement of costs including all site costs from the sales consultant up front. This means the client will know exactly what the building project will cost from the start (so they can go to the bank know exactly what they need). This is a great advantage as many clients need to stretch their budget to the limit. Currently, no builder in Australia or the world as far as known is able to do this for clients wishing to build on their own land The house template is an image that is displayed on the screen and can be moved rotated into position over the land parcel, the filename of the image and it's location (coordinates) rotation is all we need to store (note the house is currently being changed from an image to a dxf CAD file a group of lines defined by coordinates in a text file; this is discussed below). The icons/symbols are also images and are stored in the same way as the house.

In the HTML version it has a further CAD Functionality in the browser which allowed the orientation of the house to be set to any bearing. The house plan image is embedded in a java object in the browser, which has a native syntax for rotating the data within the object. The bearing entered by the user is converted into radians and passed to the rotation function. However with the SVG technology it allows us to rotate any object within the SVG document, thus the java object is no longer needed.

Referring to Figures 20 to 27 if the user provides levels at each boundary intersection of the land parcel, the siting can be saved and reopened in a 3D view as shown. The user can freely rotate and navigate around the 3D object. The 3D functionality simply takes the x and y coordinates of each line that makes up the land parcel and adds a z coordinate (or height). We also need to display the house as a group of lines like the land (instead of an image) with x, y and z coordinates. These x, y and z coordinates are fed into a 3D formula that converts the 3D point into a 2D point on the screen, we then draw each line using these resulting 2D points. The resulting 2D point location depends on where you define the viewing orientation to be, changing the viewing orientation allows us to look at the house on the land from any desired angle.

As we need to display the house using a plurality of lines defined by coordinates for the 3D view, all 2D sitings will now display the house as a vector object instead of an image. Basically, instead of having the house displayed from a .gif image file, it can

I

be displayed from a .dxf file (which is the generic CAD file data format a plurality of lines defined by coordinates). The home siting system program simply reads the required dxf file when prompted and translates it into a group of lines on the screen that make up the house.

It should be noted that the above description is of a preferred embodiment of the invention. Clearly variations understandable by a person skilled in the art without any inventiveness are included within the scope of this invention as defined in the following claims.

Claims

1. A display system comprising the steps of: defining on a computer a first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical object; selecting a second orientatable geometrical object from a library in a memory integral with or connected to the computer; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation; allowing the first and second objects to be displayed as a combined image on a visual display unit.

2. The display system according to claim 1 wherein the image creation occurs at a web address.

3. The display system according to claim 1 wherein the second object can be selected from a web address library and downloaded to a display means.

4. The display system according to claim 1 wherein at least one of the first and second objects is in an html format. The display system according to claim 4 wherein the design system in an html format exists at a web address accessed by an intemrnet browser.

6. The display system according to claim 4 wherein the design system in an html format exists locally on a personal computer with the program files stored on the hard disk of the personal computer or on a compact disk read only memory (ROM) readable by the personal computer.

7. The display system according to claim 1 wherein first object includes representations of the boundary lines and other lines which form an orientatable and dimensional geometric object as an SVG line object and the second object representing a house is an SVG path object and the combined image is able to be displayed in a SVG compliant web browser

8. The display system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the first and second objects are two dimensional plan representations.

9. The display system according to any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein the first and second objects are three dimensional plan representations. The display system according to any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein the first and second objects are able to be displayed in either two dimensional plan representations or three dimensional views.

11. A house siting system including the steps of: defining a first object in a scaled dimensioned form corresponding to an external boundary of a block of land; orientating the first scaled dimensioned image relative to a street, direction or other relative geographical feature; selecting a second object of a house design from one of a plurality of house designs; coordinating scaling of the first and second object into a constant scale; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation to provide a proposed house siting; displaying the first and second objects as a combined image.

12. A house siting system according to claim 11 wherein the steps of: defining a first object in a scaled dimensioned form corresponding to an external boundary of a block of land is undertaken on a computer wherein the first orientatable and dimensionable geometrical object; selecting a second orientatable geometrical object is from a library in a memory integral with or connected to the computer; transposing and orientating the second object on the first object in selected relative orientation by means of the computer; and allowing the first and second objects to be displayed as a combined image on a visual display unit.

13. A house siting system according to claim 11 wherein the first object representing the land parcel is able to be drawn by clicking on a starting point with the mouse and entering the distance and bearing (direction) of each boundary.

14. A house siting system according to claim 11, 12 or 13 wherein the first object representing the land parcel is able to be drawn by clicking on a starting point with the mouse and the boundary line is formed by directing the mouse. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 14 wherein the display system is be available on a web address.

16. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 15 wherein the first object is selected from a web address library and downloaded to the display means.

17. A house siting system according to claim 16 wherein the first object is selected from a web address library including a database of land titles of an estate or region of subdivided land with surveying information and downloaded to the display means.

18. A house siting system according to claim 16 wherein a plurality of first objects is selected from a web address library including a database of land titles of an estate or region of subdivided land with surveying information and downloaded to the display means, wherein the selection of first object can include consideration of the suitability of the selected second object to be located on the first object.

19. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 17 wherein the second object is selected from a web address library and downloaded to the display means. r A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 19 wherein the second objects corresponding to house images and additional third objects such as garages, rumpus rooms are available in a list in the browser, and are displayed when selected by embedding the URL (Web Address) of the image in the html page.

21. The house siting system according to claim 11 to 20 wherein first object includes representations of the boundary lines and other lines which form an orientatable and dimensional geometric object as an SVG line object and the second object representing a house is an SVG path object and the combined image is able to be displayed in a SVG compliant web browser

22. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 21 including the step of selection of a plurality of fourth objects which represent surveying symbols that can be downloaded and displayed in the combined image.

23. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 22 wherein the displaying of a plurality of definable images as a combined image includes the process of: a. setout/drawing of first object corresponding to land parcel, b. setout/drawing of second object corresponding to a house building design, c. setout/drawing of third object corresponding to easements, covenants, setbacks, any existing structures; d. setout/drawing of fourth object corresponding to inclusion of any surveying symbols such as representing trees, crossovers, street lights etc; e. transposing and orientating the second object on the combination of the first, third and fourth objects in selected relative orientation; f. allowing the first, second, third and fourth objects to be displayed as a combined image on a visual display unit; and g. allowing annotation of display of combined image with required information.

24. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 23 wherein the display of combined image can include associated building, surveying or purchase notes in a note image location. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 24 wherein the system allows the plan to be printed at the true scale or saved to a pdf file also maintaining scale.

26. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 25 providing the features of setbacks and easements to be shown on the combined image using a point to point measurement tool and a dotted line.

27. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 26 wherein the second object of the house can be simply picked up and dragged to the desired location using the mouse.

28. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 27 wherein the house can be rotated to any angle or inverted.

29. A house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 28 wherein the first and second objects are two dimensional plan representations.

30. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 29 wherein one or more of the first and second objects are three dimensional plan representations.

31. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 30 wherein the first and second objects are able to be displayed in either two dimensional plan representations or three dimensional views.

32. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 31 wherein the 21 I orientation of the sun's light can be displayed for the selected time of day.

33. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 32 wherein a range of lines including curved lines can be drawn for curved boundaries such as for cul-de-sacs or courts.

34. The house siting system according to claim 33 wherein the history of each line drawn can be stored to allow lines to be deleted consecutively.

35. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 34 wherein the displayed combined image can be drawn at the desired scale such as 1:200; 1:250; 1:300; 1:350; or 1:400.

36. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 35 wherein surveying icons for such items as trees or services can be dragged on to the plan and resized.

37. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 36 wherein text annotations can be added to any location on the plan using the right mouse button and any necessary notes or instructions can be added to the plan.

38. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 37 wherein the combined image is saved to a pdf or gif image file for display and printing.

39. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 37 wherein the combined image is saved to a database allowing for recovery and display or amendment and display of amended combined image. The house siting system according to claim 39 wherein the combined image is saved to a remote database.

41. The house siting system according to any one of claims 11 to 40 wherein an eraser tool allows any mistakes to be cleared.

42. A house siting system substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the drawings.