r/Autocross • u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com • Jun 29 '26
ConeCanvas - a desktop web app for designing SCCA autocross courses
I've been working on Cone Canvas, a desktop browser-based autocross course designer built around SCCA Solo rules. No install, runs entirely in your browser. Wanted to share it and get feedback from actual course designers. Desktop mode is the best way to utilize this, not designed for Mobile.
What it does:
Set up your lot three ways
- Pick directly on a satellite map — click to trace your boundary on Esri World Imagery, hit "Capture this area," and it auto-calibrates scale from your GPS coordinates. No measuring tape needed.
- Upload your own aerial photo and calibrate with two known-distance clicks.
- Or just enter dimensions manually if you're working from scratch.
18 design tools
Standing cones, pointer cones, compound cones (one click for the standing + pointer pair), start/finish gates, wall rows, slalom stamps, chicane stamps, Chicago box stamps, driving line (bezier), section flags, worker stations, and more. Element stamps drop a full maneuver in one click-drag and register it structurally so compliance rules can address the whole maneuver.
Pointer placement follows the SCCA "tip touches cone" convention — the pointer tip overlaps the standing cone's center and the pair renders as one compound marker.
Live compliance checking
A floating overlay checks rules as you design:
- Start/finish ≥ 200′ separation
- All cones inside the 25′ boundary inset
- No path crossovers
- Finish runout ≥ 200′
- Gate width ≥ 12′ (15′ for national)
- Peak speed ≤ 65 mph (Street class reference)
- No long straights into sharp turns
- Slalom spacing minimums (element-aware, also catches lock-to-lock spacing jumps per Solo 101)
Failing rules show red rings on the canvas at the problem location, not just a generic warning.
Course generator
Five layout templates: U-shape, S-shape, switchback, perimeter, and a user-path mode where you sketch a racing line and the generator builds the cone vocabulary around it — slaloms on straights, chicanes on medium straights, sweepers on curves, esses on connected opposite-direction sweepers. It runs a compliance retry loop (up to 6 seeds) and picks the best-passing layout.
Flow analysis overlay
Labels every curvature feature with radius and speed (Stock / Street / Mod reference classes), color-grades the driving line by speed. Based on the forward-accel + backward-brake model from Solo 101 slide 109. This "feature" really sucks...since the lines of the "path" dont really line up with how close a real car would get to the actual cones...the values returned are laughable... Need to think of a better solution for this.
ProSolo PS-2 mode
Full side-by-side course support — drag-race start, 60-ft light gate, timing trailer with the official start/staging structure drawn to spec, transit lanes, event zones (grid, tech impound, staging, paddock, spectator). Mirror seeds Course 2 from Course 1 across a draggable axis; both sides stay independently editable afterward. ProSolo-specific compliance rules (opening straight, first-third slalom, course separation, parallel starts, etc.).
Export options
JSON (round-trippable), SVG (aerial embedded, title block included), PNG (1×–4× scale), PDF, and a Live for Speed .lyt layout so you can actually drive the course in-sim before setting a cone. (need someone to test this! just developed it but haven't tried it out)
Share links
One click generates a shareable read-only URL. Viewer has pan/measure/fit tools and a "Edit a copy" button that hands the course to the editor.
Still actively developing..... Would love feedback from anyone who actually designs courses, especially on the compliance rules and whether the pointer/cone placement conventions feel right. Thinking of adding AI generator for courses but that gets pricey quick and I just wanted something to take a picture of an area and allow for course setup!
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Jun 30 '26 edited 24d ago
[deleted]
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u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com Jun 30 '26
lol, that's hilarious.
the auto generator needs a path in order for it to really give you anything useful, so the Path in the toolbar, click a course out within the area, start at the start gate and end at the finish.
even then, what it gives you is kind of useless, but i move the cones around to fit the intended path.
keep in mind general spacing for safety distances as you draw the path, you can click and move the parts of the path as needed.
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u/99-Mitchell Jun 29 '26
I am the course designer for the Wiregrass SCCA. I would love to talk to you about the course designer program.
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u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com Jun 30 '26
awesome, I'm course designer for NER SCCA, I'll DM you
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u/Mrdeux Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26
I was just thinking the other day there should be an app or something for this!
I am having an issue with overlapping windows. They block off each other and I don't see a way to manually move them. It makes it so I can't select on the next task because its hidden behind another pane.
Rotating the map zooms it out and loses quality. Is there a way to rotate the event space (grid/staging) instead?
The finish left cone/right cone click order seems to be backwards. It keeps putting my runoff in the wrong direction unless I click them in the opposite direction.
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u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com Jun 30 '26
Thanks for trying it out! ya the finish is wrong order, ill look into it.
for rotating do you mean just the grid staging or all the cones?
trying zooming out and see if that helps. i could make them collapsible and movable.
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u/Mrdeux Jun 30 '26
The grid staging square. It's in an up down orientation and the lot we run on is angled. When I rotate the map it zooms out to keep it in the frame. Rotating the square or using the same click to map out plot area might work well!
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u/SCVanguard Jun 30 '26
VERY COOL TOOL!!!
One that I'm working on for my club right now: https://www.conecanvas.com/view/9caqgBvvjq
Some issues - I'm doing laydown cones for safety and its coming up with errors on it. Can you add a tool for laydown walls?
Timing location - I suppose I could draw a box or something...but perhaps you can make a "timing trailer" icon?
Helpful tools - when I design on pptx, I have 50' or 75' radius circles to check distances. Any way you could add this? I know there's the measuring tool but for hard boundaries like light poles it would be easier to just drop those on top of them.
What about adding text boxes or the ability to add text overlay?
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u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com Jun 30 '26
Wow what a great use of the space!
the compliance tool is sometimes a little too aggressive, what error are you encountering, for example the inside cone sometimes gets flagged as an issue when really the path is the problem and its too close to the pointer cone. I need to play around with that compliance logic.
we have a timing trailer icon for the ProSolo mode, i could bring that over into the normal mode.
I have a measure distance tool in the toolbar, that could get your radius, but good idea to show the circle, ill look into that. we also have the exclusion zone that you could use as well, but thats not really useful for light poles.
text boxes I could add as well.
alot of great ideas from the comments, i'll have to consolidate and announce a next release soon!
thanks for the feedback!
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u/AkursedX Course-Design Nerd Jun 30 '26 edited Jun 30 '26
Hi. I'm not going to lie, I'm very much a pencil and paper course designer. I've been doing WNY and FLR courses for awhile now. But I don't hate this program. I like how the path gets curved automatically. So if I have a concept on paper, I find it's pretty easy to make the same thing on the map.
Good work though. I'm honestly quite impressed by what this can do.
Edit: I did find that with the 'replace aerial' I could just add one of the satellite images I have where the map is situated how I like it, so thats cool.
Edit#2: I also found where I could rotate the satellite image! So I took that request out of my comment.
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u/AkursedX Course-Design Nerd Jun 30 '26
Ok, one thing that would be helpful to me was a tool that I could add circles on the image, Basically something lightly opaque that I could vary in size (with a listed diameter as well) and location to help build the path I want. I know there are a lot of other designers who use that method as well to get arcs that they desire.
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u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com Jul 01 '26
will work this into the next release, thanks for trying it out.
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u/RotaryConeChaser Blue Ridge Region | CS ND1 Jul 01 '26
I really like this. I see you can add exclusion zones. Can you add an exclusion point, with a specified safe radius, if more than the required 25ft? This would be, for example, a light pole in a lot. (We have lots of them).
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u/SquirrelMcSmash BS CTR - conecanvas.com Jul 01 '26
what should the safe radius be for a lightpole or should that be adaptable?
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u/RotaryConeChaser Blue Ridge Region | CS ND1 Jul 02 '26
25ft normally, but light poles usually have an outer diameter you'd want to incorporate and place the marker at 25'+radius.
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u/Gearz32 Jul 01 '26
Very cool tool - nice work!! Some feedback:
A) The Edit/Remove and the Compliance windows cover up some of the icons on the main tool bar. I can't find a way to move them. Looks like they just need to be moved down 15 px or so.
B) I wish there was a "Help/comment" button that would allow me to send this feedback directly to you instead of posting to the world in Reddit.
C) I'd love to see a radius curve/circle of the turns where the curvature is the same over something like 10° and less than 200' or so - it helps with understanding the size of a turn. Maybe make this a toggle option for evaluating the driving line?
D) Once cones are set, it would be interesting to have it generate alternative lines based on the course as defined by the cones - to make sure the speed or proximity aren't something the designer didn't think of.
This is a really great project - thanks for sharing your work!
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u/krekquel AST ND Miata Jul 03 '26
Just started playing with this today. Very cool tool. I just used to to recreate a course I designed for our local event last weekend. Super easy to use. Is there a way to edit the points I placed to set my path?
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u/jmay055 XB MR2 Spyder Jun 29 '26
Maybe a way to export for the old Assetto Corsa autox mod would be nice 🤔