How-to guide · how to place street lights along a road in autocad
How to place street lights along a road in AutoCAD
By Saumyajit Maity · Published 14 Oct 2024 · Updated 29 Jul 2025
A street lighting layout comes down to placing lighting columns at a consistent spacing along a road, then deciding whether they sit on one side, both sides opposite, or staggered. AutoCAD's path array does the spacing in one command, and a couple of follow-up moves handle the arrangement. The result is a clean lighting plan a services engineer or contractor can set out from.
This guide covers arraying a street light block down a road centreline or kerb line, the typical spacing and offset figures lighting layouts work to, and the single-side, opposite and staggered arrangements you choose between. We will also keep the luminaires on a dedicated layer so the lighting reads as its own information layer, separate from the road and the planting.
The workflow is essentially the same one you'd use for trees or bollards, retuned to lighting spacings and column offsets — repeatable on any road, straight or curved.
Set up the road and the lighting line
Lighting columns sit at a set distance back from the kerb, so first draw the line they will follow. Take the road centreline or kerb edge and OFFSET it to the column setback — lighting columns typically stand a short, consistent distance behind the kerb, clear of the carriageway and any footway. Put this lighting line on a construction layer you can freeze later.
Then insert one street light block. An elevation or plan symbol for a lighting column works; place it on a dedicated lighting layer (something like E-LITE or L-LIGHT) so every column you array inherits that layer. As always with arrays, set up this one block correctly — layer, scale, orientation — before you multiply it.
Step 1 — Path-array the column along the road
Run ARRAYPATH, select the street light block, then pick the offset lighting line as the path. AutoCAD previews columns along it and opens the Array ribbon. As with trees, choose the Measure method so you can set a fixed spacing — the centre-to-centre distance between columns.
Type the column spacing in the Items panel's 'Between' field. Lighting layouts use a regular spacing chosen by the lighting design (column spacing is commonly a multiple of the mounting height, but for a drafting layout you place to the spacing the engineer specifies). Set it once and the columns march evenly down the whole road, re-spacing if you edit the value.
Step 2 — Single-sided, opposite or staggered
Now choose the arrangement. Single-sided is the simplest: one row of columns down one side of the road, which suits narrower roads. Your path array already gives you this.
For opposite (twin) arrangement, mirror the row to the other side of the road so columns face each other across the carriageway — use MIRROR across the road centreline. For a staggered arrangement, array a second row on the opposite side but offset along the road by half the spacing, so the columns zig-zag down the road rather than sitting directly across from one another. You can produce the stagger by arraying the opposite row and then nudging it along the road by half a bay, or by starting its path array half a spacing further along.
Step 3 — Handle junctions, bends and gaps
A raw array spaces columns mechanically, but real roads have junctions, accesses and bends that need a column moved or omitted. Once the array is placed, EXPLODE it into individual blocks (or use Ctrl-click to override single items in the associative array) so you can shift a column clear of a driveway, add one at a junction for extra light, or remove one where a column would clash.
On bends, a path array follows the curve automatically, which is usually what you want, but check that the spacing around a tight curve still gives even coverage — you may add a column on the outside of a sharp bend. Treat the array as the regular backbone and then hand-edit the exceptions.
Spacing and offset figures to design around
Lighting column spacing is set by the lighting design rather than chosen at the drafting board, but a few figures help you sanity-check a layout. Column spacing is commonly in the region of three to four times the mounting height of the luminaire, so taller columns sit further apart and shorter ones closer together. The setback from the kerb is kept consistent and clear of the trafficked width.
Because the actual numbers come from the lighting calculation, the drafter's job is to place columns precisely at the spacing and offset the engineer specifies, and to keep them regular except where junctions, accesses and obstructions force a local move. Drawing the columns as scaled blocks on an offset line makes that precision straightforward and keeps the layout consistent down the whole road.
Keep lighting on its own layer
Put every lighting column, and any associated cabling or feeder-pillar symbols, on a dedicated lighting layer with its own colour and lineweight. This lets the lighting plan be read on its own — freeze the road detail and planting and the lighting layout stands clear — and lets the lighting be frozen when someone wants a clean base drawing.
If you tag each column block with an attribute (a column reference, a luminaire type), you can extract a lighting schedule straight from the drawing: a count of columns by type, which is exactly what a procurement or maintenance schedule needs. That turns the layout into useful data, not just a picture, and keeps the lighting information coordinated with the rest of the drawing set.
Common street-lighting layout pitfalls
Watch a few things. First, units: a spacing typed as 30 instead of 30000 in a millimetre drawing packs the columns 30 mm apart. Always work in your drawing's units. Second, the setback line: array along the offset lighting line, not the road centreline, or your columns will sit in the middle of the carriageway.
Third, the stagger offset: if you mean to stagger but forget to shift the opposite row by half a bay, you get an opposite arrangement instead — visually similar in a hurry but different for the lighting design. And as always, treat the array as the regular base and hand-edit junctions, accesses and bends afterwards, because a purely mechanical spacing rarely survives contact with a real road layout.
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Questions
Frequently asked
How do I array street lights along a road in AutoCAD?+
Offset the road centreline or kerb to the column setback to create a lighting line, then run ARRAYPATH, select the street light block, pick that line as the path, and use the Measure method to set the column spacing. AutoCAD spaces the columns evenly along the road.
What is the difference between opposite and staggered street lighting?+
In an opposite arrangement, columns on the two sides of the road sit directly across from each other — mirror one row across the centreline. In a staggered arrangement, the opposite row is offset along the road by half the spacing, so the columns zig-zag down the road.
What spacing should I use for street lights?+
The exact spacing comes from the lighting design, but as a rule of thumb column spacing is often around three to four times the luminaire mounting height. Place the columns to the spacing the lighting engineer specifies and keep it regular except at junctions and bends.
How do I handle a junction or driveway in the lighting run?+
Place the regular array first, then EXPLODE it or Ctrl-click individual columns to override them. Shift a column clear of a driveway, add one at a junction for extra light, or remove one where it would clash, treating the array as the regular base and editing the exceptions.
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