Building layouts give examples of efficient ways of building cities and production districts. They make the transportation of goods fast and use up as little space as possible. Having efficient production layouts is important because it allows you to maximize the producing capacity of the space available to you. Efficient city layouts allow you to maximize the usage of public buildings and achieve higher population numbers.
You can find all layouts here:
Creating and uploading new layouts
To create new building layouts it is recommended to use Anno Designer, initially created for Anno 2070. It is easy to use, allows to use icons from the game and automatically calculates how much space is used. You can download it from here.
To use icons from Anno 1800 you have to upload them to the icons folder, then they can be automatically accessed from the program's interface. You can download the most important icons set here.
Uploading new layouts
To post a layout you need to upload its image first, click here to do that. You can change its name there, it's important to remember it because it's required to post the layout on the appropriate page. Using a word "layout" in the image's name is recommended, it makes the image easier to find later, if that's needed.
Layouts should be posted only on city layouts and production layouts pages, and using templates: city layout template and production layout template respectively. On the templates pages and their documentation pages you can find further instructions.