Digital paradise
1 Aug, 2008 By: Janet Aird Landscape ManagementToday's landscape design software is transforming the Green Industry.
"We're really seeing a changing of the guard," says Michael O'Connell, a designer with O'Connell Landscape, a family-owned landscape design/build company that's been serving Marin and Sonoma counties in California since 1987. "Everyone is going to design software like CAD, VectorWorks and DynaSCAPE. It's definitely for all construction, unless the company is very small."
Design software has a number of advantages over hand-drawing, O'Connell says, including increased precision and ease of reproduction and revisions. It's easier to handle and manipulate and takes care of tedious work like replicating bricks or flagstones in a path.
O'Connell Landscape has been using VectorWorks Landmark for seven years. Users can incorporate geographic information system (GIS) data and create contour maps and 3D terrain models from survey information or field notes. They can rotate the pages so it's easy to work on all parts of a design, and generate schedules, reports and materials lists.
Landscapers can work at any scale and on any size project in multiple views, and import, export and edit photos, objects and graphics in a large number of formats. They also can edit 2D drawings and 3D models, and generate one from the other. The designs can be printed in 3D. The software also lets landscapers place plants at specific intervals and in groups and then edit them.
With PlantMaster software, landscapers can print reports with photos, characteristics and details on each plant's needs by month for pruning, water, fertilizer and pest management.
Another software program, DynaSCAPE, also can be integrated with VectorWorks. O'Connell says DynaSCAPE helps landscapers manage all aspects of their business, from sales to employees, budgeting and invoicing.
"Everything is becoming digital," O'Connell says. "It makes life a lot easier."
— The author is a freelance writer based in living in Altadena, CA. Contact her at
info@landscapemanagement.net.
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