Recommender: What design software do you use and why?

A reliable and complete design software can help bring a design to life for clients. (Photo: Vectorworks; illustration: fonikum/DigitalVision Vectors/Getty Images)

What design software do you use and why?

Tim O’Connor

Tim O’Connor
Vice president, LCI Landscapes, Stillwater, Minn.

ProLandscape allows me to put drawings together that are visually appealing and lays out everything for my crew. I have a staff of four designers, and they all use it. We get compliments from our clients on the designs, and the library of existing plants that you can draw from … you just pull it into your drawing and match it up with your local source. All in all, it’s been a great tool.

Tony Frisella

Tony Frisella Jr.
Vice president of sales, Frisella Landscape Group, Defiance, Mo.

We use Vectorworks. We’ve spent a lot of time vetting a lot of the programs out there. It’s a robust system, and it’s been extremely customizable for the year and half we’ve been using it. It’s sped up our ability to design and create a vision for our clients. We like the 3D capabilities and being able to take a PDF and turn it into a CAD file. The cut and fill features are great for calculating grade.

Cate Singleton
Landscape architect and design department manager, Complete Landsculpture, Dallas

Our workflow consists of AutoCAD with Land F/X as an overlay. This setup allows us to create irrigation, lighting, planting and hardscape plans efficiently. The 3D visualization software that we utilize is SketchUP with Lumion for rendering. This gives us a great graphic representation to share with clients.