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Landscape Design

landscape design by computer or paper?

15 years ago

Is it worth my time & $$ to map/design a new backyard landscape by computer or is graph paper the way to go? We are removing 30+ year inground swimming pool and redoing backyard.

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Comments (5)

ilikemud_2007
15 years ago
By yourself an architectural ruler (3 sided) and forget the graph paper. This ruler will allow you to use any increment you like to do your scale drawings.
pls8xx
15 years ago
Is it worth your time to develop a scaled plan view drawing? Yes!

Graph paper or computer? Take your pick; no learning curve with paper, corrections are easier with the computer.
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A good thing to do is to get in the habit of drawing the same plant symbols for the same plant every time (and at the same size). This helps you feel the scale of the drawing and makes the design much more familiar to you over time. You will know when you are crowding your inkberries or when you are getting spotty just by looking at the plan without measuring (this is more true when using cad). Graph paper and the other techniques lnscapr mentioned are great. They speed you up and keep you neat at the same time. The biggest improvement usually comes when you start using thicker pens (heavier line weight) for things like houses, sheds, and pools, somewhat thinner pens for driveways, walkways, porches, decks, etc,.., a little thinner for bed lines, some plant symbols, text, ..., and very fine pens for other plant symbols and fine textured hatching (adding patterns to areas for such things as ground covers, annuals, decking, bricks,...). Stipples (or dots) added around the edges of things adds a lot of life to a plan. A huge thing is light, shade, and shadow. This really pops a drawing and is very easy. If you use color, make your plants two tone (at least) by filling the symbol with a lighter color and adding a darker one in the lower right third of it (you don't want to shade the upper side of a symbol on a plan regardless of where north is because it looks weird on the plan). Outside of the symbol, add a black shadow around that lower right part of it. Also add shadow on the right side and bottom side of any building or raised element. It will shock you how much it changes the look.
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I liked cad and used it for the same reason. In fact, I dropped out of an LA degree curricullum in 1983 and went back to it in 1994 when CAD was a viable option (after I learned how to turn a computer on). Knowing just that CAD was available gave me enough confidence to move 3,000 miles to go back to the school I left and get my degree. I literally had not used a computer until I moved and enrolled. So, I'd say that CAD was more than a little bit of a confidence booster. It gave me the confidence to close my business, move 3,000 miles, enroll in school, learn to use a computer, try to type, and go through three more years of school. Thankfully, I was able to take a very well taught acad class in my first semester back and needed to get other core curricullum done in that first year back before entering the studio as a third year student the next year. They also gave students flexibility on whether they wanted to use cad for projects or hand draft. I used cad more than the other students because they all had good drawing hands. I came out of school thinking I knew acad pretty well. Now 10 years later I would say that I knew 10% of what I know about acad now and that I do not come close to knowing all about it. I have been lucky enough to have worked with some very brilliant engineers who shown me a lot. I have also been forced into learning things when on projects from other engineers, architects, and LAs using their own ways of managing drawings. It is an amazingly deep program that most of us only scratch the surface on. But, until you need to, you don't have to know all of that stuff. You can keep it simple.
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I use Paint. In order to have more than one picture on a board, start a new file and make the white area quite large by dragging the edges. Save that as your main design file. Now, use the drop down box under the clipboard symbol. You'll see the option to "paste from" which, when chosen, will allow you to paste any other file on your computer by highlighting that file and clicking "open". Once you've pasted an element, you can move it around as long while it still has the dotted-line box around it. When you have placed the element where you want it on your board, click outside the element to fix it in place. Add more elements by chosing the "paste from" option again. You can also add text boxes to label elements, resize the elements, etc.
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I agree with GardenGal48 Good, experienced designers and landscape architects, can address the entire property. There are fees for renderings and usually additional fees for changes. Understand it takes time and money, to put project designs together. These designers are professionals. I personally do our design work in both plan view and 3D. I have to consider all the grade changes on challenging properties to drive the design. Because I'm the contractor and I work in the field, I know what to expect. I'm not a landscape architect or a true designer, but I've been around the block a few times. Landscapers I work with, will tweek a plan a bit and decide the best plants on the property. Sometimes hardscaping is changed a bit. Renderings are conceptual. I've done a few where my clients approve the design, and leave as is. Certain aspects of a project must be done in a particular order so you don't paint yourself into a corner, so to speak, or make it difficult for one of the contractors doing their portion of the work. This really comes from experience. Once you have a design decided upon, you can put it out to bid, as GardenGal said. Sometimes the designers work for a landscape firm, and can perform everything in house. Or, they can recommend a good contractor to execute the project.
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hortster
15 years ago
I've been drawing to scale on velum (graph paper) with pencil for 35 years - yep, an oldster. I think that "whatever makes you comfortable" is the way to go. I do it on paper because as I lay it out I get a 3-D view in my mind and develop a "flow" with the project as I go. That's just me, doing it the ancient way. However, I'm still crankin' 'em out!
Seriously, if you plan to do a lot of changing and correcting, the computer is easier. You can erase your way through velum down to the drawing board!
Hortster
laag
15 years ago
All good advice.

I like Pls8xx's point about the learning curve. Why introduce another layer of learning if it is unnecessary?
bonsai_audge
15 years ago
Each medium has there advantages, methinks. Drafting by hand has a tendency to be looser, a little more free-flowing for myself. When you draw down a line, it can be light, sketchy, barely there. 58 versions of the line later, you can finally settle for one. There is little to no commitment when you're initially sketching out a plan.

Software, on the other hand offers other advantages such as edit-ability as mentioned above. Draw, delete, trim, extend, offset, measure, rotate, skew to your heart's delight! Software also offers powerful measurement and calculation tools - is that patio centred with the pathway? Are those pillars evenly spaced? Does that pathway intersect that curve at the tangent? However, there seems to be a sort of obstacle in the fact that when you put a line down, it looks oh-so-exact and oh-so-definite. I find there's (subjectively) less wiggle-room than with hand drafting. It is very easy to get caught up in the minute details when drafting a plan on the computer.

I take my pick, and I typically pick both: hand drafting for the beginning design: concept, general shape forms, layouts, etc. Computer for working out the exact details of the spacing, lengths, etc. Then back to hand again, to work out what didn't quite turn out. Then back to the computer again. Ad infinitum (or at least, until the project's due!)

There's no reason to choose exclusively one or the other.

- Audric

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