I downloaded it and gave it a shot. Easy to use. A little hard to get exact dimensions and I don't yet see an easy way to get slopes of the ground elevations into the model. Still, it does basic shapes well. And the surfaces can be filled with textures supplied or custom imports. It does do import and export of jpegs. Once the model is done you can spin it around to see any perspective you want and take a shot, as I did below of the little tutorial drawing I did. Seems I forgot to put texture on the backside. I didn't realize till I turned the thing around. The 3d will come in handy but I think I will still use PhotoImpact to add the text, symbols, plants, and generally finish the work. Here is the plan view with perspective turned off.

Hi Steve, To address your original questions about soil heat cables.......we live in a very cold climate here in Wyoming at over 6,000' elevation with winter temps as low as -40 degrees F. We have not used soil heat cables in an outside grow box - but did decide to experiment with a grow box inside our unheated GH. We bought the cable length we needed based on the area we wanted to cover - 30" X 96" and according to the spacing the cable manufacturer recommended. We followed instructions and mounted the cable to 1/2" hardware cloth and then mounted the hardware cloth to cattle panel for extra stability and ease of moving/storing. We purchased a thermostat and set the temperature at 55 degrees F and placed the cable buried 4"s in a raised bed within our GH and made a polycarbonate cover to create a box with lids. We tried to grow salad veggies during the winter months - November thru March. The daytime temps in the GH on a sunny day were between 30-70 degrees F even when OS temps were 0 degrees F so I would raise or remove the lid during the day and cover the box at night when OS temps were as low as -30 degrees F and IS GH temps as low as around 0 degrees F. The soil heat cables were usually only running during the night so I did not notice much difference in our electricity bill. The photo below was taken on January 31st. We are in Zone 3 where danger of frost remains through June 1st and there is snow on the ground usually through April but we have had snow and frost in every month of the year during cold spells. I think most would agree the experiment was a success! The cons in my opinion is the cost of the cables, wire and thermostat and the daily covering/uncovering of the lid (although the polycarbonate only needed to be removed on sunny days because of the heat build-up). When I retire I may do this every winter but for now - it is nice to have a winter break from the GH. We also use the Soil Heat Cable as a germination mat on top of the soil in the GH in February - March as an overflow box from our inside grow lights - that works well too. We are building grow boxes this year OS for our squash and other warm weather plants and appreciate your design!

Those of you wanting a laptop, definitely read the post Have you switched from a PC to a laptop? lots of good points in it, not only Windows computers but Mac's as well. My pain management doc has a Sony Vaio that he loves as well as 2 Mac laptops; he's mentioned one other but can't justify buying another. Wish I could remember what brand it was. Before buying be sure to research. As johnmari says about her Dell experience, unfortunately, that's what most people say. They also string you along until your 30 days are up to return it, then end up sending you a similar system, usually minus premium software you've paid for; and it's a refurbished machine. I have Windows and a Mac.. While I've been using the Mac mini, Windows is just so much easier and once I get the Windows machine finished (still not done building/adding parts) I will switch to that full time. Not sure if I posted in the other thread about our Compaq laptop, I bought it for my son when he graduated in 2003, that thing was a floor model and is still running. We blew a drive out in an airport (got hit against something) but installing the new drive was painless. I would buy one again, depending on how much they are compared to a Sony. I love the look of the Sony screens; we own 3 monitors with the XBrite technology..

The Zenbook UX303LN is now history. After the upgrade to Win 10 the touchpad driver would not stay installed. Each time the laptop was powered off, then restarted, the touchpad driver would have to be reinstalled. This is a known problem to Asus. I talked to Asus several times today, and also to Microsoft. Neither could provide any solution. I've spent hours on the phone to Asus and Microsoft trying to get a virtually brand new laptop to run correctly after "upgrading" to Win10, which apparently does not like Asus Zenbooks. I called Asus and Microsoft today to tell them I give up. I'm not spending all my free time on fixing this. After I got off the phone, I took a hammer to the laptop and jumped up and down on it. It's in the trash and headed for the landfill... I'm getting out my Mac Book Pro now....