Computer aided design (CAD) can boost productivity 300 to 500 percent, reduce costs, improve communication with clients and help us make better design and planning decisions.

Unfortunately, few landscape architects enjoy CAD’s benefits. Some think their companies are too small for a CAD system, or that it costs too much. Some don’t know what to look for in such a system. Others simply are afraid of computers and don’t want anything to do with them.

What warrants buying a CAD system? Your company’s size is not a factor. If you have more work than you can keep up with, if you are turning down jobs for lack of resources, a computer aided design system can help you.

Firms which use CAD systems, strongly endorse them. Lifezones, a landscape architectural firm in Tucson, Arizona, found that monthly payments for AutoCAD (a CAD software package) and hardware were less costly than hiring another draftsman.

Taking a look at the bottom line, a full time draftsman making $10 an hour will cost you $24,960 a year, including 30 percent for fringe benefits. Monthly payments on a CAD system will vary with your financing arrangement, but according to Entre Computer Center of Fort Collins, Colorado, leasing a $20,000 CAD system for four years costs $635 a month. A $24,960 a year draftsman costs $2080 a month.

Companies using CAD systems claim they do three to five times more work than they did before they had CAD. Lifezones has actually reduced its staff from 18 to 14 since purchasing AutoCAD, yet does the same volume of work.

You Can Do It

But you know nothing about computers and you’re a little apprehensive about using CAD? Fear not! Some CAD packages require little or no computer knowledge.

“CAD is fun!” says Greg Jameson of Lifezones. “A first time user of AutoCAD, for example, can start drawing in two or three days.” Jameson did note that it takes time to learn all AutoCAD’s functions, up to a year depending on the software extensions you add. “But consider CAD an extension of your mind, a tool to help you do the job better.”

What CAD Can Do For You

It’s system can make drawing changes quickly, assure clean drafts, improve fine tuning, manipulate, scale and zoom-in on areas of the plan. Let’s consider each point:

• CAD makes drawing changes quicker than they could be done manually. Quick drawing changes allow you more time to fine tune plans. Jameson reports he can produce a plan in two or three hours with AutoCAD that would normally, take two or three days.
• CAD keeps drafts free of erasure marks because you make changes on the screen, not on paper.
• CAD allows you to manipulate scale easily. You enter your plan scale, and the machine interprets everything you design to that scale. You may make the scale larger or j smaller simply by entering a command. Note: You only can design in scales for which your plotter is large enough to produce hard copies. A 24×36 inch plotter produces plans on standard sizes draft paper.
• CAD allows you to zoom-in on areas of the plan. If you wish to, concentrate on a shrub bed in the plan, for instance, you can command the computer to zoom-in on that part of the plan. The computer then devotes the entire’ screen to the shrub bed.

All this allows you to provide better service for clients. Imagine being able to show clients perspectives from various vantage points. ITT has a system to use with CAD that allows you to go into field and record an object, such as power line, with a video camera, so you can return to the office and reproduce the image on the computer screen anywhere in the plan. Video reproduction helps show you what objects will look like in the completed landscape.

With the system, perspective contour maps can illustrate landscape topography. And you can add forms like trees, buildings, or power lines to give you and the client a feel for how they affect the landscape.

You can develop your own symbols library. Some packages come with landscape architecture symbols, or you can purchase them individually. And, a variety of CAD text fonts are available. Some packages come with architectural text fonts, or, like symbols, you can purchase them individually. Other packages let you design your own text fonts.

CAD Compnents

Hardware and software must be compatible for a CAD system to work. Compatible means the hardware can read and run the software. Software packages should list hardware compatibility, and you can only do as much as your program allows.

All hardware components of the system must be compatible, too. The computer system, the screen, the mouse, the digitizer and the plotter must support each other. Let’s use AutoCAD and CADVANCE as popular software examples to look at hardware requirements.

Computer system (for both packages):

• Most dealers recommend an IBM PC/XT or PC/AT, but both packages will run on IBM compatible equipment. The AT runs the packages about five times quicker than the XT.
• Minimum memory of 512K RAM – Random Access Memory serves as a work space within the computer to store and manipulate data. Both packages run quicker with 60K RAM.
• One floppy disk drive and a 10 megabyte hard disk.
• An IBM color/graphics card to support a color screen.
• DOS 2.0+ system language.

Screen:

• A high resolution color screen illustrates CAD plans best.

Large and small digitizers:

• Surface upon which the mouse is manipulated to draw forms on the screen. A large digitizer (24×36 inches) is a must for tracing drawings to put them into the computer. You need a small digitizer too; because they are convenient for small jobs.

Plotter:

• A 24×36 inch multi-pen plotter with a speed of 14 inches per second produces high quality prints quickly.

How Do You Buy a CAD System?

Start with a list of exactly what you want your CAD system to do. To begin, refer to “What CAD can do for you” and “What you can do with CAD” in this article.

Shop around for the software that performs the tasks you want to do, first. Then buy the hardware than can run the software. Try to buy your software and hardware from the same store to assure better assistance should problems arise.

Ask to see a demonstration of the software and hardware in which you’re interested to make sure they work together. Test them yourself.

The ASLA suggests companies consider the following points in selecting software:

Is software well documented? Ask to examine the manual before buying the software.

Is software easy to use, menu driven, and self-prompting?

Is training provided and what help can you expect of problems arise?

Are users happy with the software and the store?

Does software have a warranty? Ask if the store will provide extra copies if you lose yours.

Examine a variety of software and compare cost to capability. For example, AutoCAD at $1000 to $2500, is less expensive than CADVANCE, but CADVANCE at $2500 to $4900 is quicker.

How much RAM does the software demand to run quickly?

With what hardware is the software compatible?

For hardware considerations, you should first buy hardware and software together as a package from the same store to ensure the output equipment (printers and plotters) work together and produce distortion-free printouts.

Find out what the machine’s add-on and upgrade possibilities are. Upgrading keeps a computer from becoming obsolete, and add-on capability allows you to add peripheral equipment, such as a Bernoulli box, an additional hard disk drive system. Peripheral equipment can store large volumes of data required by overlay mapping, for example, that the microcomputer can’t handle by itself.

Take Your Time

Whatever you do, take your time and shop around to develop a feel for various equipment types. Publications such as The Landscape Architect and Specifier News, Landscape Architecture, Architectural Technology, Byte Magazine or PC World may help you.

Understand that computer salesmen are there to help you. Ask questions and buy from a store that will teach you how to use your CAD system. Then take the time to attend lessons.

Plan to add software extensions, such as three-dimensional imagery and contour mapping, one at a time so you can take the time to learn one before you get another.

Don’t count on putting your CAD system to work immediately. Learning to use the system and debugging it takes time. But it’s time well spent in the long run.