Landscape Architect Articles

LASN Technology December 200711-28-07 | News

LAND F/X 3.87 Reviewed

By Zhen Feng, University of Georgia

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As a software that integrates seamlessly with Autodesk?EUR??,,????'?????<

Land F/X 1.0 was first released on the market in 2005 and today?EUR??,,????'?????<

At this stage in the plant design an AutoCAD message has popped up to inform the designer: ?EUR??,,????'?????<

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Easy learning

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This plant schedule, generated automatically with Land F/X, lists trees, shrubs, vines and groundcovers, with their symbols, botanical and common names, size, quantities and remarks. The plant schedules can be saved as a template for future projects. As the planting design changes, the program automatically updates the plants and produces a new planting schedule.

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Powerful Planting Templates and Planting Schedule

One of the most powerful functions of Land F/X is that you can easily create your own plant templates and save them for future use. Let?EUR??,,????'?????<

Another powerful function Land F/X has for planting design is its ability to produce a planting schedule automatically. This really saves big time for the designers. Chaozhong Wang, a landscape architect working for EDAW, thinks this is revolutionary for landscape design because it dramatically shortens the time used for manually counting plants, especially for large-scale projects with massive shrub and ground cover counts. In the past, one needed to find the area first, then use spacing to get a multiplier to calculate the number for one area, adding up all different areas to get the total. After that you would be able to produce a planting schedule. If the planting design changes, you?EUR??,,????'?????<

Hatch patterns are another great tool, designed to make shrubs and groundcovers look like planting beds, not like a brick pattern. And you don?EUR??,,????'?????<

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Strong Graphics Ability to Produce a Nice Looking Planting Plan

Land F/X provides many easy ways to make a landscape architect?EUR??,,????'?????<

First, the line type is a big draw. There are several line types developed to define borders for shrubs or groundcovers. I believe many AutoCAD users are very frustrated with the Revisions Cloud Line, just like I have been. With Land F/X, the cloud line tool will let you draw a cloud line in polyline segment and then after you finished the drawing, it will change to the curve line automatically for you. There are two advantages for you here. First, it makes it easier to control the drawing; second, it then creates a lot of arcs whose radii can be varied much more than three times the difference that AutoCAD allows, thus making the finished products much more appealing.

Hatch pattern is another great tool for defining shrubs and groundcovers. There are plenty of different patterns to choose from. This will be especially helpful when you?EUR??,,????'?????<

For graphics purposes, the turf stipple pattern can produce a hatch pattern with the effect of a gradient pattern which is denser at the edge, making it more realistic to hand drawing techniques.

Last, it can produce shadows to add a 3D feel and really bring the drawing to life. You may have some experiences with creating blocks using hatch patterns to build a shadow in AutoCAD. In Land F/X it?EUR??,,????'?????<

Strong Tools for Producing a Quick Site Analysis Plan

Land F/X provides a quick and easy way to help produce a quick site analysis. There are many kinds of concept nodes, concept lines, and concept arrows already defined. These tools can give a landscape architect a quick start. The graphics ability of the concept nodes, lines, and arrows are pretty impressive and can meet a landscape architect?EUR??,,????'?????<

Conclusion

Land F/X is really a useful tool and is especially designed with the needs of landscape architect professionals in mind. It has many more abilities than described above, such as its strong ability for irrigation design and detail design. There are still some areas that can be improve upon, including providing more information for the planting schedule or the plants chosen, or even make the plants more intelligent, like a BIM (building information modeling) application. The tree you choose can be designated with a number, say, by how much oxygen it can produce or how much rain it can intercept or what kind of environmental benefits it can have for the general pubic. That might be for a future Land FX version.

The Roots of Land F/X

Land F/X extends all the way to the summer of 1992, when David Farmer began to use AutoCAD in his landscape architecture office. Soon, he was customizing the AutoCAD interface with his son, Jeremiah, a self-taught programmer since the age of six. While Jeremiah pursued software development for his own company, David?EUR??,,????'?????<

By 1997, the program had evolved into enough of a complete application that they began to discuss making it a commercial application. They incorporated Ecografx, Inc. in 1999 and began the final process of reforming into a software company. The first beta users were in 2002, and the official launch was at the 2004 ASLA Expo in Salt Lake City. Since then, Land F/X has consistently been the most visited booth at ASLA Expos (second only to SketchUp), and is relied upon by thousands of users across the country and around the world.

Although the core development team is still the father and son duo, they are lucky to count on a team of 15 in the continued pursuit of creating the best software solution for landscape architecture.

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