The program itself works easily with a small learning curve. The first item of business that we usually have to deal with is the loading of the software.

Fig. 2: This is an example of how you can set your own viewing points in the landscape you create. Notice the view can be rotated to simulate the actual view of a person walking along the path.

Recently, I have been watching my students struggle with the installation of a CAD package. By the time most of them got things up and running, the sun had set! Realtime Landscape Pro was a dream to install. Place the disk in the drive, add the authorization code, and within 10 minutes you can be into the tutorials available with the program. The second item that I usually have issues with is the written documentation. In this case the documentation is contained in a 24 page booklet included in the CD case itself. Simple and straight forward best describes the manual. Within the first hour I was creating landscapes that included my own house and played with some really fun features.

The program itself does what many other imaging programs do. That is, they add plant materials, hardscape and other landscape elements to a newly constructed site. It can also add these elements to an existing older site too! In most cases as design professionals you will be dealing with that first owner trying to visualize just where and how things will look after the final installation.

Fig. 3: This program offers up a birds eye view. Notice the box around the hot tub. This shows what landscape element has been selected for moving or changing. In the Sample Landscape Mode you can move all around your own landscape.

The program self opens up with a simple set of four choices. You can:

Open a Saved Landscape: This of course allows you to view a saved landscape that you have previously created.

Open a Sample Landscape: This will open one of about 18 designed landscapes. It is here that you can practice moving, deleting, adding items along with the really fun feature of walking through your landscape.

Fig. 4: There are 19 different styles of houses that are included as part of the software. This gives you an idea of what the included houses look like. If none of these will represent the home that you are working with, you can design and layout your own.

Start a New Landscape Using the Wizard: The wizard starts you from the beginning to create your own landscape. It sets your lot size, asks you to select a house style, creates your fence and even allows you to set or design a pond or other type of water feature.

Start a New Landscape from Scratch: This allows you to start with a clean slate and import a photo of your house or building to which you can add your plants.

Fig. 5: The barebones site is created and ready for planting and the adding of other landscape elements. This shows the house, lot and fence line that I created for this example. It took all of five minutes and now it is ready to receive the landscape elements that will set it apart from the rest of the homes on the street.

When opening a sample landscape you can practice making changes to a design and walk through the site. Figure 2 shows you how things would appear as you approach the rear deck along the mulch path. Notice the view can be rotated to simulate the actual view of a person walking along the path.

Figure 3 shows the same yard from a flyover or birds eye perspective view. In the Sample Landscape Mode you can move all around your own landscape.

Most designers will find the Start a New Landscape Using the Wizard the most used part of this program. It allows you to set up the parameters of a new building on a lot. When opening this part of the program, it will ask you to set the size of the lot. After setting the lot size it will allow you to select from about 20 pre-designed or more accurately, pre-drawn homes. Figure 4 gives you an idea of what the included houses look like. If none of these will represent the home that you are working with, you can design and layout your own. Figure 5 shows the house, lot and fence line that I created for this example. It took all of five minutes and now it is ready to receive the landscape elements that will set it apart from the rest of the homes on the street.

Fig. 6: These trees are examples of how the plant materials are drawn in this program. Unlike other programs that take pictures of plants, these are computer drawn. Selecting and placing the trees, shrubs and other materials are fairly simple and much like other programs. However, these plants, rather than being pictures are computer drawn elements that add a different dimension to this program.

Selecting and placing the trees, shrubs and other materials are fairly simple and much like other programs. However, these plants, rather than being pictures are computer drawn elements that add a different dimension to this program. Along with the selection of the plants you can actually set their grow size by defining the age of the plant when you add it to the landscape. For example if you were to place a flowering crab at 5 years of age, it would appear half the size of the same tree at 12 years of age. You can show your clients what it will look like upon initial planting or at 5, 10 or 15 years later. It is a beneficial aspect of the program.

To me, one of the coolest features has to do with the fence. Once drawn, you can change the face of the fence so you can see either the finished side facing in or the constructed size facing in, all at the click of the mouse.

All in all this is a fun and useful program. Most Landscape Architects operating in the CAD arena will not find this useful. However, as stated up front, Landscape Architects working in the home landscaping area and design/build firms will find this a useful tool indeed.

See www.IdeaSpectrum.com for more information regarding Realtime Landscaping Pro.