Landscape Architect Articles

LASN Technology November 200811-07-08 | News

Realtime Landscaping Architect Upgraded: It Should Be In Your Library

By Scott S Weinberg, FASLA

Figure 1: Using Realtime Landscaping Architect, this house, property, drive and street were created in 10 minutes.
Images: Idea Spectrum

Some time back in 2005 I wrote a review of a program called Realtime Landscaping Pro. The review was very positive and this review is really of its big brother. The program is called Realtime Landscaping Architect. As a practicing ?EUR??,,????'?????<

First, let me qualify who should be interested in this product. Some of the larger Landscape Architecture firms that deal with large scale tracts of land, development companies designing sites under 50 acres in size and who don?EUR??,,????'?????<

Figure 2: A perspective of the project was created from plan view with one click of the ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Product Target Audience

If you are a firm that works with planting designs at any stage, such as Design/Build firms, this really is a product for you. It does so much in terms of making the daily chores of creating a detailed design, plant list, perspective and even a walkthrough a breeze that it actually will pay for itself with the first design you create.

The software is a stand-alone ?EUR??,,????'?????<

Figure 3: The program includes a variety different symbol styles to use on projects. The symbols shown can be used when choosing a plant while in the plan view.

Using Realtime Landscaping Architect

As I usually do, to begin learning a new software package I completely disregard the documentation to see how intuitive the program is and just how extensive the learning curve is. For all of you that enjoy using AutoCAD and remember how long it took you to produce a few lines and curves on a drawing that made sense, you will really enjoy what this program can do. Within about an hour I had my property lines drawn, my house drawn and placed on the lot. I was even able to change the type of siding that I had and the color a few times before settling in on a specific choice. (See Fig. 1)

The next items that I placed were the hardscape areas around the house, such as sidewalks, a driveway and a wood deck. The icons were easily found and after two or three attempts manipulating the shapes that I needed I was happily surprised that the hardscapes were down on paper and located in the right places. The next thing that I wanted to do was to create a 3D view of the house and hardscape. This was done as quickly as clicking on the perspective tab at the bottom on the plan image. (See Fig. 2)

Figure 4: Plans can be labeled very easily by using the label wizard> With this tool, labeling is done automatically.

As I normally do, the next task was to create some bed lines so that I knew where the plant materials were going to be located. The command button, located at the top of the drawing, showed a bed line and once selected it worked very much like the line command. It took a few minutes to get used to the way the lines are drawn in order to produce some curved beds. It is unlike the ARC command in AutoCAD and you do need a little practice to make the lines curve just the way you want them to. But in about 5 minutes that problem had already been conquered.

Once the beds were created it becomes a matter of choice in how you want to fill the beds with plant materials. By going to the ?EUR??,,????'?????<

You can choose plants from trees, shrubs, annuals perennials, and cactus. When choosing a plant while in the plan view you can again select symbols that have different styles, such as cad symbols, watercolor symbols, artistic symbols and other styles that might fit your taste. (See Fig. 3)

As you pick your plants and select your symbols, the software keeps track of everything internally. To produce a plant schedule all you need to do is select the plan detail tab and click on the plant legend icon. By the time you get done with the click, the plant schedule is there, ready to be placed. The plant schedule is easily customized to meet the user?EUR??,,????'?????<See Fig. 4)

Figure 5: This illustration shows a finished 3D planting design, which is the same design as the walkthrough (this is a sample design that comes with the software).

Finally what I enjoyed about the software is that you can pop up from plan view to 3D and then create a walkthrough of your property. Go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C4LVlrJz5Y and see a walkthrough created from one of the sample drawings that comes with the software. You get to lay out the path and click. That?EUR??,,????'?????<See Fig. 5)

All in all, if you deal with planting designs at the residential or small-scale commercial levels, this is software that will save you time money and increase your ability to communicate with your client. Your clients will be blown away by being able to see and walk through landscapes that exist only in your mind and on paper.

Visit www.ideaspectrum.com for specific product information.