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Landscape design - starting at the finish with 3D

By Andrew Dale


Showing clients their completed landscape or garden designs before the soil has even been turned is now a reality, and has been for some time. The Internet and e-mail have transformed the way we go about everyday business; likewise, computer aided design (CAD) has revolutionized landscape and garden design in terms of time saving, cost reduction, and more importantly, quality of presentation.

Of course, there are still designers with artistic flair who prefer creating concept plans and perspectives the traditional way - with ink and paper, on a drawing board. There are indeed some very talented individuals capable of producing hand drawn concepts which would be fit for hanging in the Tate Gallery; but there comes a point in any business where the need for technology surpasses tradition in an economic sense, time equals money. Why would you want to spend hours, or even days, hand rendering plans and perspectives when you could cut this down to minutes or hours utilizing a computer?

For many designers using CAD software, the days of presenting clients with a simple planting plan, and possibly a basic perspective or elevation sketch, is long gone. To remain competitive you need to take full advantage of this ever-changing technology. You now have the ability to show your client a ‘before and after’ shot, prior to construction even beginning, by producing photo-real perspective images.

From extremely powerful 3D landscape design software such as VectorWorks LandMark, to 2D photo editing software like Adobe Photoshop, there are a range of CAD/graphics applications that give you this ability. The old adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’ holds true - especially when you are trying to sell an idea to your client. 3D generated and photo-real perspective images of a proposed design concept can be a very powerful and persuasive tool. Even better, you can have your client sitting next to you viewing the design on screen, and make last minute amendments by moving plants and other elements in real time. While planting plans can give clients an overall ‘topographic’ feel for what the tangible design will look like, the 3D void has to be filled or conceptualized in their own mind.  

One Melbourne based landscape designer who utilizes 3D CAD software, as an integral tool for presentation work, is Stuart Mayhew from Aspect Landesign. Stuart uses Google SketchUp to create 3D models of his landscape concepts, which can be viewed from various angles; this gives his clients a very clear idea of what the finished job will look like. Though SketchUp is not a dedicated landscape design application, Stuart’s reputation as a SketchUp landscaping pioneer is demonstrated by his ability to create photographic quality 3D landscape design concepts with the software. I encourage you to take a look at what can be achieved by visiting Stuart’s website and 3D gallery here: http://www.landesign.com.au

Leigh Gronet from Leigh Designs in Richmond, California, is a garden designer who offers ‘digital garden design’ as part of her service. Leigh takes a digital photograph of the area being developed and using Photoshop, creates a photo-realistic image of what the design will look like by adding 2D ‘cut out’ plants and landscape materials to the original image. Leigh has an expansive digital image library of photo-real plants and landscape products she has created over many years. To look at some of Leigh’s amazing before and after concepts, visit her website and portfolio page: http://www.leighdesigns.biz

Jim Fogarty from Jim Fogarty Design in Melbourne is an award winning landscape designer. Jim prefers using Graphisoft ArchiCAD for rendering 3D perspectives and planting plans. While ArchiCAD is widely known as an architectural and construction application, Jim has adapted to ArchiCAD’s native tools and created some very detailed perspective images. Recently, Cadimage Tools has produced a landscaping productivity add-on for ArchiCAD that has the complexity of some of the more dedicated landscape CAD software. For more information about Jim Fogarty, and to view his website – visit: http://www.jimfogartydesign.com.au

Though using three very different software applications, these designers have equally achieved the same goal - the ability to show their respective clients what the landscape design will look like from a first person point of view – and in almost photographic quality. While a lot of designers use vector based CAD applications such as AutoCAD for planting/concept plans, the ability to create photographic quality perspective images of the design may be limited. You don’t have to spend hundreds, or even thousands of dollars, upgrading to the latest and greatest in landscape design software. For example, Google offers a free version of SketchUp, and if you don’t have Adobe Photoshop there is a similarly powerful photo editor called GIMP that is also free.

If you are in the landscape or garden design business then obviously plants will be one of the most important elements in any design concept. Some of the more sophisticated landscape design software includes a variety of photo-realistic 2D/3D plant species that can be added to a 3D site model before rendering the final image. There are also various companies selling add-on libraries that have more comprehensive collections of plants and landscape elements. One problem, particularly for Australian and New Zealand designers using 3D and 2D software for landscape/garden design is the lack of local plant species included within the software. Using photo-editing software you can create your own 2D plant cut outs for use in certain design applications, but be prepared - this can take time, lots of time. How do I know? Read on.

Over the last few years this has been a full time job for me at Enviro Graphic - creating Australian and New Zealand native plants for use in CAD/graphics software. The majority of my customers are landscape/garden designers (including Stuart Mayhew and Jim Fogarty) and architects - but I also supply the advertising industry. Quality is paramount and an average plant can take up to 60 hours to complete. Recently, Ozbreed contracted me to create a selection of their plants for use in 2D and 3D landscape design software. The Ozbreed plants are compatible with VectorWorks, SketchUp, Chief Architect, ArchiCAD, Photoshop, and come in a range of popular file formats for other applications. If you haven’t already, visit the Ozbreed website and download the plants now – completely free: http://www.ozbreed.com.au/3d-graphics.html

I am currently developing a new Australian CAD plant library, which is due for release this year. If you want some Australian and New Zealand CAD plants now, here is the perfect opportunity to add some local species to your 3D/2D CAD images – and at a very special price. Grab a copy of ‘the Australian designer special’ which includes New Zealand, Australian, and the free Ozbreed plants on 3 CD ROMs: http://www.envirographic.com/99.htm

Finally, I will let you in on a little secret (confessions of a digital tree surgeon). The most visited page on my website is the gallery page – but why? Because viewing other designers’ achievements provides inspiration and motivation, by ‘starting at the finish’. 

Copyright Marina Phillips
Copyright Stuart Mayhew
Copyright Stuart Mayhew
Copyright Jim Fogarty
Copyright Enviro Graphic
Copyright Stuart Mayhew
Copyright Stuart Mayhew