CAD software for landscapers and garden designers

GardenCAD Pro is a software tool for professional landscapers & garden designers. Imagine being able to quickly produce a number of CAD drawings of your designs to show a client. Consider the possiblity of visiting with the client and together altering the concept 'on the fly'. Eliminate scratching out parts of paper drawings and the need to redraw.

With GardenCAD and access to our comprehensive training materials, it's possible. Click the link below for a movie demonstrating GardenCAD's capabilities: http://www.gardencad.net/movies/FirstLookAtGardenCAD.wmv.

For more information, and a more comprehensive movie showing GardenCAD in action on a real job, click the image or the link below. 

http://www.gardencad.net/movies/UsingGardenCAD15mins.wmv

About GardenCAD

GardenCAD is a professional, vector-based, CAD software tool enabling the rapid development of CAD plans with much of the 'look and feel' of hand drawn designs. Unlike AutoCAD and IntelliCAD, (the CAD tools most commonly used by landscape architects and garden designers), most steps for creating a CAD plan can be accomplished simply by clicks of the left or right mouse button. There is little or no need to learn complex instructions to build drawings.

GardenCAD is not sold as such. You buy the GardenCAD training course at http://www.landscapetutor.net and get GardenCAD Pro software for free. The software is posted to you on a USB drive.

[** Note that GardenCAD does not work on Macintosh computers unless you boot into a Windows environment.**]  

Some GardenCAD users 

Here are some logos used in GardenCAD drawings.

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GardenCAD models

GardenCAD allows the creation of accurate models which reflect what will be built when a design is implemented. You create a full size design for the site and because it is full size, accurate dimensions and quantities can be taken from the model. The figure below shows a typical small scale garden plan. Larger plans are possible.

Planting symbols

GardenCAD comes complete with a wide range of pre-drawn symbols which can be plotted in black and white or full colour. Attractive designs are created simply by dragging these symbols into position, and then moving, scaling and rotating them at will.

Drafting aids

Not only are there many planting symbols, but the software also contains additional general symbols and tools to help lay out site boundaries, locate buildings, take dimensions directly from the design (the model), set up design grids, apply hatching to entities (objects) such as paths, paved areas etc. etc.

Text can be added using both Windows and CAD fonts. Many users configure GardenCAD to use a custom font to give their drawings 'personality', thus moving well away from stilted CAD drawings.

We have consulted with many professional designers during the development of GardenCAD. The software works in a visual and intuitive way, mimicking the classical approach to drawing.

Plant schedules

GardenCAD also allows the storage of much non-graphic information with its symbols. We store botanical name, common name, plant name, size, code as hidden attributes. This information can be used to generate plant schedules and extracted to spreadsheet software such as Excel.

Printing plans

Your plans can be printed to any size sheet of paper in full colour and can be printed to the printer attached to your computer or in PDF form for emailing to your clients. Alternatively, designs can be sent to copy centres for professional printing and laminating on larger sheets.

Learning to use GardenCAD

http://www.gardencad.net/UsingGardenCAD/contents.htm

and take a small introduction our training course on how to use of GardenCAD. This introduction comes from our extensive course on the use of GardenCAD which can be found at http://www.landscapetutor.net

Please note that only one module is available here. Our 'proper' course contains >20 modules which will provide comprehensive training in the use of the software.

Please note that GardenCAD is not sold as a commercial product. 

GardenCAD Pro

When you enrol in our course 'Using GardenCAD, software for landscape and garden designers' which is available at our companion web site, http://www.landscapetutor.net, we will, on receipt of your course fee, post a 'full' professional copy of the software (on a USB drive) to you.

We have adopted this rather low key approach to software development as, rather than developing commercial software with its attendant costs, we can be assured that all GardenCAD Professional users have had access to a comprehensive training program and thus know how to use the software effectively. To reiterate, we are not selling the software; we sell GardenCAD training!

Please note that this present web site provides the only avenue for GardenCAD support. If you have further queries or comments, please send an email to: info@gardencad.net.