What's New

Printing drawings

 We have added a paper 'everything you ever needed to know about printing'. This has been contributed by DB, one of our GardenCAD users. Here is the link: http://www.gardencad.net/node/102

Sloping sites

We have added some information about using GardenCAD to detail designs for sloping sites. Here is the link: http://www.gardencad.net/node/100

Printing to a scale

Printing monochrome

Human figures to give a sense of scale

We have begun developing some symbols of human figures. These are especially important when developing elevation and section views of your designs. Here is a link to a paper on the subject: http://www.gardencad.net/node/97

Colour

Although there are 256 colours available to you in GardenCAD, you can change any of these and also add many more. The figure below shows the colour palette dialog box and we have provided a movie on the topic below the figure.

Click here to play a movie on this subject.

Landscape Sustainability Calculator

We have added a Sustainability Calculator to the Diploma of landscape Design site. This tool enables you to assess your design in terms of its sustainability.

 http://www.diploma.gardencad.net/node/209

Gradients

It is possible to apply a gradient to the background of a GardenCAD pages print by printing to PDF, starting  Photoshop, place the PDF into the Photoshop environment and then apply a gradient.

Complex symbols

Layer order

We have been asked to provide some guidance on the use of the Layer Order dialog box - click here to play an movie in which this topic is discussed.

New symbol

JW has contributed a new, rather abstract GardenCAD symbol to the Downloads page. She suggests using it to indicate the location of a Bougainvillea.

Title blocks

Some information on what to include in title blocks has been added to the online diploma. Here is the link: http://www.diploma.gardencad.net/node/182

Symbols in elevation view

We have added a rather extensive section on how to create your own symbols to work with GardenCAD. Creating your own symbols instead of using the (90) in-built symbols in GardenCAD, gives your drawings a personality of their own.

The figure below shows a new symbol for a Star Jasmine (in elevation). Here is the link to the whole series about this topic: http://www.diploma.gardencad.net/node/170

GardenCAD on Macintosh computers

We now have numerous reports that GardenCAD runs just fine on Macintosh computers (but only on Macs with the Intel chip series as the processor). Most GardenCAD users have Intel-based, MacBook Pros and have installed a  product called CrossOver [or parallels]. This software (which costs around $35) enables Windows programs to run on Intel based Macs without the need for Boot Camp and starting in a Windows environment. CrossOver is low cost software, but we recommend downloading and installing a trial version of CrossOver first on your Mac, then download and install GardenCAD and test it.

For efficient CAD drafting on a Mac, you will need to buy a mouse with at least two buttons and a wheel. The wheel is used to zoom in and out while the left and right mouse buttons are used to 'pop up' drafting menu items.

We will report later how GardenCAD on a Mac handles rigorous CAD drafting. We would greatly appreciate hearing from Mac users who use GardenCAD (info@gardencad.net).

Creating dimensions in GardenCAD (movie)

A GardenCAD user (MD) has asked for clarification on methods of applying dimensions and getting an accurately scaled plot from a GardenCAD Pages view. The figure below shows some dimensions applied (in model space) to a design for a swimming pool in a rear garden space (a design by PC). We have used one of the prime advantages of CAD - the dimensions come directly from the model [Using Draw>Dimension>Linear]. If the design has been drawn correctly, applying dimensions in this way serves as a double check of your work and gives you added confidence that you drawing is super accurate. We then copied the entities to a page and scaled them appropriately.

Although the layer L-PLNT-SYMBOL shows as the current layer, these dimensions have been placed on a layer L-DIM. [We follow an international standard for layer names - all work by landscapers should be on a layer beginning with L-]

  Here is a link to a movie which shows how we tackled this somewhat tricky task.

Logo

One of our students (KS) has produced a fine logo using GardenCAD. The ability of GardenCAD to work with various layers (and to control the stacking order of those layers) was utilized when building the logo. When printed to a PDF file from GardenCAD using CutePDF writer, the resolution was outstanding. The logo works well on both black (inside GardenCAD) and white background (printed output). Make sure that you do the same and test your logo in both environments.

The logo is drawn once and used again and again on each and every design created by that KS; a great time saver.

Copy & Rotate

We have added a section on copying and rotating an entity to the Tips and Tricks option on the member support menu. the figure below shows a student using the CopyRotate option to rapidly generate a symbol for a plant in a container (tub).

Arcs tangential to other entities.

We have added a new option to GardenCAD's Arc command. You can now draw arcs tangential to other entities such as other arcs, lines or circles. The figure below shows a complex shape for a border draw using arcs with the arctan option. For illustration purposes only, we have shown (in red) the circles from which those arcs are drawn. The key issue here is that you can give a construcuion team the precise location of the centre of the circle from which the arc is drawn.

 Here is a link to a movie show how it is done.

Linetypes

We have also added to the online "Using GardenCAD" course on http://www.softwaretutor.net, a movie showing how to change the linetype (to dots or dashes) as shown below.

As you can see from the figure above, it is possible to change the background colour of the GardenCAD drawing editor. Here is is white, but the background can be any colour you like.

Group exercise

A group of students were asked to prepare a design for a space 42.5 ft by 32 ft (10 meters by 13 meters). Here is the link which shows the efforts of a number of them.

One example from the set is shown below. Click on the image to view the design in Adobe Acrobat Reader as a high resolution PDF file on an A2 size sheet. Right click and use the marquee tool to zoom in

Layer Standard

We have added new section on creating CAD drawings to a consistent standard to the landscape diploma course. It is by no means complete, but should provide a reasonable start point for GardenCAD users. Here is the link: 

New symbol

A new symbol for a climbing plant (Bougainvillea) has been created by a GardenCAD user.

While the majority of plant symbols you choose from the GardenCAD selector have been created inside a circle of 1000 units (mm) in diameter and you simply scale the up or down to create an appropriately sized symbol, it is not an essential requirement that the symbol be 1000 units in diameter. The figure above shows symbol (created by JacobK) for a climbing plant such as a Bougainvillea. Here the symbol is much narrower than the standard symbol. Jacob has used a thick line for the outline of the inflorescence to good effect. A polyline has been placed along the spine of the symbol and the spline curve fit option chosen to give the whole symbol a flexible curving shape.

Plant selector system

It has been suggested that we change all plant symbols in the plant selector system so that they have a white background rather than black. This change would mean that prior to placing a symbol, you would gain some appreciation of how the symbol would look when plotted to paper. The figures below illustrate the proposed change. Symbol #22 is shown on a  white background (top) - the proposed new presentation and on the present black background (bottom).

New symbols 

Five new plant symbols will be added to the next version of GardenCAD Pro taking the total to 90. Several more symbols will also be added to the General Group - more north points, design grids of different densities, title blocks with logos and replaceable parameters etc. We welcome your contributions to our block library. Please send your .Vec files to info@gardencad.net with a comment as to how the block should be used and we will include your symbol.

March 2010

A paper and movie on creating a symbol for a Buxus hedge has been added to the Tips and Tricks menu.

March 2010

A paper discussing some of the options to try if a drawing misbehaves (e.g. if symbols do not import correctly) has been added to the Tips & Tricks menu. You need to be a member to access this menu.

February 2010

Several extension exercises have been added to Project 3.5 in the online landscape diploma.

• We now offer a project involving a concept and design for the surrounds for a house near Seattle, Washington State, USA.
• A project involving the construction of an under lawn watering system and the devlopment of a logo for a garden design consultancy.