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GardenCAD ~ CAD for professional landscapers
GardenCAD is powerful, easy-to-use, landscape design software for professional landscapers. Imagine being able to quickly produce CAD landscape designs for your clients using Windows or Mac* computers. Incorporate photos of your previous design jobs into plans, eliminate scratching out parts of paper drawings and the need to redraw. Consider the possibility of visiting with your client and together altering the concept 'on the fly'. It's affordable - $AUD49.50 - approx. $USD35.00. [*A Windows emulator such as CrossOver is required to use GardenCAD on a Mac]Before purchasing, please take a look at GardenCAD's big brother - gCADPlus. Just as easy to use, but with great landscape CAD automation tools.
Complete a landscape design in 5 minutes.
GardenCAD is now free for testing and available for download here. If after trialing GardenCAD, you want to convert your demonstration copy to allow file saving, please visit our 'e-Shop' page and the 'buy now' button in order to create a user name and get an activation (license) code. That will enable you to save design work.Some more movies showing GardenCAD in action:
Plant tagging. Dimensions & Pages. Redefine a symbol.
GardenCAD features
Some of GardenCAD's many features include a comprehensive library of symbols, great snapping tools, an ability to open several drawings at once, precision control over layers, line types, colors, line widths, layouts (pages), automated plant scheduling, dimensioning and text styles and more.
Requirements
GardenCAD takes a small amount of disk space and makes little demand on computer resources. Any computer running Windows should work comfortably with GardenCAD. To confirm that GardenCAD runs well on modest equipment, please download a copy of GardenCAD and try it out on your intended CAD computer before purchasing.
Free landscape CAD training
We have mounted a comprehensive online training course for GardenCAD users. Here is a link to the course on the use of CAD for landscape design.
Reduce your carbon footprint. Email copies of your designs in PDF for clients to view using Acrobat Reader.
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Create and add your own landscape symbols
While we include more than 200 symbols in GardenCAD, you can create your own. The figure below shows some new symbols. These are not part of GardenCAD, but have been created by GardenCAD users for their own landscape practice and donated for download on this site. Symbols downloaded and placed in the appropriate GardenCAD block library automatically become available for new designs.
Here is a link to more information on creating and naming your own GardenCAD symbols.
One design - many sheets
It is possible to print a GardenCAD design on any size sheet (in color or Black & White). The figure below shows a design as a high resolution PDF file by TooKoo landscapes and printed from the GardenCAD Pages palette onto an A1 sheet using the (free) PDF writer from CutePDF.
and another where GardenCAD has been used to assemble 3-D views from a SketchUp model on a page layout.
GardenCAD and broad scale work
The examples above showed GardenCAD in use on relatively small scale projects. You can however use GardenCAD as a GIS tool for broad scale work. The figure below shows some data from an extensive survey of trees surrounding a constructed wetland. Here we have stored attribute data about the condition of trees growing in and around the wetland. Data on the condition of an individual tree can be accessed simply by clicking on the symbol - GardenCAD displays attributes hidden behind the symbol relating to tree health and canopy diameter.
Drafting aids
Not only are there many planting symbols, but the software also contains numerous general purpose 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. Our downloads page also provides some useful resources for using these tools.
The figure below shows dimension applied (automatically) to the drawing by picking (snapping) to control points (ends of lines).
Many users configure GardenCAD to use a custom font to give their drawings 'personality', thus moving their designs well away from typical CAD drawings (which can be rather stilted and mechanical).
Automatically build plant schedules
GardenCAD also allows the storage of much non-graphic information with its symbols. You can store botanical name, common name, plant name, size, code as hidden attributes with each symbol.
Printing plans
Your plans can be printed to any size sheet of paper in full color 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 centers for professional printing and laminating on larger sheets.
GardenCAD design philosophy
We have consulted with many professional designers during the development of GardenCAD and have tried to make the software work in a visual and intuitive way, mimicking the classical approach to hand drawing. We encourage users to provide suggestions for future releases of GardenCAD.
