Template Drawings

One of the best ways to speed up your design work when using GardenCAD is to start with a template drawing - one in which all your favourite adjustments and inclusions have already been made. The figure below shows one such template. It comfortably allows for the development of a site 30 meters by 20 meters and has a number of symbols, text styles, dimension styles and linetype styles preloaded, ready to go. The symbols (blocks) have been placed to the right of the design are. These can be moved to create any size design area needed so it is very versatile

Symbols

The figure below shows some of the the symbols carried in the default drawing. These are used in most plans - a north point, a scale bar, marker dots for indicating species, linetypes and wheelchair block. So when it comes time to need them in your design, simply drag the symbol into position.

A collection of symbols (not from the GardenCAD set), adjusted to different sizes (3 meters, 2.5 meters, and 2 meters in canopy diameter is also included.

Some of the symbols are lightweight and allow the understory design work to show through the upper canopy.

Using the template

If you use the Your Computer tool to mark the file as read-only, you can start GardenCAD, open the drawing and immediately use File>SaveAs to create a new drawing based on the template. Using this system dramatically improves drafting efficiency.

Now (for example) when you want to draw with a different linetype, it is just a matter of selecting the one you want from the drop down list or changing the properties of a line.

Download template

Here is a link to the template discussed above. We suggest saving it in your Templates folder under My Documents>GardenCAD>.

More on linetypes

As discussed here, it is easier to manage linetypes in GardenCAD by inserting a block containing a set of linetypes you commonly need into the default drawing you use. Download the block below, place it into your Jobs folder and use it to update your default drawing - a once only task.

Here is a link to download a block containing linetypes suitable for work in the metric environment.

Here is a link to download a block containing linetypes suitable for work in the Imperial environment.