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Architectural & Landscaping Software

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Software can help design a dream home.

There are nearly a thousand architectural and landscape software programs available today, ranging from high-end 3D CAD (Computer-Assisted Design) programs costing tens of thousands of dollars to simple home and garden planning programs for under $100. Some of these very inexpensive programs are useful for initial planning by a homeowner planning to turn the work over to a professional architect or landscape designer. Programs costing somewhat more can be used for planning purposes as well but are also capable of turning out project-ready documentation. Does this Spark an idea?

  1. High-End Architectural Design Software

    • The one piece of design software found in nearly every architect's office in the country is some form of AutoCAD, made by Autodesk in a dizzying variety of levels and types. By today's standards, it isn't particularly user-friendly, and basic AutoCAD 2010, the current version, is still not quite a full-blown 3D program, although 3D functions are available. AutoCAD Light, adequate for a one-person architectural practice, costs less than $1,000 (all prices quoted in this article are as of Spring 2010).

      Frank Gehry, the radically inventive California architect, uses his firm's own version of Catia-CADAM V4, a super-3D program that costs more than $15,000 per user, plus extensive training fees and associated costs, and that extends the computer process from initial design all the way through machining and fabrication.

    Less Expensive 3D architectural software

    • Rhino 4.0 costs about 1/20th of Catia-CADAM and provides a lot of the same 3D functionality. Sketch-Up is a unique computer-design program that also costs well under $1,000 (and a version with about 90% of the functionality is free), and allows an inexperienced user to begin designing in three dimensions in a matter of minutes. Users have access to a huge and ever-growing user generated library of textures, materials and design elements, including landscape elements. In this sense, Sketch-Up is also a 3D landscape design program. While Sketch-Up doesn't generate construction documents, which these other programs do, it is easy to export a Sketch-Up design into a conventional architectural program and to generate construction documents from there.

    Inexpensive or Free Architectural Design Programs

    • Popular, low-end architectural design programs allow a homeowner to do preliminary conceptual designs with comparatively little training. In a pinch, a determined designer could use most of these programs to generate construction documents. Punch! Software has several programs ranging from around $250 to $50 and with varying degrees of 3D functionality; most are available for Mac or PC. MacDraft, which costs around $300, started as a very low-end Apple design program (and is still for Macs only) but is now in many ways as useful as AutoCAD and far easier to learn; it will directly output the DXF or DWG files used in AutoCAD. Home Plan Pro costs less than $50 and allows a user with no computer design experience to generate house plans, but it is available only for PCs. HGTV and Better Homes and Gardens both sell several versions of inexpensive software for home and/or landscape design.

    Higher-End Landscape Design Programs

    • Even higher-end landscape design programs cost far less than their architectural design counterparts. Structure Studios offers a very detailed 3D Landscape Design program for a $1,700 per year membership fee and a pool design program for just less than $1,000 per year. Realtime Landscaping offers a feature-rich program for about $250 that generates and outputs 2D and 3D and allows the user to "walk around" her design in real-time, a particularly valuable function for newer users who may have trouble visually how a particular design "feels" when you're actually in it. Less expensive versions are available.

    Inexpensive or Free Landscape Design Programs

    • Better Homes and Gardens Landscape and Deck Designer 8.0 costs as little as $50 and is a good basic program that's easy to learn; for PC only. Garden Planner 2.4 is even more basic but has an easy to use drag-and-drop format for under $20, also for PC only. Sketch-Up can also be used for landscape design, is fully 3D, free and available for PC and Mac.

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