Advantages In Automation: Computer Technology '99

The imaging tool mentioned above is a program that enables landscape designers to take a photograph of the client’s property and input it into an imaging program, according to John DeCell, president, Software Republic, Houston, Texas. This is a sales tool to show the customer what their property may look like after the designer has created an entire landscape on the photograph of the property for the client to see.

“This gives the client the ability to visualize options,” noted Tim Smith, product manager, Eagle Point Software, Dubuque, Iowa. “You can present the design option to the client and bring them into the design process so it’s accurate by the time you get to the end of the whole process.”

Echoing Smith, Jim Vazzana, vice president, Design Imaging Group, New York, N.Y., remarked, “I can’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from imaging. Even a maintenance firm can use imaging. When they have to keep the landscape looking nice, they can show the customer the different perennials or annuals they can use before installing them. The client may want to see what it looks like first.

“You used to provide site planning first.” Vazzana added. “The homeowner would be confused from the site plan, though. But with imaging, you can show the beauty of a waterfall, for example.”

“Contractors can show a customer a photo and say, ‘This is your house and this is what it will look like,’” commented Jim Karo, president, Visual Impact Imaging, Sebastopol, Calif. “With the old method of the site plan, people just didn’t understand what they were looking at. Now, contractors can incorporate customers’ input. They can say, ‘Well, let’s try red instead of pink with these flowers here.’ It can be changed quickly instead of going back to the drawing table.”

DeCell added that in 1996 he found 37 percent of his software customers were able to charge an average of $395 more for a standard residential installation just by presenting a computer-generated design to the customer.

Just as imaging is extremely helpful for the client, a CAD program is an important aid for any designer.

Most CAD packages have various features, but a universal benefit is the quickness with which changes can be made to a design. For example, Vazzana explained that his site planning software can do exactly what a draftsman can, except that it makes changes virtually in seconds.

This rang true with other manufacturers as well. “The biggest benefit is that users can actually create a site model themselves,” remarked Nick Vasilieff, marketing manager of CAD Easy, Hillsboro, Ore. “It’s very fast so that someone with a little CAD experience can create a site model in 30 minutes to an hour.”

Another time benefit results from combining the imaging technology and CAD package, which eliminates creating the design twice (once for the customer and once for the contractor) in some cases. “You can take the information directly from imaging and input it into the CAD plan, which is 2D,” Walton noted. “For example, you can drag an ash tree from the image editor into the CAD plan and vice versa.”

OPTIONS EVERYWHERE. It goes without saying that the options on various CAD programs are endless. Packages for every need are available in price ranges anywhere from a few hundred dollars to $1,000, depending on the application. Some site planning packages are in 2D or 3D, some change to 3D after drawing in 2D and some have growing features to see the landscape five years down the road.

Beyond this flurry of features, a few software manufactures offer a separate irrigation design package, while others have it included as a module in the basic site planning program.

Delivering the ability to produce any landscape, hardscape or irrigation design typically requires an extensive database of plant material and other elements.

“Some packages come with 2,500 plants but can hold up to 6,000,” DeCell said, adding that contractors can input the rest.

Another useful feature that a handful of packages include is an estimating function. “Contractors can put information from the plan along with customer information into a program and the module will come up with a proposal,” explained Walton.

“You can input pricing information with some packages at the beginning and the software automatically comes up with the estimates,” Karo commented.

OFF TO SCHOOL. The learning curve on software of this level is an issue that contractors need to consider when looking to automate.

“Our software has 60 video-cam narrated tutorials,” Vazzana said. “It looks like a VCR when it comes on the screen. Then we talk to you right through the computer. It takes two hours to learn the software. Practice is needed after that, but the training tutorials never go away. So, later on, if you forget how to do something, you can get a refresher course.”

Walton claimed that Autodesk offers a fairly short learning curve. “We have a manual that comes with the package - a getting started guide. It takes users through the tutorials. Online help is also accessible,” Walton noted. “CAD is really the only place where help is needed. It shouldn’t deter contractors from using the software though.”

DeCell agreed that CAD programs have a greater learning curve than imaging packages, adding that contractors have to learn how to place materials and learn CAD drafting. He stressed the importance of remembering that the software is a design tool not a designer, meaning that practice does make perfect.

CRYSTAL BALL. In this world of high technology, almost anything that could be imagined could possibly happen.

“The software is going to get easier to use,” Walton noted. “As the technology increases, we’ll see web business getting bigger and bigger. For example, our software has the ability to save a CAD plan for the Internet.”

According to Karo, he would like to integrate the modules more closely in the future. “We want all of the components to come out at once,” he mentioned. “For example, when you’re done, it would be great if the plant care descriptions came out without any time spent selecting the plants used in the drawing. This way you could just do one function and have the other three be completed automatically.”

“I think the industry is going to see more 3D programs where you can put together a presentation that is called either a fly-by, drive-through or walk-through,” Vazzana explained. “This is where the customer sits in your office and on screen they will be taken step-by-step up the walkway, out to the backyard and around the grounds.”