Cad-3D and Other Softwares COMPUTING 'By your technology shall they know you' What is the primary graphic software for landscape architecture? The choice includes vector-CAD, solid-modeling, image-editing, animation, vector-GIS and raster-GIS. A true geek would learn all six types of programme - but this would leave little time to become expert in design. Vector-CAD CAD is probably the most widely used landscape graphic software at the present time. AutoCad, the market-leader in its field, originated as a programme for architectural draughting and has developed in many directions. There are bolt-on additions tailored for plumbing, circuit designers, structural engineers - and landscape architects. There is also a GIS bolt-on. GIS: Geographical Information System Landscape Architects played a major part in the development of GIS and, with a CAD bolt-on, it is likely to become the most widely used landscape graphic software. McHarg's use of overlays in Design with Nature is accorded an important place in histories of GIS. ArcInfo, the market-leader, in multi-purpose GIS software was developed by a landscape architect (Jack Dangermond). Vector-CAD uses co-ordinates and attribute tables. Raster-CAD uses images (eg aerial photographs and satellite photographs) and attribute tables. Image-editing For photo-editing work landscape architects will continue to make use of image-editing software (eg Photoshop and Photopaint). These programmes encourage exploration of photomontage as a conceptual and graphic tool. 3D Design For design, it is likely that solid-modeling and animation software (eg 3D Studio Max and Maya) will become increasingly important. These programmes are a by product of the computer games and special effects industries. They allow fast representation of design ideas. Computation There is also a group of designers (mainly architects) with an interest in the mathematical (or computational) aspects of the design process. There have been many periods in history when mathematics have influenced design. For example: entasis on the parthenon (a slight convexity to correct the visual illusion of concavity) Islamic patterns are essentially mathematical Andrea Palladio, following Plato, believed the primary geometrical forms have profound symbolic significance Bill Hillier in his work on the 'social logic of space' uses mathematics to predict pedestrian flows shape grammars (expressed as algorithms) can be used to generate forms Mathematical approaches to design can, of course, be computer-assisted. Etymologically it is of note that the term 'algorithm' (or algorism), meaning 'a process or set of rules for machine calculation' derives from the name of an Arab mathematician al-Kuwarizm. Computer Aided Design: CAD software - Landscape and Garden Product Directory In sculpture, the means of working also affect the results. Michaelangelo and Brancusi were carvers. Rodin was a clay modeler and his marbles (made by assistants from clay maquettes) are palpably not the result carving: they are much more fluid. And it would not make any sense at all for a constructor (eg Anthony Caro) to aim for the aesthetic results which come from either modeling or carving. Use of found objects, originating with Duchamp and Picasso, has introduced new techniques and new approaches to sculpture. The letters CAD should be spelt-out as Computer-Aided-Design (not -Drafting). It is an easy error to think of CAD, which resembles a shortened version of AutoCad, as meaning 'vector-CAD' (ie using co-ordinate geometry to produce Euclidean shapes). Read correctly, the letters CAD can stand for all the uses of computers to aid designers, for there are many. We should look to the day when one can look at a built design as one can look at a sculpture, and make an intelligent guess about the type of software which aided the designer. The range of computer programes from which designers can choose includes: Vector Based Drawing: Corel; FreeHand; Illustrator; CorelDraw 2-D Bitmap and Paint: Paint Shop Pro; Painter; Photo-Paint; Photoshop 3-D Modeling, Rendering and Animation: 3D Studio Max; Maya; Houdini; LightWave; Multimedia/Web-authoring & Design: Dreamweaver; FrontPage Digital Video Editing & Effects: Premiere; Pinnacle, Microsoft Movie Maker Garden CAD Software Computer software can help gardeners with design layouts. Professional garden desingers have the same software needs as other 3D designers (Vector CAD, Bitmap CAD, Solid Modeling etc). Home garden designers can use simplified programmes which have some of the capabilities of these programmes are much easier to learn and use. This is sold as specialist Garden Design Software. The programmes make use of bitmap images to supply textures for grass, flowers, shrubs, water, walls, fencing etc. Garden design software is a good starting point in computer aided design. Specialists can then move on to Vector CAD and Bitmap CAD. Gardencomposer is a form of BitmapCAD, which works only with digital photographs. It lets you compose an image of the garden but does not help with drawing a plan. Master Landscape Pro and Geoff Hamilton's 3D Garden Designer work in a similar way. GIS: Geographical Information Systems A GIS is a Geographical Information System - and it may come as a surprise that Geographical Information Systems have a role in garden management! The three words in the title signify the characteristics of a GIS: ‘Geographical’ reminds us that it deals with geographical, or spatial, data. ‘Information’ reminds us that a GIS is a way of handling data – it is a spatial database. ‘System’ reminds us that it dates from the 1970s, when everything to do with computers was described as a ‘system’. GIS do not fall into the category of design software but most of the world’s mapping agencies are now using GIS to produce their maps, even if they are then sold on paper. There is a discussion of the role of GIS in landscape and planning in Turner, T. City as landscape (1996). The uses of GIS in garden management include: map data, on which to base a garden design, is now available in digital form and can be related to other types of data (soils, landcover, geology etc) in a GIS. At present this is practical only for large projects. the creation of a spatial database in which to record details of all the plant material in a garden: species, planting date, management operations etc. This data can be analysed in the GIS a GIS is of great assistance in managing a historic garden: (1) the GIS can store a set of historical plans and bring to a common scale for comparative purposes - this is done by rubber sheeting (2) the GIS can produce new maps to show the garden at different points in history (3) the GIS can be used, as on an archaeological project, to store full details of the hard and soft materials found on the historic garden site. GIS also has a major role in landscape architecture and city planning. If you take a city plan and draw over it with a green marker pen, you can design an ‘open space system’ with parks and parkways. This is what Patrick Abercrombie did for London in 1943. It is still the foundation of open space planning for London. But what does the green ink actually mean: a network of parkland owned and managed by a local authority? a network of land with public access? a network of land which has not been built upon (including paved areas? Including roads?) a network of vegetated space (including private gardens and nature reserves?) The ‘parkways’ on the original Abercrombie plan are a case in point. Although they were used to interconnect parks, they were actually a special category of road with wide vegetated margins. These considerations force us to the conclusion that simply classifying land as ‘greenspace’ is inadequate. We need to: define areas of land (eg as ‘greenspace’) specify which policies apply to different parts of the greenspace (eg ‘accessible’, ‘vegetated’, ‘managed as parkland’, ‘managed as nature reserve’, ‘solid’, ‘void’) With paper plans, this is not an easy task. With a GIS, it is simple. The two most characteristic features of a GIS are: maps database tables, from which the maps are generated The database can hold much of the data which landscape architects use: soils, geology, water, user preferences, contours etc etc. You can either purchase the data or you can put it in yourself. It can generate 3-D models and generate aerial photographs over them, with geographic precision. But this is difficult. Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) is a GIS supplier. The organisation was started by a landscape architect and it is now the world’s largest GIS company. ESRI make several products: ArcView: a comparatively easy-to-use programme ArcInfo: a very sophisticated programme ArcGIS: a scalable product, allowing the aquisition of additional modules to increase the functionality 3d visual effects software VectorCAD, Garden CAD, BitmapCAD, Drawing Programmes, GIS, The Who & How of The Day After Tommorow: The development path for 3D software runs from the film industry to the 3D design industry. Therefore the best way for 3D designers to see what might happen next is to keep an eye on cinematic productions. The Day After Tomorrow is a case in point. The film is about the dramatic effects of a sudden shift in the world's climate. It has wild oceans, floods, snow, hail , storms and tornadoes. Roland Emmericch did the screenplay and Karen Goulekas was the visual effects supervisor. The film shows a storm surge overwhelming Manhattan. For this, they obtained a New York City database from Urban Data Solutions, a firm which offers 3D city models and a spatial information management (SIM) platform for the visualization of spatial data. A LIDAR VFX scanner with a range of 3 miles was used to scan the city buildings. The opening sequence was done (by Hydraulx) using a Maya shader rendered in mental ray. Editor : Bengi Demirkan - L.A.- University of Greenwich/LONDON