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I am sure the city would rather her be on food stamps rather than try to provide for her family on her own… the Dems must be running that city.  I do think that there are a lot of subdivisions now that have even more expensive homes that have clauses in their by-laws that you can’t have a vegetable gardern that are having to be rethought about…[Read more]

And another example: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/09/memphis_teacher.php
I wonder if this is the sort of thing the ASLA should try to get involved in.

I stroooongly recommend  finding a class at a local CC or Tech school. You may spend a bit more money than teaching yourself, but you will save yourself from enormous amounts of anxiety. AutoCad, for most, truly does require hands on instruction…..good luck!

I am glad you are working on this David!  Right now I have my nose deeply buried in learning how to use my Carlson Robotic Total Station, and SurvCE.  Carlson also has CAD Routines that run on top of either AutoCAD or their Flavor of Intellicad. (to bad they don’t run on BricsCAD I would just need one CAD program to learn and pay to keep mai…[Read more]

U must be single….LOL!
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I sure miss those bezier curves in Adobe Illustrator!  Arcs give me absolute fits!  I suspect by the time you get really good at AutoCAD all the employers are going to be more interested in your Civil 3D or Revit experiance.  At least that is my luck…spend 10 man years to master a program only to find that the market wants something else.  I rec…[Read more]

Range poles with an optical prism: Start with either a sheet of grid paper or an aerial photo with a card table on the site. Tape paper onto foam core board. Tape board onto card table. If using an aerial, get it from a professional aerial survey mapping company, not Google Earth. Call the city planner if you can’t find a source. Find two…[Read more]

Looks like a Cat 980. I used to operate one ….. enought to bring it up to where I’d powerwash the bark out of the belly pans at the lumber mill that I worked at. Just another task for the “gardener”.

No back in the day of the original PC LA’s were not using PC’s at all. (I know that may be before your time.)  At that time PC’s were real expensive.  Most LA’s at that time saw PC’s as a novelty and ignored them too.  And so I think it is a very relavant comparison.
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I’m glad we got a lot of different perspectives on this thread also.
 
I don’t layout jobs for contractors. I just measure details that I need for existing conditions base plans. If a curved walkway exists, it is not usually missed by a survey crew. The 24″ oak between it and the house often is missed. The oak and its 8 brothers are what I’m…[Read more]

When you own your own equipment Craig you don’t have to wait for a survey either because while you are on the job-stie with your Robot you are actually drawing your drawing.  By the time you get back to the office you are ready to do your design.  I am sure that LA’s use to say the same thing about computers back when a PC cost 5K or more and e…[Read more]

You are correct Jason most of my work is Residental and relandscaping small commercial.  I do not generally do any new construction sites.  I can appreciate what you are saying about a larger project and there it makes sense to use a licensed surveyor.  But at my level this works GREAT!
 
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The pros miss them, too. I’ve had underground power with an easment, missed. And it just so happened the architect had the corner of the building right over it!  Power line moved. I’ve had buildings severely mismeasured, by 20′!!!!! And grading off by up to 3′. Again, with really large or complicated projects, you cannot afford those kind of er…[Read more]

“We don’t want any trees in front of the building, it will block the view of it… how about a dwarf shrub or some juniper?”

Andrew – Are you able to measure flat surfaces using the laser?  Put stakes at the corners or such? Guess curves walks could be a bit tricky tho’! This has been an interesting discussion. Thanks for starting it.

Oh I’m going to go, Im sure there will be some sort of introductions, I will tell them I am a landscape architect with 10+ years of experience, part of that in planting design and am curious about how architects approach planting design so I can better work with them on future projects, not as an adversary.

I see.
I prefer stouts and porters, so microbrews are the only way to go.  Guinness is absolute crap.
 

 
I guess it really does depend on what type of work you do. If you deal with small sites, you make a compelling argument. Those whom work on residential or small commercial or design/build that need layout capabilities can definitely benefit from your approach.
 
But the sites I generally work on are on the larger size…much larger size. And t…[Read more]

That’s your decision I respect that. But I disagree with the aptitude notion.  This is a computer with software that happens to be connected to a laser.  If you can learn to use a computer you can learn to use this device as well.
 
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