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Assuming that you’ve printed/exported to scale from CAD, couldn’t you just use the scale dialog box and enter in an exact percentage to convert to the scale you want in Illustrator?

let me add one thing – the professional timidity in relation to graphics i think also extends towards the more technical elements of the profession as well. whether it’s GIS, sustainable technologies, environmental science, or just a general embracing of research within academia (to my knowledge Cornell is the only program that is doing any solid…[Read more]

I basically got the ‘unprofessional’ tag b/c i experimented with other styles of graphics while an undergrad. i get that there’s sort of a standard convention and most employers have the expectation that your graphics will conform to those. however, i think our profession, more than others, discourages innovation in general and prefers to play it…[Read more]

Illustrator is a fine program, no doubt – I was using that before I had even heard of DRAW. I have not been able to coax the polished effects out of DRAW that I have out of Illustrator. What frustrates me about Illustrator is that (to my knowledge) it does not have the capacity for scaled drawings – which imho Adobe should really be taken to task…[Read more]

I’ve been using Illustrator to generate ‘hard lined’ sketches for conceptual design for a while now. SOme projects I have found lend themselves well to this technique, specifically when dealing with very specific geometry like very gentle arcs or blocks, like ballfields, or parking lots.
 
I almost always work out concepts on paper first, then…[Read more]

William, you mis-focused.  No where in my post did I endorse the use of less plant material in fact I did the opposite.  It’s the accusations when I hear where LA’s don’t know their plant material that irk me.  If we had the limited palette of those previous historic landscape architects and designers and their much more limited range where the…[Read more]

My opinion:
 
A garden is a planting composition that may include other elements and often is designed for a specific purpose or purposes.
 
A landscape is any piece or ground whether naturally and/or artificially covered, or whether it exists naturally, was designed, or just evolved.

“This discussion is getting more complicated than it’s worth.  Forget about “LAs don’t know plants” because when there are 2,500 different selections of Dianthus to choose from who gives a crap anymore.”
Errrrr
Rick i don’t need to read anything to know what garden/landscape is but I do find it rather interesting that at a time when public spa…[Read more]

elements is bare bones. use it for basic organizing and editing (cropping, etc), it has a few additional features like some filters, but if you are using it for anything more sophisticated… forget about it.

no, no, no. put your best foot forward. you can arrange your portfolio by types of projects or types of images, but always put your best pieces first in each section. there’s really not any need to put dates in them either.

yep, i’m familiar with all of that.
 
painter is awesome. i still like wordperfect but their office suite has nothing to compare with outlook and access.
for the record, i’m not suggesting that draw is a replacement for illustrator. i think it’s interesting to use in that it has the capability for scaled drawings, and i’ve found that i can…[Read more]

is there an archive recording of this webinar available?

i’m actually working on an article on gis in education for landscape architecture magazine right now. ASLA just sent out an educational survey, and i’m starting my interviews this week. right now i can’t say when it will be published, but i will definitely post an announcement when i do know.

I made the switch to Mac two years ago and do not regret it.  In fact, I will probably never buy another PC.  It used to be that the limitation was software, as in they did not make AutoCAD for Mac.  Now they do, and regardless, you can run Windows OS on a Mac anyway these days.  I have been running Windows 7 within Parallels on my Mac for two yea…[Read more]

as a side note… since you’re talking about hand drafting vs. CAD drawing, ck out my topic and article:
 
http://land8lounge.com/forum/topics/new-cad-utility-draw
 
http://www.examiner.com/landscape-architecture-in-national/re-discovering-draw

one addendum: when i said inevitable network issues.. that was my experience. but the IT people i was working with knew nothing about macs. i’m fairly computer savvy, but am not an IT professional, and almost no one else around me used a mac, so whenever i had any issues, nobody was able to answer any questions and i was basically on my own to try…[Read more]

actually… autocad is available on mac now: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=15421056&siteID=123112 . they released it about 6 months after i switched back to a PC… in part b/c at the time it wasn’t available (it was that and ArcGIS).
 
seeing as how you’re in los angeles land, compatibility won’t be a problem. but i had a mac f…[Read more]

Corel has been around for over a decade and owns the rights to Wordperfect (a 20+ year old word processing software line), Painter (a palette/paint blending art program that can simulate different paints and surfaces), and Paintshop Pro (a Photoshop alternative).
 
In my opinion, their products have all ways lagged behind their competitors. For…[Read more]

i agree. even though we’re all in a way competing with each other, not operating in complete isolation is indeed a good thing.

I don’t think of “landscape” as done necessarily by a landscape architect, but their work is a subset (why I commented on the landscape photos and paintings). Landscapes MAY be altered by an LA or by humanity in general, but the term encompasses the global surface. It overlaps when someone sees a “garden” in nature all the way back to the “Garden…[Read more]