What are the most commonly used computer programs used by Landscape Architects in order of most to least?

[Craig W. Arnold]

I am trying to figure the computer programs I need to learn from most important to least important for the coming decade.

[lukad]

AutoCAD/Vectorworks (Drafting Software in General)
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Google SketchUp (And if you want to be on the edge of things take a look at Rhino or any other Nurbs modeling software)

Quite the ambitious question to ask, as significant time and energy needs to be dedicated to extensively learn the capabilities of each piece of software listed above. And there are PLENTY more. It really depends on what you want to do with yourself in the coming decade. Unless of course you intend on sitting in a windowless basement for 10 years, I would get most familiar with CAD and photoshop (especially for photosims and the like), and then venture into basic illustrator for design work, inDesign to put your presentations together, and 3D for everything else. 3d will require the most time to learn due to the significant learning curve of more advanced pieces of software such as Rhino or 3dsmax.

[Craig W. Arnold]

What are photosims?

[Zach Watson]

One additional program that might be worth taking sometime to get to know is Revit. I have a relative that is a mechanical engineer and he is working on a project in which EVERYTHING is being built in the program prior to final submittal/approval. While it is an amazing program it is not built for out type of work, but there maybe clients that want you to know how to use it because of it’s rendering capabilities.

[Martin Korečko]

autocad, photoshop, autodesk impression, calc.
and I´m use 3ds max. maybe very complicated for our work, but i like this. Rhino is good too, maybe better than 3ds max for creating natural objects. I hate sketchUp, but many people aruond me us it.

[Matt Ewert]

Autocad and Photoshop will treat you well to learn and be comfortable in.

[Brent Jacobsen]

I would second that it depends on what you want to do and who you want to work for. The main ones mentioned, namely drafting and graphic programs, are standard for anybody. Other, more niche programs would be Revit (as mentioned by Zach) and ArcGIS. Will less standard, they will be highly beneficial in the future. Revit is a BIM (building information modeling) program that large firms like AECOM are starting to embrace, and will become more standard as more and more architects use it. And, ArcGIS is required if you have any interest in planning or large scale work. Especially now that it is beginning to include more 3d modeling capabilities (still rudimentary, don’t get me wrong, but aspiring towards greater things), ArcGIS will be a key element of studying different planning outcomes.

[Laura Powell]

Hi Craig,
In my opinion, Archicad is a much more advanced program than Autocad. It is a 3d modeling and rendering program. I can’t understand why Architects think that Autocad a engineer based product, could be better than a program made for Architects. Vectorworks Landmark which is the landscape version of Archicad has it all. It is a 3d modeling program so you don’t need to buy all of the other programs and, it costs less than all of the others. I would also suggest Photoshop.

Here is my hubpage article which will give you a broad view of Many of the softwares available for Architects, Graphic designers and more. http://hubpages.com/hub/Researching-the-Portable-Office

[Dori]

You can use:

Autocad

Sketchup

Photoshop

impression autodesk

View samples made by photoshop

http://www.2d-landscapearchitecture.com/usergallery.html

[Bob Luther]

Autocad with LandFX

Microsoft Office (email, memos, transmitttals)

Sketchup

Photoshop

Illustrator

Microsoft Publisher (use InDesign if available)

PowerPoint

 

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