David Barbarash

Funny you should mention that, my masters thesis was on a very similar topic. Here’s a link to the short form paper: Graphics and detail
The tl;dr version: For the general non-design educated public, a “middle” level of detail is adequate for delivering information about a prospective design, and in the absence of even that level of detail, a…[Read more]

Thanks for the support! Initial results from the student body at Purdue seems to show an equality in perception between the two styles (it’s way too early with too small a response set to make conclusions though). They so far seem to reject the notion that hand drawings are exclusively loose and digital renderings are exclusively stiff. Whether…[Read more]

I appreciate your frustration with the questions, I can assure you that I don’t have an agenda with this study. These type of “forced choice” questions are common in social science research and the results gathered will not be used to try and point out that more people think one methodology is “better” or “worse” than another regardless of which…[Read more]

Not to pre-bias my own study, but this study hopes to be the first in a line to quantify our response to graphic representations created through various media. We can likely all agree that a poor rendering is a poor rendering regardless of creation method or technology, but the general consensus I am aware of is that a sloppy hand drawing has…[Read more]

One easy(ish) thing to do is to get your hands on some GIS data for the city, then scan for vacant lots.

-If there is a large concentration of vacant lots in a small area, analyze and try to find out why, then design an intervention to revitalize the area.
-If you notice a liner pattern or vacancies, consider an “emerald necklace” style…[Read more]

Here are a pair of links:
ImageCELS
Dosch
I had a few others but am drawing a blank off the top of my head… I’ll get back with more if I can.

I’d be somewhat wary about the AMD chips. Historically, AMD GPus had issues with some 3D modeling programs, though the built in graphics processing on the new FX series CPUs are pretty interesting (they can be disabled in BIOS if you use a standalone card).

If you’re looking for a budget build, why spend the money on a workstation level card? I’m…[Read more]

Check HERE for examples of professionally done renderings. When you click on a post, you’ll get a series of images as well as a short blurb on the software used.
 
I agree wholeheartedly with ida & April here, go with what has the deepest user base. Take a look at the other forums on cgarchitect or dig around youtube for a while and you’ll get an…[Read more]

I think you’re going to have to be a bit more specific as to what you’re looking for…

But don’t forget that if the situation becomes abusive, be sure to keep an (off-site) record of situations with dates and descriptions in case you need to file a hostile working environment suit…

Thanks, that’s what I figured from my limited messing around with Revit. I wonder if anyone has counted the number of “customization time” it takes to get a LA office up to speed with Revit or Civil 3d (or Vectorworks Landmark)…

How have you found Revit for landscape drafting & modeling? Have you found the software to be capable of handling the thousands of plant cultivars an office might use or the hundreds of different plants that may be used in a single project? Is the component system robust enough to deal with the variety of plant symbology (or not depending on firm…[Read more]

1. AutoCAD & Vectorworks, though I’ve used a few others in the past.
2. AutoCAD is the North American CAD standard and since it’s owned by AutoDesk, it has a robust suite of supporting software that it (mostly) integrates with (3D modeling, BIM, etc.). Vectorworks is as close as we LA’s have for a landscape oriented BIM drafting program, and while…[Read more]

Not to derail this thread, but other than funding sources, average class sizes, and racial demographics, there is no demonstrable difference between public and private colleges.
 
Having said that, I agree with your points. The Colorado river has seen it’s flow reduced from roughly 22,000 cu. ft./sec in 1903 to less than 4,000 cu. ft/sec by 1980.…[Read more]

I believe that you’re taking a lot of extra time using your current methods. depending on which program you’re exporting (or if you aren’t including any interactive elements, printing) to .pdf to, you should have the option to adjust compression and exclude layers. If you intend your portfolio to be printed, then keep it at 150ppi and at the…[Read more]

Give http://www.turbosquid.com a try.

That looks like either 3d Max or Rhino to me…

It’s no wonder why they had Joobs present to the Council instead of the designers. They need Apples tax contributions so bad that they’ll give Jobs anything to stay.

I didn’t share the link as a puff piece for Apple or Jobs (I’m a Windows person myself), but cause they do bring up one or two zoning and utility issues that I didn’t find anywhere…[Read more]

Slightly off topic, but here’s Steve jobs presenting this project to Cupertino’s City Council for initial project approval back in June.
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M

I’m pretty sure that the US Forestry services UFORE model (now known as iTree, damn you Apple…) can do this among many other things. Take a look: http://www.itreetools.org