Rob Molchan

I’ve used Auto Cad for 7years and I have to move on Vector Works for a new Company. It’s so confusing and not so much information so far.. Tutorials don’t really give me right answers and I have many problems to figure out, but it’s difficult ask somebody.. Not so many people are using this..

Land F/X is a great tool if you are going to do a concept to working drawings set and are looking for real world ability to create and modify a great set of plans, it is functional within Autocad and now BricsCad ( a cheeper version of ACAD, which looks very powerful for the price), and LandF/X functions with SketchUp (which is not a TOY as stated…[Read more]

Whilst I am glad you all find the discussion useful – let’s avoid blank statements and overlooking the progress some applications had achieved. Every release of each application brings many new and sometimes very good features. Some of these upgrades make a huge difference and change the appeal of the software.
So for 2D – AutoCAD LT is g…[Read more]

I’ve been using Rhino and just a word of caution, it is primarily an industrial design 3D modeling program and I’ve found that it does not work well for large scale applications. It exceeds in designing small elements, which can then be exported into other programs that work better with land manipulation.

I think this conversation is great…[Read more]

After using AutoCAD for about 12 years of drafting, and then switching over to Vectorworks Landmark, I would say without hesitation that the advantages of working in Vectorworks over AutoCAD are immense. The only reason why I had been using the “industry standard” is because I didn’t seek anything better. Many take their work out of AutoCAD to do…[Read more]

Has anyone looked at Viz Terra?

Shimi; Thanks for the advice. I’ll give you a mini-review of the Vectorworks and its capabilities once I get started with it. I’m also interested to find out about an add-on program called Doodle. It looks promising. I’ll let you know. Thanks again.

I still have not found an intuitive terrain modelling platform for us landscape architects.
Rhino can produce nice surfaces, which can be pulled and pushed to get the aethetics right, but its contours are inaccurate and, unlike Civil 3D, very static. Civil 3D on the other hand is very dynamic and great in live sections and contours, but falls…[Read more]

Thanks RFox. I’m going to download a trial copy of Rhino and play around with it. I did that a few months ago with AutoCAD Civil and found the new interface pretty intuitive. I still need something that’ll be a simple interface with a landscape design focus. Right now, I don’t need super high-quality rendering capabilities, but I would like to…[Read more]

Personally, I would recommend Rhino 4.0. It is an extremely easy to learn platform and combines 2D and 3D design quite well. Plus there are really good render engine plugins like Vray.

Rhino is also very good at importing and exporting a wide variety of different file types from Autocad to Digital Projects to Maya. I don’t know the exact pricing…[Read more]

Thanks guys. I’ve seen many of the previous discussions on this topic. Reviewing my last post, I realized I had mentioned I had been running LandCAD. That part was true. However, I have not been using LandCAD. In fact, I haven’t used it for a single project. I couldn’t get out of the tutorial phase. The LandCAD folks have offered me extremely…[Read more]

John – this question keeps popping up and is a testament of the range of aspirations, skill sets and experiences out there in the industry.
I have seen them all and to date, I have not seen THE tool for landscape architects. We have to use various platforms to deliver the wide range of services we provide.

There are quite a few parameters to this…[Read more]

I personally would go with Autocad over Vectorworks for a couple reasons. To start, Autocad is the industry standard as far as drafting goes so alot more people know the program. Also, as more schools push digital rendering, more and more students are using software like 3ds Max and Revit which don’t play well with Vectorworks linework. On the…[Read more]

I’ve just started a one-person design firm specializing in residential. I’m trying to decide between the various cad programs and think Vectorworks would be the best fit for me. I have owned EaglePoint LandCADD (2000) but was running with its stand-alone cad engine (not AutoCAD). Now, years later, I’m really thinking it’s time to try again with…[Read more]