Thomas J. Johnson

Generally plants are drawn, in plan or perspective, at 3/4 mature size. Designs are not sold to the client depicting 2″ caliper trees with gator bags and guy-wires. We show what it will look like… Visualization is still, and always will be the designers job. Sure, it would be cool to see the whole site “grow” before your eyes in a 3D…[Read more]

It probably varies a lot based on location. If the cheapest housing you can find (studio) is $1250/month, $40k doesn’t get you far… $400-student loan payment, $70-cell phone, $60-auto insurance, $150-gas, $50-internet, $400 food, $40 dry-cleaning… after taxes, you have a $240 deficit every month and those are just the basics, you haven’t…[Read more]

SketchUP Pro is very close to being able to replace AutoCAD for basic landscape design. I’m still playing with “Layout” but my initial impression is that it’s not quite there… it’s nice for simple layouts/presentations but being a separate application is a bit clumsy, creating planting/material schedules with symbols seems like it might be…[Read more]

I wonder how many pennies he’s talking about…? If it’s like 8 million pennies then it might be worth it…

http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/civil_best_practices0.pdf
Page 16 – Conceptual visual styles should address what you’re looking for, contrary to Bryan’s self assured, obnoxious and incorrect response. 
Though, you won’t need to apply the “sketchy” (no, I’m not referring to you Bryan) visual style to the individual symbols. You’ll apply the…[Read more]

^—– Exactly!

Nice! That’s a sweet system… I’d rather work 4- 10 hour days than 5 – 8 hour days. 3 – 13.33 days would be even better! 6 – 13 hr days gets old pretty quick…

Geez Steve, down boy, easy tiger… time for decaf…
But Steve is right. If you want to interact on Land8 use your browser. If you just want to get updates (new forum comments, images, videos, news, etc.) you can sign up for the RSS feed.
http://land8lounge.com/rss
Don’t laugh, I don’t have a smart phone, so I haven’t played around with the RSS…[Read more]

What is comp time?

What would you say is the proper response when you’re handed a FUBAR project, due tomorrow?
(To be read in the voice of Peter Gibbons from Office Space) “Um, yeah, sorry. I kind of already have plans. I’m taking off at 6 tonight, going to the gym and then I’m going to make dinner for my gf. I’ve been wanting to try this recipe for a while now. I…[Read more]

I think it’s expected if you want to work for the best firms… it’s just like top law firms, advertising agencies and medical school. Minus the financial benefits…

Salary but in California labor laws are complicated. Basically, if you’re in a new career, as I was, an employer is required to pay overtime for the first two years. I’m not sure what happens beyond that… maybe I’ll find out… it’s been about two years now…

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood your first statement about everything being on the zero layer. I thought you meant “everything” was on the zero layer! lol i.e. your drawings are flat…no layer management. I see what you mean now…
I like the idea of having all symbols (standards) on the zero layer. That makes good sense. Then you place them on…[Read more]

OK, you’re obviously messing with me… nobody leaves everything on the zero layer… funny. ha,ha…

Most landscape architects are not business minded. They are sensitive, creative types that do it for the love but think about it… long hours actually reduce your salary. Lets say you make $50k/yr. That’s approx. $25/hr. @ 40hrs a week. If you work 50 hrs/wk you have effectively reduced your salary to $20/hr (before taxes!), 60hrs/wk =…[Read more]

Yeah, I got overtime pay for maybe two weeks out of the 4 months I was there. Most of the time I didn’t report over time for two reasons; one, I thought that working extra hard (and cheap) would help secure my job as the economy was headed south and two, when I sought approval (it had to be signed off) for overtime worked I got stink-eye from the…[Read more]

Do you already have your CTB (colors / pen weights) set up or are you just going to use the stock AutoCAD colors/line weights?
If you use existing (somebody else’s) symbols you will have to modify them so that they jive with your CTB file by changing the colors / line weights to match your CTB so that they print properly.
Here is a free CTB that…[Read more]

Terry – Done and done…
http://land8lounge.com/group/thinkingbiggislandscapearchitecture
 

60-70-80 hour/wk was standard at my first job. I don’t have a problem with long hours. When I’m working, time disappears. I have a problem working those hours without recognition, either in the form of additional compensation, time off (“you’ve already worked 40hrs by Wednesday, take Thurs/Fri off”) or even a simple “hey, well-done, we appreciate…[Read more]

Any kind of GIS training seems beneficial to me, if that’s what you want to do. It’s really up to you. Does it interest you? Biological statistics is a pretty broad term. Are you talking about plants, animals, people, disease…demographics…? It seems that with a solid foundation in GIS and statistics, you could apply that knowledge in a variety…[Read more]