Wyatt Thompson, PLA

There is a lengthy discussion of this here. If you get past all the gripes about the change, you will likely find some good advice. The FAQs on the CLARB site address the content of the new exams. The short answer is that it probably depends on which sections you’ve passed and how confident you are on the remaining material.

What software are you using?

Great minds think alike I guess. It doesn’t sound like there’s going to be much leeway with CLARB so I’m going to spend my time studying for D. It will likely be more productive.

Jason, I agree with your assessment. I am waiting on results from E, and assuming I passed, I will only have D left to take. As others have mentioned, that puts me in an interesting predicament. I started the tests a little over one year ago. Had I known section D was going to be such a lynch pin I would have taken it first, rather than starting…[Read more]

Wow, this almost makes me wish I didn’t already know Sketchup! LOL. Seriously, Daniel is a great teacher, and if you don’t have much experience with the software, this would be a fantastic opportunity. Hope it goes well Daniel.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions here. I’m heading out tomorrow and very much looking forward to seeing the city. The weather forecast looks cloudy with rain likely one day. Hopefully it will stay nice enough to walk about.

Thomas, I didn’t know you were in Chicago; I was thinking you lived in Colorado for some reason. Thanks for the local perspective! I’d been looking at making a walking-tour of sorts like you suggested. You added a few sites that I didn’t know about. Thanks for mentioning the Lakeshore East project. That was on my list too and I’d located it on…[Read more]

Thanks for all the great suggestions, guys. I’ll be sure to discuss all these ideas with my traveling buddy and see what we have time for. We don’t plan on getting a car – I’ve been told parking fees downtown are ridiculous – so we’ll use public transit and our feet to get around. That may knock out some destinations but I bet there will be more…[Read more]

I would get one, but not until you are ready to start taking exams. In my state I received a discount on the exam fees that more than paid for the record. I would verify that you have the same arrangement in the state you want to be licensed in. Until you’re taking exams though, I don’t see a need.

If you want photorealism with Sketchup you need to start with high quality textures and components. Then you need to take your model into some sort of rendering program. There are lots to choose from, from free to fairly expensive. To a large degree you get what you pay for, although I have had success with some of the less expensive options. I…[Read more]

There was a discussion about this in the Sketchup group a while back.

Do any landscape architects use Microstation? I work in an engineering office and we use it for transportation projects because our DOT requires it, but none of the LA projects use it.

+1

This is a great suggestion! My office recently forced a company-wide upgrade to Autocad 2011. Some people were still using 2008. I can’t believe the number of times I’ve had to go show someone how to get their toolbars back so they can click on a button to draw a polyline or fillet an edge. The first time someone asked me to help them find a…[Read more]

Greensburg, Kansas, USA was devastated by a tornado several years ago. Here’s a starting point for you:
http://www.greensburggreentown.org/

There are several ways to help with that (in addition to using 2/2.5D trees). One is put the 3D trees on their own layer. Leave the actual geometry on Layer 0; just move the component itself to a new layer. Then you can freeze the tree layer and navigate around the model much more easily. Second is to use low-res 2d trees as place-holders until…[Read more]

Hey Ryan. You should check out the SketchUp group on these forums. There have been some recent discussions about making your own 3D trees with various softwares, and some links to component libraries. You should also check the Sketchucation forums. There are lots of great resources there. Do a search in the Components subforum and you’re sure to…[Read more]

Buffalo grass also takes longer to green up in the spring than other turfgrasses. The advantages are that it is drought tolerant, stays relatively short, and can be installed as plugs, so it may do well in a rooftop application. I’ve not worked with it with limited soil depth though so I’m not sure how it would fair. The one greenroof photo on this…[Read more]