Landscape size?

[Rob]

Hello,

I am considering the purchase of both HDP6 and Landscape and deck designer, but I have not been able to determine what, if any, size limits the landscape designer may have.

Although it may be unusual- the area I'd like to reproduce is approximately 1 sq. mile. There will eventually be many structures spread around this area. The actual structures wouldn't necessarily need to be included in the landscaping plan, but I would like to include various driveways and perhaps a road.

Is this possible with these programs?

Thanks for any help you might be able to provide.

Rob

[Dan Park]

While it is possible to do this in these products it sounds like you are creating a subdivision. You will find the tools in Chief Architect are more complete and better suited to this task.

My recomendation would be to purchase HDpro 6 and upgrade to version 7 when it becomes available. Pro 7 will have all the tools of Landscape and Deck Desgner included and more. Pro 6 has most of these tools already.

Also note that when you add this much detail to a plan you will be taxing the computing power of even a top end system.

A better solution can be obtained in Chief Architect Full version by exporting shells of houses as symbols then importing these into your subdivision plan.

You can have each structure modled independently with all the detail then have the overview plan that contains the symbols for each house.

[Rob]

Thanks for your comments, and while I have the attention of knowlegable people let me elaborate a bit more in case you may have additional info to share-

This project is similar to a subdivision but not exactly. This is our design layout for the development of a recreational campground on approx. 98 acres. Spread around this property is a combination of RV pads and cabins, along with an office/maintenance facility and other amenities.

We are not attempting to skirt necessary engineering surveys, rather eliminate some of the layout work. I have elevations data already, which is required to establish the location of the sewage lift station. We also already have close approximations of the above objects via an illustration superimposed over aerial survey images.

As you can imagine, since we are not dealing with individual lots absolute accuracy is not paramount. There will be a certain amount of latitude. Hence my willingness to attempt this type of illustration.

So really, for the primary result I need to illustrate two existing ashpalt roads, two new roads, 40 RV pads, 40 cabin sites and the other amenities. It would be nice if I could also include projected underground service utilities to each.

As for my experience with this type of software- I would concider myself a novice with prior experience with both various consumer architectural software, illustrator programs, and rendering software dating back about ten years. Again- not on professional production level- just my own personal interests and tinkering.

I've never tried any of Chief's software, but I can say this- my last experience was about 3-4 years ago with Punch's latest consumer version at the time- I was left totally nonplused.

Well, thats a lot more than you probably wish you hadn't read, but now that you have- do you think Pro 6 could produce a reasonable product without the loss of much hair? Considering that this may be the last time I would need to attempt this sort of scale, I'm hesitant to go CA 10 because of the price difference. But- considering what it would cost to pay someone else to do this it might be well worth the cost.

Thanks in advance

Rob

[Dan Park]

There is a demo of Chief available for download on the Chief Architect website. I would recommend at least looking at that. I think you could probably do everything you intend with PRO 6.

We offer 30 day money back on the Pro product so there is no risk here. If it doesn't have enough features then you can always move up to Chief.