Bill, you're pretty slick with all the gear. Very impressive.
"downloading DEM files from USGS for the area, texture-mapped colorized =

satellite imagery onto the 3D surface, and then populated the forest =

with 3D trees, created hardscape, running water, etc." =

Most people who ask the question about landscape software are looking
for a prima donna application and won't get that involved nor seek
educational discounts. If it's not on the shelf at Comp-USA,
Micro-Center and the likes, they won't go for it.

The CAD apps are cool but again, I don't think most would spring for
that to do a design.
(I liked Neil's response - get a designer)

So, Alan, did you get anything out of this? Is this the kind of
information you were looking for?
Enlightened by this?

J. Kolenovsky

Bill Oliver wrote:
=

In article ,
J Kolenovsky wrote:
Must be true. I go to a Southern Garden landscape design school at Tex=
as
A & M twice to keep my designers certificate current and they never ta=
lk
or say much about this subject even when quized at length. And the one=
s
that do use one, use expensive ones with other methodology thrown in t=
o
boot. As one said one time, "To answer your question, there are none".=


=

But, you know, there are lots of tools that will serve specific
functions. There are a bunch of generic CAD/Layout tools that
can be used to draw and play with placement, such as Visio,
Corel, etc. They won't give you a 3D view, but they can be
fun for doing what-ifs at the icon level.
=

In addition, there are a number of 3D packages that are generic which
can be used to generate 3D scenes -- for instance Maya, SoftImage,
etc. They are generic, and provide much greater functionality than
is usually needed, but they can do a great job.
=

I have not used Maya to plan a garden, but I did use it to recreate
a forest and wetland for a forensic animation. I generated a 3D topogr=
aphy
by downloading DEM files from USGS for the area, texture-mapped coloriz=
ed
satellite imagery onto the 3D surface, and then populated the forest
with 3D trees, created hardscape, running water, etc. The result
compared very favorably with scene photographs, and allowed realistic
animation of clouds, fog, waving of grass and trees in the wind, etc.
The same could be done for landscape planning. While Maya and similar
products are not cheap, many, if not most people can manage significant=

discounts through educational institutions, etc.
=

billo

-- =

J. Kolenovsky, A+, Network +, MCP
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.celestialhabitats.com - business
=F4=BF=F4 - http://www.hal-pc.org/~garden/personal.html - personal