In this project you will complete a design for the front garden of a courtyard home similar to that shown below.
Once again, you will copy our design (with the aid of a full set of movies) and later create a design of your own.
The design calls for the replacement of a rather featureless lawn area and informal planting with a more formal design at the entrance to a property situated close to the coast in Adelaide, South Australia.
The completed design
The first panel in figure below shows the site after implementation of the GardenCAD design. The second panel shows the GardenCAD design.
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Completed construction.
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The (nearly) completed design in GardenCAD.
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The overview
The movie below shows the complete series of steps which was used to prepare the design. The section below shows step by step how this was done.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to complete a design for the front yard of a courtyard home.
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Step by step
Front yard for a courtyard home using GardenCAD and
Double click on the desktop shortcut to start GardenCAD.
Set cross hair size
Right click on the desktop, select Options, the display tab and set the cross hair cursor to 5%.
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Change the size of the cross hair cursor.
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Right click on the desktop and select Tracking. Set the tracking value to 200 (mm).
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Set tracking on and set step size to 200.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to turn on Tracking on and the Distance step to a value of 200 mm.
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Draw boundaries
First we will draw the bottom boundary of the site using a sightly tricky method of measuring a distance. Then we will use the Zoom Extents option so that we can see the line that we have drawn. Then we can use tracking to set out the other boundaries according to our mud map.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to draw the boundaries of the site.
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We will start the line command, type 0,0 as the start point and use the @14000<0 sequence as shown in the movie to set the first line.
This is a very good habit to get into. All your jobs will then have their bottom left at Cartesian coordinate 0,0. Scaling in paper space to get a final scale factor of (say) 1:100) is then made much easier.
Once this first horizontal line is drawn, right click on the desk top and select Zoom Extents.
Use RealTime Pan if required to move the horizontal line down .
As shown in the movie, next use the line command to set out the other site boundaries, this time relying on Tracking and clicking when the beige indicator shows you have reached the correct distance point.
Use Modify and extend to 'rule off' the edge of the driveway.'
Take very great care not to set a point unless the beige/yellow marker block is showing.
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The base pan mud map.
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Offset path and compacted dolomite area.
The mud map tells us that there is a 900 mm wide path in front of the house and we have decided to place a strip of compacted dolomite with Date palms in it along the front boundary. Next we need to set these lines up.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to set up the Path and the boundary of what will become a planting strip.
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As shown in the movie, set the step value in tracking to 100 units.
Set the Osnap value to mid point.
Copy the top line down 900 mm and the bottom line up 700 mm as shown in the movie.
Make sure the Osnap tab is set on (dark)
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Before copying the lines, make sure that the Osnap value is set to mid point and that Osnap is turned on.
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Set central design rectangle into position
Next we place a rectangle which will hold a sculptural feature.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to set up the rectangle ready for the feature sculpture.
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Use Realtime Pan and drag the design to the right.
Turn Osnap off.
Use the line command to draw a rectangle 2000mm high by 2800 mm wide.
Turn Osnap to end.
Draw a diagonal construction line from one corner to the other for each rectangle as shown in the movie.
Set Osnap to Midpoint.
Move the rectangle and center it into position as shown in the movie.
Erase the two construction lines.
Lay paving bricks
Next we create a group of paving bricks for the entrance to the property.
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Create a 400mm by 400mm paver and copy it.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to set up and place paving bricks.
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As shown in the movie, draw a single 400mm paver and copy it to form a group.
Position the group to form an entrance path to the property.
Place the specimen tree near the entrance
Our design calls for a specimen tree to be placed near the entrance.
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Placing a row of date palms and a standard Grevillea into the design.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to place the row of date palms and specimen tree.
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Place Tall Trees and Agaves on Southern Boundary
We continue adding some planting details.
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Placing tall trees on southern boundary.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to place the row of taller trees on the southern boundary.
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As shown in the movie, place the taller specimens and agaves on the southern boundary of the site.
Adding text
The next stage is to add plant identifiers and explanatory notes to the design.
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The design is now ready for explanatory text and plant identifiers.
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Placing plant identifiers.
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Click here to play a movie which shows how to place text into the drawing.
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As shown in the movie, place the text and other notes into the drawing.
Finally, print your drawing.
